Today is Blog Action Day and this year’s focus is on global poverty but as I said in my earlier post, I’d like to keep the focus at home. Did you know that 58.5%, of all Americans will spend at least one year beneath the poverty line at some point between ages 25 and 75?

And today, over half of the 37 million Americans living in poverty today are women.

It’s important that we, as bloggers, help those without a voice to find the assistance they need to improve their lives one step at a time.  As part of Blog Action Day, it was important to me to share with you a way to do that.

Dress for Success helps women around the globe on a daily basis find the inspiration they need to achieve their goals for success in their careers and life.

The mission of Dress for Success is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.

Since 1997, Dress for Success has served almost 450,000 women around the world. Each year [they] reach more than 40,000 women in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

To find out how Dress for Success reaches and helps so many women, I interviewed Suzanne Elliott who is the Executive Vice President of Resource Development & Strategic Marketing.

Other than providing suits, which Dress for Success is well-known for, how else do you help women?

We start by providing disadvantaged women with professional attire and a critical boost of confidence when they are getting back into the workforce, but that’s just the beginning of our programs that help women achieve economic independence. After women land a job, they are invited to participate in our employment retention and career development programs, including the Professional Women’s Group (our professional development and networking association for newly-working women), Career Center (which provides resume editing, mock interviews, online skills training and more), career fairs, mentoring and more. More than 75% of women who join our Professional Women’s Group are still employed after one year, and 62% receive raises or promotions.

With so many affiliates globally, how do you help them to stay on target for branding and marketing themselves to create the awareness required for continuous donation support?

Our worldwide affiliate relations department provides ongoing support to all of our affiliates so they can serve women in their local communities. We offer tools, resources, templates and branding guidelines to assist affiliates with marketing. We also spearhead national and international marketing campaigns that provide visibility for the Dress for Success brand.

In less than stellar economic times, non-profits always seem to be affected. What marketing efforts is Dress for Success doing to make sure that they have the donations needed to continue helping women in need?

We always value our donors and work hard to show our gratitude regardless of the state of the economy. We have a diverse base of corporate, foundation and individual donors, and we will continue to build new relationships while we nurture existing relationships. Fundraising in difficult economic times requires creativity, flexibility and a long-term outlook. We anticipate an increased need for our services because of the challenging economy, so we are committed to raising the funds needed to operate these vital programs.

What marketing strategies have you found to be successful?

We utilize marketing strategies that show the heart of our organization—the women we serve. All of our marketing efforts include photos, quotes and success stories from our women, who are truly our best ambassadors. People want to support people, not just an organization. We want our supporters to see the impact that they can have on a woman’s life by giving their time, talents and resources.

Social media has helped a lot of non-profits in ways that traditional marketing does not, has Dress for Success considered adding social media and Web 2.0 tools to its strategy?

Yes! We recently added a Dress for Success Worldwide page through Facebook’s Causes application—please join us! We’re working to incorporate a broader social media strategy going forward.

What inspires you about marketing Dress for Success?

The women of Dress for Success inspire us every single day. The women who walk through our doors are strong, courageous, determined individuals who want to become self-sufficient to change their lives—and the lives of their families. Having the opportunity to share their stories is an honor and a privilege.

And finally, after Blog Action Day is over what can bloggers do to help non-profits like Dress for Success keep a spotlight on poverty and how it affects women in the United States?

There are many ways that you can support Dress for Success:

• volunteer as a “personal shopper,” mentor or career coach,
• donate your nearly-new professional attire,
• join Y.E.S! (Young Executives for Success) to support Dress for Success, or
• sustain our programs by making a monetary donation.

You can find your local Dress for Success affiliate or learn more by visiting www.dressforsuccess.org.

Thank you Suzanne for your time and for helping me to support Blog Action Day 2008 by getting out the word about such a wonderful organization!

[Photo: iStock]

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