Overlapping Discourse Communities for Fundraising Introduction: Writers such a Beaufort, Wardle, Devitt, Bawarshi and Reiff have

written about the types of communication we do in our different fields or areas of focus, we call these Discourse Communities. We now know that different discourse communities have different types of communication with people inside and outside their own discourse communities. However, before Beaufort joined the argument and started gearing the focus away from writing in academia; Devitt, Bawarshi and Reiff argued that a Discourse Community focus was strictly on people within that discourse communities writing styles and language, and did not consider the Beauforts idea of overlapping. However, when going back to read their argument, I noticed that Devitt, Bawarshi and Reiff, take students from a classroom and threw them into a discourse community to research their language and writing styles, although they were doing ethnographies in professional fields, they were still focused around academia. By looking at the last paragraph on page 518, we can clearly see that these students, who have gone into different discourse communities, are using the overlap of academia to connect to their fellow classmates, who were in different discourse communities. Reiff says, When students carry out ethnographies they become researches who are also active social figures participating in and observing how people integrate their language genres with their wider collective purposes. Shifting the usual teacher/student relationships, students assume the role of investigators who are leaning to speak from their own authority as researchers. As a result, classrooms become, in part, research sites at which all members are

investigating, teaching, and learning. The research of genre of ethnography creates a culture of inquiry, with language and genre the foci that lead to combined knowledge of rhetoric, collective values. And the broader purposes of different communities. Other authors have told us that Discourse Community is more about just writing and language, it is about all types of communication, and it is about the communication from one discourse community to another. Although Devitt, Bawarshi and Reiff are focused on academia, they are unknowingly using Beauforts idea of overlapping. Beauforts piece uses a fundraising event put on by a Job Resource Center (JRC), to prove that discourse communities rely on other discourse communities and need to be able to communicate with one another. She argues, using a Venn diagram, Even the internal communications of an organization are influenced in part by practices of external discourse communities-for example, the use of standard formats on some internal memos, a carryover for Ursula and Pam from practices theyd observed at other organizations, and the standard practice of meeting minutes, typical of American business. The external communication practices at JRC resulted almost entirely from standards or discourse communities external to JRC (p 60). Beaufort proves, that overlapping of discourse communities sometimes happen so often and in such simple ways, that we dont even consider it. Wardles argument adds to this by discussing the importance of proper communication, when working in or with any discourse community we must learn and conform to the conventions, codes, and genres of those communities (153). I will be using the arguments of these authors, as well as my internship with Big Brothers Big Sisters and our biggest fundraising event, Bowl For Kids Sake to show

that in order to run a non-profit organization and have a successful fundraising event that discourse communities are dependent on one another in able to be successful. Big Brothers Big Sisters is a non-profit organization that works in schools and in the community matching bigs and littles and providing activities for them to do. Our fundraiser, Bowl For Kids Sake, is a bowling fundraiser that gives money to us in order to create programming for these children. Discourse communities need other discourse communities, and this is where Beaufort comes in. Beaufort discusses the importance of overlapping discourse communities. The overlapping argument as well as my own experiences with Big Brothers Big Sisters, led me to explore the dependence of discourse communities on one another. Since proper communication in and outside our own discourse communities is important, Working for Big Brothers Big Sisters has showed me that, even though our major or field is one discourse community that there are different smaller discourse communities within that that make up the whole larger discourse community. One of the discourse communities of Big Brothers Big Sisters is that its a non-profit organization. Working there has showed me all of the different levels involved in a non-profit organization discourse community, including fundraising. By interviewing my supervisor, observing the work being done to pull this fundraiser together and by working in the office myself, I hope to discover how Big Brothers Big Sisters communicates with other companies, people and businesses in order to receive donations, sponsors and attendance at fundraisers. I thought that in order to figure this out it was important to first find out how BBBS communicates regularly with people within and outside of their own discourse community, and then focus

