b'DAYTODAYPR TOOLKITAmi Neiberger, APR Student Volunteers A way to expand outreachW hen I served on a nonprofit boardChannel their energy for good. The beautiful early in my career, we received offersthing about students is they often bring great for public relations assistance fromenthusiasm to their assignments.professors teaching at a nearby university. TheOur organization had a thrift store where professors wanted their students to get real-worldwe sold used furniture, household goods, and experience and had them volunteer to help us getclothing. Because we were low on inventory, we more publicity and attention. Over time, I workedassigned to one class the job of getting donations with several classes, and found it to be a great wayfrom fellow students. Their public service to increase our capacity. Here are some tips to helpannouncements, strategic flyers, and outreachwith a student volunteer program: to other students flooded our phone line with requests for pickups; it was a huge success. Keep timing in mind, especially when it needs to be approved. The class that gave detailed pre-sentations seemed to vanish for a while as their professor lectured on other topics. As the end of the semester approached, the students were frantic to execute their plan. Thankfully, we were available to approve everything in the shortened time frame. In hind-sight, I wish I had better coordinated the timing with their professor, but even so, the students were able to accomplish a lot.Clarify that the goals and requirements of theAlways get the final productsand dont forprofessor align with your organizations needs. Oneget recommendation letters. Another class created class created a very detailed public relations plana video about our organization. Unfortunately, the and had to present it to us as if we were clients. final files for the project were never transferred They were completely terrified while deliver- to us, and so we never got to use the video. While ing their presentations, but they did a lovely job,this certainly was unfortunate, my interactions and we were able to give feedback about whichwith the student volunteers were mostly positive, ideas we thought would work most effectivelyand I wrote letters of recommendation for for our organization.students who did a good job. \x03Ami owns Maple Avenue PR, an independent public relations practice that assists nonprofits. You can reach her at ami@mapleavenuepr.com.56 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG JULY/AUGUST 2023'