I connect with a lot of different charities on different channels, following them on Twitter, liking them on Facebook and subscribing to the odd email newsletter. Whilst it’s great that so many charities are embracing these (no longer new) ways of connecting with their supporters, the messages sent through those channels are not always consistent or complementary. And even if you have a clearly defined message, how you communicate that message is subtly different depending on the platform – you don’t write for email the same way you write for Twitter.
I’d never been a part of an appeal that took place across Facebook, Twitter, email and YouTube until I heard about plight of Joey, one of the first babies re-homed in Uganda by the Child’s i Foundation. Last month, they discovered that he needed life saving surgery within 48 hours, and the charity needed to raise £10,000 to fund this operation.
I heard about this not from the charity initially, but from other people retweeting the charity and sharing a video made by the team at Child’s i Foundation: my initial contact was indirect, but based on friends’ recommendations.
At first, I didn’t have much time to look into what this was about – sometimes checking Twitter is a luxury – so I never got round to clicking on any links to find out more. As I subscribe to the charity’s email list, though, I received an email asking for my support. And since I had already heard about the appeal on Twitter and was interested, I didn’t need much persuading to support it (although the email is certainly persuasive – clear, simple and to the point) and I donated on their JustGiving page.
That weekend I was checking Facebook and, as I liked the charity’s Facebook page, I learnt on my newsfeed that the £10,000 they needed had been raised:
Notice how the message was saying “you did it” and not “we did it”. The focus of this whole appeal was on what you as an individual could do, making you feel like you could make a difference.
Seeing that, I felt good to have supported the appeal. And I felt better when I was thanked on Twitter the following week. Then I felt even better when I received a beautifully written thank-you email letting me know that the total had been raised and work was underway to get Joey to a hospital in South Africa. Accompanying this email was a short, but amazing, video, telling the story of how the money had been raised, the reaction of the charity in Uganda and a thank you from Joey’s adopted parents.
All this made me feel like I had helped save Joey’s life, and it was an amazing feeling – exactly the reason why we give, yet so infrequently the feeling we get when we do.
This was an integrated appeal run on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and email that told a powerful story better than any charity appeal I’ve seen before. So next time you’re thinking of running a campaign across multiple channels, look at what the Child’s i Foundation did and think how you can do the same.
But before you do that, watch the video below, and feel good. Because that’s the most important thing about this story: as much as the use of technology is impressive, the tools themselves don’t make you give, the message does.
Jonathan Waddingham is a Product Manager at the UK’s leading online fundraising platform JustGiving, and you can say hello to him on Twitter at @jon_bedford.
How do small charities stay competitive in a big charity world?
Quite frankly I wish knew the answer to this question. With the vast majority of charities being on the small side, it’s an important one. What I can answer is: how can a small charity punch above its weight in terms of media coverage? Here are my five easy things to do to get more media coverage. As you’ll see, five is a bit of a theme!
Know where you want coverage
It sounds so obvious but the first thing to do to get more media coverage is to know where you would like to get coverage. Is it in the local newspaper, on the radio, in a blog or a mention in a particular column? As a first step, identify the five places you want media coverage.
Know which journalists you want to snuggle up to
Behind every piece of media coverage is a person who writes, edits or moderates it. Who are those people? What are their names and their email addresses? Which five journalists can help you get more coverage? Identify them and make a list.
Read and read and read again
Read everything you can that has been written by the journalists who you want to cover your stories. What do they write about? What stories interest them? As you read, work out five ideal kinds of stories you would like to have told about your organisation. Flattery and mimicry are two of the most important human skills – flatter journalists by telling them you have read their work and mimic those organisations who appear to get the kind of coverage you would like.
Know your own great stories
The sad truth is that too many charities have too many boring stories that they would like to get covered: cheque presentations, new staff arriving, AGMs and so on. The weird thing is that most of us as consumers wouldn’t read them – but we still hope the media will cover them. So have an office brainstorm and work out the five most exciting stories that you have. And remember to look at what people like to read: human stories, real people, personalities, controversies, love, heroes and so on.
