by Patrick Bradley: Third in a series of posts about community mapping tools, here’s another free tool to help you learn your community: postal carrier route maps.

One of the challenges of getting the word out in your community is planning time & resources to let every household know about the grand opening of your worship gatherings. Knowing how many households there are is key to your outreach and marketing plans.

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by Patrick Bradley: Falling in love with your community can be easy; doing the hard work of really getting to know it can take more effort. Here’s another free tool to help you learn your community: school boundary maps.

One of the challenges of demographics research is cutting through the averages. Your report says that the average income is $x in your town, but we all know that each neighborhood is higher or lower than that. How do you start figuring out which is which so you can understand their needs better?

My simple supposition is this: each school’s population ultimately reflects the neighborhoods it serves. Learn about the school and you get at least a beginner’s insight into its surrounding community.

School Boundary Maps

Great!Schools.org provides you an interactive map where you can investigate where each school’s boundaries fall, like this one in Sheboygan:

You can refer back to these maps or even create a new layer on your custom target area map and rough in the boundaries to have them all in one place.

School Boundary Demographics

But the researchy goodness doesn’t stop there! You can click through on each school and get some vital stats, like:

test scores
student progress (are scores getting better over time?)
race/ethnicity
low-income students
contact information

Use the contact information and network with the principal or a counselor about what your’e learning and what opportunities they see. What a great way to speed through your learning curve and get to serving real needs!

Gerrymandered School Boundaries

In my research for this post, I quickly stumbled upon debate about inequities in school boundaries (AKA catchment areas). Whether or not this is on your radar, it should be. It’s a system in need of reform. School boundaries can both reflect racial segregation that already exists in a community as well as feed that segregation.

Some catchment areas are gerrymandered as bad as any congressional district. I found articles that argued gerrymandering has been a tool of segregation. Another article showed research that the most gerrymandered catchment areas were actually the most diverse, which suggests that it has been used as a tool of desegregation. It’s complicated, to be sure, but this map of school district poverty is telling.

We parents can be a little crazy about our kids. If you’re in a community that is drawing or redrawing school boundary maps, that may spark conflict that reveals ancient strongholds, rivalries, or deeply-held values that no one will say out loud. What a great opportunity to learn and to share the love of Christ.

As a missionary to your community, understanding the various neighborhoods can be an important tool toward making a difference where you live. Use these school boundary maps to help.

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by Patrick Bradley: Use these free community mapping tools to help you do the hard missionary work of learning your community. Taking notes and marking things down on a saved online map will become invaluable as your network, serve and get the word out in your community.

Radius Around an Address

I am at the Exponential West conference this week, hosted by Mariners Church. This map shows a 5-mile radius around their facility here in Irvine, CA.

Use a radius map for figuring out which of these are within a given distance of your target:

other nonprofits
area churches
major employers
potential worship gathering facilities
colleges, universities and local schools

Draw your own radius map at FreeMapTools.com

How to Import a KLM File

Once you’ve played around and drawn a radius that is meaningful and worth saving, FreeMapTools allows you to export a KLM file. You can use that file to create a layer on your saved My Map by Google.

Here are the quick steps:

Click on the Generate KLM button to save your radius
Create a new layer on your Google My Map
On that layer (left-hand side), click Import
Find the KLM file that was saved to your computer and upload it

That’s it! Now you can turn that layer on and off in your map when you need to use it or hide it.

Drive Time Radius

But we all know that a 5-mile drive could mean 10 to 45 minutes of drive time depending on conditions. This map approximates how far you could get in 20 minutes averaging 30mph from Mariners Church.

This is a great tool to figure out the drive time to your potential worship facility. Use this in conjunction with the average commute data you can find at DataUSA to know what people are used to. Put in your zip code or major metro area and scroll all the way to the bottom of the page for commute drive times.

Create your own drive time map at FreeMapTools.com  And you can export a KLM file of this one, too.

All Zip Codes in a Radius

Another great tool from FreeMapTools is their Zip Code Radius Search Map. It’s basically the same as the radius tool above, but instead of a KLM file, you get a list of zip codes that fall within the radius you draw.

Use that list to pull more specific demographics and find lists of organizations (above) to network with in your community.

Zip Code Overlay Map

Sometimes you need to know what the zip code boundaries are in your region. So use US Naviguide’s Zip Code Map to see them overlayed on a Google map. They’re labeled and color-coded.

