Cozette Kosary, M.A., B.E.D.
UX Researcher and Strategist
Collaborating with Stakeholders
#HRCMONDAYS: Speaker Series
Discovering a new direction to improve member participation in the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC's) monthly fundraising event, #HRCMONDAYS.
My Role: Event Leadership: Event Organizer, Speaker Coordination, Graphic Designer, and Social Media and Print Media Marketing Strategy.
Methods: Participatory Observation, Surveys, Scenario Development, and Service Design
Backstory: Chino Chinatown approached HRC to host a monthly fundraising event at their restaurant in hope to build a mutually beneficial relationship and improve both establishments revenue. Chino Chinatown enticed HRC with an agreement that they could use their space for free to recruit membership and said the Equality Vodka sales on #HRCMONDAYS nights would directly benefit HRC while they benefited from other food and beverage sales. The two primary stakeholders within this partnership were Chino Chinatown and HRC.
Observation and Evaluation Stage
Identifying stakeholders and the roles they play within the service design of #HRCMONDAYS.
Participatory Observation was implemented to capture the attendance of three #HRCMONDAYS events without programming and evaluated to see who was facilitating and participating at the event. Stakeholders included:
Primary Stakeholders (People directly affected by the work.)
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Participants: HRC Members, Prospective Members
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Chino Chinatown Staff: Bartenders, Chef, Hostess, Manager
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Event Facilitators: HRC Leadership managing partnership.
Secondary Stakeholders (People indirectly affected by the work.)
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Bystanders Dining
Key Stakeholders (People with a strong influence over the work and a vested interest in its success.)
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HRC Leadership: Board of Governors, Board of Directors
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Chino Chinatown Owner
Surveying participants revealed that the event faced low turnout and little energy for participation due to concentration of events targeting HRC Leadership and HRC Members the Friday prior to the 4th Monday of the month. Surveying HRC Leadership disclosed volunteers were burnt out and lacked bandwidth to plan event. The lack of budget and need for fresh ideas to boost participation quickly without demanding facilitators give additional time or resources to planning became a primary concern.
By developing a deep understanding of HRC stakeholders concerns, I assumed the role of program manager and created a vision of a "Mixer with a Purpose" program to attract a wider audience of volunteers, HRC members, and LGBTQ+ community members.
Make and Iterate Stage
Convincing stakeholders to invest in a "Mixer with a Purpose" program to attract a wider audience.
The vision of #HRCMONDAYS: A "Mixer with a Purpose" program would allow HRC to partner with one to two organizations a month to promote community causes and highlight joint volunteer opportunities.
Having spent four years networking with smaller LGBTQ+ community organizations, I established personal rapport with community leaders and understood organizations struggled to find a platform to share their voice and actively engage people in their work. #HRCMONDAYS provided the perfect outlet to act as a platform for these voices to be shared.
I piloted kicking off the series with "#HRCMONDAYS: SCOTUS Marriage Equality Anniversary" featuring well known community leaders recently wed and engaged because the first program fell on June 26th, the first anniversary of marriage equality ruling. Chino Chinatown loved this idea and personally invested in the strategy by making a cake to symbolize the ceremonial cake cutting celebration at a wedding. HRC allowed me to coordinate logistics to see if a wider audience was captured.
This event attracted eight times the participants, demonstrating to stakeholders that actively recruiting local leaders as speakers and focusing discussions directly relevant to potential participants directly increased event participation and boosted marketing reach as the speakers promoted the event themselves.
Reflect – Test Stage
The injection of new content to spark ongoing interest and participation kept stakeholders invested in the long term vision of #HRCMONDAYS.
Using Scenario Development to reflect on program themes and a +LGBTQ Activism Calendar, a 10 month speaker series emerged highlighting socially relevant content including:
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LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness featuring a donation drive
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Mentoring in the LGBTQ+ Community
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Transgender Civil Rights Awareness featuring a memorial for trans people murdered
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HIV and AIDS Awareness
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LGBTQ+ History
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Tales of DREAMers and DACA
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Politics featuring a register to vote campaign
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A Tribute to Harvey Milk
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Conventional Wisdom
Clear and consistent communication was crucial to actively recruit local leaders with specialties in those topics and engage stakeholders in the longevity of the program. Negotiating complimentary refreshments for attendees and featuring activities also kept guest engaged and encouraged them to use word of mouth market the event.
Final Results: The recruitment strategy had the side benefit of creating a networking opportunity for HRC Leadership, HRC members, and the LGBTQ+ community. Attendance grew 8 times, 25 Speakers from 11 organizations participated in 12 events, and $2,000 was raised in Equality Vodka sales for HRC.