Communication Templates and Resources

2024 State of the Profession Survey Social Media Toolkit

Help CEC spread the word about this survey! The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), under the direction of Past Presidents Drs. Mary Lynn Boscardin and Jennifer Lesh, is conducting an important survey on the state of the special education profession and the students we serve. The feedback collected will significantly shape future policies and practices that support educators and students with disabilities. 

Unit & Chapter CEC2025 Social Media Toolkit

Help CEC spread the word and bring members and non-members of your state or province to the the 2025 CEC Convention! This packet provides an overview of the program, key dates, sample social media posts, and more!

Division CEC2025 Social Media Toolkit

Help CEC spread the word and bring your division’s members and audiences to the 2025 CEC Convention! This packet provides an overview of the program, key dates, sample social media posts, and more!

2024 Giving Tuesday Toolkit

Giving Tuesday is right around the corner on December 3! Your involvement in our association has been instrumental to our progress, and your continued generosity helps create a ripple effect that encourages others in your life and in the community to contribute!Every donation made to one of CEC’s five endowments (Advocacy, Diversity, Fund for the Future, Rising Stars, and Yes I Can) serves as a building block to fuel our mission-based work of supporting the field of special education.

Our donation site for the holiday is live now!

Help us spread the word! Use this social media toolkit to help inform how your Unit shares our message!"  

Instagram and Facebook Tools

Click here to learn more about using Facebook and Instagram tools/features.

Social Media Accessibility

Resource offering guidance for making your social media accounts accessible.

Media and Public Relations Guidelines

CEC's guidelines on media and PR including details on working with the media, confidentiality details, etc.

Social Media Tips for Advocacy Success (2019 Presentation)

Tips from CEC's Marketing and Communications team in 2019 on leveraging social media for effective and impactful advocacy work

Advanced Marketing Breakout Resources from LI 2023

Review standard marketing best practices and how to leverage your components' social media and website. This resource highlighst how to build a strong, cohesive, and consistent brand identity and tools that CEC has to support you at every stage in the process and detail how to use key platform features to spread their message, engage with members, and bring in new following.

Email Communication Resources from LI 2023

Powerpoint and handout from the 2023 Leadership Institute covering email communication tips, tools, and to-dos. These resources are focused on supporting your efforts to reach your intended audience(s), communication driven by purpose, maintaining brand identity, and ensuring you're working smarter--not harder.

Download PowerPoint

Download Handout

Websites, Marketing and your Component's Success

From the 2023 Leadership Institute, this resource covers website essentials that can articulate your purpose and build and support your reputation so that members find your unique website helpful, informative and catered to them. In addition, we will cover social media basics, including items to consider and how to prepare for launching a new Instagram, Twitter or Facebook page. 

Crafting Social Media Magic: Advancing Your Strategies PPT (Advanced Social Media and Marketing Breakout) (LI 2024)

PPT from the LI 2024 session hosted by CEC's expert! This session's PPT was used  help advance your component's social media profiles to the next level! This PPT contains tips and tools to add to your bag of tricks!

Getting Started with Social Media (Social Media 101) PPT (LI 2024)

Your Website + Your Goals: A Success Story PPT (LI 2024)

Is your website earning top marks? This Leadership Institute breakout session PPT will help you earn an A+ on your component's website by clarifying your goals and re-imagining the design of your webpages to be more engaging for members. Covering website essentials and practices that can support your efforts in crafting and sustaining the perfect website, this PPT reviews:

• The ways your website’s content and design work influences member engagement 
• Strategies for aligning your website to support your component’s goals 
• Fill out the ""Webpage Report Card"" to identify areas of improvement and celebrate your strengths 
• Insights related to your component website’s functionality and opportunities for growth 
• The critical role websites play in your component’s reputation and reach 

*Pro Tip!: This is great "introduction" to the role and responsibilities of keeping your website SHARP--consider having a new communication and/web chair review this PPT during their onboarding!

Beyond the Inbox: Enhancing Member Communications Through Email PPT (LI 2024)

Learn how to build and run a successful email program within your means!  In this Leadership Institute 2024 session PPT,  component leaders are exposed to  best practices for email marketing, guidance on crafting compelling emails that foster stronger connections with your association members, and what metrics to pay attention to as you look at how your emails are performing.

Digital Boost - Email Marketing Guide (PDF)

This guide will provide a comprehensive overview of Email Marketing, and guidance on how you can successfully utilise Email Marketing to achieve your business objectives. The key stages in executing Email Marketing Campaigns will be covered, with advice on how to complete each stage effectively. (Summary taken from the provided in the Introduction of this guide.)

FTC- CAN-SPAM Act Information (PDF)

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them. This resource (from the Federal Trade Commission) outlines the requirements for commercial emailers in a brief read!

Iterable - Guide to Email Metrics (PDF)

New to, or considering beginning to tracking email metrics to gauge your component's email performance? This PDF offers tons of information to help you learn more about what metrics to look at, and provides benchmarking information to help you quickly understand and implement the basic (yet enriching) practice!

SiteImprove - Quick Tips for Accessible Emails

This resource highlights tips for making email communications more accessible. Reference this tool to improve your practice.

Social Media & Unit Events (Unit Town Hall PowerPoint)

Previously used to facilitate the 2023 Unit Town Hall, this PPT includes all talking points for this session and details for establishing a plan for social media while planning, executing, and following a component event. This document also includes previews of templates and resources for social media curated by CEC staff for use by your component.

