The Voluntary sector Awareness Initiative Call for Proposals Appendix B

The Voluntary Sector Awareness Initiative

Strategic Communications Framework Including Recommendations for Implementation

Developed for the Joint Awareness Table

Introduction
Section 1: Strategic Framework
Section 2: Recommendations for Implementation

Introduction

The Joint Awareness Table, part of the Voluntary Sector Initiative ( VSI), has the following mandate: to help to foster recognition of the vital role of the voluntary sector in Canadian society. Their goal is to implement an action plan designed to influence the attitudes, opinions and perceptions of Canadians.

The Table said that they would achieve this goal by:

Informing a variety of audiences (community leaders, the private sector, media, governments, Canadians, youth and the voluntary sector itself) of the important work of voluntary sector organizations;
Positioning the voluntary sector as a contributor to Canada’s social, economic, and cultural well-being; and
Encouraging Canadians to participate and become engaged in the work of the voluntary sector.

The Awareness Table has undertaken a number of consultations. These included participation in and discussions with voluntary sector leaders at the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy Symposium; financial support of the Bronwyn Drainie paper “Telling Our Story (PDF)”; a scan of available research in the spring of 2001 Scan of Research on Public attitudes Towards the Voluntary Sector (PDF), W. Husbands, A-J. McKechnie, F. Leslie); participation in the “All Tables” consultations in 2001 in several communities; meetings and advice from experts on community engagement and awareness including Monica Patten, Mark Sarner, and Eric Young; and a series of nine workshops across Canada in February and March 2002, ( VSI Awareness Table Consultations, S. Frei, O. Langlais ).

Public opinion research has been limited. The Voluntary Sector Task Force had two surveys completed by Ipsos Reid: one in September 2001, the other in February 2002. These surveys were designed to measure public awareness of the Voluntary Sector Initiative and the IYV component of the VSI. They did not take a comprehensive look at public opinion related to the sector or the things that the public considers important about the sector. No recent research has been done to look at the public’s views regarding interest groups as opposed to the voluntary sector. This more fulsome research would help to establish benchmarks prior to launching an awareness campaign so that there is data against which to evaluate, measure progress and adjust the campaign in subsequent years.

The second National Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating ( NSGVP) was released in August 2002 and when compared to the 1997 survey, provided insights into philanthropy in Canada. The survey indicated that more than 6.5 million Canadians are involved in one way or another in supporting the voluntary sector.

For the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy’s 7^th Annual Symposium, Bronwyn Drainie produced a paper entitled Telling Our Story, Communicating the Value of Philanthropy and the Voluntary Sector. This work looked at the complexity of telling the sector’s story and posed questions about which stories to tell.

These documents, along with others, were read and synthesized in the development of this report.

Communications for a diverse sector with large variations in funding, paid staff and objectives will be a challenge.

Section 1: Strategic Framework

The public environment and context

The scan of available research undertaken by the Joint Awareness Table showed that there is a limited amount of research on public attitudes towards the voluntary sector.

The scan suggests that, overall, Canadians view favourably the work, importance and contribution of the sector to Canadian society. The public expresses more confidence in the voluntary sector than they do in either government or the private sector and they attach strong value to the role of the voluntary sector in sustaining the health of our communities. However, Canadians do not want the delivery of programs and services by the voluntary sector to be a substitute for services and programs that governments ought to deliver. As well, Canadians invest a considerable amount of trust in voluntary and charitable organizations while paradoxically, expressing concern about how organizations solicit, use and manage donations.

The 1997 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating showed that 91% of Canadians agree that generally, charitable and voluntary organizations play a major role in making our communities better places to live. At the same time, 60% thought that there seem to be so many organizations seeking support that you don’t feel like giving to any organizations.

These findings were echoed in an Angus Reid 1997 survey: 41% of Canadians strongly agreed that there are just too many charities asking Canadians for money these days; 80% agreed that the work charitable and non-profit organizations do should not be a substitute for the government’s responsibility to provide services to the public; 46% agreed that they had heard so many stories about corruption among charitable organizations that they are reluctant to give; and 77% agreed that they are much more likely to support a community charity than a national or international charity.

