SHRED NATIONS’ HOW-TO GUIDE

HOSTING ACOMMUNITY SHRED

EVENT

What Is a Community ShredEvent?

Held in cities all across the United States, Shredding Events offer aconvenient opportunity for members of local communities to cometogether and safely shred their documents.

Shredding Events help to raise awareness of the importance ofinformation security and preventing identity theft, and are oftensponsored by organizations such as:

• Charity Organizations

• Local Businesses

• Church Groups

• Nonprofits

• Companies Seeking CSR Opportunities

Why Host an Event?

Whether you’re the event sponsor or a member of a local community looking for secure document disposal, Shred Events are a win-win for everyone who gets involved. Many are held as free events, while others may ask for small donations.

Benefits for Sponsors:

● Get your name out into thelocal community

● Establish yourself as apublic-service friendlyorganization

● Boost your PR profile

● Help nearby communities“go green” by recyclingpaper shreds

Benefits for Participants:

● Cut down identity theft in yourcommunity

● Balance convenient with cost-effective for shredding services

● Watch your documents beingdestroyed with a cross-cutshredder for extra security

● Recycle paper and benefitthe environment

Hosting Your Own ShredEvent: Step-by-Step

Community Shred Events are usually held in large and easy-to-access public spaces. To get your event up and running, it only takes a few steps:

1. Picking a date and location for your event to ensure you get the maximum number of attendees.

2. Scheduling with a local shredding provider to handle the shredding for your event.

3. Recruiting Volunteers to help run your event.

4. Promoting and advertising for your shred event to help get the word out.

Step One: Where and When to Hold Your Event

Typically there are a few recommendations andsuggestions for finding the ideal location and date for your event:

Where:

• Church Parking Lots• Schools• Community Retirement Centers

Size and accessibility matters—the more people a space can accommodate, the more people can participate in your event!

When:

• Weekends• Mornings

To maximize your attendee numbers, host events on weekends and earlier in the daywhen people have more free time and are off work.

Step Two: Scheduling With a Local Shredding Provider

With a plan for when and where you’ll host your shred event, the next step is finding a shredding companies and scheduling with their mobile services for a shredding truck to arrive on the day of your event.

When you set up a community event with Shred Nations, we handle all the legwork for finding a shredding provider once you pick a date for the event—giving you 1:1 consultation to be sure all your requirements are met. Here’s how it works:

1. With a date in mind, first contact Shred Nations

2. We provide you a list of nearby shredders to compare pricing

3. Pick your provider, and you’re all done!

Our network of providers also take extra steps to offer certificates of destruction to ensure compliance with destruction laws like HIPAA and FACTA—providing you and attendees assurance of a safe event.

Step Three: Recruiting Volunteers

Once you have your event plans laid out, you’ll need to recruit some volunteers to help run the shred event. There’s a few easy ways to go about it:

• Enlist business employees as volunteers in exchange for free access to the shredding event

• Find community members to help by placing flyers around town—local grocery stores, libraries, coffee shops, or recreation centers are a great place to start

With your group of new recruits, assign them different roles for the event, including:

• Greeters to welcome attendees

• Event promoters

• Coordinators to keep things running smoothly

Step Four: Promoting and Advertising Your Shred Event

With all the prep-work taken care of, all you need to do now is get people to attend your event.

When you set up a community shred event with Shred Nations, your consultant can also help to coordinate your promotion efforts in addition to scheduling.

Here’s a few of the top shred event advertising strategies Shred Nations can help with:

• Reach out to local news outlets on your behalf

• Create free custom press releases

• Develop event promotion graphics for flyer or web advertising

• Social media and word-of-mouth promotion

Running Your Event: The Final Checklist

Now scheduled and set up, the final step is simply putting your shred event plans into action.

To ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible and avoid any delays or speed bumps during your event, here’s a last checklist to make sure you’ve got all your bases covered:

• Emphasize customer service to all your volunteers and organizers. If one of your participants has a problem, you’ll want to be sure their issue is handled quickly and professionally.

• Arrive ahead of schedule and place plenty of signs around the area to be sure the event starts on-time and everyone can find your event without delay.

• Coordinate with your media resources by planning for interviews and photo opportunities after your shred event so people who aren’t able to make your event don’t have to miss out.

Visit us at shrednations.com today for thelatest shred event tips and to find events near you!

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