Step 1: Network and Organize
The first step to becoming a host location for a Golden Angel Tree is to formulate a plan. Start small. Set reasonable goals for your location to begin with. Remember, when Chick-fil-A Thompson Square first started, there were only 50 Golden Angel request tags. It took several years to grow awareness before it becomes a holiday tradition for guests in our area. Reach out to our team at Thompson Square and ask for advice on how to get started.
Search for area nursing homes and contact their staff to see if they would be interested. Click here to use this letter to send to nursing home management as a first communication. Share with them the videos, pictures, and stories from Chick-fil-A Thompson Square's Golden Angel Tree as a way to encourage them and get them on board to participate.
When a nursing home decides to join as a partner, your next step is to explain how you would like for the process to work. Be very clear in how you would like them to go about their portion of the event. Click here to use this format to request the information you need from the nursing homes. Set deadlines. You will need to establish a time for them to get the residents' requests to you. Then you'll need a deadline for guests to return the gifts to your restaurant, and for the nursing homes to come to pick those gifts up. Explain how many items you'd like the guests to request. Define what items are ok to request or what you might want to shy away from. Most requests will be simple items like clothes, bedding, or lotion; however, some guests might ask for items like refrigerators or TVs. While we do not ban these items, keep in mind that your restaurant guests that fulfill the request tags may be less inclined to help if the cost is fairly high. You'll then want to buy and print the tags for use on your tree. Click here for a link to the Christmas themed tags we use on our tree.
Gifts take up a lot of space, especially as your Golden Angel Tree grows a larger area of influence. We recommend reaching out to a local trucking company and ask if they would be willing to donate a trailer for storage. Ask them in a way that it makes them feel like they are contributing to this ministry just as much as the guest who brings gifts back are. For our 400 guests, an 18-wheeler trailer and a medium-sized covered trailer are used to house all of the packages. Communicate accurately the types of vehicles the nursing homes will need to bring to collect all their gifts.
Step 2: Awareness and Growth
The next step in your process is to grow. Our goal is to bring this wonderful ministry to locations all over the United States. We want to provide gifts to as many nursing home residents as possible. Because this is a ministry that is rarely seen, many people are often very excited to help. Being Chick-fil-A, our best information spreaders are our amazing Raving Fans. Start with them! Encourage them to share pictures and the reason behind our Golden Angel Tree on their social media sites. For everyone one person that shares your Tree, that means 100s of free publicity to all their friends. When you post on your sites, tag notable groups in your area to alert them of what we are doing. Ask your mayor, church leaders, and any other well-known figures to help promote as well. Click here to use this letter to contact guests.
The next group to target are your area news/radio stations and newspapers. Most of these groups will provide free publicity for charitable events. Use the sections that talk about neighborhood events to your advantage. American Family Radio affiliates are an excellent group to ask for help on publicizing initially. If they are not active in your area, then we recommend targeting any local group that is known for helping promote community-wide events on larger scales. Local news reporters are also great for generating traffic into your store to grab an angel. Ask if they will bring a crew out to do a short video clip on your event. This is probably the greatest and most efficient way of getting the word out quickly and to large amounts of people. Here is a clip from the TV spot that WTVA did for Chick-fil-A Thompson Square in 2014. Most newspapers contain a community or neighborhood section that is solely dedicated to events like this. Often this section is completely free of charge to be featured, and very popular amongst those who purchase newspapers. If you are finding it difficult to obtain any of these services for free or at a low cost, then we recommend leveraging DOC's to encourage a trade out or offering to feed their office a lunch. DOC's allow for real food to be reaching potential customers as well as offering a surprise and delight style of experience for those who offer to cater lunch. Click here to use this format to contact a news or radio group.
Another extremely effective way to publicize the Golden Angel Tree is through Facebook sponsored ads. These ads are completely under your control and you pay only pay what you want to pay. There are a few restrictions regarding what the pictures can look like on Facebook; however, when set up properly, these ads can be highly effective in spreading your message. Facebook allows you to set age limits, setup a GPS radius, and even pick what times to display your ad to your followers. You may also select to blast your post to just your followers and their friends or to everyone in the viewing area you establish. We recommend using the entire viewing area unless your Facebook page commands a large following. When advertising on Facebook, make sure to have all the details on your event page to ensure guests are well educated on what the Golden Angel Tree is and how they can participate. We recommend using Facebook's tutorial guides for advertising if you have any further questions about this process.