In the 1997 EKOS Rethinking Government Survey 68% of Canadians agreed that the “increased use of the voluntary sector is a positive way of expanding citizen involvement”. 56% thought that the increased use of the sector is just a way of offloading traditional government responsibilities.

The September 2001 and February 2002 Ipsos-Reid surveys completed for the Voluntary Sector Task Force showed that 47% of Canadians now understand the term voluntary sector (an increase of 10 points between the two surveys); awareness of the VSI is very low at 5% although 87% of Canadians support the idea of a VSI; and awareness of IYV2001 stood at 45%.

The critical message from the 2000 NSGVP is that a million volunteers left the sector between 1997 and 2000 resulting in a loss of 55 million volunteer hours. This kind of loss cannot be sustained if Canada wants to continue to have the vibrant contributions that the voluntary sector makes to our quality of life. While we do not fully understand this loss, its impact is being felt across the system as the remaining volunteers pick up the slack.

Consultations showed that the sector thinks communications is important. They think that communications should help to attract people to volunteering and also promote and position the work of the sector to the community writ large. At the same time, they are concerned that communications may stimulate an avalanche of volunteers with which they could not cope. Generally, the sector thinks that messaging needs to incorporate the social, economic and community building contribution of the sector to society. In discussions about the target audiences, consultation participants found it difficult to narrow the focus to meet the budget. However, there seemed to be unanimous agreement that communications to the sector itself and particularly Boards of Directors was critically important.

Strategic Considerations/Challenges

The publication Benchmarks for Excellence for the Voluntary Sector recognizes that the “good cause story” is no longer enough from a communications point of view. To achieve recognition as one of the three pillars holding up society, the sector needs to tell a story that will situate them on an equal footing with the other two sectors – the private and public sectors.
To achieve the positioning the Awareness Table and the sector are looking for requires considerably more communications components than just talking to the sector. Both the public and private sectors will have to accept the notion that the voluntary sector is one of three pillars before that positioning will be achieved.
To reposition the sector will require political leadership. Ministers and all parliamentarians need to be seized with the ideas relating to re-positioning the sector and should be given communications roles.
There are federal, provincial, and territorial considerations and the provinces and territories will have to be briefed about the awareness campaign. In addition, some of the tools will have to be customized by province or territory to serve the needs of diverse communities.
Resources are limited; the campaign will have to be focused, targeted and selective to build maximum visibility within a limited budget.
Many sector organizations, especially the small ones, do not have the staff or human resources to deliver a complex communications strategy. Tools will have to be efficient, effective and self-explanatory – contain a learning/how to component – to help these smaller organizations do the communications job at the community level.
Consultations demonstrate that there are synergies to be explored between the Awareness Campaign and Canada’s Volunteerism Initiative (CVI). The CVI plans to establish regional resource centres – 10 of them – and these could be effectively positioned to play a leadership role in implementing the Awareness Campaign. Synergies and savings can be found as the development of lists etc. will be needed by both the CVI and the Awareness Campaign.
The voluntary sector is not a cohesive body. It is made up of thousands of diverse organizations with diverse and often complex mandates developed over the years to serve their community’s priorities. Developing a “unified” message or voice for the sector that will be agreeable to all sector organizations will be extremely challenging. The key will be to develop tools and messages that bring out the synergies and common characteristics of the sector and leave room for organizations to customize the work to suit their particular circumstances.
Although some economic and social contribution statistics exist at the federal and provincial levels, they will need to be broken down by communities to be of use to small organizations. This is important if small, community-based organizations are going to be able to participate in the awareness campaign using the same kind of tangible concrete data as the national campaign. It may be necessary to develop some generic data that can be applied at the local level based on population.
Since the CVI is dealing with the needs of volunteers, the awareness campaign is designed to focus on positioning the sector, not promoting volunteerism or individual volunteers. It is also clear from consultations that the sector does not have the capacity to receive significant numbers of new volunteers. At the same time, positioning the sector as citizen-engagement through volunteering and donating is one of the desired outcomes, so collaboration with the CVI is essential.
It is important to note that the sector consultations on the awareness campaign were limited – 9 events, each with less than 20 participants. There were virtually no consultations with the public and private sectors although some effort was made to seek corporate advice in Calgary where the sector is well-respected.