Do your own coverage
My final five is to make your own coverage. Find those places in newspapers and on radio stations and increasingly on the internet where you can add your comment. Which phone-in can you contact? Which internet story can you add a comment to? Which editor can you write a letter to?
iPads have been available in America since 3rd April 2010, and since 28th May in the UK; by June, Apple had sold 3 million of them. Estimates are that Apple will sell 12 million in 2010 and 50 million a year in future years.
I’ve been fortunate to have been using one as part of my work for the past three months and I’ll admit to being an enthusiast - but don’t just take my word for it. There are some great surveys available on how people are using iPads from Yahoo and Cooper Murphy Webb and we are starting to understand how people are interacting with them. The Cooper Murphy Webb survey offers these figures:
Nearly one-third (31%) of respondents said that iPad is now their preferred method of reading newspapers and magazines, compared to 24% who said print.
Almost a quarter (24%) of respondents said they use iPad as their primary entertainment device – ahead of mobile phones (22%) and TV (19%) but behind the laptop/computer (33%).
Just under half (41%) said their preferred method of reading books is iPad, and 36% saying print.
The Yahoo survey highlights that the sweet spot for the iPad user base is the 30–54 age range – a key target demographic for charities.
It’s early days for getting data on charity iPad usage. Beth Kanter, who is based in the US, published an interesting blog recently and Third Sector also covered mobile apps, including the Scripture Union/Baigent Digital Wordlive app (one of only two charity iPad apps at the time of writing).
For what it’s worth, these are my thoughts - based on observing people using my iPad – for the opportunities this growing channel offers charity communicators:
iPads are different from laptops: the format is a much more sociable format, people pass the device around the room to each other and sit and watch video on it together.
They are incredibly simple to use (at a recent family gathering my 2 year old son was able to open an app and watch a video, whilst his 80 year old grandparents were able to instantly pick up Google Earth and scroll around viewing their house and neighbourhood).
The touchscreen is a much more intuitive way of navigating and interacting with websites.
The HD screen gives images and videos of people greater impact.
Early magazine apps are already demonstrating the rich experience of being able to view video and listen to audio seamlessly within written articles.
It’s not just Apple that’s getting a slice of the action. The world awaits the launch of three new tablets: the Blackberry BlackPad; the Lenovo LePad; and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. These will bring the tablet format to a wider audience. It’s also clear that it is very early days for publishers, newspapers and charities to understand how to best communicate through this format. The software for producing magazines is only in production; now is a moment of experiment, rather than a groundswell of opportunity.
For me, devices like iPads provide a fantastic opportunity to bring charity communications alive. If you think of a newsletter or direct mailing that can talk, move, laugh, cry and speak from the heart, which enables the supporter to respond there and then, it gives you a flavour of how your charity can communicate with 3 million people and rising. Whilst it may not be in your communications mix for 2010, it will force its way in during 2011.
Jim Raymond is Operations Director of Baigent Digital, a consultancy and agency specialising in websites, online fundraising and digital strategies for charities.
I read a blog post this week that made me think about how we use research to inform communications activity. The post was written by a well-respected fundraising specialist, Jeff Brooks, and was entitled ‘Qualitative research fuels wishful thinking’. I respect Jeff’s thoughts – but suspect there is a bigger question to consider.
He suggests that qualitative research can encourage activity that is highly unlikely to meet its objectives. The example cited is of a study published by The Communication Network, which suggests that “people were more persuaded to act on children’s issues by positive communication than negative”.
This makes sense at face value, and as a sentiment is something we can all probably relate to. Which brings us to the bigger question.
Should we take any qualitative research at face value and act upon it without further questioning? In Jeff’s example he believes professional fundraisers know full well that donors need to see very clearly that there is some negative which can’t be resolved without their help. They also want to see the positive impact their donations will have – but they have to understand the need first.
So was the research totally wrong? It wasn’t wrong, but neither was it 100% fit for purpose. It turns out the subject of the study was issue advocacy, not fundraising, so the answers respondents gave were not in a fundraising context. They weren’t thinking specifically about what motivates them to hand over their hard-earned cash.
A second risk of not questioning research is misinterpreting results. This is much easier to do with qualitative findings and we’ve all seen stories written and decisions made based on a certain interpretation of the facts.
