MARKETING & EVENT STRATEGY

EXPAT TEAM

WWF’s Mission

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The WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment, & to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature by:

• Conserving the world’s biological diversity.

• Ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable.

• Reducing pollution and wasteful consumption.

the means will present themselves.

Where there’s

will, the

The Volunteers’ Vision

The Volunteers’ Mission

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To understand the drivers of our strategy, we need to put it into the context of our mission.•The volunteer’s long-term mission: to provide the community with high value opportuni-ties to take practical action to raise funds & awareness at minimum costs to support the WWF’s global mission.• The volunteer’s short-term mission: to develop a network of volunteers & supporters to inspire annually 2% of the population of The Hague to participate in our events & fund raise 100k Euros.

Raised awareness encourages individual’s behavioural to:• Change voting patterns to encourage politicians to enact legislation to enable more sustainable environ-mental practices.• Inform employees & consumers to enable them to encourage companies & other organisations to make their business practices more sustainable.• Encourage people to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle & consume more sustainable products.• Encourage people to become volunteers in NL & directly on WWF projects.• Encourage people to donate money.

In addition, to encourage individuals to support “us” - participation in our events & sponsorship etc.

In carrying out their mission, volunteers must always protect the WWF brand.

To be agents of cultural change to establish a society where “people live in harmony with nature”

Purpose of the Expat Team’s strategy

Summary of the Expat Team’s strategy

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The Expat Team’s marketOur market is both expats & native-Dutch speakers.

Characteristics of successful eventsA successful event is one that delivers on the volunteers’ mission. In addition it is desir-able that it delivers the follow-ing:• Awareness & funds.• High impact with low volun-teer resources.• Developmental of our skills & contacts / network.• Develops & nurtures our support base – volunteers, fund-raisers, sponsors & event participants amongst individu-als, community organisations & businesses etc.• Behavioural change.

• Repeatable as found in, for example, the CPC & presenta-tions etc.• Replicable – extendable by applying the same model for other types of events & / or exporting the same events to other regions;• Simple.• Provides news feed for our public engagement on social media etc.

Further, we should always ensure that the event delivers as promoted.

PartnersPartners are non-WWF organ-isations who support our events. For partners & ourselves, we should ensure a win-win situa-tion.

Promotion & branding

In as many ways as possible, we should use WWF logos on our “props” - volunteers’ t-shirts & caps, as well as flags & banners etc. - to promote & brand events.

Image & CommunicationIn all dealings with the public, volunteers will represent the values of the WWF & project the image of a professional organ-isation. For more information, see “Expat Team’s code of conduct”.

Volunteer’s responsibilityTo achieve the Expat Team’s mission.

The remainder of this document explains the Expat Team’s strategy in detail.

This purpose of this strategy is to guide the Expat Team to achieve its mission by providing events to the community to maximise funds & awareness raised from individuals, corporations & non-profits.

Detailed Expat Team’s Marketing & Event Strategy

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The Expat Team’s MarketOur market is composed of ex-pats - adults as well as children. We should look to combine with the Dutch volunteers where we have a mixture of expat & lo-cal Dutch participants as, for e.g., in the CPC. To tap into our market effectively we need good WWF visibility & strongly connect to people. Children, for e.g., the British & interna-tional schools & scouts etc., provide op-portunities to acquaint their families with the WWF. See Appendix 3: Dealing with children.

Market SegmentationWe should match events to our audiences as well as to the interests & skills of our volunteers. We can consider sub-groups to target & manage specific markets. For instance, some people are oriented to the outdoors – runners ramblers, bikers etc. - in contrast to entertainment types who prefer pubs, dances, & dinners etc.