more closely on their fundraising communications. This way, I could see more differences between the different types of communication and figure out what was really special about the way they communicate during times where theyre fundraising. While Interviewing my supervisor on the communication methods she used I asked her a number of questions about the writing and communication she does on a regular basis as well as the types of communication BBBS does while preparing for a huge event. Our biggest fundraising event happened Sunday April 7,2013 and we used this as a basis for our interview as well as the observations I did and also the work I put into the event myself. This event was called Bowl For Kids Sake, where teams fundraise, come in and bowl, are able to buy raffle tickets to win prizes and get a prize for being the highest fundraising team. At an event similar to this one, I had never thought of all the work and all the different people who donate in order to raise money for a non-profit organization and it was really amazing to see it all play out.

Methodology: I set up this study in two separate parts. The first, a series of questions I asked my supervisor to find out what types of communication she does and what she finds the most effective in order to get the highest amount of donations at a fundraising event. We had planned on doing an in-person interview while I was in the office at work one day, but because Bowl For Kids Sake was approaching quickly there was little time for that and an email interview with the questions was better for time management purposes. In these questions I asked about how she communicated

inside our discourse community with co-workers and volunteers as well as with our bigs ands littles and then how she communicated outside the discourse community with people and companies who had signed up to bowl and fundraise and sponsor BBBS as well as other people and companies who donated pizza, drinks, raffle prizes, etc. The second part, was an observation, where I, as I do on a regular basis, was able to work in the office helping put together the fundraiser and contacting different groups either asking them for donations, or sending thank you letters in order to show that we appreciate them and their donations. Working for big brothers big sisters I have had a chance to do many different things and see how the company functions. The time surrounding a big event gets extremely busy and there are always a million things to do, this is where my working and observing really came into play over the last few weeks. After these sets of questions, observing and doing work, and attending the event I found that my results from my research show that, not only is it important to be successful and able to communicate in your own discourse community but it is extremely important to be able to communicate with other discourse communities who overlap with your discourse community, because these are the people who make these events possible and also make them successful.

Results: From my observation and time spent working in the office I got to see and do a lot of the communication involved in setting up a successful fundraiser. Some of the

different things I got to see and do myself were: collecting a list of pizza places in Athens, calling them, telling us who we were and what our cause was and asking them if they would be willing to donate any amount of pizza for us to go pick up on that day, we also asked for soda and bottles of water. I created and printed out tax receipts for anyone who donated anything to us and then wrote an additional thank you letter and mailed it out. If this was a person or company who donated to us before, we would make sure to include that we appreciated their continued support, to show that we recognize theyve been helpful to us in the past. If they were a new donor we would just say that we appreciate their support, similar to this, while sending out flyers about Bowl For Kids Sake, companies and people who had made teams previously wed write an extra note on the flyer saying something like, (Company name) you did great in the past! Hope you can join us for another year at BFKS. I also went around to different places and handed out flyers to certain people as well as hung them up in places around campus. At a job fair I went to, at our table that was set up for people to come around and look at, we passed out our newsletter as well as having a stack of flyers for Bowl For Kids Sake for students to pick up and hopefully get involved in. We were asked to share this information on facebook, email, call our family members and do anything else we thought may help spread the word, including speaking at my Sorority Chapter letting them know what we do and what our event was about and then asking people if theyd like to create a team and fundraise. In my interview with my supervisor the information she gave me was pretty much telling me that the things I had already done myself, were their forms of communication and told me why she felt they were affective. She said,

When people and companies are donating to big brothers big sisters or other nonprofit organizations, this makes them look great. This is true, and at our event each company who donated had a sign with their name on it hanging up so everyone could see who had helped make the event possible or who had given time and money to bowl and help fund our programs. Also, on the t-shirts everyone who participated received, the people and companies who donated got their names on the back of their shirt. This makes them look good, as well as promoting their company whenever someone wears the t-shirt. The companies who donated the most were at the top of the shirt, in larger writing and the less and less that was donated the smaller and further down on the shirt their company was. Another thing my supervisor said was important in communication was to speak clearly, give them all the proper information, recognize if theyve helped us or worked with us before and maintain a balance between being professional and also being friendly. Wardle argues, we must learn and conform to the conventions, codes, and genres of those communities, while interviewing my supervisor, this was something that she had said, in more simple terms. It is important to remain professional but to be easy to talk to and find a good balance between not being too formal and also not being too informal. It is important to communicate in a way that both discourse communities feel is appropriate and to remember that, while we want this experience to be fun for everyone, it is still a professional setting. I was also told that when creating a flyer to be hung in different places, or a type of writing that it possibly will be seen by all types of people who may not know anything about what Big Brothers Big Sisters is. My supervisor told me that when creating a flyer it

