And now the moment you have all been waiting for…you’re ready to start your program. You’ve probably lined up some preliminary funding, you’ve got a couple of people in the schools or health care or family support fields who are ready and willing to help you as soon as you say the word. Or maybe you don’t even have those things yet. What do you do? Whatever your situation, the following pages will give you some insight on starting the Ferst Foundation Program in your community. All you need is energy, a caring community, a group of children, and some willing volunteers to make this program a resounding success. Community involvement and registration are the first two issues that we must address.

Please note: For ease of reading we have labelled this and the following section “Getting Started” and “Keeping it Going.” Community involvement and registration get you started; fundraising and public relations keep you going. However, each of these topics is part of the program as a whole, and initially it will benefit you to read these two sections in succession. You may need information from the “Keeping it Going” section as you set up your initial program or you may find information from “Getting Started” helpful even if your program is already up and running.

1) Checklist

Here at headquarters we need certain information from you the CAT team in order to get the program going in your community after you sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Please print this document and send all requested information to info@ferstfoundation.org. It is vital that we have answers to all these questions as soon as possible.

2) Community involvement - Community Action Team

Before you register the first child for the program, you need to rally your community around you. Although it is certainly possible to start out with a small pool of money and one dedicated volunteer, as Robin Ferst did in Morgan County, this is not recommended. Ultimately your community must support Ferst Foundation or you will not be able to sustain the program.

The first thing that you must do is assemble your Community Action Team (CAT). The group’s name is self-explanatory—these are the people that will convert the dream into action. They tend to be people with a passion for children and early literacy. Their enthusiasm will drive the success of the Imagination Library in your community. They will promote the program, communicate with (or perhaps be) financial sponsors, make decisions regarding the direction of the local program, and help register children to receive books.

Your CAT should have a leader, a volunteer chairperson (or co-chairpersons) who will organize meetings of the CAT team and liaise with Ferst Foundation in Madison, Georgia. Our home office will coordinate with you in ordering registration forms and information for the monthly newsletter. The Madison office will also provide database management, book ordering, and monthly book mailings. Your community’s primary responsibilities will be to get the word out, register children, and raise money in order to sustain the program over time. Your CAT will guide the growth of the program in your area.

The size of your CAT is up to you and will differ in composition in every county. The CAT may be a new organization made up of interested yet disparate members of the community who are all willing to work together for this program. The CAT may also be an existing organization that takes on the implementation of the Ferst Foundation program as one of its key tasks. For example, in Hart County, Georgia, the local Family Connection Collaborative elected to take on the management of the program in their county. In Grady County, the Board of Education designated the Family Literacy Coordinator to spearhead the team. Existing volunteers and board members simply took on extra tasks in positions that they already held.

The way you assemble your team is up to your community. Ideally, it will complement existing local organizations. All that Ferst Foundation requires is that you put together a competent and dedicated group of volunteers with a leader or co-leaders who will liaise with our staff in Madison.

As mentioned above, the size of the CAT is up to the individual communities. But eight to twelve members is a good beginning target figure. This allows you to bring in people from a number of fields and disciplines related to education, children, and family literacy. The more diversified your corps of initial volunteers, the more success you will have in getting the message out about your program and the more children you will be able to register.

Where do you find CAT members? Below are some suggested places to look. If you haven’t already, try to identify eight to twelve individuals in the following fields or organizations, and approach them with an invitation to be on your committee. If an invited individual is unable to serve on the CAT, consider asking them for a recommendation of a trusted colleague in their field or within their organization.

a) Potential CAT Members

Local elected officials (mayor, city council, county commissioners, state represenative or senator, etc.)
Primary/elementary school principals and teachers
School board administrators
Board of education representatives
PTO/PTA representatives
Certified literate community directors
Family Connection representative
Department of Family and Children's Services (DFACS) representative
Public library librarian
Local U.S. Post Office postmaster/employees
United Way representative
Chamber of Commerce
Members of civic organizations such as Kiwanis, Lion's Club, Rotary, NAACP, Optimist etc.
Prominent business and industry leaders
Clergy members
County health deparment representative
Local pediatricians
Hospital staff, especially maternity and pediatric nurses
Pharmacists
Recreation department representative
Newspaper editor and other news media representatives
Concerned parents
Local day-care providers
Local celebrities
Realtors
Members of "newcomers" organizations
Local food bank/outreach program representatives

As you can see, if you have support from people in even half of these areas, you will be in an excellent position to get the word about Ferst Foundation out to your community. It will be easier to register participants, and it will ultimately be easier to collect contributions.

You might consider sending out personal invitations to potential CAT members like Chatham and Walton Counties have.

b) Committees

Once you have built your CAT team you need to establish committees:

Public Relations
Fundraising
Registration
Parent Support (submit newsletter information from the local community)

3) Annual plan and By-laws

To help get your CAT team organized, you need to develop an annual plan which sets your goals and planned activities for Fundraising, Public Relations and Registration for the year. The foundation requires you submit your annual plan by February 1st of each year. Don't worry - we have several examples from existing counties in the program to help guide and inspire you!

