WILDLABS
World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
In 2024, we successfully launched two new groups, Funding & Finance and Latin America Community. Since then, we've seen loads of community members express interest in starting more regional and thematic groups on WILDLABS!
With applications for the 2025-2026 Group Leadership Programme opening soon, the WILDLABS Community Team is sharing preemptive steps you can take to create a strong application for your new group.
Step 1: Consider Goals and Purpose
During the application process, we'll ask questions like:
- Who is the group for? Is it a place for people to connect with others in the field? A way to stay up to date on news and research? A resource for asking questions and getting answers?
- Why do you want to host it on WILDLABS, rather than a WhatsApp, Slack, or LinkedIn group?
- What are 4-6 key goals of your group? Consider the following thought-starters:
- What communication or collaboration challenges has your community been facing?
- How does your community serve its members? Is it a place for them to share data? To connect with colleagues? To have conversations?
- Do all your community members engage with your community in the same way? Are there some member behaviours you would like to encourage?
- What is your top priority for the group? Is there one thing you want to see happening in your community that would indicate success?
Start to think about your answers in advance to make the application process smoother and create a clearer narrative when gauging interest.
Step 2: Gauge Interest
To ensure new groups start off strong and can be sustainable in the long term, we want to make sure that new groups have a solid foundational base of membership at launch. Please post a discussion thread on WILDLABS that gauges interest in your prospective new group by telling the community about the proposed group and asking them to react or comment if they're interested in joining.
Your post should cover some of the information from the questions in step 1, such as:
- Who the group is for
- What the group will focus on
- What ideas you have for engagement
You may have people in your personal network who would be interested in joining a new group but are not yet on WILDLABS. Invite them to join WILDLABS and comment or react to your post! The more interested members, the better.
After you've posted your discussion thread, please message @alexrood or shoot me an email at alex.rood@wildlabs.net with the link to your post. I'll be sure to share it on our channels to maximise its reach.
Step 3: Think About Co-Leads
All new groups on WILDLABS need 2+ Group Leaders to manage it. Start thinking about other community members you may want to tap to be a co-lead, or begin building connections with interested parties to see if they have interest.
Step 4: Apply
Once the Group Leader application opens up in May/June 2025, fill out the application. This article will be updated once the application link is live.
Questions?
Drop your questions in the comments below!
Add the first post in this thread.