Last updated March 2, 2017
There are so many reasons to celebrate your successes; to bring people together, increase motivation, say thank you, honour those involved, increase your visibility and reinforce your ‘why’. So here are a few ways to make the celebrations count.
Pull on the Heartstrings
Put together a slide show with images of your organisation in action, combined with facts about your successes. Whether you are celebrating the end of a particular project or a 10th anniversary, choose images that demonstrate why you do what you do and value the input of everyone. Don’t just focus on volunteers in action, but show the ‘behind the scenes’ work, the stressful moments and the emotional reactions. Publish on your social media and website, and make sure everyone involved gets to see it.
Leave a Legacy
A timeline of your success is a great way to visualise your achievements over the years. Use all the snazzy infographic tools that are out there to show the facts in a cool way for example; the number of classes offered, the number of animals re-homed, or when capital projects are completed. Publish on your website and use as evidence of your success and the importance of your why, for recruiting volunteers, donors and sponsors.
Get Together
It is not often that everyone involved in an organisation gets a chance to celebrate together and speak to those on the receiving end of your service. The people at the coal-face may see the impact, but those out the back doing paper work or the cleaning, or even the Board members often only hear things second-hand. An annual teddy-bears picnic, BBQ , or shared pot luck lunch encourages people to share their successes, and helps re-ignite the passion.
So remember to celebrate those milestones, however big or small.
Rosie Julou
Rosie is the General Manager at Exult and works behind the scenes planning, organising and making everything run smoothly. She is passionate about working in the community sector.
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