Legion's impact on membership, brand awareness

The American Legion’s National Membership & Post Activities Committee members heard from several National Headquarters division directors last Friday about how their teams are supporting the organization’s five-year strategic plan through brand awareness.

Examples of membership support shared during the meeting included:

• The new Legion family kiosk, which is available for departments, districts and posts to display Legion, Auxiliary, Sons of The American Legion and Legion Riders brochures at events. Each kiosk comes with a starter kit of 100 brochures for each American Legion charity, Legion Family membership applications and the Auxiliary Foundation’s charities. To order a kiosk, click here.
• National Commander Mike Helm's 4x4 web page allows members and non-members to help the commander reach his goal of four million members and raise $4 million for Legion and Auxiliary charities. The page allows potential members to join the Legion, Auxiliary, Sons or Riders, and visitors can donate to a charity of their choice and share success stories about helping the commander meet his 4x4 goal. Click here to visit commander's 4x4 page.
• The Legion's new digital marketing campaign, www.thelegionserves.org, raises brand awareness and engagement. The site allows visitors to join, donate, buy merchandise or learn more about the Legion.
• Nearly 3,000 American Legion accredited service officers helps members and non-members free of charge apply for VA benefits or file a claim. Click here to find a service officer.
• Legion sponsors hundreds of career fairs a year with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce where veterans, servicemembers and their spouses gain employment. Click here to find a career fair in your area.

Additionally, members of the committee shared best practices on successful ways to recruit new members into the organization, such as:

• Take news releases found on www.legion.org and share with local media. An example would be the Legion's ongoing Veterans Benefits Centers across the country which, free of charge, help veterans enroll in VA health care, schedule VA medical appointments, file VA disability or pension benefits claims, and more.
• Host a job fair during department convention.
• Utilize social media, such as Facebook, to promote community events that the post is hosting or participating in.

"People say the Legion is a dying organization. It is not," National Commander Mike Helm said. "While flying at night recently, I looked out the window I could see little clusters of lights. I realized that those clusters of lights were American Legion posts doing things for America. Doing things for their community, doing things for veterans. I started calling them my little campfires of freedom, campfires of caring and campfires of service. That's who we are."