WWF ChampionsA powerful way to promote the WWF is to encourage volunteers to be our cham-pions in organisations where they work. Champions can also be very effective when based in community organisations such as schools, universities, religious groups & scouts etc. Creating champions in organisations in which they belong gives many benefits: they have the network, understand the

culture &, as they spent a lot of their time in their own organisa-tions, they can be opportunistic & have high impact for less effort - they know “who to speak to, how to speak to & when to speak to” includ-ing emails & posters etc. Our WWF champions in the OPCW got a lot of support for our run-ning events & presen-tations.Although normally the most effective champi-ons are volunteers, there are occasions when they are not & when they are temporary. For example, staff at Bagels & Beans became, for three months, non-volunteer champions pro-moting the WWF in the City Pier City in 2014. WWF champions can be taken further with, for example, the devel-opment of university post-graduate WWF societies. The members of these societies will be WWF’s & nature’s champions in their future senior roles as employees of governments, companies & other organisations.An overview of how champions will work is available. See “Occupying the commu-nity space”. Also see appendix – Different market groups.

Event creation repeatable, replicable & organised for us

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We will achieve our mis-sion by building an ac-tive volunteer team with

the right mix of skills to create high value events. This team will be more effective by selecting events that are preferably Repeatable*, Replicable** & Organised for us - the CPC run being a good example. This lowers risk, cost & volunteer manpower, builds confidence & is less stressful. It also enables us to better build partnerships.Utilising the learning & contacts gained by *Repeating an event, such as the annual CPC running event, is an efficient way of staging events. However, for repeat events, market saturation must be avoid-ed. This can be done in a number of ways: leaving sufficient time between repeat events; changing the participants by, for example,

changing venues / geographic location, introducing innovations & novelties etc.We can also select organisations that have higher turnover levels. Pupils In schools & students have high turnover rates so that our established events can be repeated to a fresh audience.We can rotate our events by, for example, by launching one through a school(s) where we have existing relations to prove the model. Once proven, we are in a better position to get other schools on board.Depending on the circumstances, we might be able to get schools to make our events annual ones, or for some schools, they may need a break of a couple of years until they cooperate with us for another event. It’s important that

we devise ways of developing & maintaining relations with schools including through “event breaks”.

**Replicable events are those that can be extended: • To other events for e.g., by ap-plying the CPC running model to other running events as well as to sponsored cycling, swimming & skating etc. • Across other WWF regions. This can be facilitated in a number of ways: set-up a database of descrip-tions of events that are accessible by all regions as a source of ideas; invite other WWF regions to, for e.g., the CPC to encourage them to get involved in sponsored running events; use their current skills, such as working with children - schools, bamboo kids, Rangers, & Lifeguards - as a platform to launch in other regions by getting, for example, kids to run. Offering our services to tap into their net-works by using, for example, our presentation skills.

(A list of possible events is avail-able in the Event Selection Ma-trix.)

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The idea is to give organ-isations a compelling programme to engender

loyalty, trust & ease of participa-tion with maximum added value. To do this, we need to understand what the “client” wants to create a win-win & extend it with events throughout the year. An example of this is the scouts – see “linking events together” below.Bagels & Beans is another exam-ple; the customer base, employees & company business model is more representative of “ the care, know & want to do something about it” than the rest of society. The cafe has also developed sus-tainability plans.

They provided support to us over a three month period in the following ways:• Customers & employees spon-sored ran for the WWF.• Promoted the CPC on their Face-book pages & websites including with videos & posters.• Sold merchandise, had painting competitions, had collection boxes, a valentines day special, founded a Bagels & Bean’s running club.• Etc.

Bagels & Beans benefits:• Common goals that is attrac-tive to owners, managers, staff &

customers.• Encouraged team building.• Association with the WWF.• Etc.

To deepen our relations with them, we have supported Bagels & Beans supplying volunteers & our brand for promotion in their own environmental projects: re-cycling events for kids & garden events etc.Our support & our personal rela-tions with Bagels & Beans means that we are in a good position to get support from them for a future CPC event. However, for them to avoid market saturation with their customers & staff, this is likely to be three years from the first event & therefore likely to be 2017The additional benefit of this rela-tionship is that our volunteers & Bagels & Beans have a lot of expe-rience with cooperating in events. And, it would be an administrative & emotional cost to support an-other charity.We can also offer a package of events to, for e.g integration into a school curriculum to create a path-way so that the younger children can move on to more challenging events as they move into more senior years. The events would be related or themed as far as possible & spaced through out the year.

