Raised Eyebrow Blog

This month, our clients at Covenant House Vancouver were recognized for their exceptional blog, On the House, receiving an award from The Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS). Covenant House shelters and counsels street youth, and over the past 10 years they’ve helped 10,000 young people with shelter, food, clothing, counseling and other support. Their blog launched on August 24th, 2009, and since then they’ve contributed over 150 posts. The blog is innovative as content is often contributed by the kids that come through Covenant House, telling of their journeys, their achievements, and even showcasing their art.

The CPRS award is a well-deserved honour. Covenant House’s blog is a great model for nonprofits who are looking to create more compelling blog content. Here are a few of the secrets of their success, as we see them:

1. Stories, stories, stories: On the House personalizes youth homelessness and the challenges that contribute to it.  By telling youth stories, for example the story of 13-year John, On the House helps helps educate prospective donors and volunteers as well as building stronger community among existing constituents.
2. Gratitude is infections: Covenant House posts letters they receive from donors (with permission) to their Donor Stories.  In the story Thank You, a donor wrote to give thanks for the call they received during Covenant House’s “thank-a-thon.”  In Feel Good Friday, Joanne wrote to explain how much it meant to her to be able to teach her children about giving to Covenant House Vancouver.
3. Self-promotion is more palatable when it’s surrounded with great content: On the House has a few asks and some promotion mixed in, such as Christmas is Coming.  Coupled with youth stories, it seems only natural that Covenant House should be asking for support to help these kids.
4. Show, don’t tell: Some of the most powerful posts are contributed by the youth Covenant House Vancouver serves: poetry, artwork, and prose tell the reader more than a third-person story ever could.  For example Gratitude for Donated Hockey Sticks, in which two youth thank you letters are reprinted.
5. Share your challenges: The blog content stays interesting because there’s lots of variety. Posts, like Youth Privacy Versus Good Communication, explore internal challenges Covenant House staff face every day, lending a human face to the organization and breaking down barriers between the staffer who’s writing and the reader.

Congratulations to Michelle Clausius and Kristy Hayter who have done an amazing job of bringing On the House to life. If you have minute, check out On the House.  The posts are often funny, informative, inspiring, and/or heartbreaking.  They’re compelling and worth the read.  Kudos to Covenant House for helping to give these talented young writers a voice.  Also, thanks for the important insights on the issues of youth and homelessness.

Tags: Blog, Covenant House Vancouver, The Canadian Public Relations Society

This entry was written by Anna on Friday, June 25th, 2010 at 3:27 pm, is filed under Online Strategy, The Social Web, and is tagged as Blog, Covenant House Vancouver, The Canadian Public Relations Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.