Campaign Objective

To position the sector in Canadian society so that it’s contribution to Canada’s way of life is valued and supported by individuals, communities, public and private sectors.

Strategic Vision (5 - 10 years)

The Voluntary sector is recognized as a key player in Canadian society.
The voluntary sector will have a voice and be participating fully and influencing key opinion leaders and decision-making at all political levels.
The sector’s opinions will be valued and considered throughout Canadian society.
The voluntary sector will be accepted as one of the three pillars supporting Canadian society alongside the private and public sectors.
Governments, business, labour and individual Canadians will recognize and acknowledge the value of the voluntary sector.
The sector will view itself as a cohesive, interdependent sector that is valued and respected by society at large.

Communications Objectives

To generate a profile of the sector that positions it as an essential contributor to Canada’s way of life.
To generate awareness, both inside and outside the sector, of the role the sector plays in Canadian society.
To position the sector as a critical component of Canada’s democracy and its reputation as a caring society.
To demonstrate how the sector contributes both economically and socially to the well-being of Canadians.

Strategic Approach

The first step must be to undertake benchmark research to guide the development of all the strategy components. Without this data, it would be difficult to accurately determine messages and impossible to measure results. The research will also help to build consensus in the sector around the story that needs to be told.

Since the recommended approach is an opinion leader campaign, benchmark research in the beginning could be limited to research on the views of opinion leaders in the private, public and voluntary sectors. This research is critical to the development of the campaign and the messaging.

The broader public views could be collated from the 1997 and 2000 NSGVP and the previous research done for the VSI. However, without specific public opinion research it will be difficult to measure the impact/effects of the campaign. One area that has not been specifically measured is the public’s views of interest groups in comparison with their views of the voluntary sector. As we move forward with repositioning, the distinction between these two will likely become important.

The third type of research that will be important is focus testing of messages once the campaign has been created.

Measuring results completes the circle of evaluation and could be done at the conclusion of the two years of the campaign to determine what has been accomplished and what remains to be done and what will requires further funding.

The Campaign needs to raise awareness, change opinions, and effect action. This takes time and sustained activity. To change perspectives and re-position the sector will likely take 5-7 years. With a community as diverse as the voluntary sector this will be challenging. However, by providing organizations with resource kits – communications in a box – messages can be directed and targeted. Organizations should have access to updates to the kit each phase of the Campaign.

To achieve the kind of changes to perceptions outlined in the objectives above requires a public dialogue. Some ideas for generating the kind of debate that is necessary are listed in the proposed tools and activities.

The recommended approach is a two-level campaign that includes a national component that will target national and regional opinion leaders, parliamentarians, and the major media; and a community-based campaign driven by voluntary sector organizations using tools adapted from those developed for the national campaign. The materials/tools that are recommended will serve both purposes and can be adapted to meet the needs of specific organizations. These two components work in tandem with each other and in fact use adaptations of the same materials make this approach cost-effective as well as tactically appropriate. Sector organizations would likely take the lead in positioning the sector to national and community leaders. The tools would be synergistic and generate the momentum necessary to foster a national debate on the role of the voluntary sector in Canadian society.

The national campaign will begin the public dialogue that needs to occur and build momentum for change. The community-based campaign will involve providing voluntary sector organizations with tools so that they can “tell the same story” to opinion leaders at the community level. These two components will work together to generate the public dialogue that is necessary to effect the changes necessary to meet the objectives.

Limited resources preclude national advertising. The Campaign will include tools for the use of local, regional and national organizations and will initiate activity at all three levels. To strengthen the capacity for delivering the Campaign at the local level, we suggest that the CVI be approached to include a communications professional on the staff at the regional centres to act as a resource for local organizations.

