There are several ways to motivate and support your hub members! New bakers are typically enthusiastic about the Community Loaves mission, but over time, that enthusiasm can wane.
Your regular reminders about the value of their specific participation and contributions, along with invitations to connect with the local baking network and/or to familiarize them with the impact at the local food bank, are essential to building and retaining an engaged baker.
Below are ideas, tools and materials at your fingertips for giving support and motivating your baking team.
To assist you in prioritizing your hub's support, we’ve grouped our best practices into two broad categories: Essential and Beneficial. Essential activities are those we consider “standard support” and want completed regularly by you or a delegate. Beneficial, that’s like the cherry on top, for those who have the time, these efforts provide an even richer support for hub members.
Across the organization, all bakers receive a text and an email sharing the success of the most recent donation. This celebratory email is sent on Monday at 11:00 am PST and includes the donation counts for the organization and the hub, as well as an invitation to celebrate any key milestones.
This email doesn’t include the local special sauce - information that only you know. Your twice a month email can include exciting news such as:
- hub members who are celebrating breadaversaries or badge achievements
- bakers that are new to the hub
- stories from the food bank
- calling out a hub member's first donation
- special thanks to volunteers helping with the hub work
- upcoming hub events
- logistics that are specific to your hub (a change in upcoming drop off location, how bakers will get their holiday cookie packaging, etc.)
Twice a month, to keep your hub members in the loop, share the good news about your hub’s efforts! Tools such as the Doughnation Highlights, the Food Bank Donation Acknowledgement Email, or the Volunteer Digest email can help you keep your finger on the pulse of hub happenings.
Remember that a picture is worth a thousand words! Pictures such as the donations bagged and ready to deliver, the food bank receiving items, a photo from a recent hub event, etc. are all great additions to your donation highlights emails.
The Email tool is the best and easiest way to send these cheerleading emails to members of your hub, and information about how to use it can be found in the Email FAQ. In the templates on the email tool, there are some examples of great cheerleading emails.
💡If you’re concerned about overwhelming your bakers with too many emails, send your local community details Tuesday or Wednesday following the donation.
Every new baker enjoys a warm welcome and needs to hear from you.
A personal welcome provides a warm greeting into your hub, provides your unique local logistics including how to find your house, and reinforces the need by the local food bank for their freshly baked contributions.
You receive a email notification whenever a new baker selects your hub. That email serves as a nudge to you to send the new baker a personal hub welcome. Our Welcome Templates, located in the “email” toolbox, make it easy to find, personalize, and send a welcoming message you can reuse for the next new baker who joins.
💡Adding a photo of the drop-off location helps new bakers feel comfortable identifying your home when they are ready to make their first donation.
Read more in the Email Tool FAQ about using the tool and selecting a template to customize for sending to your new bakers. Remember, once customized, you can save your template so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time!
Nothing replaces a little hometown love. You have the opportunity to celebrate bakers in your hub and/or recruit a few hub members to provide that hometown cheer.
After each donation, you can see on Doughnation Highlights who is celebrating a specific accomplishment - a breadaversary or a new milestone badge. Individual outreach to each baker really makes a difference.
You can celebrate these by sending a message or e-card through our system, or for that really personal touch, you can write a note in a physical card for the baker. What a treat to get something cheery in the mail box!
There’s nothing quite like a personal card to strengthen connections. And, we have some lovely CL Cards designed just for your use. Send or give these cards to celebrate major baker milestones such as anniversaries or significant badges/awards, to express gratitude, to convey sympathy, and, of course, to warmly welcome new volunteers.
Your starter card kit includes 16 cards, and you can order more by emailing hubsupport@communityloaves.org.
Each card is shown below with a recommendation for its intended use. How they are delivered is up to you: hand-deliver, mail them, or leave them at your front door for pickup on donation day. There is no right or wrong way to send a card, and it is always appreciated.
Review the donation highlights for each donation to identify who in your hub may warrant a more personal and tangible note from you.
To mail a card to a hub member, you'll need their mailing address. Your mailing list is available on your Hub Page. Click here to learn how to find this.