My favourite example is from an ex-colleague (who I can’t name for professional embarrassment reasons). He was planning a party event for Club 18-30 holiday-makers and looking at data from a feedback questionnaire. The survey asked two simple questions about alcoholic drinks: ‘Do you like beer?’ and ‘Do you like spirits?’. Not surprisingly, the results were over 90% for both, so he ordered a similar amount of each for the next event.
You can probably guess what’s coming. The beer ran out after only a few hours and he received lots of complaints. Not until sometime later did he realise that the question around liking beer and spirits actually had nothing to do with people’s preference for one over the other when they were at an event, during the day and in the sunshine.
I don’t think qualitative research fuels wishful thinking. I think we as authors and decision-makers fuel wishful thinking by using the findings out of context or misinterpreting the data. Ultimately, we make decisions inspired by research, so we must make sure that any conclusions we draw and the resultant decisions we make reflect what respondents actually think.
Established as a traditional networking event with lots of opportunities for face-to-face communication, training from key experts and even its own special editions of Third Sector magazine, the Institute’s National Convention (this year, held on 5-7th July) is already one of the most vibrant and ‘connected’ events in the charity calendar.
It gives fundraisers the chance to learn from sector experts, and gain invaluable inspiration from sector personalities such as Camila Batmanghelidjh – the founder and director of Kids Company – to help spur them on to do an even better job for the rest of the year.
For this year’s event, it was decided that the Institute would gingerly dip a toe in the social media stream by engaging with a number of channels to make the best of marketing opportunities, and help to facilitate communications between delegates during National Convention 2010.
The Institute started a social media ‘push’ six weeks before Convention, focusing mainly on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. Staff from across the organisation were asked to participate in a special ‘social media task force’ working group, with 15 volunteers stepping up to the plate and joining in with activity to a greater or lesser degree.
YouTube was used to showcase individual speakers and sessions; Twitter and Facebook were also utilised to promote event ‘trailer’ videos, run competitions and to back up existing Convention marketing in terms of offering session information, booking offers, and so on. A LinkedIn group was also created.
What were the key learnings we discovered from this foray into social media channels? Broadly, we discovered that when offered the opportunity for this type of extended communication, delegates were more than happy to use it. Post-event analysis of the twitter hashtag #iofnc, for example, showed that almost 20% of registered attendees submitted at least one tweet during the event itself.
Also, analysis of posted comments will give us an unprecedented insight into what speakers, delegates and exhibitors at the event were talking about in real time, how attendees are communicating amongst themselves and what their experiences of Convention were, which will allow us to plan future events from a more informed perspective.
In terms of the stats themselves, it’s clear we achieved greater engagement – before Convention the Institute of Fundraising had 442 Twitter followers. This increased by 47% so that after the event, numbers reached 649. The four YouTube videos specifically about Convention attracted 396 views.
What we’ve found in sum is that it’s crucial that the Institute doesn’t let its current profile flag; we need to maintain and seek to build on it. As a means of facilitating dialogue, betraying a deeper insight into the preferences of stakeholder groups such as our organisation’s members, we see social media as central to achieving this.
Diana Mackie, PR Manager, Institute of Fundraising. You can currently follow National Convention on twitter: @natconvention, and the Institute on Facebook and LinkedIn. On youTube, we’re fundraisinginstitute.
We are currently working with a new partner, Richard Harpin of domestic insurers Homeserve, to develop new curriculum material – which sets out what Scouts have to do to get a badge – around the theme of entrepreneurship.
The question came from them a couple of months ago: how best to launch it?
We went for a simple approach. We choose to launch during the quiet summer period and threw in some celebrity endorsement for good measure.
All the elements were there:
A new initiative.
It was unexpected.
It had a badge associated with it, which is what Scouting is known for; you can launch curriculum material without the badge, but journalists won’t get as excited about it.
A celebrity – Chris Evans - endorsed the programme .
We had young people ready to talk to the media.
We offered it to the FT as a print exclusive and they ran it front page. The results were excellent, with great regional TV and print coverage, national coverage on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and BBC Five Live, and world coverage on BBC world service.
The story also flowed into the weekend with some opinionpieces in the weekend editions of the Telegraph and Times.
I had almost forgotten what it was like to do basic, simple and uncomplicated media work. Sometimes it just pays off.