should look neat and have all the important information without looking too cluttered or busy, that way, if they know what it is they dont have to search forever on the flyer to know when or where it is but that if theyre interested they can take a second look and if they are interested but arent sure what it is it is important to include some sort of website or phone number so that person is able to look more into what is being advertised. However, in writing to a person who may not know what it is, it may be necessary to go into more detail explaining what Big Brothers Big Sisters is, what our event is and also when and where it is, how these people can help, what the money goes to, etc.

Implications: My results from my research show that, not only is it important to be successful and able to communicate in your own discourse community but it is extremely important to be able to communicate with other discourse communities who overlap with your discourse community. Without the people who overlap our discourse community, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Bowl For Kids Sake wouldnt have been able to happen, and this is why we are dependent on other discourse communities. There were so many different people and companies who came together to make the event possible and raise money for us. For any company, it is important to be able to communicate with all overlapping discourse communities. My findings are similar to those of Anne Beaufort. Like Beaufort, I used a fundraiser to figure out how communication works within a discourse community and with the companies that overlap that community as well. I wanted to find out how Big

Brothers Big Sisters communicates with other companies, people and businesses in order to receive donations, sponsors and attendance at fundraisers and ultimately to have a successful fundraiser for everyone present. Realizing this overlap is extremely important for the non-profit organization, in this case, Big Brothers Big Sisters, because without proper communication, companies might not want to or may not understand who Big Brothers Big Sisters is, what the event is, what to do for the event, or who/what the money goes to. Effective communication in these types of situation is crucial in order to make the event successful, especially because it is an event where people are giving up a lot of time and money. On page 32, Beaufort says that each discourse community at the event has their own distinct web of communication practices and that events are results of massive communication efforts. This means that the company putting together the event, JRC or in my case, BBBS have to try to overlap their web with the web of the other company theyre trying to communicate with in order to have successful communication. Not only do they have to do that with one company, but they have to do it with every company involved and because for something things, such as flyers, we cant do individual ones for every company we have to communicate in ways that all the different communication webs can come together and overlap. My results show that in order to have a successful fundraiser it is important to understand and have effective communication with the people in your own discourse community as well as outside your discourse community and that it is also important to make sure everyone you work with, such as interns like me, learn and understand the proper ways of communicating with different people or

companies who are participating in the fundraiser youre putting together. I Examples of these types of communication I have learned through BBBS are things like being responsible with their donations by always making sure to create and send them a tax return, and also by sending them Thank You letters to let them know we appreciate what theyve done for us, and in order to create better communication and relationships with these people and companies we often write other hand written letters with their tax receipts in order to show personalization. In this way, I am an excellent example of the communication within a persons own discourse community that was discussed by Wardle. Wardle discusses the idea of an activity system, where I am learning how to do things necessary for my discourse community and also trying to figure out and have proper communication with others outside of my discourse community while understanding that I have little authority but that the way I communicate is still important to the success of BFKS. Therefore, my results have proven that, not only do we depend on the people in our own discourse community and there ways of communication but that we are very dependent on our proper communication and the people we work with outside of our discourse communities.

Works Cited/References: Tara, G. (2013, 04 04). Interview by BM Morris []. Communication in bbbs. Wardle, Elizabeth. Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces. Enculturation 5.2 (2004): http://enculturation.gmu.edu/5_2/wardle.html Beaufort, A. (1999). The institutional site of composing: Converging and overlapping discourse communities. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Devitt, A., Bawarshi, A., & Reiff, M. J. (2003). Materiality and genre in the study of discourse communities. (Vol. 65, pp. 512-518). National Council of Teachers of English.

