Culver Academies | Marshall County Neighborhood Center | Social Services
Year: 2024
Partner School: Culver Academies
Community Partner: Marshall County Neighborhood Center
Category: Social Services/Food insecurity
Problem: The Marshall County Neighborhood Center (MCNC) serves low-income households and is a community response to an overwhelming need for basic support services in its service area. It provides a grocery store, second-hand clothing, and advocacy/education for clients. The purpose of MCNC is to provide basic needs and services to disadvantaged and low-income households in Marshall County. Its formal mission is to reduce poverty and its causes and to serve as advocates for disadvantaged persons of Marshall County. MCNC's needs focus on communication and data collection, operations, fundraising, and education.
MCNC seeks to establish consistent and effective communication with donors, as currently, MCNC utilizes Facebook to communicate with its stakeholders. The organization seeks to focus on how it communicates with those who donate products and services to the Center in addition to financial donors. Although there is a digital newsletter created on a consistent basis, there is inconsistency in how it reaches donors or potential donors. This current strategy has become insufficient in the recruitment and retention (stewardship) of donors, and needs improvement.
Solution: The winning team created a new website for the MCNC, and created a QR code to connect to the site which enabled the organization to understand how many people utilized the code. The students also created a system of gathering donor information through the website, which would enable the organization to better track and stay in touch with donors.
Another winning idea was a partnership with Humana, an insurance company, which would provide MCNC clients with a $300 healthy living card every month that could be used for groceries and other purchases. A promotion of the MCNC through Google Ads was also suggested, as well as a YouTube campaign. This, combined with a collaboration with Second-Harvest Food Bank in East-Central Indiana to offer a poverty simulation, would help raise awareness about the organization on a variety of fronts.