Lancaster County Chooses Love (LCCL)
The Background
One of my clients, Jason, is a board member for Lancaster County Chooses Love (LCCL), an LGBTQ+ support organization. In August 2024, their communications coordinator was moving away, so they were in need of at least a temporary fill-in. LCCL began in 2021 and had gone through immense growth in the last year, specifically the first half of 2024.
LCCL hosts monthly events such as support groups, karaoke, craft nights, group hikes, and more for the local LGBTQ+ community. They also operate a resource center (open to the public with no barriers!) with a food pantry, clothing closet, and mini library! Their biggest event of the year is their annual Pride Festival in June, with 3000+ attendees (and growing each year!)
Each month they were hosting several events and serving thousands (yes, THOUSANDS) of folks at their resource center. Again, immense growth.
As with any organization (a nonprofit or business!), scaling is tough. There's a transition period and a learning curve. Similar to my work with the Southern Lancaster Chamber, I was stepping in during that time of transition.
My job was to create systems, a consistent posting schedule & routine, and define the role of digital communications coordinator.
The Summary- TL;DR
I worked with LCCL as their interim digital communications coordinator for 5 months!
During that time I managed their social media, created event graphics, managed their website, sent out a monthly newsletter, and created systems for my role! While I'm no longer their digital communicator coordinator, I'm continuing to work with LCCL on special projects!
Task Breakdown
Social Media- Posting
While my role wasn't only "social media manager," it was the bulk of it! At the time of writing this (Jan 2025), LCCL has 3800+ followers on Facebook and 2500+ on Instagram. As a local LGBTQ+ support organization, social media is a core piece of their marketing. Some example posts include:- Advertising events- they host ~8 events/month, in addition to their Resource Center being open twice a week
- Photos from events
- Donation requests
- Thank you posts for sponsors & grants
- Holiday survival guide series
- Local resources for the LGBTQ+ community
I was responsible for creating the majority of graphics and posting them. With that many monthly events, it takes strategy to create a posting timeline where you're not bombarding the social media followers, but also adequately advertising the events!
Creating Systems- Overview
As mentioned earlier, LCCL has experienced significant growth in the last year! They're serving more people at their Resource Center, expanding their footprint, hosting more events, and adding to their team to accommodate for the growth!
As an organization scales, creating systems is key to:
- Work efficiently
- Ensure tasks don't fall through the cracks
- Provide consistency for its clients/service community
Creating Systems- Design Request Form
I created a design request form for staff members to use for upcoming events and announcements.
The form asked for the timeline (event date(s), RSVP deadline, etc.), design format, call to action, etc.
This was a win-win for everyone!
- My design requests and details were all in one place, compared to email threads with various staff members
- I received the info all at once VS going back and forth with follow up questions
- This reinforced a structured process, helping staff submit requests promptly and providing me with adequate time to design the content
Design Showcase
Laura Sabatini
Executive Partner, Development and Strategic Initiatives
"We loved working with Jadan! Her work allowed us to move through a transitionary period with ease. We would not be where we are without her!"
"We hired Jadan during a transitional period in our organization. We experienced immense growth in the first half of 2024, and when our previous comms coordinator moved away, we knew we needed to find someone who could keep up with social media posting, newsletters, etc. while also creating systems and routines for our digital comms.
Jadan was the perfect fit! Jadan jumped in right away by creating graphics and posting on social media. While we had a brand guide, we hadn't consistently used it. Jadan helped us focus on using our brand guide and created consistent visuals that amplified our brand. In fact, when we were hiring a permanent staff member, several interviewees pointed out that they could tell we had started using a brand guide!
Communicating with Jadan was always easy! She was proactive in her communications and quick to respond to our needs. She always had a positive and "can-do" attitude. She is a creative problem solver and is always willing to share her insights. I was often impressed by her ability to take my jumbled thoughts/ideas and turn them into a compelling vision.
She helped us document some processes (like niche website update processes) and create systems for submitting communications requests. She supported our fundraising efforts by creating compelling graphics and emails to share with our base.
We enjoyed working with Jadan so much, that we have continued to hire her for special projects!"
Creating Systems- SOPs
SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedure, AKA a manual. In an ideal world, you have an SOP made for all repeatable tasks. For example, how to create an email newsletter, editing staff member website page, creating a blog post, etc.
With the Southern Lancaster Chamber, I created an "admin guide" for our admin and Chamber volunteers with steps on completing Chamber tasks. It's not complicated- just a Google Sheet (identical to Excel) with a different tab for each task.
Within each tab, I write down clear, thorough, step-by-step instructions. If appropriate, I'll also link a screen recording of my computer with audio instructions, walking viewers through the task.
I did the exact same thing for LCCL! This cuts down on questions and mistakes, plus it makes onboarding a new staff member even easier!
Website Management
Another part of my role was managing the website! As I mentioned earlier, LCCL hosts a solid amount of events, so it's important to keep the site calendar up to date!
Website tasks included:
- Adding new events & editing existing ones
- Creating categories for events so the calendar was color coded and easier to read!
- Updating the home page with announcements
- Updating the staff page as needed
Monthly Newsletters
LCCL had begun sending out email newsletters, but hadn't hit a routine yet. I began sending out newsletters on the first business day each month!
I included any important updates at the top (i.e. new team members, new resource center hours, etc.) and listed that month's upcoming events!
LCCL uses Bloomerang, which is an all-in-one nonprofit tool that's used for accepting donations, volunteer shifts, email newsletters, and more. While I had never used Bloomerang before, I learned the software and created SOPs for the next digital communications coordinator to ensure the newsletter creation process was simple and straightforward!
Special Projects
2024 Annual Report
While my time as the interim digital communicators coordinator came to an end in December 2024, we're still working together on special projects! Aside from the Southern Lancaster Chamber, I had limited experience working with nonprofits before LCCL. This partnership has taught me a lot about the nonprofit world! For example, it's common practice for nonprofits to release an annual report to recap the past year, and I had the opportunity to create LCCL's 2024 annual report!
Looking at other organizations' reports for inspiration, I realized there is no set template for annual reports, lol. There are similarities of course, but there was plenty of room for creative liberty!
Here were my goals for the report:
- Visually interesting (not just walls of text!)
- Informative- what has LCCL been up to?
- Organized
- Accessible- I wanted it to make sense to anyone who reads it, not just folks who are already familiar with the organization!
Pride Festival Page
LCCL's biggest event of the year is their Pride Festival held in Lititz Springs Park! They didn't have a website page dedicated to it yet, so this was another project for me in early 2025!
My goals were the same as they were for the annual report: the website should be visually interesting, organized, and informative!
Because it's an event with over 3000 attendees, it's crucial to have the info easy to find! For example, I have headers for each section so attendees can quickly scroll to whatever section is relevant to them, vs having to dig through the whole page to answer their question. Nothing is worse than scouring a page for one small detail!
Going along with that theme, I wanted to keep the page short and sweet. I didn't want unnecessary info clogging up a page when folks just want an answer to "where's the parking?"
Lastly, I want to acknowledge the very top of the page: note the date, time, and location, the bare minimum info for an event. That should always be easy to find! I find a lot of event pages get caught up in minute details and forget the biggest detail of all: when and where the event is!