Last week, in the early days of the coronavirus crisis, I saw that our friends at The Boston Globe were connecting people in their community who could offer help with those who needed their assistance. After a talk with their digital GM, Matt Karolian, I resolved to find a way to do something similar in the Dallas- Fort Worth area.
Through FWD>DFW, The Dallas Morning News’ cause marketing initiative, we already had a great relationship with Dallas-based social impact platform Vomo. The company’s founder and CEO, Rob Peabody, showed me how they had rebuilt a feature they’d originally created alongside Mr. Rogers biopic A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood. Branded as “Be a Neighbor,” it allows people and organizations to quickly connect with local partners to fulfill needs.
Vomo has more than a thousand nonprofit and religious clients in 31 countries and more than 100,000 individual users.
We have added a widget for this feature into every coronavirus article on DallasNews.com, most of which are available outside our subscriber pay meter. You will find the widget at the bottom of each story and can quickly access the ability to submit your needs or offer your help.
We are also making this feature available to any U.S. media company who wants to do the same. Readers in your area will be directed to geographically relevant opportunities.
- You can get your own configurable widget from Vomo.
- If you are unable to configure, or want to run a plain ad (without your branding), you can download a 300 x 250 here.
- Feel free to roll your own, linking to the pages for needing volunteers and wanting to volunteer.
