Amanda Maksin
Here’s the latest installment in our series on the “Day in the Life” of nonprofit communicators, where we ask you to describe your day in your own words.
Would YOU like to be featured in this series? Tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro.
Amanda Maksin started working for Shop Demo Depot in August of 2014. SDD is a social enterprise of the Westmoreland Community Action (a nonprofit in Greensburg, PA), and is located in Mount Pleasant, PA. It opened its doors in April 2012. SDD promotes green initiatives by reclaiming and salvaging building materials, then reselling useful items to the public and keeping it out of a landfill. This provides money for the nonprofit programs like Head Start, mental health programs, food pantries, etc.
Amanda graduated from Point Park University with a Master’s in Journalism and Mass Communication, focus in Public Relations, in 2009, and previously worked as an adjunct professor, head softball coach, and admissions counselor at Penn State Greater Allegheny.
Here is a typical day:
Before 8:00 am: Drink copious amounts of coffee and eat some breakfast. After prepping my lunch, I check some emails to see what I might be coming into at work.
8:00 am – 9:00 am: Check and respond to emails and voice mails, review social media updates (retweets/shares, new followers/likes, how well posts reached target audience, etc.)
9:00 am – 10:00 am: Plan as much of the day and week as possible; prioritize. (Schedule meetings, block of time for editing photos of product, schedule tweets and posts on social media for major promotions for the week).
10:00 am – 11:30 am: SNACK TIME then work on fundraiser. (It’s a small one on location, but it should expose people to our name.) This means getting the word out, pushing for tickets to be sold, monitoring progress, finding new outlets to push fundraiser, making phone calls, etc.
Continue pushing the campaign on social media, prepare an ad for the e-blast/newsletter, determine the theme for the newsletter, develop the message.
Work on new media efforts – this time it’s video editing. Develop new ideas on how to incorporate it into current efforts and find what is trending.
11:30 am – 12:00 pm: Phone appointment with the administrative assistant at the store. Go over the theme for the newsletter, layout the photo-ops I need, and review pricing of retail items.
12:00 pm – 12:30 pm: Lunch. (FINALLY.)
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm: Editing photos for the e-blast/newsletter in PhotoShop and Illustrator.
1:30 pm – 2:00 pm: Create the e-blast/newsletter (add photos, relevant product information, determine the tone of the letter in the write ups, name it, schedule the release.)
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm: Continue with the e-blast/newsletter until completed. SNACK TIME!
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Check Google Ads and the progress with the ads. Find news stories, articles, lists, and other quirky things to incorporate in our reach for the week.
After 4:00 pm: This is when I usually stop. I check the occasional e-mail, text message, Facebook notification through the Pages Manager app. This is usually when I continue to brain storm about how to get more name recognition based on things I see in my personal life, then think about how to incorporate it into my organization.
Want to be featured in this series? Tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro.
