Action Step 3: Getting Your Club Up and Running

Once you’ve got your club, your project, and your plan, it’s time you get yourself up and running. Here are tips and tricks that will help your club develop into a “well-oiled machine.”

Drafting Your “Elevator Speech”

Before you can fundraise, or even recruit members, you must have a “pitch.” Your pitch—or elevator speech—is what you would tell someone if you had their attention for about 30-60 seconds and you were, for example, riding in an elevator with them. These short sound bytes are great for recruiting, soliciting businesses, or simply educating community members. In your speech, try to include all your ‘talking points’ but do remember to keep it short and exciting.

A thing to keep in mind: Sometimes, especially at the beginning of the year, you have to give your pitch before your club has even chosen a project. This can be hard because you don’t have any concrete details, but it also leaves room for your audience to suggest his or her ideas.

Your “elevator speech” should include:

-Your name, grade, and school

-Your project description. If you are still choosing a project, feel free to list the various options. Or, use the ‘global challenges’ section and simply tell the audience about a general world problem (eg. Conflict or Poverty) and talk about how you want to eradicate it.

-Your fundraising, community education, and advocacy goals. (This can be done prior to choosing your project. Even if you are supporting education in Tanzania, or street children in Brazil, you will still want to reach the same number of people.)

- A few facts about the problem and/or region.

-Your enthusiasm. If people can see how excited you are for the project, they are much more likely to join.

-Why your effort is beneficial to people on the ground.

-What action they can take today. This can be either joining your club, giving you free t-shirts, or donating money. Show them directly where the time, talent, or treasures would be going.

Leave Out:

- Any more personal information

- Guilt-trips like “If you cared you would support our project…” You don’t want to depress people or turn them off with your language; your job is to inspire them to act. If you shame someone into action, chances are that their support will soon dwindle.

- Too many details. You only have somebody’s attention for a moment. Don’t bombard them with your exact plan of action. Be broad enough that if the person joins, s/he feels like s/he can contribute new ideas.

- A negative ending. Even if the person blows you off, be sure to thank them for their time, and offer to give them your contact information if they change their mind.