Use all of these free community mapping tools to get started on your research and record your findings. I’d love to see the maps you create – give me a shout on social media!

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by Patrick Bradley: Amazon is generous to nonprofits. Here are some ideas to maximize 3 of their Amazon nonprofit programs for your church.

Two of the three programs may require you to have your 501c3 Determination Letter back from the IRS. So if you haven’t already filed, here’s yet another reason to take care of that early in the church planting process.

Amazon Giveaway

OK, so this one isn’t just for nonprofits, but it has lots of potential: Amazon Giveaway.

Amazon Giveaway provides an easy three-step setup for creating engaging and interactive instant win and random draw sweepstakes promotions.”

Basic instructions:

Select a prize (and arrange for payment)
Set up the contest
Promote it
Notify the winner and export everyone’s answers and email addresses

You could use this for community surveys at your booth at the fair or for fun giveaways at an event you host.

Amazon Smile

This one really is just for nonprofits: Amazon Smile

Amazon customers specify in advance (just once) who their nonprofit of choice is, then a portion of Amazon’s profits from their purchases get donated right to your church as a charity.

…when customers shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to the charitable organizations selected by customers…”

Basic instructions:

Register as a nonprofit
Encourage friends, family and congregants to select your church as their charity
Make sure they shop at smile.amazon.com (not the regular site)
Donations automatically get deposited to the church bank account

Depending on how many people you get to select your church as their charity, this could amount to hundreds of dollars every year.

Amazon Tax Exemption Program

This one requires that you’ve already applied for sales tax exemption in your state: ATEP

With the Amazon Tax Exemption Program (ATEP), you may be eligible to use your tax exempt status for future purchases from Amazon.com…”

Basic instructions:

Get your 501c3 Determination Letter
Apply for sales tax exemption with your state
Register with ATEP and upload documents
Enjoy purchasing things for the church without having to pay sales tax

Depending on how much you purchase through Amazon, this could save you hundreds of dollars in sales tax every year.

Start Sooner Rather than Later

Because the last two have so much pre-work, you won’t be able to take advantage of them from Day One. So lean in a little on the government paperwork so that you can maximize these 3 Amazon nonprofit programs for your church as soon as possible.

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by Patrick Bradley: Networking is when you’re meeting with civic officials, business leaders, community groups, nonprofits, etc. Here are 6 great reasons to go network in your community today.

I’m sure I don’t have hard numbers to prove it, but I would argue that there’s a tangible difference in the health of a church plant between planters that intentionally network and those that keep to themselves. These may give you a hint why:

Uncover Real Needs

Most community leaders are leading because they want to make a positive difference. Which means that they’re in touch with real needs in the community. Networking with them allows you to ask questions about community needs that get past the online demographics report level of general info.

Find Community Partners

As you sense the calling to address a community need, networking helps you find like-minded organizations to join forces with. What a shame it would be to approach the community with a savior complex and blow right past other groups that are already valiantly addressing the same issue.

Connect Other Groups

Eventually you may have the privilege of connecting other groups together. I sat in on a call this week where the planter had introduced a local coffee shop to a local nonprofit they had never heard of (right in their own community). Through that connection, the coffee shop began donating its day-old pastries, which they had previously been throwing away. The church and the planter didn’t directly benefit from that connection, but the community is better for it.

Make a Friend

As a church planter, you’re a risk-taker and an entrepreneur. You will run into a higher concentration of similarly-wired leaders as you network in your community. Maybe a new friendship is waiting to be born, one with no agenda other than being good friends with things in common. Who couldn’t use a few more of those?

Find a Facility

Sometimes finding a facility to host worship gatherings is a challenge. When you network with realtors, city planners and the like, you are connecting with people that know every facility in the community. They might be able to suggest something you haven’t thought of, or provide entree to a facility that wouldn’t initially have considered you.

Boost Your Energy

This is an common side effect when you go to network in your community: planters are people persons, and being out talking to people is likely to charge your batteries more than sitting behind a laptop screen checking things off a to-do list. You have to do some of that, too, but why not be more fully alive by spending time with other leaders in your community?

Networking isn’t just going to happen. There will be so many demands competing for your attention. Resolve to meet with at least 2 community leaders every week for the next 6 months and see how your ministry changes!

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Source: 6 Great Reasons to Network in Your Community

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