Literacy Basics - Community Literacy of Ontario

Three Categories of Benefits

Benefits usually fall into three basic categories: money, time and ego needs. Our programs should appeal to our target markets on the basis of at least one of these motivators.

Money: We need to let people know that our product or service will save or make the stakeholder money or prove a good investment. We might suggest that our program will help a learner upgrade for a better job and better income. We can show our funders how our programs are a wise investment. We can show our partners how our programs improve their success rates for clients, which means better statistics for their funders.

Time: We can promote our programs as a valuable way for volunteers to expend their time. We can promote our programs as the most efficient training for clients who need foundational skills before they can seek employment or further training.

Ego needs: Volunteers can feel good about the value they contribute to learners' lives. We can encourage our communities to feel good about our services.

As well as advocating for the literacy needs of our communities, we can also address the ego needs of learners by offering confidentiality as a feature with the benefit that the learner does not need to tell anyone that he or she is a literacy student. We can also focus on the benefit of increased self-confidence that adult learners derive from improved literacy skills.

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