A Deep engagementThe best way to engage the com-munity is to engage its members deeply. The CPC is a good exam-ple:• Three months training & raising sponsorship.• Wearing the WWF bamboo t-shirt.• Runners who have featured on TV as well as in the senior & junior national Panda magazine.• Helping to inspire some of our young supporters to take degrees in environmental studies.

Thanking our SupportersIt’s important that we thank our supporters & make them feel special:• Thanks in person & by email.• Thanks certificates – can also be emailed to all the sponsors to thank them & to show them their contribution, what has been ac-complished & reinforce what they are supporting.• WWF t-shirts preferably deliv-ered in person as soon as partici-pants are “committed” as defined by the process for each event.• Published photos.• Etc.

Event ApprovalTo meet our mission & protect the WWF brand, the Expat Team Co-ordinator approves events. This will include a risk evaluation, their structure & their payback.Event execution will be supervised by the event lead & monitored by the Team Co-ordinator.

“Locking in relations”

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Linking events together is a very powerful way to maximise the involvement of the community. For example, when presentations are made to school-children, we should utilise their enthusiasm by “a calling them to action” by inviting them to an event or programme of events such as beach cleaning & sponsored sporting events etc.

Note 1: 2013 – 2014 Expats met the scouts at the International Fair followed by awareness presentationsNote 2: 2015 – 2106 Met Henk, sponsored him & corresponded throughout his journey. Dedi-cated fund raising at the International Fair to himNote3: 2016 British Scouts sponsor ran in the

CPC. Win / win as scouts earned “keep fit chal-lenge badges”.Note 4: 2016 Henk made presentations to scouts & they offered to “WWF sponsor” him “next time”.The future: Henk will do further events in-cluding presentations. The scouts will further “sponsor run” & d beach cleaning etc.

Linking Events together

Development of long term WWF assets Henk & the British Scouts

Partners

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Partners are non-WWF organisa-tions that support

our event programme in different ways by, for e.g., providing facilities, en-abling participation in their existing events & sponsor-ing us.There are three industries that are excluded from any relationship: fossil fuel, firearms & tobacco. Busi-nesses whose core values & identity are associated with animal products will also be scrutinised closely. See the Expat Team’s brand guidelines & contact Lloyd Edwards the Expat Team Co-ordinator for further advice.

BenefitsOther than direct support, we also get other partner benefits such as gaining learning & experience as well as maximising our leverage by using their expertise & resources. They can also help recruit event participants such as runners by their influence within their own organisa-tion or society etc.So that we have the oppor-tunity to repeat an event & enhance our reputation, we should provide our part-ners with a win-win. One-way of doing this is to use promotion etc. to increase attendance / customers above normal levels in, for e.g., Bagels & Beans cafe in The Hague for the CPC & the Fiddlers for the pub quiz.

Partner risksTo minimise risks, changes to partners “ways” should be made only for good reasons. Some risks will always remain such as:• Partners failing to deliver on timing or quality etc. This is another reason for repeating events (see above) where we have gone through the learning curve & have established a work-ing relationship based on trust, mutual understand-ing & respect.• Partners damaging our reputation. We should look to minimise this through careful partner selection & making sure that the event & the partner are well matched. And, that the partner sufficiently & demonstrably shares our values. For instance, we do not have an event in part-nership with a traditional circus nor with a marine circus such as a dolphina-rium.Before selecting & ap-proaching partners, consult with the Expat Team Coordinator. There are written as well as unwritten criteria. The written ones include H.O. approval to establish corporate rela-tions with companies with more than 200 employees. However, if we already have contacts such as volunteers who work in the organisation, this limit can be flexed such as with presentations given to the OPCW with 500 employ-ees.Also see Expat Team brand

management principles.

