PLANNING GUIDE

A Step-By-Step Guide to Planning Your Event

SPRING

1. Define Success

What do you hope to get out of organizing an NND in your community?

In a year? In five years?

2. Find Buddies

Who else might share your interests in organizing this event?

3. What Work?

Make a short list (3-5) of possible work projects to undertake.

Evaluate them for their ability to attract volunteers and make a difference.

4. Party Place

What is the best civic space in your neighborhood? Hold your event there.

If you don’t have a good space you might make this your work project!

5. Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Plan early to save the date and keep building on progress the next year.

Incorporating results/discussions in the Fall Party is also a way to build excitement.

THE SPARK

National Neighborhood Days is not a new idea. National Neighborhood Day, established by Lorne Adrain in XX, is a beloved holiday celebrated around the country. Its motto - “The good feeling lasts all year” - and its values around civic action, community cohesion, and social capital, are spot on. 

What is new, is the urgency to double down on this approach by creating two holidays per year, and the theme of organizing them around the spring and fall equinoxes. NND encourages people to participate fully in both days, as well as year-round, in a constant strive for “more perfect.”

The urgency also comes from our awareness of climate change and of how communities across America will need to rapidly reduce energy demand and pivot from fossil fuels to renewable, carbon-free fuels.