Your starter kit contains the following cards:
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5 Anniversary Cards Check out the Donation Highlights each month to see who has is celebrating another year with Community Loaves. |
Sample Message: Hello <Baker Name>, Happy <anniversary number> Anniversary with Community Loaves. We are thankful for your generous support of the <food bank name>. Thank you for being part of the Breader Together community! |
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2 Breader Together Cards Use these to welcome new members to the hub, or extend congratulations for a volunteer milestone/badge. |
Sample Message: Hello <Baker Name>, Warm welcome to Community Loaves! I am <your name>, your hub leader. Thank you for joining the <hub name> Hub, in support of the <food bank name>. I look forward to our time together to help our community. We are truly Breader Together! |
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3 Thank You Cards Use these Thank You cards at any time to show appreciation to your bakers and volunteers. |
Sample Message: Hello <Baker Name>, Example 1: Thank you for helping with supply delivery this most recent Flour Delivery… Example 2: Thank you for covering for me when I was out of town… Thank you for continuing to help us rise to the occasion! |
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3 Congrats Cards Use these cards to celebrate a baker’s first donation, or a milestone. Hub Highlights can be found in the Donation Highlights on your Volunteer Dashboard. |
Sample Message: Hello <Baker Name>, Congratulations on your <badge> donation! Did you ever think you would donate so much dough? Keep up the great work! Let’s continue to bake the world a breader place! |
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2 Thinking of You Cards Use these to send a note of sympathy and care to a baker going through a hard time. |
Sample Message: Hello <Volunteer Name>, The Community Loaves community is thinking of you during this difficult time. May your days be filled with comfort, love, and anything that brings you joy. |
A great way to build engagement with the bakers in your Hub is to facilitate a food bank tour for them. Food bank tours are really impactful because they:
- allow bakers to see where their donations go and understand the need in the community
- promote conversation and feedback directly between the food bank staff and the bakers
- strengthen our partnership with the food banks
The goal is to have one behind the scenes food bank tour each year, two per year is even better! Donation Mondays are great times for food bank tours so bakers can see their donations in action.
If there is more than one local hub that supports the food bank, coordinate with your affiliate hubs when organizing the tour!
Food Banks will vary in their capacity to host tours; reach out to the partner liaison for the food bank, and they will contact the food bank to work on scheduling the tour. Let hubsupport@communityloaves.org know about the food bank tour and we will get it on our organization calendar, promote it on our social media, and try to send a CL team member to the tour as well.
We sometimes get so caught up in baking, we forget the Community part of Community Loaves! Opportunities for bakers in your hub to get together socially and build friendships will strengthen the hub as a whole. As Hub Leader or Delegate you are invited to cultivate opportunities for bakers to connect and gather.
An easy way to have a small gathering of folks is to set aside a couple hours on a donation Sunday to have some coffee/tea and seating available for folks dropping off their donated items to stay and chat for a bit with each other.
Examples abound, and it's possible to create events that align strongly with our mission and Community Loaves’ yearly rhythm. Hosting a holiday treat box “boxing” party in December, making dinner rolls together in advance of the November Thanksgiving donation, or celebrating our August pause by gathering for a picnic are all great ways to create community in your hub.
Other events that hubs have hosted in the past include:
- ice cream socials
- pizza parties
- baking together
- BBQs
- picnics
- potlucks
These can be at individual homes or at public spaces like parks, community centers, etc. Remember - hub leaders are not alone in this work! If you'd like to make an event happen for your hub, but you don't have the space / capacity to plan for it, reach out to your hub members for support! It's possible one of your hub members is just itching to plan an event!
Although recruiting new bakers isn't part of the Hub Leader responsibilities, tabling at a local event (farmers markets, local festivals, fairs, etc.) can be a really great way to re-kindle enthusiasm among those who volunteer to staff the booth.
When hub members volunteer to table at an event, they will be telling the Community Loaves story to interested community members. Seeing the hope that sparkles in the eyes of a baker new to Community Loaves and excited about embarking on this journey can really inspire someone who has already been at this for a long time.
Community Loaves can offer a lot of support with outreach events, read the Outreach Event FAQ for more info.
Sometimes your bakers may have questions for you that you can't answer - that's OK! Here is where to send bakers who have questions:
- Community Loaves FAQ Page
- for questions about Flour Fundraiser ordering and delivery - orders@communityloaves.org
- for questions about anything baking related, or online profile related - bakersupport@communityloaves.org