P&G has been a keen early supporter of Pro Bono School with Empact. Since 2016, P&G has had 9 Pro Bono Schools reaching out to over 100 Singapore-based non-profits and social enterprises with close to 100 P&G volunteers joining the programme. They leverage their own framework and corporate trainers to teach social organisations on different topics such as:
- Marketing 101
- Social media strategies
- Sales
- Employee value proposition
- Agile thinking
Background
The Pro Bono School (PBS) offers a practical curriculum (in functional tracks), addressing the needs of capacity development for the social sector. PBS trains Social Organisations on critical management skills like Marketing, Media and Sales These are delivered in bite-sized modular offerings, with contextualisation of the content to the sector, to ensure that learnings are made relevant.
The PBS format typically follows a One-to-Many Training based on Tools/ Frameworks, followed by further application to the organisational context through a one-to-one consultation with skilled volunteer(s).
In 2020, the PBS was shifted to an online format which saw 214 participants supported, from 98 Social Organisations of various causes.
Snapshot of an online Pro Bono School on Marketing
One such PBS was the on topic of Marketing 101, held in December 2020. The session was the first-of- its-kind conducted as an online training on a virtual platform, where P&G skilled trainers expanded on their tried-and-tested methods, emulating the on-site format by inviting questions and comments from participants, and keeping it interactive by allowing them time for practice of the framework.
The 2-hour training saw participation from 28 Social Organisations, across a spectrum of social causes.
As Social Organisations, identifying the right target audience and communicating the desired call-to-action can be quite challenging- a simple and cohesive framework can help Social Organisations translate their marketing challenges into simple concepts and actionable steps.
Our biggest Pro Bono School back in Aug 2019
In August 2019, the same run on Marketing 101 was held onsite in P&G, and had 44 social organisations participate, with more than 50 P&G employee-volunteers in attendance, making it the biggest PBS organised to this day.
The Gap
As Social Organisations, identifying the right target audience and communicating the desired call-to-action can be quite challenging- a simple and cohesive framework can help Social Organisations translate their marketing challenges into simple concepts and actionable steps.
The session suggested a clear framework that helps to guide the direction of a campaign. The trainers also expanded on the idea of value reframing, which highlighted the importance of tying campaign messages and overarching brand mission. They also gave examples ranging from localised to global ones, most of which are Social Organisation-specific, and therefore, are pretty relevant! – Grace Neo, Head of Marketing, Foreword Coffee Roasters
