It’s bizarre to see how fast the DFW metroplex has expanded with younger talent flying in from across the world. Smart Asset, a financial modeling technology blog, released an article showing Dallas receiving the largest millennial net migration in 2017 out of all the other U.S cities at a whopping 10371 new residents. Even in 2018, cities like Fort Worth and Irving were in the top 20 millennial-attracting areas in the country. With this rapid addition of emerging talent comes a vital opportunity for young professional groups to gain new members. I’m currently a member of various young professional groups because they offer new opportunities to network with residents in Dallas and explore the DFW area. Social organizations for young professionals, whether grassroots or attached to a nonprofit, are very common in cities like Dallas. But even though there are plenty of organizations to check out, there can still be hard competition between them to gain new members who want to commit to volunteer work outside of their usual 9-5 job. If it wasn’t hard enough attracting a dedicated volunteer base, COVID-19 really created issues for organizations wanting to have regular, fun events. How will these YP groups still offer networking opportunities during a time where in-person interactions are limited? I reached out to Kathlyn McGuill, the special events manager for Ronald McDonald House of Dallas and organizer for Young Friends, to discuss what this pandemic means for young professional groups in the DFW area.
Hello Kathlyn, has your group changed fundraising strategies in the current climate where young professionals might have less disposable income and businesses are possibly looking at new layoffs?
Through the pandemic, the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas (RMHD) has had its share of struggles. Young Friends exists to support the House’s operations as a group, but during this time, we have jumped into directly supporting their specific and greatest needs during this time. For example, RMHD normally has volunteer groups that provide 3 meals a day to our guest families but because we are unable to allow volunteers into the House right now, the meals are being catered in by those groups through delivery or they are being covered financially by donors. As a group, Young Friends gathered money and gave directly to the meals. We were able to cover quite a few, actually, as our members were super generous!
Young Friends is also providing opportunities for the near future for our members to give their time rather than giving money. Even outside of COVID-19 times, lots of research shows that millennials often prefer to give resources and time by becoming hands on with a mission anyways. In an effort to stay together and stay in front of our members, we will be creating opportunities for them to volunteer in safe small groups at the Ronald McDonald House.
With events like happy hour socials being a huge magnet for new members, how has your group adapted to virtual recruiting and how do you build a high retention rate?
We are working hard to utilize our social media in the most strategic way as that is our most accessible avenue of outreach. We’re also starting to focus heavily on more personalized communication with our current members to make sure that they know we’re still here, we still need them, we appreciate them being a part of our organization, and Ronald McDonald House Dallas still needs the support of Young Friends.
What projects or volunteering initiatives is your group currently involved with and has this been easy to achieve on a remote basis?
Fortunately, we are not having to create remote opportunities yet – we’re just making everything outdoors. Ronald McDonald House Dallas is not currently allowing volunteer groups in the building but there are so many things that can be done on the campus around the House that are extremely helpful. Young Friends will be pitching in on that front by creating small, COVID safe groups to do these projects until we can come back fully. I think the challenge in this is just to make sure that our members know we’re committed to keeping everyone safe. We plan to be extremely communicative to our members so they know that all the opportunities have been thoroughly thought out and made as safe as possible.
Do you think there will be a higher need for networking post-COVID and if so what will your group’s first item of business be?
I absolutely think there will be a need to network after all of this is settled out. I think people will be so ready to get back out there! I also think there’s a possibility that people will have moved to the DFW area during all of this and not had the chance to explore our community or get plugged in because of all of the current restrictions. I think they will definitely be ready to get connected as well.
Young Friends has a lot of great new networking ideas that we’re still working on but our biggest goal is just to give our members as many opportunities as they can to both meet people AND connect with our mission. From social hang outs to our See & Sips at RMHD, we’ll be stacking our calendar as soon as we’re able! We definitely miss seeing everyone and can’t wait to be able to share the House again!
