Idaho Gives Best Practices: Wassmuth Center for Human Rights

The Wassmuth Center for Human Rights is a local nonprofit that promotes respect for human dignity and diversity by providing educational programs for teachers and students, engaging in community leadership and supporting the advocacy for human rights. The organization has participated in Idaho Gives for the last couple of years. Dan Prinzing, Executive Director said that “as a small nonprofit with a specific mission, it helps us to be seen in a broader sense with the rest of the nonprofits.”

Prinzing mentioned that their campaign is a “coordinated effort chaired by the center’s public relations/marketing committee with assistance as needed by the staff.” Leading up to Idaho Gives, the Wassmuth Center hosts an annual community event at The Morrison Center. “We put information about Idaho Gives in the program and briefly talk about it during the event on stage. It is to get Idaho Gives on everyone's radar and to keep us in mind.”

On the actual day, the Wassmuth Center promotes Idaho Gives through all of their social media accounts, as well as email blasts. “We probably reach out 10 times during the day”, says Prinzing. “We were able to schedule some things (social media posts) early in the morning. Early hours are so critical when folks are just kind of tuning in.”

Prinzing went on to say, “We have a solid base of annual donors that we hear from on a regular basis, but it becomes a target base specifically for Idaho Gives. Our donors really like that we can report what was raised, and what their donations are going towards.”

​Prinzing offers this advice for first time participants of Idaho Gives: “The more volunteer and board involvement, the better. Because it is such a  social media-driven campaign, you have to get more people pushing it out. It really takes a broader amount of people to continue to grow it each year.” Prinzing also advises the importance of social media, which forces organizations to get out of traditional advertising sources. “We learned the need for more board involvement because it is a lot of work leading up to the day. You have to have a committed team.”