6.2: Building Employment Capacity for Homeless Families Presentation by Tess Gilman

2. Create a target list of employers

3. Things to consider: size, location, type of job, community involvement, fit with your mission, history, reputation, financial stability.

4. Identify existing connections

5. Try to get introduced through co-workers, board members, funders, and personal connections.

6. Outreach Method Hierarchy

7. First Impressions Matter: Preparing for a Meeting

8. Preparation:

9. Research the industry and company. Collect as much information as possible on product/services, history, workforce demographics, market, culture, staff.

10. Be prepared to show your knowledge of the company as you would in a job interview.

11. Create a clear plan of what a partnership would look like.

12. Think like a business:

13. Market yourself and your agency in terms of your credibility-size, history, budget, growth rate, board of directors, recognition.

14. Frame your services as a profit maker, i.e. what is the value added from a partnership?

15. Tax incentives, diversity, better employees, publicity, etc.

16. Tell stories, not services:

17. Tell success stories.

18. Emphasize your results and outcomes.

19. Treat the business like a client:

20. Listen.

21. Assess needs.

22. Create trust.

23. Sustaining the Relationship

24. Set up check-in schedule.

25. Create an agreement to formalize the partnership.

26. Be timely and consistent in your communication.

27. Be proactive in dealing with problems.

28. Offer to recognize a successful partnership in newsletter, website, etc.

29. Common Mistakes

30. Using jargon from your industry in presentation.

31. Focusing what they can do for you, rather than what you can do for them.

32. Not doing research on their business and industry

33. Focusing on input rather than output i.e. services rather than outcomes in presentation.

34. Sending out impersonal emails or letters. <br />