Types of partnersPartnerships can be made with a variety of organ-isations: schools, scouts, and societies such as the American Womens’ Club & UN organisations such as the OPCW. Schools can elect to be-come a WWF school mean-ing that the entire year’s fund raising events will be dedicated to the WWF.Members of organisations share culture such as the social & course interests of university students & staff. This knowledge can be used to help design events. In organisations such as care homes & hospitals, residents are often isolated & hence would welcome a WWF event with the potential to generate a lot

of goodwill. Some organisations may have staff willing to help us & can also act as suppli-ers: university lecturers & students associated with environmental courses can give presentations in schools.

Partnering With Other Volunteer Organisa-tionsTo supplement our ex-pertise & contacts, we will consider partnering with other voluntary organisa-tions: partnering with the IVN on a bat spotting eve-ning where IVN provided bat spotting equipment & bat photos; beach cleaning with Kust & Zee & Sea First & canal cleaning with Soul Surfers.

It’s important we safeguard our supporter’s contribution (money, materials & time) & minimise the amount of it spent on an event. So, as much as possible, the Expat Team

work to a “zero cost philosophy” which is also used as a selling point to get support. This also encourages creative thinking & presents opportunities to the community to provide freely their skills & services etc., identifies people who are “on our side” & will act for us in the future recruiting runners, volunteers & champions etc. & inspires others.N.B. Volunteers have the right to claim expenses in respect of expenditure relating to events etc.

Zero cost philosophy

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Dutch sponsorship, donations & taxationThere are two sources of donations that we are concerned with: indi-viduals & companies.• Individuals: facilitate tax relief on donations made to the WWF by Netherlands’ residents. There are three ways that donors can donate or sponsor the WWF & claim money back from the tax authorities: WWF sponsorship raised via Justgiving; donations to the WWF website di-rectly; regular gifts.Money (sponsorship etc.) received in other ways – bank transfer, cash etc., - is not accepted as eligible by the Dutch tax authorities.• Companies: sponsorship by Dutch companies will qualify for tax relief. At say a 50% tax rate, every Euro100 raised will only cost the Euro50 after tax. This is important to recognise when negotiating sponsorship.

Overseas sponsorship benefitsAs we are a global charity, overseas sponsorship & donations are encour-

aged. Sponsors, & donors may give more generously in supporting the WWF in their home countries such as India, the UK & European coun-tries etc.This can also bring tax benefits: UK residents donating to the WWF UK via Justgiving UK or equivalent or directly donating to the WWF get tax relief - turning each £75 do-nated into £100 for the WWF. So, for example, it is recommended that sponsorship from UK residents is paid to the WWF UK.To benefit from these donations should be made through Justgiving.com. For donations in relation to other countries please contact Lloyd Edwards.

Promotion, Branding, Image & CommunicationPromotionWe need as many ways as possible to promote events: newsletters, posters & leafleting, personal contacts, In-ternet sites & on line communities, & local media etc.In addition, promotions can be sup-

ported by using a database of po-tential attendees from a number of sources: e-mail details etc. collected at our events; existing WWF’s data base; other organisations data-bases such as Dieren Bescherming. (WWF policy on data protection?)

BrandingWe should take opportunities to brand our events by using WWF logos on our “props” - volunteers’ t-shirts & caps, as well as flags & banners etc. Seek guidance from the WNF. See also Expat Team brand management principles.

Image & CommunicationTo event attendees & non-attendees – passing observers etc., we should project the image of a professional organisation: be able to articulate the WWF mission statement; have a few key examples of the WWF’s work – specific projects - as well as the WWFs work in lobbying govern-ments & other organisations. (This can be found on WWF.org that gives links to the WWF’s Global network.)

Taxation & sponsorship including from overseas

No matter how many people we have in our group we will always have limited resources & skills so we always need to find “more for less”. Examples of how this can be achieved are:• Use of partners

• Repeatable & replicable events.• Standardising our activity modules - project lead, WWF liaison, promo-tion, communication station, raffles, decoration etc. - by being well tried, developed, & run by experienced volunteers. They can then be “pulled off the shelf” & “clipped” together to reduce our event effort.• Maximise the development of our skills & network – neighbours, friends

& work etc. to support our activities• Look for “redundancies in the sys-tem”. For example, unused space in public places - libraries, hospitals & schools etc. This often comes with a relatively secure environment, staffing & an audience throughput where we can, for example, organise lectures & exhibits & sell merchandise etc. Exhib-its can be manned or unmanned.

