Marian Hope Center for Children – Blue Gurus Gives Back

February 29, 2012 / in Business Recommendations, Community Service, General Information / by Jason Terry

Every quarter, Blue Gurus selects a Kansas City based not-for-profit to help with web, social and content marketing.  We believe that giving back to the community where we live and work is a critical component to a healthy, growing company.  But enough about us… this article is about the not-for-profit that we learned could use our help!

The Marian Hope Center for Children is a 501c3 organization with a driving mission: to give hope to every child through innovative programming, educational support to parents/caregivers, and outreach services to the community.  We heard from our good friend and client Doug Hubler, President of Apex Business Advisors, that the Marian Hope Center could use help with their web site and social media marketing efforts.  Mic and I went out in February and met with Angie Knight, Heather Ruoff, and Theresa Sonderman to see how we could help.

It always hurts my heart to see good people struggling with technology.  We see this across the board with our clients, not just not-for-profits.  The Marian Hope Center is driven by an amazing and talented group of people that are donating a TON OF THEIR TIME to really make a difference in the lives of children with disabilities.  Check out the staff picture to the right to see what I am talking about.  They are licensed professionals with sparkly eyes because they know that the work they are doing MATTERS.  We had a great time getting to know their team.  While we were at their center in Independence, we got to see first hand the classrooms, materials, playground and even meet some of the families and children that were attending classes.  It was one of those moments for me personally when I realized something special was happening in that place.

After seeing the work they do, we wanted to help them be as efficient as possible with their web site, social and content marketing strategies.  We talked about so many things in the afternoon that we were there… a switch from Joomla to WordPress for their web site to make it easier to maintain the site content, LinkedIn best practices and why to focus more time on that social network (business owners are key donors), HootSuite for updating their status across multiple social media sites, RoboForm for password management, and much more.  It was a productive session!  Since then, we have had great follow up discussions with their team and continue to help them become more efficient.

I don’t know if you have a not-for-profit that you have adopted to support in 2012, but if not, the Marian Hope Center would be a good organization to look at.  If you have children with disabilities, or know of any families with children that have disabilities, be sure to check out their web site for more information on programs and services that they offer including Integrative Therapy Groups, Parent and Caregiver Education, Peer Modeling and Nutrition.

ANNUAL FUNDRAISER
SPRING INTO HOPE SHOPPING EVENT AT INDEPENDENCE EVENTS CENTER
APRIL 27-28, 2012

Be sure to check out more information on the Marian Hope Center annual fundraiser called Spring Into Hope!  It is a two day exclusive shopping event. 
“Come eat, drink and mingle as you shop amongst the greatest boutiques and vendors KC has to offer. We will feature fashion shows, great raffles, yummy food and drink samples from area restaurants and much more.”
Click here for more information