EVENT TYPES
DONOR/DRIVER EVENT TYPE
This event type is used when donors are spread out across the map. Drivers are then selected and given optimized routes to pick up their donation and take it to the local pantry or Food Bank.
A typical "Donor/Driver" event usually happens on a recurring and predictable pattern. For example "The first Saturday" of every month, or perhaps every even numbered month (Feb, April, June, etc).
This event types works best when the donors do not know or care who picks up the food. They just want to donate food and use "A Simple Gesture" system to make it easy. They put a bag of food on their doorstep and a driver comes by to take it where it is needed the most.
The advantage is that our software can optimize the routes of thousands of donors. A very large chapter with 4000 donors may need as many as 250 drivers, which would be a nightmare to figure out manually. In our system, these donors are placed into "least mile" routes and then assigned to each driver. It doesn't need to be a big program; this type of event can be the best solution for 20 donors and just 2 drivers.
The biggest factor when selecting this event type is; "Do the donors live, work, or visit in a common area?" If they do, it's probably best to set up a Community Event where they can take advantage of their commonality. For example, a school, church, social club, or business can all take their food donations to their common meeting place. A person that lives in a neighborhood with a dozen donors can walk around to pick up their bags.
If you are starting your chapter for an entire city or county, it's best to first start with a Donor/Driver event. This way you can on-board new donors that live or work anywhere in your territory. Let our Route Optimization engine take care of figuring how to assign those stopping points to a driver.
As your chapter grows you may begin to see "density". For example a street may have many donors on it. When this happens, consider contacting those donors to see if one of them will be the "Community Coordinator". This way some donors are now parts of a Community while others are in a Donor/Driver Event.
Or, you may just prefer to let your chapter grow to any size and keep it as a "Donor/Driver Event".
We think the ultimate pathway is to have both. This way it's easy for you to onboard new donors without worrying about where they live or which community they should join. And you then have the benefit of later moving them into "Community Circles".
To add this type of event, click "ADD EVENT" and select Donor/Driver" as Event Type.
COMMUNITY EVENT TYPE
A "Community Circle" is any time a group of donors share something in common.
- School or Church
- Social or Professional Club
- Home Owners Association
- Apartment Complex
- Neighborhood
- Business
As people share something in common, they can also organize themselves into a Food Drive.
A Community Event should be set up to recur on a predictable schedule. Perhaps the "first Friday" of every month, every other month, or every quarter. Or they may coincide with a clubs meeting date, church service or other schedule that brings people together.
One way to run a Community Event is for everyone to bring the food donation with them. When you set it up the donors get a notification "bring your food donation to room 202 between July 11th and July 12th".
Another way to run a Community Event is to ask the donors to leave their bag in front of their house. "I'll be by to pick up your donation on July 12th between 9am and noon".
When you set up a "Community Event" you will assign it a Campaign Code. Campaigns are created by the Chapter Administrator. Think of it as a unique web page. For example a Campaign can be set up for the Unity Church. Each Campaign gets a QR code and URL (unique web address). When someone scans that code or goes to that web page they will see "Unity Church" at the top, with a "REGISTER" button. They simply click that register button and they are assigned that Campaign Code.
You can also take any donor in your system and later give them that Campaign Code. This is a great option when it comes time to switch a donor for "Donor/Driver Event" to a Community event. You go to their User Page and select a new Campaign Code.
For example; let's way we set up UNITY CHURCH as a Campaign. We then send an email to all church members with that URL. They click it and join A Simple Gesture with that Campaign Code assigned to to them. But then you find out that John Smith is in your church and already was in a "Donor/Driver" event. You open his USER account and select Unity Church in the Campaign dropdown and John is now in your event.
Soon we will have a tool to draw a "loop" around a group of donor pins to assign them all to a Community Circle. This allows you to quickly move donors that live in a near-by area to a "Community Coordinator".
To add this type of event, click "ADD EVENT" and select "COMMUNITY" as Event Type.