Canva Templates for Event-Related Social Media Posts

Canva template link to edit and create your own versions of the images in this section.

Conference Check List - Instagram or Facebook Story Image

Ready-to-use Instagram and Facebook story template.

Favorite Session - Instagram or Facebook Story Image

Ready-to-use Instagram and Facebook story template.

Packing List - Instagram or Facebook Story Image

Ready-to-use Instagram and Facebook story template.

Photo Scavenger Hunt - Instagram or Facebook Story Image

Ready-to-use Instagram and Facebook story template.

This or That - Instagram or Facebook Story Image

Ready-to-use Instagram and Facebook story template.

CEC Logo

JPEG version of CEC's log

CEC Logo

PNG (vector) version of CEC's logo (background-free)

CEC Logo  - Black and White

Black and white JPEG version of CEC's logo.

Division Logos

CEC-created Division logos

Unit Logos

CEC-created Unit logos

Heebo Font Download

CEC's Heebo font is available to download for free!

Tinos Font Download

CEC's Tinos font is available to download for free!

CEC Branding Guidelines

All the details on how to align your branding with CEC's brand.

Ideas for Component Websites

This document stems from a Leadership Institute breakout session in 2023. Find various ideas and ways to strengthen your component's website here! Plus some real-life examples of other Unit and Division websites to inspire your own component's website's potential.

Websites, Marketing and your Component's Success

From the 2023 Leadership Institute, this resource covers website essentials that can articulate your purpose and build and support your reputation so that members find your unique website helpful, informative and catered to them. In addition, we will cover social media basics, including items to consider and how to prepare for launching a new Instagram, Twitter or Facebook page. 

Website Report Card

Use this 2022 Leadership Institute resource to assess your component's website.

Division/Unit Web Request Form

Need to have updates made to your component's website hosted through CEC? Need your event added to CEC's events page? Request those website updates here.

Open Volunteer Recruitment Story

Ready-to-use Instagram or Facebook Story post to promote volunteer recruitment

Volunteer Recruitment

• Image Ready-to-use Instagram "grid" or Facebook post to promote volunteer recruitment; includes QR code to Volunteer Square.
• Image QR Code Ready-to-use Instagram "grid" or Facebook post to promote volunteer recruitment.

CEC Digital Analytics 2023

This PDF offers  insights into CEC's social media and markting platforms and summarizes the performance of CEC's efforts in each. We recommend using this tool to familiarize yourself with CEC's efforts, what/how we measure our own performance, and gain more insights regarding engagement with our website and social media platforms. Looking to learn more or for guidance regarding your component's performance? Contact our staff experts!

• Mason Shelby, Digital Content Director (for website-related questions): [email protected]    
• Hannah Hickman, Marketing Manager (for social media-related questions): [email protected]

Hootsuite's Social Media Analytics Report Excel Template

You've put the work in on social media. Now what? It's time to take a look at your metrics and analytics! This template provides structure for tracking your engagement and selcted metrics.

In our digital age, we can track everything we do. But what are our goals, our why? Think back to why you are on social media and from there, we can figure out what metrics to look at. If you are trying to get people to read a blog post, you can take a look at link clicks or engagement rate (which is the total amount of engagement divided by the amount of impressions/views on a post). If you are trying to spread the word on an action alert, take a look at those share numbersThese analytics give you insight into your audience and how they behave, and what they like. You can use these figures to measure success and progress! 

Hootsuite Blogpost: What is social media analytics? The 2024 guide for marketers

New to the concept of social media analytics? This article from Hootsuite's Blog provides ""a comprehensive introduction to the concept of social media analytics. If you’re just getting started with tracking your results on social — or you want to get better at it, and get more out of measuring your performance — this is the guide for you."

What this post isn’t: An exhaustive list of tools we recommend. If that’s what you’re looking for, head over to our list of the 20+ very best social media analytics tools. 

Social Media Content Calendar (Planning Tool) Excel Templates

These Excel templates provide structure for planning out your component's social media content (posts). These ready-to-use templates offer two unique approaches for planning your social media content!

• Template 1 (for planning by social media platform): Best for components using 1-3 social media platforms, or for planning out various types of posts based on the platform you're posting on. 
• Template 2 (for advanced planning and/or planning by week): Best for components leveraging various social media accounts, developing promotional plans for CEC/component events,  and/or components with ""advanced"" social media practices.

Seeking guidance on planning your social media strategy? Check out this resource from trusted source Sprout Social: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-calendar-template/

Georgetown University - Digital Persuasion: How Social Media Motivates Action and Drives Support for Causes (PDF Report)

New to leveraging social media within your component, or simply looking to better understand the "paradigm shift in the way companies, organizations, and people interact with each other and the world around them?" GREAT! This report offers you a great deal of information gathered by Georgetown University's study and does just that! Read the report in its entirety, or reference the Table of Contents on page 4 to dive into the section you're most interested in.

Hootsuite Blogpost: 21 of the best social media analytics tools for 2024

Are you on your journey to explore/learn more about your social media performance? Hootsuite provides 21 recommendations to you here.       In this blog post, Hootsuite states: "Social media analytics tools are apps and dashboards that allow you to gather information about your social media performance and your audience. Tools for social media analytics also allow you to create reports to track performance in real time and over time, and present results to your team, your boss, and other relevant stakeholders."

2024 Fall Professional Development Fair Promotion Toolkit

Help CEC spread the word about this online event featuring over 20 live 1-hour sessions! This packet provides an overview of the program, key dates, sample social media posts, and more!