To help get your CAT team organized, you need to develop an annual plan which sets your goals and planned activities for Fundraising, Public Relations and Registration for the year. The foundation requires you submit your annual plan by February 1st of each year. Don't worry - we have several examples from existing counties in the program to help guide and inspire you!

Some communties also create by-laws for their CAT teams. Morgan County has graciously provided us with a sample of their by-laws that you can modify for your CAT.

4) Get the program good publicity right out of the starting gate.

a. A letter to the editor asking the question “Would you support free books for children under the age of 5?” (See example from Coweta County)

b. Have the news media cover the opening presentation and if possible have Ferst Foundation staff do the opening presentation.

c. Through personal connections (handwritten notes from someone they know or by an in-person request) invite local businesses and individuals to become a charter member of the “Ferst Fifty.”

d. Participate in every public venue in your county. It is best to have at least two people work the booth – one behind the table assisting with registration and one in the aisle-way addressing passersby.

Lincoln County Parade For example, have a booth at the county fair.

Have a donation jar at the front of the booth.
Have daily raffles for a variety of gift baskets.
Set up a table at the elementary school open houses. (All of them if you have more than one elementary school in your county)
Set up a booth at your local National Night Out.
Set up a booth at any other public event imaginable. (Effingham’s Mission Fest and Holiday Classic, Fourth of July Parade, Christmas Parade.)

5) Appeal for Financial Support

a. Address your local town, city, and county governments. Request a Proclamation of support and ask for financial support. Take the approach that this is not a charitable donation but rather an investment in the future economic growth of the community by being forward thinkers in the area of workforce development.

b. Make a pitch to your local Chamber of Commerce and Industrial Development Authority with the same slant as above.

c. Make a pitch to your State Representative and State Senator. They should not only be aware of the program but encouraged to pursue financial support from the government.

d. Make a formal presentation to every civic club in your community and ask for volunteer and financial support. (Please contact us at info@ferstfoundation.org for presentations you can use.

e. Submit every grant application that pertains to early childhood development.

Make sure you know what the average grant amount is.
Make sure you ask for enough. If you don’t you likely will not get more than that the following year.

6) Recognition

a. Present a Certificate of Appreciation to every sponsor.

b. Hand-write a personal thank you note to every sponsor.

7) Annual Follow-Up

a. Hand-write notes thanking original sponsors for their past support and ask for their continued support.

b. Hand-write a personal note and include Foundation information, local success statistics, etc. to every business owner and industry operator in your area.

c. Hold another major fundraising event every year. (Effingham County conducted “A Taste of Effingham” where they had many restaurateurs and caters serve up their treats with all proceeds going to support sponsoring the children.)

8) Fact Sheets

Fact Sheets play an important role in community involvement. Fact Sheets are key to educating members of your CAT and their individual organizations about the tenets of the program. A Fact Sheet is a one-page document that gives the highlights of the Ferst Foundation program in your community. You may use the Fact Sheet here or you may customize the Fact Sheet to include details about the sponsoring organization(s) of the program in your community. In any case, this is an essential piece of the program, and you should keep a supply of these photocopies next to your registration forms.

Fact Sheets are given to CAT members so that they can keep the details of the program close at hand. Remember, one of the CAT members’ primary responsibilities is to educate other members of their organization—they need to have all of the program details in one place so that they can report effectively. Fact Sheets are also instrumental in educating people who work at registration sites, as we will discuss shortly.

Once you have your CAT in place, and each member of the team has a working understanding of the Ferst Foundation program, its benefits and its goals as explained on your Fact Sheet, you’re ready to move onto the next phase of the program—registration.

Once you have your CAT in place and registrations are beginning to roll in, what happens next? You shift gears a little, and you move from initial push to program maintenance. How do you keep the Imagination Library program in your community fresh and vital? One word—volunteers. Your CAT is coming up with great ideas but suddenly everyone needs to be in three places at once. It is time to broaden the outreach. By now you know the areas you are weak in and can recruit for very specific jobs. Maybe you have one volunteer whose sole job is clipping baby announcements and making calls. Another volunteer might replenish registration forms at day care centers only. Look at lightening the load for everyone. Host a “Bring a Friend” meeting for your CAT, solicit volunteers right along with registrations and turn thankful parents into active supporters. Just keep in mind that no matter how enthusiastic your CAT is they can always use help, especially now as you move into the next phase of the program. At this stage you are ready to add two additional responsibilities to your plate, fundraising and public relations.

Presentations

We have a PowerPoint presentation you can use to help educate your CAT members and others in the community about the program and what your CAT's responsibilities are in bringing the program to your community. Only a few sections need to be adapted for your specific community. Please contact us at info@ferstfoundation.org for presentations.

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