Outreach

An outreach is a one-time event your program runs: a table at a festival, a talk at a school, a booth at a health fair. Use Outreach to record each one, count everyone you reach, and follow up with the people who want to hear more.

Every outreach belongs to a program, just like a group does. Its numbers show up in that program's reports.

Watch how it works

Want to see it done first? This video follows one outreach from start to finish. You'll count people at the table, register someone who wants to stay in touch, and write notes. Then you'll review the numbers and add a new contact to a follow-up workflow.

Find your outreach

Select Outreach in the menu. The list shows every outreach your programs ran, newest first. Two filters narrow it, the same ones the Groups list has:

• Status shows Active outreach to start with. Pick Archived to see the ones you've put away, or clear it to see all of them.
• Program shows one program's outreach — the ones it ran and the ones it ran with other programs. An outreach run together is one record, kept under the program that runs it. Archiving or deleting it does so for every program that ran it.

An outreach marked Needs review is in the past with nothing recorded yet — no check-ins, no counts and no estimate. An archived outreach keeps that tag, so you can still find the ones nobody finished.

Create an outreach

1. Select New outreach.
2. Choose the Program running it.
3. If other programs are running it with you, add them under With other programs.
4. Give it a Title, a Date, an optional Time, a Place and, if you know it, the place's ZIP code.
5. Select Create outreach.

You land on the new outreach, ready to check people in. You can create one for a past date too — for an event you recorded on paper. Every active program is in the list, and a program can run two outreaches on the same day — even at the same time, at two tables.

Don't see your program? Select Manage programs, next to New outreach or under the Program list, to add one or to check it's active.

At the table

Open the outreach and stay on Check-in. It works like the door of a drop-in group:

• Someone in your registry? Search for them and select Check in.
• Someone new? Select Register. Fill in their details, or check Declined a name if they'd rather not give one. Then select Register & check in. They're saved under Outreach contacts.
• Someone who'd rather not share anything? Open Anonymous — no info given and select Anonymous. Outreach doesn't ask whether they're new or have been before. That's for classes, where you know your regulars.

Registered someone? Don't also count them.

A person who registers is already counted. Selecting a counter for them too counts them twice.

Say who you're counting

Funders often ask how many youth and adults came. A few also ask about gender or race or ethnicity. You can record that as you count, instead of guessing afterwards:

• Set how many people, then select a counter, just as before. A small window opens. Select Save to count them as they are.
• Wrong number? Change How many at the top of the window. You don't need to cancel and count again.
• If you like, say in that window whether they were youth or adults, their age band, their gender and their race or ethnicity. Counting a group? Give each choice its own number — say 5 female and 7 male. If one choice already holds the whole group, select another and one person moves across, so 6 under 12 becomes 5 and 1. Anything you skip shows as not described.
• For race or ethnicity, select Race / Ethnicity · add to show it. It stays open until you reload the page. Count each person once. Someone who seemed to belong to more than one group goes under Multiracial and/or Multiethnic. For a mixed group, give each group its own number instead, say 2 Black and 2 White. If you can't tell, leave it.
• Described so far shows how many youth and adults you've recorded, and how many you haven't described yet.
• Made a mistake? Undo takes back your last count, along with who you said they were.

These are your best estimates for a group, never a description of one person. Nothing is saved about anyone you count. You can check and correct the numbers on the Review tab later.

Did someone tell you about themselves and want it kept? Register them instead, with Declined a name if they prefer. The counts are only for what you saw.

After the event

Open the Review tab to finish the numbers:

• Estimated attendance at the venue is the crowd beyond your table. It's kept apart and never added to your totals.
• Check Add demographic data for the anonymous visitors to describe the people you counted but didn't name. For example: how many were youth, their age, gender and race or ethnicity. These describe your anonymous count — they never add to it. The grey number in a table's Unknown / not provided row is how many you haven't placed yet. The note under the table calls them not described. If you recorded any of this at the table, there's no box to check: the tables are already open with those numbers. Set a number to 0 to remove it.
• Prefill from area statistics… isn't ready yet. It's greyed out for now.
• If the age bands add up to more youth (or adults) than the Youth / adult table, a note under that table says by how many. Check both — one of them needs fixing. You can still save. 18 to 20 years never raises it, because some of those people are adults. A blank Youth / adult table doesn't raise it either.
• In the race or ethnicity table, count each visitor once. Someone who seemed to belong to more than one group goes under Multiracial and/or Multiethnic. Don't guess: if a visitor didn't tell you and you can't tell, count them under Unknown / not provided or leave them out.

Select Save review when you're done. Someone at the table may count more people while you're editing. The portal adds their count to your changes and asks you to check the tables and save again. Nobody's count is lost.

The Notes tab holds the event's own note and notes about the people who came. See Notes.

Follow up

The People tab lists everyone who checked in. To bring someone into another program — a volunteer intake workflow or a keep-in-touch workflow, say — select Add to an intake workflow…, pick the workflow, select Continue, and finish adding them. The outreach is already set as how they were referred. They stay an outreach contact too. If they already have an open case in a workflow, that workflow is greyed out — select Open case → beside it instead.

To fix someone's details — a misspelled name, a new phone number — select their name. Their record opens beside the list. Select Edit, make the change, then Save changes. If someone declined a name and gives one on a later visit, open them, select Edit, uncheck Declined a name, and enter their name. Once they have a name, you can add them to an intake workflow too. You can open a name if your intake role covers the whole workspace. Editing needs an intake role that can make changes.

To see everyone you've met at outreach events, open Persons in the directory and select Outreach contacts.

Outreach in your reports

An outreach counts in its program's reports, like a group. Run Group Participation and pick one of the program's intake workflows under Workflows, or leave Workflows blank to include every workflow you have access to. Every outreach that program ran is in it, including events run with other programs.

To report on part of it, pick in Groups: one outreach counts just that outreach; All outreach · program counts all of that program's outreach, and the events it ran with other programs.

Someone who came to two programs' outreaches is counted once, as long as one report covers both programs. One report covers both only when the programs share an intake workflow. If yours don't, ask an admin to add one shared workflow to both.

Archive an outreach

When an outreach is done and its numbers are in, archive it so the list shows what's still open. Open the outreach, select ⋯ next to Edit, then Archive. If your role can't delete outreach, there's no ⋯ — select Archive next to Edit instead. Its check-ins, counts and Review can't change any more, and it stays in every report. It moves to the Archived status on the list.

To change it again, select Unarchive in the same place.

Delete an outreach

Open the outreach, select ⋯ next to Edit, then Delete this outreach. Select Delete to confirm. The outreach leaves the list and every report, along with its check-ins.

Deleted the wrong one? Select Undo on the message that appears. The outreach comes back just as it was.

Missed the Undo? You can still bring it back:

1. On the Outreach list, check Show deleted.
2. Open the outreach.
3. Select Restore. It comes back with its check-ins and notes. Anyone you'd already taken off before it was deleted stays off.

If Restore says the program is archived, unarchive the program first.

You may see fewer options

What you can do here depends on your role. Checking people in needs groups access. Registering new people also needs intake access for the whole workspace — access to one intake workflow isn't enough. Archiving needs a role that can edit groups. Deleting and restoring need a role that can delete groups. See Roles and permissions.

→ Next: Notes