Typically, philanthropic organizations including community foundations, print traditional annual reports to share with various publics a summary of their past work. These reports can be quite costly and sometimes only fully consumed by individuals with a vested interest in the organization. This can unintentionally lead to little return on the investment necessary to produce and distribute this important content. Moreover, this traditional approach is limited to one-way sharing of information, versus the two-way dialogue possible and present when bringing people together.
By instead providing residents much of the same information typically found in a one-time annual report, in an ongoing basis through our website and other established communications, Incourage identified an opportunity to redirect resources typically reserved for production of an annual report and created an accessible place in which to gather to learn more.
This is our COMMUNITY PICNIC – WHERE ONE NEIGHBOR LEADS TO ANOTHER, connections are made, relationships fostered, and abundant opportunities to create our future are present, then acted upon. By fostering a spirit of connectedness in an open and inclusive setting, Incourage’s community picnic is helping to realize the vision of a community that works well for all people. This is “why” we created the community picnic.
We believe that the return on our investment far outweighs the limited impact a printed annual report ever could. We are seeing the return in many ways, each day. Initially funded by Incourage, the picnic’s expenses are becoming increasingly “community owned”.
HOW IS THE PICNIC BECOMING COMMUNITY OWNED?
The engagement and generosity of our community has grown significantly over the last several years with the portion of donated products and services doubling and the number of volunteer hours tripling!
FUN FACTS:
We’d love to
hear from you.