While some of the consultations with the sector suggested that the Campaign should focus primarily on the sector itself, this will not achieve the re-positioning results that the sector wants and needs. Therefore, this strategy recommends that voluntary sector boards of directors are but one select group of opinion leaders that will be targeted.

It is imperative that the Campaign deliver some visible results quickly – national efforts can be directed and managed, community level efforts will happen as momentum builds especially if the tools are supplied. Building the momentum to critical mass needs to be a priority as was demonstrated by the “Our Millennium Project”.

A targeted, focused, sustained approach will achieve the objectives over time. It is the combination of the national, regional and local activity that generates the kind of momentum necessary to position the sector as one of the three pillars in society. The Campaign will situate the sector in a way that will help to reinforce the Accord and complement the other initiatives within the Voluntary Sector Initiative.

Target Audiences

The media
Opinion leaders including:
- Members of the Boards of Directors of voluntary sector organizations
- Politicians at all levels
- Community leaders including municipal councils, school boards, communities of interests etc
- Business and labour leaders
Government bureaucracies:
- Senior decision makers
- Middle managers

The Story

The voluntary sector is indispensable

The sector is indispensable to the sustainability of communities and the Canadian way of life. Consider what life would be like if the voluntary sector walked away. Look at the numbers.
There are:
- 80,000 registered charities
- 100,000 non-profit organizations
- 1.3 million people employed in the sector
- 6.5 million people who volunteer
- 1 billion hours contributed by volunteers each year (roughly equal to the entire workforce of Manitoba)
The sector contributes to Canada’s economy:
- $90 billion in annual revenues
- $109 billion in assets
- 22 million people make in-kind and/or financial donations

The voluntary sector is the essential to the fabric of the Canadian way

The voluntary sector contributes to Canada’s way of life: socially, culturally, economically, and environmentally. It is one of the three pillars holding up our society – voluntary, private and public sectors. It reflects a strong democracy and a cohesive civil society.
The voluntary sector provides opportunities for people to participate in a very real way as citizens in the democratic process and to contribute to the quality of life and well-being of individuals and communities. It enhances social justice and contributes to collective responsibility.
The voluntary sector brings the voices of the community to decision-making tables. They deserve to be heard.

Where would be without them?

Canada takes great pride in its reputation as a caring society. Without the voluntary sector, this reputation may not exist.
The voluntary sector can be found working in health communities, socio-cultural communities, for the environment, in sports, in the arts, at museums, in faith groups, as citizen advocates, internationally… Its impact is felt in every facet of Canadian life. It responds to a wide range of community needs.
Between 1997 and 2000, the number of volunteers serving their communities through voluntary sector organizations dropped by a million people. If this continues unabated we may have to face a society without the voluntary sector.

The Theme – Where would we be without them – could likely be used to engage both the politicians and the private sector.

Recommended Tools and Activities

(See implementation details in Section 2)

These recommended tools and activities include a national component and a community-based component. The Campaign is built around a core group of products that can be modified and customized to fit any given situation. That is, the national campaign materials can be customized to target specific local situations as well as the variety of opinion leaders. It is recommended that the CVI National Centre and the CVI Regional Centres could play a major coordinating role.

Campaign products are designed to complement other VSI activities and to generate proactive approaches at all levels of the voluntary sector and Canadian society. The tools would be developed for the national component, but be adapted to meet the needs of regional and communities. Activities at the national level set the stage for the activities at the regional local level and serve as the catalyst for change across the country.

1. National Component

Research – as a critical first step, opinion leader research is needed to determine the views of the audiences we intend to tackle in the Campaign. Research into the views of the public at large would normally also be part of the Benchmark Research, but NSGVP data could be used as a substitute. The opinion leader research is essential to the development of specific messages and the tools needed to reach this audience. Public opinion research will be important further down the road as the dialogue begins to permeate the community. If we want to engage opinion in this debate and repositioning, we need to know what their perceptions are right now and what they think the role of the sector should be in our society.

Messages – messages will be developed and tested following the preliminary research. It will be important to test the messages with opinion leaders in the public, voluntary and private sectors. Limiting the testing to the sector only, will give skewed results.

