There are three national programs already in place that will assist you, or you can start your own.   

A SIMPLE GESTURE:    “A Simple Gesture” is our brand.   It is a catchy name that fits well at the end of a partners name;    For example;   “Jackson Grocery’s Simple Gesture”.    

One advantage of using our brand is we are flexible in how you use it.  You can use our Logo or create one of your own.     

Our primary interest isn’t the brand, its you plans to add donors to the area you are focused on.    We target 8-12% of all households.   If you have the intention to get that type of density we would love to work with you with a variety of methods to make that happen.    

If you aren’t so sure you want your chapter to go that far, it’s still possible to use our brand as long as it doesn’t describe a territory.     This may lead to some confusion if too many organizations are using the same brand, but we think over time this will sort itself out.    We believe strongly that it’s not about branding, it’s about engaging as many people as possible to be a donor.    Perhaps some confusion is acceptable if the greater goals are reached.   

A Simple Gesture chapter’s plan should be to build around Neighborhood Coordinators.  This is a person that agrees to take responsibility to grow and manage their nearby area.    

We also encourage chapters to grow without this preferred structure, simply by signing up donors using high volume media campaigns and other types of donor drivers (See “Adding Donors and drivers” for more).    The P2P Event Manager provides  technology to group these donors into optimized routes and then assign those routes to the donors that also agree to drive.     The idea is pretty simple, once enough donors have built up in a particular area one of them is asked to step into the Neighborhood Coordinators role.    

We support two types of programs;  

1. Territory;   This program can be county-wide, city-wide, or just a section of a city.   Whatever the territory, we would ask you to share our goal of 8-12% of those households participating.    
2. Special Purpose;   You can also use the “Simple Gesture” brand name for your organization without having a specific territory.  For example;  “Rotary of Santa Rosa Simple Gesture”.   

NEIGHBORHOOD FOOD PROJECT:   This program is very successful and we would  recommend them to anyone.   Their focus is building the program step by step and with a strong community focus.   The cornerstone of their program is the 'Neighborhood Coordinator', who handles the area surrounding their home.   NFP has been around since 2008.   

They have their own software, something they call NOS.  If you plan to use their software that is fine, just visit their website to learn more.   

OurP2P Event Manager  does handle the “Neighborhood Food Project” work flow as well.   You can even have their logo and name on your Site Page within our Operating System.    (Refer to the Home Page, we are brand agnostic!).     One reason to consider using our Operating System is that it supports the “Neighborhood Coordinator” model as the ideal structure, but it also supports what we call a “Wide Area” development program.

We love the Neighborhood Coordinator model; it’s the best way to go long term because it creates a tighter bond within that neighborhood.    But, it can be slow to find these NC’s and get them going.    To grow fast we think it’s better to do media advertising and donor-drive campaigns across a wide area; perhaps an entire county or region.     As these donors sign up they will be spread out making it hard to form the clusters that a NC model requires.     Our software uses technology to group these donors into optimized routes so that a driver can pick up their bag in the shortest possible time.  

Over time clusters will begin to form, and that’s when our software will suggest to those within that cluster to form a “Neighborhood Cluster” and have a Neighborhood Coordinator.  

The main thing for us isn’t which Operating System you prefer, it’s that you join one of these great national programs and get started.  

PORCH COMMUNITIES: This program is similar to NFP, but they tend to have smaller chapters.   We don't know as much about them as we'd like, but feel free to reach out to them for more information with this link.  

START WITH YOUR OWN BRAND:  You can also start your own program using any name you wish!     Maybe you want to start a 4th national brand, or just have something you can call your own.  That’s great!    Just go to the P2P Event Manager and register.  You can load your own images, logo and banner.  

Regardless of which direction you go, contact us at Support@SimpleGesture.Org for questions and to obtain assistance.