Mentor Recruitment Postcard
The Mentoring Resource Center has made the postcard below available to U.S. Department of Education-funded mentoring programs for use in recruitment campaigns. The postcard, in Microsoft Word format, can be customized with your program's contact information and recruitment messages. The instructions below provide advice on the many ways the card can be used and tips on how to go about customizing and printing the cards.
Conducting a Postcard Recruitment Campaign
This type of campaign combines print media with a personal appeal to become involved in your program. It empowers your stakeholders to be directly involved in recruitment and capitalizes on the connections your staff and current mentors already have in the community.
There are many ways this type of campaign can be conducted, but the basic premise is this:
- Your program takes the postcard available below (or creates a similar one that is more applicable). The postcard captures a simple message that is at the heart of the campaign: "Someone thinks you'd make a great mentor." The postcard encourages the individual to get in touch with the program to learn more.
- Your team of recruiters, whether they are staff members or other individuals such as current mentors or program partners, takes the postcards and distributes them to individuals identified as potential mentor recruits. When they give a recruit the card, they have an opportunity to have a conversation about the program, discuss the benefits of the experience, and answer any questions the person might have. Be sure to give postcard distributors talking points about your program so they can discuss the opportunity accurately.
- Individuals interested in mentoring can return the postcard (or contact your program in another way) and your staff can follow up with them to provide more information and begin the orientation or application process. If they decide not to mentor, they are encouraged to pass the card on to another person they know who might be a better fit. This way, the postcards can reach individuals that you would not have known of otherwise, spreading out into the community until they land in the hands of someone who is ready to step up and mentor a child.
Many programs like to hold some kind of contest around these types of campaigns. The person who gets the most applicants wins a prize (or you can have multiple categories, awarding a prize to the people who get the most applications from men or a particular business, for example).
Be sure the cards provide your program's contact information, including a link to your Web site or whom to call if they have questions. Printing the postcards should be quite affordable for most programs, especially if you are just printing them for your initial list of mapped prospects, but see if a local print shop will donate the cost of printing them. If you have surplus cards after your campaign, you can always distribute them at recruitment presentations or community events where you have a presence.
Download the Postcard
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD the postcard in Microsoft Word format (5.5 MB file; please allow some time for downloading)
Tips for Printing the Cards
"Mentors Wanted" at the top of each postcard is a graphic and cannot be edited. You can edit the rest of each card to suit your purposes. You will, for example, want to insert your program's name in the space provided below the photos, using a suitable font and color. The fonts used on the postcard are Arial and Times New Roman, common on computers using Microsoft operating systems; Apple computers have similar fonts. You can, of course, substitute your own fonts.
You can use the four postcards "as is" or add your own photos. If you're adept at using digital photos, we recommend using grayscale photos with 300 dpi resolution. (If you use photos other than the ones on the postcards, remember that you'll need either to purchase them or, if you take them yourselves, get permission from the subjects to use them.)
To change the photos-make them the same on all the cards, for example-simply click on the one you want and hit Ctrl+C, then click the cursor on the photo you want to replace and hit the delete key. Then paste (Ctrl+V) in the new photo.
You can also update the back of the postcard with your program's own information and recruitment messages. You may wish to include your program Web site address for those who want to learn more about the program before returning their card.
Once you have edited the postcard to suit your needs, decide how many you want to print. Remember: each sheet contains four postcards, so running 100 sheets through a printer = 400 postcards.
For fairly small numbers of color postcards, printing them in-house on your own color laser printer (if you have one) is the least expensive. (A color inkjet works, too, but inkjet ink can be expensive.) Slightly more expensive is using a commercial photocopy printer.
The back of the postcard is in black ink only, so you can have the front printed commercially in color, then print the back on your own laser copier to save money. (But experiment first to make sure it works-some lasers get too hot and smear the ink.)
Print the cards on cardstock. Experiment with different weights and check with the Post Office to make sure your paper is neither too heavy nor too light. Places that sell paper might be able to recommend a good weight.
The postcard is designed for an "old timey" look so use a sepia-colored paper (light brown). Experiment to see what looks best. Avoid dark colors. Buy a few sheets of cardstock at a photocopy shop in different colors.
Note: If you don't have access to a color printer, the postcard is designed to look good printed in black and white on a laser printer. But you'll still want to use a sepia-colored paper.