Logo or Identifier – since the sector is diverse and in many ways does not see itself as a sector, a common logo or identifier would be a useful tool that could be used by all sector organizations in their promotion activities. A logo or identifier could help to demonstrate to the public and to the organizations themselves how vast and diverse the sector really is. Prior to the development of a logo or identifier, you may want to explore how this has been received in other sector initiatives like the Imaging Campaign.

The development of the logo or identifier could be done concurrently to research. In its development, care should be taken to ensure that this identifier is electronically compatible with all major software so that we make it easy for sector organizations to use it.

To be effective, a logo or identifier will have to be “sold” to sector organizations in a coordinated manner. As a first step, the Logo could be introduced through a newsletter to the 8,000 organizations on the VSImailing list with a request to them to share the information broadly. However, it will be important to develop a more comprehensive list as part of the Campaign development process. Sector leaders should be encouraged to do presentations to local organizations within their regions.

Develop Comprehensive List of Boards of Directors in the Voluntary Sector – This may be an impossible task – but an effort should be made to develop a comprehensive distribution list that can be used to reach the Boards of Directors since the sector suggested in the consultations that theses were a key group to get the message to. This list can be developed concurrently with the research.

Twice a year, a Kit should be delivered to these key stakeholders. The Kit should also be made available through the web portal when it comes on stream. The Kit would contain the basic campaign materials as they become available and include a short news bulletin outlining the progress of the campaign. It should also solicit feedback and input to next steps.

Develop a Target List of Business and Labour leaders that need to be contacted and engaged. This list can be used to get common messages out and to engage business and labour leaders in the debate – three pillars. Many of them will have to be approached individually and asked to participate in the repositioning of the sector.

Basic Campaign materials – to include:

Logo or identifier
Key messages (storyline),
Fact sheets on the contribution of the sector etc., (these need data that is relevant to the local or regional level)
Speaking points,
Questions and Answers,
Basic print ads - mats for use by local or regional organizations,
Public Service Announcements for radio and television,
Posters that integrate the individual organizations with the whole sector (leave room for customization)
Video about the sector – needs to show breadth and depth as well as promote facts
Generic PowerPoint presentations
Templates for Awareness Weeks that integrate the individual organizations with the whole sector
Mobile exhibits - could be housed at theCVIregional centres and made available to organizations on an as needed basis,
Awareness website
To build communications capacity within the sector, it is recommended that a “Communications How To Kit” be produced as a learning tool. This would include things like media relations training, how to target opinion leaders, how to approach the media, how to build an event and hold a news conference, template letters, generic speeches, how to use the Logo (or Identifier), how to get the sector story out while simultaneously promoting your own organization…

Editorial Boards Tour across Canada – selected members of the voluntary sector, the Government of Canada, and corporate leaders to visit the major media editorial boards to tell the story and begin the process of re-positioning the sector. This should occur as soon as the story has been developed and leaders are comfortable with the material.

Speakers’ Bureau - develop a list of people who would be willing to speak about the role of the sector to local voluntary sector organizations, business organizations like the Chambers of Commerce, labour organizations, groups of bureaucrats (eg at Annual APEX Conference)

List of Spokespersons – develop a stakeholder spokespersons’ list that can be used by the media when they want to get the “opinion” of the voluntary sector on key issues affecting Canadian society. This list should be developed to include national, regional and local spokespersons.

Ask Ministers to attend events: Key Ministers – Heritage, Social Development, Finance, Environment, Health, Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency, Agriculture, Emergency Preparedness, Defence, Deputy Prime Minister, Treasury Board Minister to name a few –should be asked to present keynote speeches on the role and contribution of the voluntary sector to Canadian society. Keynote addresses should be crafted for Ministers so that the positioning messages get out and get picked up by the media. If this could be a coordinated effort, Ministers could be sending out these messages on a monthly basis throughout the year.

