During my position as the Social Media and Public Relations Chair for the UL Lafayette Habitat for Humanity Campus Chapter, my main focus was to increase awareness of our organization on campus and in the community. Our organization wanted to make sure that every event hosted around campus and the community, whether meetings or fundraisers, were shared so others could engage with us and possibly participate in the events. For the events we included flyers, social media posts, personal invitations, press releases and other promotional items.
The highlight of this semester was one of the campaigns completed during the spring semester, March 5th through March 10th, called Act! Speak! Build! Week. This event was the first ever campaign completed on the UL Lafayette Campus, and is one of Habitat for Humanity’s annual youth advocacy national campaigns. This week-long event was dedicated to raising awareness about affordable housing in our community. A flyer was made which included pictures, the name of the events with the dates and locations, which was posted around the school and also handed out at events. Social media posts were release on all social media platforms, so we would reach all of our target audiences, which ranged from not only college students, but from primary school aged children and young adults up to 35 years of age. We wanted to get the message out to our community, so a press release was sent to media outlets and our chapter received media attention as well for our event. The main mission for this campaign was to empower young people to educate themselves and their communities and move people to social action.
During our fundraising campaigns, we wanted people to feel compelled to donate by pulling at their heart strings. We wanted them to see it as a good deed as a valued exchange. Speaking directly to those who donated directly and also being able to share our own personal experiences about Habitat for Humanity helped a lot with donations. We had fundraising events like Sign a Stud, where people would stop by and donate to us, and in exchange get to sign a 2x4 that would eventually be used to build a homeowner’s home. They could write their name, bible scriptures, quotes, or anything they felt compelled to write. Our give-back nights were heavily publicized on social media platforms where were had events at restaurants like McAlister’s on Ambassador and Chipotle where people came out to dine with family and friends and a percentage of the profits were given back to our chapter. Because of our marketing promotions we are able to help our affiliate Habitat for Humanity Lafayette help more families build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter.
