5 Tips for Successful Town Hall Meetings to Advance Nonprofit Fundraising and Outreach Campaigns

I have worked within the professional fundraising industry for over 15 years servicing a variety of nonprofit fundraising programs. The explosion of social and other technologies in recent years has expanded the traditional methods of reaching and engaging supporters. While once very one-on-one in nature, the net is now cast much wider making it more challenging to engage on an individual level while reaching out to the masses. One concept that is proving quite successful and adaptable is the town hall meeting.

Town hall meetings have existed for many years as they are an effective forum for all types of communities to gather and voice their opinions, raise questions to their community leader and listen to others in the community. Traditionally town hall meetings took place in person and were mostly associated with political campaigns. Today, with advanced telephony, social and other technologies the forum of the traditional town hall meeting has changed to include telephone and online hosting.

President Obama kicked off the first Twitter Town Hall Meeting with a Tweet asking the American people for their ideas on reducing the deficit on July 6, 2011 and the success was overwhelming. Today the Tories are embarking on their very first Twitter town hall meeting hosted by Treasury Board President Tony Clement. The Canadian government’s inaugural Twitter town hall is planned for 90 minutes this evening and will take questions on the subject of developing an open government strategy for Canada. The success of the telephone and online town hall meeting concept in political campaigns has led to it branching out into other industries including the nonprofit sector which it suits particularly well.

Telephone and online town hall meetings can make nonprofit supporters feel connected as they are being listened to and given an immediate response and acknowledgement. Live interaction either via telephone, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or YouTube is far more personal, direct and meaningful than non-real time message exchanges.

Nonprofits can use town hall meetings to convey an important message to supporters, brief them on the progress of a specific program, announce a new fundraising initiative or solicit feedback to detailed cause and/or fundraising questions. Ultimately the nonprofit controls the tone and message and can decide whether to take on difficult issues or avoid them.  Tips to consider when planning your telephone or online town hall meeting are:

1. Alert your supporters of the town hall meeting well in advance via Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube and other available channels.
2. Ensure that goals are clearly communicated to participants. The success in any engagement campaign starts in the planning of the content and execution. Make sure participants know of any interactive polling or other features.
3. The nonprofit should be well-represented at the town hall meeting by people prepared to respond to a multitude of questions that may exceed the allotted time. It is not recommended to cut off your town hall meeting if supporters are still actively engaged in the topic or if there are questions that have not been answered.
4. At the conclusion of the town hall meeting, be sure to thank all participants and advise how they can go about addressing future concerns and where they can find all archived information and videos from the meeting.
5. Conduct an internal review of archived information and videos from the meeting along with independent notes with the nonprofit town hall meeting team so they can make adjustments for future town hall meetings.

It is impressive that this traditional forum has adapted so well and blossomed with new technology and this is really just the beginning. Town hall meetings allow nonprofits to engage with the individual supporter while accommodating thousands and will surely prove to advance nonprofit fundraising and outreach campaigns for years to come.

Has your nonprofit ever had or considered having a town hall meeting with your supporters?
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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.