Communications conferences/workshops across the country (5). Sector organizations, particularly the small ones will need help with communications. To get the Campaign off to a momentum-building start, it would be advisable to hold a series of workshops that would focus on communications and the materials in the two kits. This has been tried amongst non-government groups and has proved quite successful.

Place a series of Op. Ed. pieces on the role and value of the voluntary sector by high profile Canadians in national newspapers, major dailies and magazines throughout the first year. These should be placed on a regular basis. Invite Canadians who have something to say on this subject, to bring the debate forward.

Use News Canada to tell the story of Canada’s voluntary sector. This involves developing a series of stories that News Canada can send out to all participating newspapers. The cost is very reasonable and it gets the message out at the community level.

Engage Parliamentarians – develop one Kit per year for parliamentarians at the federal level. Provide local/regional organizations with the Kit contents so that they can develop kits for provincial/territorial parliamentarians and municipal leaders. These Kits would contain key messages/story, speaking points, suggestions about how to engage the sector and their constituents in the debate, householder material, a community newspaper column, the PSAs and voluntary sector spokespersons/contacts in their communities, and the video.

Engage Public Service Leaders – develop a Kit for Deputy Ministers and Senior Executives that positions the role and contribution of the voluntary sector to Canadian society. This should also promote the VSI, the Accord and the kind of partnership that the Government of Canada and the sector are trying to develop. This should be distributed right after labour day each year. A Deputy Ministers' Kit should contain a package for middle managers and an article for the staff newspaper.

Sponsor a National Conference on the role of the voluntary sector in building democracy. This could be sponsored by one of the major national organizations like the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy as an addition to their annual meeting. It will be important, however, to have government, business and labour leaders represented so that all points of view can be discussed. This event should be supported by proactive media relations to ensure that the messages get out nationally, regionally, and locally. Some “Awareness Campaign” money should also be contributed to promote this conference.

MacLean’s / Lactualité Supplement to coincide with the Conference.

Town Halls – seek out a partnership with one of the major media conglomerates to program the dialogue/debate about the role and value of the voluntary sector to Canadian society. Ensure that key spokespersons set the stage for discussions/debate. This should occur toward the end of year 1 after some debate has already occurred and should involve a number of regions so that the debate shows the diversity and complexity of the sector.

2. Community Based Component

Communications in a Box to include :

Materials will have been developed for the National Campaign so they will have to be tailored to the community-based audiences and customized to some extent by region. We suggest that this task could be taken on by the CVI centres or other regional groups.

Logo or identifier in different sizes, colours etc.
Key messages (storyline),
Fact sheets on the contribution of the sector etc., (these have to include data that is relevant at the local/regional level)
Speaking points,
Questions and Answers,
Basic print ads- mats for use by local/regional organizations,
Public Service Announcements for radio and television,
Posters that integrate the individual organizations with the whole sector
Video about the role and value of the sector to Canadian society – needs to show breadth and depth as well as promote facts,
Generic PowerPoint presentations, and
Templates for Awareness Weeks that integrate the individual organizations with the whole sector.

Communications professionals as a resource at the CVI centres

It is clear from consultations and reports that many sector organizations have neither the resources nor the skills sets available to them to do effective stakeholder and media relations. Without some resourcing help, many of these organizations will not be in a position to use the tools provided to them.

It is recommended that CVI be approached to see whether they would consider placing a communications professional in each of the centres as a resource from whom organizations could seek advice and discuss best practices.

Regional Communications conferences or workshops across Canada (5 of them) to train people how to use the materials that have been provided. Small and medium sized organizations do not have the communications resources to deliver the kind of campaign that is envisioned. Training would facilitate the process and conferences have been tried with other non-government groups and have proven to be effective in building momentum for the Campaign (notably the Active Living Community)

To build communications capacity within the sector, it is recommended that a “Communications How To Kit” be produced as a learning tool. This would include self-learning materials on:

Media relations,
Targeting opinion leaders,
Approaching the media,
Holding a news conference,
Template letters,
Generic speeches,
Using the Logo,
Getting the sector story out while promoting your own organization and its work

Section 2: Recommendations for Implementation

Key components can be managed in bite-sized chunks.

