Over the past year, you may have noticed significant changes to our website – blogging, online donations, event registration, easier navigation and even a volunteer calendar! Did you know we have a Facebook page?
Thanks to generous support from the William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Foundation, the food bank has finally entered the world of social media and at warp speed ahead!
Social media channels like Facebook and Twitter helped us expand our network of supporters. We now have over 750 followers on Twitter, an increase of 127 percent since we put our social media plan into place; and over 620 Facebook friends, an increase of 175 percent. You wonder how does this help the food bank? Remember the big snowstorms last winter? Several groups of volunteers were unable to make it to our warehouse to pack boxes for our Kids Cafe sites. We posted our needs on Facebook and with a minimal amount of tweeting, we were able to get 50 volunteers in a matter of hours. In the past, we would have spent a lot more time to find the help we needed!
We knew we could use technology to save staff time, which would transfer to monetary savings, but the results have been phenomenal! Electronic management of online donors and constituents reduced staff time necessary to reconcile accounts by 85 percent, or thousands of dollars per year. We reduced our monthly web site fees to $0 and thanks to blogging and other interactive features of the new website, we increased monthly visits to our site by 146%. All of this means that staff has more time to focus on our mission and we have more people aware of their neighbors who are hungry.
So take a stroll through our new and improved website. Bookmark us as a favorite and visit often to read what’s happening at the food bank and beyond our doors to all the people we serve. Friend us on Facebook and tweet us up. We need your help to distribute food; pack Kids Cafe® and Brown Bag menus; greet other food bank enthusiasts at events; and give in all the ways that hand and heart demand when people come together to ensure the health of everyone in the community.