Appendix: Interview Questions: 1) What types of communication does BBBS use when trying to get donations/sponsors/grants or people to come to fundraising events? Email, social media (facebook), press releases, interviews and/or presentations (local media stations, community and civic groups/clubs), direct mail, Firstgiving. Grants is a separate item entirely - so that shouldn't be lumped in here. With grants, we respond to a Request for proposals or complete a grant application. I often call or schedule a meeting with the grant administrator as well to discuss our programs and what we will be seeking from the grantor. We also steward our relationships with foundations/grantors by frequently sending newsletters, photos, etc. 2) What types of writing or other communication do non-profit organizations do that a business that is not non-profit wouldn't have to do? We build relationships in much the same way that a business would, and through

similar communication channels, but instead of receiving a product or a service, someone is investing in a program or in children in the community. We appeal to different motivations that an individual or company may have for giving. I suppose writing grants and grant reports are a different type of communication, as are donation request mailers. 3) What types of writings or other communication are done for fundraising events? See answer to #1. Also, flyers/billboards/signs/etc. 4) What are said in these types of communication? Do you say the same things to different people/businesses or if you're writing, is there a general "formula" used in these types of writings? I try to appeal to the head and to the heart. Why is this a sensible investment in your community? For example, providing hard numbers on our outcomes, or looking at the cost of mentoring a child for one year vs. the cost of a child being in a juvenile detention facility for one year. To appeal to the heart, we share personal stories. How was Johnny's life improved by his Big Brother? What struggles has Sally endured, and why do we need your support to match her with a Big Sister? Also, for a business, we may take a different approach: How can we improve your bottom line? Perhaps we would be the ideal nonprofit to partner with because of our strong community reputation, our network of volunteers and supporters, or our ability to provide valuable advertising through being a sponsor of an event? The communication does vary widely, but there is always an "ask" 5) Who do you write to? and how do you choose who you're going to reach out to? How do you get these people interested in helping BBBS? Everyone and anyone. Anyone who has expressed interest in connecting with our agency, community leaders, foundations, people working with youth, the business community, school personnel, etc. See question 4. I also try to provide a wide variety of volunteer opportunities. If someone engages at an event or an after-school program for one hour, they are more likely to participate in a fundraising event, or possibly donate, after interacting with our kids and volunteers. 6) How do you appeal to different businesses and companies to make them want to support BBBS? And is there anything you do, communication wise, to keep different businesses and companies wanting to come back year after year? I think this has been answered above, but I try to always being incredibly gracious to our supporters. I also try to personally and professionally patronize our business supporters, and encourage friends/volunteers to do so as well. If I had a larger staff, I'd certainly spend even more time stewarding those relationships, drafting newsletters with our success stories (currently I put out only 2 a year), sharing photos, etc. I also try to be as easy to work with as possible - flexible, responsive, professional,

fun, and high-energy. 7) What types of communication do you use to keep good relationships with sponsors? Professional and courteous communication via email, mail, and in-person meetings. 8) What difference are there in the way you communicate at BBBS with: a) co-workers - casually, informally b) bigs and littles - I try to provide great "customer service" to all volunteers and families. I may speak and communicate more informally with volunteers/families, depending on their age/education level. Many of our families do not communicate via email. Many of our parents prefer communicating via text, or facebook. We try to meet families where they are, and communicate with them in a way that is effective for that family/individual. We also use mailers to inform families of activities/events as opposed to exclusively via email and facebook for volunteers. c) student volunteers in the office - professionally, courteously, sometimes casually. I have an open-door policy, and I want all employees to feel comfortable speaking with me anytime. I communicate almost exclusively via email to update student volunteers on our schedule or program changes. d) new sponsors - mail, phone calls, in person visits professionally and courteously e) returning sponsors - Same