This Campaign involves the development of a number of components. However, these can be packaged and handled concurrently so that work can be completed as quickly as possible.

First Step

Hire a firm to conduct the research. We suggest that this can best be handled through one of the Government Departments on the Awareness Table. This research could be broken into two stages. The priority is to capture the views of opinion leaders. As a second step you would want to get the views of the public at large but this could wait until the opinion leader strategy is completed. It is likely that two different research initiatives will be needed to get the Benchmark data that is required.

A tracking study will have to be done to evaluate the campaign, before new monies would be given for a second stage campaign..

Concurrent Pieces of Work

Development of a Logo or Identifier:

It is recommended that a graphic design firm be hired to develop a logo or identifier, in consultation with sector representatives that could be used sector-wide. This identifier would in essence be a visible sign that the diverse organizations that make up the sector do indeed have synergies and commonalities. This Logo/Identifier will have to be simple so that it can be used in conjunction with the logos and identifiers of the thousands of voluntary sector organizations that exist in Canada.

The firm that develops the logo or identifier should also be charged with developing an implementation framework, a usage guide for the how to Kit; and a presentation Kit for use by those people who will “sell” the logo or identifier to sector organizations.

Development of a comprehensive distribution lists for the Campaign (opinion leaders in the voluntary, public and private sectors)

This could be contracted out to a firm that develops lists, or to a voluntary sector organization that has the expertise. Either way, a mechanism needs to be built in for updating the lists as the campaign progresses. This clearing house capacity could possibly be built in to the CVI Centres.

Develop a list of Business and Labour leaders to be targeted – (this should be a short list to start)

Development of the Speakers Bureau

Development of Spokespersons’ list

These could probably be handled through sector organizations such as the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy or the Voluntary Sector Secretariat. Once again the key to success is to build in mechanisms for updating the lists on a continuing basis.

Step 2 – Development of Basic Campaign Materials

It would be preferable to have all these components managed by a single communications professional to ensure that all the pieces are coherent and thematically consistent.

Key messages/storyline
Fact sheets on the contribution of the sector etc., (these have to include data that is relevant at the local/regional level)
Speaking points
Questions and Answers
Basic print ads - mats for use by local and regional organizations
Templates for Awareness Weeks that integrate the individual organizations with the whole sector
Posters that integrate the individual organizations with the whole sector
Generic PowerPoint presentations
Public Service Announcements for radio and television
Video about the role and value of the sector to Canadian society – needs to show breadth and depth as well as promote facts
Development of Awareness Website – this web site would be the repository of all the Campaign materials so that all sector organizations would be able to access them through the Internet. It can also be used for self-help communications training.

These pieces can be managed by one coordinator and various elements can be purchased from one firm or several firms. Advertising agencies can handle the full spectrum of work, but their charges are significantly higher than independent specialists. To ensure consistency, it is recommended that one or two people act as project coordinators to get the work done.

Step 3: Development of the “How To Kit”

This Kit requires a combination of skills: training and communications. It is recommended that a firm or organization be hired that has the right combination of skills and expertise to ensure that these Kits are easy for local organizations to use. These Kits are usually provided to organizations in the form of a binder that can be used by a variety of people in a variety of settings. However, with the number of organizations in the voluntary sector, the cost would be prohibitive.

It is recommended that a limited number of Kits be printed as a resource to be accessed through the CVI centres and that all materials are made available through the Web.

Step 4: Printing and Distribution of “Communications in a Box” and “How To Kits” as well as placement on the Web

Print 50 of each Kit for each of the 10 CVI Centres. Place copies of materials on the Internet and promote their availability through sector networks.

Step 5: Development of MPs Kit and DMs/Executive Kits

Step 6: Set Up remaining parts of Year 1 Campaign

Editorial Boards Cross Canada Tour
Communications Workshops across Canada
Develop and place News Canada package
Annual Kit for Parliamentarians
Develop and set up schedule for Speeches for Ministers (10 speeches)
National Conference
MacLean’s and L’Actualité Supplements