More For Less

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• In the volunteer role, he / she has agreed to act in the sole in the interests of the WWF / WNF.• He / she will not normally seek commercial gain.• Any potential for commercial gain whether actively sought or not must be declared as soon as it is known – before, during or after the activity. The Expat Team can then consider the best way to proceed taking into account the circumstances such as, but not restricted to, potential & actual conflicts of interest & the poli-cies & best practice of the WWF / WNF. Donations of any commercial proceeds to the WWF / WNF will be an active part of this consideration.

ConclusionA successful event is how well it delivers on the mis-sion statement & the following attributes that support its achievement: repeatable, replicable, simple, easy, quick, extendable & developmental of our skills & contacts / network. And, events should always deliver as promoted.

Volunteers & conflicts of interest

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The volunteers’ most important responsibility is protecting the WWF brand.

By recruiting active volunteers, executing events & building effective relationships with partners, we can build ourselves into a potent & effective team that carry out increasingly ambitious events. Volunteers achieve their mission by:

• Recruiting other volunteers.• Proposing events.• Participating in events that are suited to their skills & interests.• Proposing ideas for corporate / business partner-

ship & sponsorship. Seek these out in consultation with the team co-ordinator.• Committing & communicating to the team your time available & what you want to do.

The Expat Team Co-ordinator has all the volunteer’s responsibilities plus the following additional respon-sibilities:• Team building;• Ensuring events are resourced with volunteers;• Event approval.

Appendix 1: Volunteer’s responsibilities

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FunctionsOur purpose is to mobilise the community with high value events & activities to raise funds & aware-ness. The supporting functions - Marketing, Human Resources etc. - in the diagram are the foundation for this.• All volunteers will chose which function they want to work in.• Each function determines its own mission & oper-ates to meet it.• There will be regular “board” meetings where a rep-resentative from each of the functions will attend.• Volunteers can help out other functions. For in-stance, this may come about if a volunteer in the

presentation function has an idea for marketing. Initially, she should contact the other function with her proposal.

EventsAll volunteers will participate in a high proportion of events as an organiser, a helper on the day or as a participant – a sponsored runner, a member of the audience at a presentation etc.(Volunteers assigned directly to the event function are concerned with general event strategy & structure etc.)

Appendix 2: Volunteers & functions

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The Team Co-ordinator will interview new volun-teers. In certain cases, this may be delegated.The most important thing is to get volunteers in value added events where they can make a contribution, by using their networks & matching volunteer skills & interests with our portfolio of events. This is their

reason for volunteering & the sooner you do this, the better.In conjunction with training, whilst doing events, volunteers will build-up knowledge of the WWF & its structure.

Appendix 3: On-boarding volunteers

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It’s important to build strong links with the com-munity, identify our future champions, and raise awareness. Sponsored events, such as running ones, are a good example of how to achieve this with their high levels of commitment, training, sponsorship, & spectators etc.To help partner with the community, we are open & transparent making it clear what we stand for, what we’re offering & how people can help - “If we build it they will come”. Or, to put it another way, if we pro-vide the opportunity professionally, socially & sports wise etc. where people can apply their skills & inter-ests we can tap into a huge reservoir of willing people.So where do we get these willing people from? Individuals within a community can be segmented by its awareness & attitude to nature & environmental issues & can be used to help target our audience:1. Volunteers & activists.2. “Know care & want to do something about it”.3. “Don’t know don’t care”.

Our target group, where we can get most payback in terms of response for our effort, is the “know care & want to do something about it”. These are com-munity leaders, aware, educated business & govern-ment leaders, thought leaders & wealthy etc. who are important in setting the direction of the rest of society including the “don’t know don’t care”. They are also a rich source of potential volunteers & WWF (environ-mental) champions.We present as many opportunities to this group to enable them to channel their concern for the envi-ronment into positive actions by participating in our events such as sponsored running.

We communicate with & activate our target group through community based institutions – scouts, reli-gious groups & educational institutions – companies

& government as well as individuals.

