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Thrivent Builds Publicity Newsletter Archive
January 2009
- Join us for the January 28 “Make News with Thrivent Builds” media training
- Tips on volunteer recruiting and groundbreaking celebrations
- Share an article with your local paper about some exciting Thrivent Builds Worldwide travel opportunities
- 2008 Media Year in Review
- What's new on www.thriventbuilds.com: TBW El Salvador Community Video
- Feedback
- Newsletter Archive
Join us for the January 28 “Make News with Thrivent Builds” media training
What and when?
- "Make News with Thrivent Builds" national webinar and teleconference training
- Wednesday, January 28 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. Central Standard Time
- All Lutheran Community Services Specialists-Thrivent Builds (LCSS-TBs)
- Habitat Affiliate Publicity coordinators
- OPTIONAL: Habitat for Humanity Organizational Development Consultants-Thrivent (ODC-Ts)
This training will go beyond the information shared at the National Announcement training back in December 2008. We will share some basic tips to help you reach out to the media and other public groups during the course of your Thrivent Builds project, go over ongoing Thrivent Builds publicity expectations, explain how to draft a basic media plan, review some resources available online and listen to three Habitat affiliate publicity coordinators from across the nation share their best practices. We will also review the documents attached below, so please take a few minutes to review them prior to our training. You don't want to miss this!
Please review before January 28th training:
- Please print and review: Habitat Affiliate Publicity Coordinator Role Description Quick Reference Guide (PDF, 161K)
- Please print and review: Affiliate Monthly Thrivent Builds Homes Report (Word, 222K)
- Please read the Tulsa World newspaper article "Confronting Housing and Hunger," (PDF, 322K) written by Paul Kent, Tulsa Habitat for Humanity director of development and chaplain, last March.
- If you have not done so already, please watch the 17-minute pre-recorded "Media 101" Webinar (Windows Media, 1.9MB)
- About 5 minutes before the teleconference begins, dial 1-800-588-4973.
- Please be prepared to provide the following information to gain access to your audio conference call:
Confirmation Number: 23003618
Host Name: Cheryl Winget
Company: Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
You will be placed on hold until the host opens the conference call. - Click on the link below to access the Web presentation:
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/thriventrooms/join?id=MakingNews09&role=attend&pw=1
If you are not able to open the link, please copy and paste the link name into the address bar on your Internet browser and click Enter. If you are still struggling to enter the Webinar, you can instead download the training slides (PowerPoint, 454K) that we will be following. - On the Welcome page, type your name and click the Continue button. If you are trying to join the meeting over 30 minutes early, you will be told that the meeting has not started yet.
Tips on volunteer recruiting and groundbreaking celebrations
Like many other affiliates across the country, during these colder months of the year, most of you are focused on preparing for the warmer months of building. Now’s the time for recruiting volunteers, setting build schedules, and preparing for groundbreaking ceremonies. To help you with these upcoming tasks, please consider using some of the templates prepared for you at www.thriventbuilds.com/resources. There are resources to help:
- Recruit volunteer leaders
- Recruit volunteers to fundraise and build
- Schedule and manage your build
- Plan and promote a groundbreaking event
- Plan and promote a wall-raising event
- Manage volunteers
Share an article with your local paper about some exciting Thrivent Builds Worldwide travel opportunities
Recently, Thrivent Builds media specialist Cheryl Winget wrote an article entitled “Retired? No need to cut travel from the budget just yet.” (Word, 36K) While the article is aimed mainly at the retired population, it has advice for anyone interested in low-cost travel options. This article has been made available to newspapers across the country via a company called ARA Content. To date it has appeared in more than 60 newspapers and 435 websites. Would you be willing to send it to your local newspaper on our behalf? Simply send it to your local newspaper contacts or the ones listed in the Statewide Media Lists on www.thriventbuilds.com/resources. We suggest that you paste the following note into an email and also copy and paste the content of the article below this note. Then also attach the article as a Word document.
Please consider including the following by-lined article in the next issue of your newspaper. If you have questions regarding the content of the article, contact its author, Cheryl Winget, at 612-877-1958. Thank you.
Thank you for your assistance in making this effort an even greater success!
2008 Media Year in Review
Hats off to all of our 2008 Thrivent Builds publicity coordinators! You did an outstanding job and helped us to reach 100% of our 2008 publicity goals. We could not have done it without you.
Of the more than 2,000 media hits that came in from across the country, 80 percent of them were for either Thrivent Builds home construction or our national announcement of funding for homes that will be built in 2009.
Other 2008 publicity milestones included our article distributed by ARA Content (see previous article in this newsletter) and our satellite media tour on a Thrivent Builds site in Long Beach, Mississippi, on December 5. Television stations across the country did live and taped interviews with Brad Hewitt of Thrivent Financial and Ken Meinert of Habitat for Humanity International, resulting in 1.5 million impressions to date.
Of the 190 large* media hits in 2008, 179 were articles in newspapers and 11 came from TV news programs. Here are some further details:
Media coverage by program
| Program | Number of large* hits in 2008 | Percentage of total |
| Thrivent Builds Homes | 126 | 66% |
| Thrivent Builds Worldwide | 14 | 7.5% |
| Thrivent Builds Neighborhoods | 6 | 3% |
| Thrivent Builds Mobile | 7 | 4% |
| Thrivent Builds Nat'l Announcement | 26 | 14% |
| Multiple Programs | 11 | 6% |
| Totals | 190 |
We’d still like to add any 2008 (or 2009) hits that have escaped our notice. Please email your media successes to Cheryl Winget.
Thank you for your wonderful partnership in making sure your community knows what Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity stands for and the great things we are able to accomplish together!
*Large media hits are from newspapers with circulations of 55,000 or more and television programs with estimated audiences of 100,000 or more.
What's new on www.thriventbuilds.com: TBW El Salvador Community Video now available
Thrivent Builds Worldwide El Salvador Community Video
Know someone who might be interested in leading a TBW El Salvador Community trip? Encourage them to check out the new short video available on the Thrivent Builds website. It includes footage of the community, interviews with TBW volunteers, homeowners and Habitat for Humanity El Salvador staff. Get them inspired now!
Feedback
Is this newsletter helpful to you? Do you have additional ideas for articles you'd find helpful? Please send your feedback to Nicole Doebert.
Newsletter Archive
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