Throughout February 2022, Aireborough Rotary successfully focussed their efforts on fundraising for Zarach, who are the Leeds based charity supplying beds and essentials to children in need. Aireborough Rotary staged a virtual walk from Leeds to Paris 22, with donations channelled through the Just Giving platform.
Key to Aireborough’s success was its month long, planned and sustained social media campaign. Several times a week there were social media posts, mainly Facebook and Twitter. All posts had a link to Just Giving. Over the month measurement of the Club’s social media output showed a very significant rise in public engagement. Club members, friends, and supporters added to the media impact by retweeting, liking, and sharing posts.
Supporting Zarach was something the club, as well as all Leeds Group members, were committed to. At the same time, the Club recognised that linking their social media presence to Zarach’s already high-profile public image could only reflect well on them. The Zarach initiative is a successful example of the Club’s commitment to a wider, triple focussed renewal strategy of member engagement, recruitment and effective community service.
Over last two years the club’s membership has become more diverse and geographically dispersed. In fact, the club now has a hybrid structure. Meaning that all members have multiple options each month to do Rotary in person, online or both. This flexibility and commitment to change has been guided by the Rotary Great Britain and Ireland's "Build Forward Better, Fairer and Greener" action plan 2021-24. Focussed on developing a sound understanding of what members want from Rotary and enabling each member to do Rotary their way. Resulting in every member, whatever their situation, being able to take meaningful responsibility for contributing to the development, and delivery of the Club’s annual targeted, measured and interlinked events, marketing and publicity programmes.
A gentle reminder, see the guide to running a successful social media campaign on our website How to run a social media campaign - Rotary District 1040 (ylrotary.org.uk)