When we think of Make a Mark, we think of the three key groups that make up our community — the makers (creative volunteers), the nonprofits (and humanitarian organizations), and the community (volunteers, sponsors, and so on). In our first year in any new community, there is a good amount of scouting to find these people. We'll discuss a little bit of what we have looked for when finding the right people in each of those key areas.

MAKERS (CREATIVE VOLUNTEERS)

What is a maker? Makers include designers, developers, illustrators, photographers, videographers, and other creatives. These people volunteer their time and their talents within the make-a-thon. To select makers, we have always gone through an application process. Applications let us gather the information we need about nonprofits and makers to make informed decisions. With maker applications, we always aim to get an idea for three components — their areas of skill, their level of expertise, and their preference for community outreach or project type.

Over the years we added a prompt to the application, "Briefly tell us why you want to participate in Make a Mark." This helps us better understand the goals of the maker and ensure that they align with our values and principles. This is important because makers are more than just volunteers, they become a part of the nonprofit for a brief period by immersing themselves in the organization and the project. We'll talk about that more later in Lesson 05.

Of course, to get makers to apply, we have to recruit them. We have had great luck in reaching out to our networks, attending industry meet-ups like Creative Mornings, and connecting with professional organizations like AIGA. We also look to coworking spaces, online communities like Dribbble, local agencies and firms, and college and university clubs for talent. Sharing projects, videos, and personal stories from events in previous communities helps makers understand what the event itself might look like for them and allows them to align with the purpose.

NONPROFITS (AND HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS)

When it comes to recruiting nonprofits, we have pulled from a much smaller selection of sources than makers. We have had the best luck by aligning with community foundations, a trusted source in the community, who are then willing to endorse us with their nonprofit network. Other successful avenues have included local nonprofit meet-ups, community organizations like a chamber of commerce or United Way, local news media, and simply asking friends, family, and colleagues for the organizations in their community that they like to support.

With nonprofit applications, we tailor questions to get an understanding of four initial components — the organization’s mission, its impact, the potential impact of the project, and the need of the organization. When it comes to need, we also want to ensure that we can reach their creative goals in a meaningful way within 12 hours. These applications play a major role in deciding which nonprofits to interview.

The interview was not part of our initial make-a-thon but quickly became a staple when we realized that before we could scope projects and create teams, we needed to have an understanding of the person at the nonprofit with which we would be working. We always look for nonprofits and nonprofit leaders who understand the value of the work being done, respect the makers and the process, and are responsive partners in the process. Nonprofit interviews are a time for you to more intimately get to know the nonprofit organization, the nonprofit representative, and the desired project to determine who will be the best partners for the make-a-thon. All of these nonprofits are doing amazing work, but they may not all be a good fit for Make a Mark. To determine fit, we ask questions. Check out some of those questions in the resources on the left.

COMMUNITY

Volunteers come in all shapes and sizes — we're talking people who help on the day of the event by setting out food and greeting people at check-in, people who volunteer to plan the event with us, and people who share their personal and professional networks to help recruit makers and nonprofits.

Do you know of individuals in your inner circle or even in your extended community who might want to help fund, spread the word, or support a make-a-thon in some capacity? Reach out to them, grab a cup of coffee or tea, let them know what you’re doing, and see if they might want to contribute and how.

We'll discuss securing sponsors in more detail in Lesson 03.