Promotion & Publicity

Freegle Volunteer Wiki › 📣 Promotion & Publicity

Want to get your local group better known, or just need a poster to print out in a hurry? This section covers everything to do with promoting Freegle: ready-made PR materials and branding, running social media accounts, and planning a proper publicity campaign, plus a few real-world case studies and stats. Whether you're launching a brand-new group or giving a long-established one a boost, dip into whichever part is useful to you.

Start here: read Publicity and Promotion for the lay of the land, then Planning a Campaign before you dive into materials.

Getting started

• Publicity - the welcome page to the Publicity Handbook, linking out to events and awards, PR materials and promotion ideas.
• Promotion - the main index of promotion pages: councils, PR materials, press coverage and more.
• Planning a Campaign - work out your message, goals and audience before running a publicity push, rather than doing things ad hoc.

Printed materials and branding

• PR Materials - the overview of ready-made PR resources: badges, banners, business cards, logos, posters and presentations.
• Logos - the Freegle logos in various sizes and formats, for web pages and print, including vector graphics.
• Using the Logo - permission details for using the Freegle logo, plus its official colour and font.
• Badges - small linked images you can drop into your group's home page or website to promote Freegle or show off awards we've won.
• Posters, fliers, cards - printable posters, posters customised for every group, and downloadable "having a clear out?" fliers.
• Business Cards - where to get cards printed, and dozens of ideas for where to leave or hand them out locally.
• Sending Business Cards - a neat way to post cards to members as a standard second-class letter without them shifting about.
• Vistaprint - notes on ordering cheap printed materials from Vistaprint, or finding a local printer instead.
• Firefox Freegle theme - a green Freegle-branded skin for the Firefox browser.
• Freegle Doodles - special-occasion versions of the Freegle logo, and how to design and submit your own.
• Presentations - sample PowerPoint talks about Freegle that you can reuse and adapt.
• PNGs for Screenshots - why PNG is the best format for screenshots, and how to save one small enough for the web.
• Graphics Team - the small team who can design custom Freegle graphics for your group on request.

Online and social media

• Social Media Accounts - Freegle's national Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube accounts, and who runs them.
• Social Media Team - the volunteer team keeping local Facebook and Instagram accounts on-brand, linked and posting.
• Local Social Media Guidelines - house rules for running a local group's social media account responsibly and consistently.
• Instagram - why Instagram is a good fit for a charity like Freegle, with a link to the national account.
• Freegle Direct - Why You Should Add Facebook - making the case for promoting your community on Facebook, and how to share national posts to your local page.
• Pinterest - an introduction to Pinterest, Freegle's boards, and how to set up and use an account.
• Youtube - Freegle's YouTube channel, FreegleVideo, and how to get a video added.
• Blogs - examples of blog posts written about Freegle, and an offer of help if you fancy writing your own.
• Shortlinks - short, memorable web addresses (freegle.in/yourgroup) for use on posters, cards and anywhere space is tight.
• Publicity tools - the technical publicity tools for volunteers in one place: the QR-code generator, community shortlinks, and a live list of your group's open posts.
• Useful Websites - external sites worth approaching for publicity: local papers, radio stations, councils, student unions and more.

Press and PR

• Getting Press Coverage - how to get your group's story into the local press, with a short version too.
• Sample Press Release - a ready-to-adapt press release template.
• Live Interviews - a crib sheet for preparing for a live interview.
• Quote Bank - facts and quotes for emails, letters, appeals and posts.
• Photo call - a sample photo-call notice for a group milestone.
• National Reuse Day - Freegle's annual day celebrating and promoting reuse.

People and roles

• Group Promotion Volunteers - the two promotion roles worth having on a group team, Group Media Volunteer and Group Events Volunteer, and what each involves.
• National Media Director - about Freegle's contracted Media Director role, and where to find her activity reports.

Stories, stats and a bit of fun

• Promoting my new group - a start-to-finish checklist for publicising a brand-new group, from admin messages on neighbouring groups to finding your first items to freegle.
• Publicity in Penrith and Eden District - a detailed case study of council-funded local publicity: Give and Take events, a blog and a local magazine column, with results and lessons learned.
• Freegle Pledge - the 2024/25 campaign inviting members to pledge to start freegling, with monthly thank-you and reminder graphics.
• Gift of Time vouchers - printable "gift of time" vouchers members can hand out at events or give away, in five designs.
• Freegle Limericks and Poems - a light-hearted collection of Freegle-themed limericks, including a few asking for donations.

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Prefer to browse? Every page here is also listed A-Z in the Promotion & Publicity index. Back to the home page.