Appendix 4: Our target market & the community

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The following are not all strictly market segments but are useful headings to help us analyse key characteristics of our market to give insights into selecting & holding events.

Captured Versus Non-Captured AttendeesA captured attendee – examples of two types: • People already attending established events where we come along as a “guest act”. An example of this is the Fid-dler’s pub quiz. • People already in the venue independently of our presence. For example, key to the success of the OPCW screening of the film “The end of the line”, was due to vol-unteers who are employed by the OPCW promoting our event to other employees.

A non-captured attendee is one who would not be pres-ent without our event. An example of this type of event is beach cleaning. As there is more risk with this type of event that we get low attendance, we need to put more effort into promotion.

Dispersed Versus Concentrated EventsA bike tour is an example of a dispersed event where participants can be separated by, for example, geography & time. The Fiddler is an example of a concentrated event where participants are not separated. For a dispersed event, we need to find ways of “capturing” the participants to achieve our mission such as a:• Registration procedure at the start.• Finish line.

• Completion certificate / photo shoots.• Focus for stages & prizes etc.• Choke point. (An example of a choke point is at the en-trance / exit in a retail store where we can achieve maxi-mum footfall in support of, for e.g., a national campaign on sustainable fishing.)

Outside Versus Inside EventsFor outside events, we need to take account of the seasons / weather that has the potential to affect the comfort & attendance of volunteers & attendees. Fallbacks should be provided where possible such as shelter & alternatives.

“Evergreen” EventsEvergreen events are those that, once set-up, leave a legacy that continues independently of the WWF’s pres-ence such as.• Children create gardens in the school grounds with wild flowers, fruit trees & bushes, bird houses & feed-ers, & ladybird & bee shelters. This gives the opportunity for continuous interaction with the children & teachers: bird spotting & feeding, photographs, articles in school magazines, nurturing plants, & picking fruit etc. As an extension, we can have, for e.g., WWF / school fairs sell-ing produce grown etc. & bolt on other activities such as communication stations, merchandising & collection boxes etc.• Films can be provided or recommended by the WWF to schools & other organisations with an agreed schedule to enable staff to show them.

Appendix 5: Different event groups

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WWF fundraisers get sponsorship to help fund the activities of the WWF from their friends, family & work colleagues. As illustrated below using the ex-ample of running events, benefits other than funds are derived from fundraising.

• These events are targeted as they attract or “pull in” our committed supporters; “know care & want to do something about it”. The targeted marketing is rein-forced as they use their network, many of whom will share the same “environmental concerns”• Runners create interest among their sponsors by the fact that they are running on behalf of the WWF. Added interest is generated if they are not runners or set themselves time targets etc.• In raising sponsorship, fundraisers talk about the WWF & its activities thus raising the awareness of both the sponsors & themselves.• A fundraiser is committed as opposed to those who

simply “pay lip service”. This is a good way to select individuals who we can recruit as supporters & volun-teers.• It’s a long term – 3 months or so including training - & committed engagement giving greater WWF expo-sure to the individual in, for example, training, raising sponsorship, & paying for their own event entry;• The WWF Fairwear bamboo t-shirt embodies a lot of the environmental issues that we face. (See bam-boo leaflet given with every shirt.) Training & at other times wearing the shirt is a constant reminder of our responsibility to protect our environment & nature.• It’s good team working for the runners & volunteers.• Individual running & fundraising is an achievement for which we issue a thanks certificate. • Large events such as the CPC, through their scale & public exposure of committed WWF fundraising runners, is great PR & helps open a dialogue with the public.

Appendix 6: Benefits of sponsorship

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The main aspect of the WWF volunteer’s responsibil-ity to children is their safety. Hence, we should al-ways assess the risks particularly when we are taking them away from their safe environment such as their

teacher-supervised classroom. The WWF’s guide-lines should be consulted prior to any engagement with children. (See also the separate expat document “Dealing With Children”.)

Appendix 7: Dealing with children

generate enormous

value.

OCEANSNATURALASSETS

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The more we look, the more we learn