As an in-house communicator, you will find that there’s a wealth of benefits to working with agencies. They bring in specialist skills, economies of scale, a wealth of experience from working on other projects and – perhaps most valuable of all – a fresh pair of eyes and the ability to shed new light on a project.
It’s also worth remembering that using agencies doesn’t have to be expensive, as they can deliver just one phase of a project, with the rest of the work being completed in-house.
But the client / agency relationship is often a difficult one to manage, and there can be a lot of pressure on the charity to ensure that the agency delivers value for money.
Rachel Beer, Founding Partner at beautiful world, gives her own view on the client / agency relationship: “The one thing I have learned over the years is just how important the spirit of partnership is in this equation. You’ll get far more out of your agency if you treat the relationship as more of a partnership and less like a client-supplier arrangement. Both parties need to be prepared to give and take, and work at it – just like any relationship – otherwise it’s likely it will experience degrees of dysfunction.”
Zoe Amar, Marketing and Business Development Manager at Lasa, also has plenty of experience in dealing with agencies: “Take time to firm up the project plan/ business case/ objectives for it at your side (i.e. the charity’s) before briefing the agency. This will create buy-in and credibility for why you want to bring in an agency, and ultimately will make their job and level of engagement with their work much easier. Make sure you’ve got the right chemistry with the agency and have compatible working styles. For example, I work best with agencies/ suppliers who also like a structured process with clear outcomes.”
If you do find yourself hiring the services of an agency, for supporting your communications efforts or otherwise, there are many important points to bear in mind that will make the relationship more of a success. Here are Rachel and Zoe’s top tips for managing the client / agency relationship:
Take time to firm up the objectives. Doing this before briefing the agency will create buy-in for bringing in an agency, and can ultimately increase the agency’s level of engagement with their work.
Take the time to find the right agency. You will need to see quite a few before you understand which one is the right fit. For a big project be prepared to devote as much time to recruitment as to the work itself – it will be worth it.
Build a partnership. If you work in the spirit of partnership, everything else will fall into place. This is a joint venture, and you are jointly responsible for its success. Celebrate the successes, learn from the failures, and don’t ever resort to blame tactics.
Establish trust. The charity needs to be able to trust that the agency is working in the best interests of its mission. Equally, agencies put a huge amount of care, energy and passion into the causes they work with, and it helps if they feel that the client’s behaviour reciprocates. The more open and trusting both parties are, the more healthy and productive the relationship will be.
Emphasise clear communication. If you have trust, you will have this, and if you have this, you will have trust. Start out as you mean to go on, putting in some ground rules at the beginning. Good, open, honest communication is key to keeping the relationship healthy.
Don’t be afraid to challenge. Clients use agencies because they want to benefit from their skills and experience, but no one is always right. Give each other permission to challenge each other positively, and keep doing it.
Make it mutually beneficial. Like it or not, the agency needs to make money in return for its services. If it didn’t do this, there wouldn’t be an agency able to share its knowledge and experience. Remember, your agencies are stakeholders in your success too, so it’s smart to treat them like that.
Step back when you need to. Although it is good to work closely with your agency, sometimes they need some space. Make sure the agency has the support it needs, but also let them get on with the job.
Do you have experience in working with agencies? What worked well and what didn’t work? If you’re on the agency side, what tips would you give to charities thinking about hiring an agency?
Brand can get a lot of stick in the third sector – especially when a substantial pile of money is spent on rebranding an organisation. It can appear wasteful to channel funding into what is, on the surface at least, a change of logo and a new strapline.
However, brand is more equivalent to reputation than appearance – it’s all the images and ideas that people associate with your organisation. Although verbal identity (name, tone of voice, strapline) and visual identity (logo, typography, colours) are perhaps the most obvious elements of this, they are only reflections of what should be the foundation of your brand: your vision, mission and values.
Seeing brand in this way, it becomes obvious that your staff and supporters should be involved in its creation; they, after all, make up the body of your organisation.
Speaking at yesterday’s CharityComms seminar about the recent Parkinson’s UK rebrand was Dan Dufour fromThe Team – the agency behind the rebrand – and Caroline Ledger, Communications Director at Parkinson’s UK. Here are a few salient points from their inspiring session:
1. Ask questions, and learn from the answers. You cannot undertake a rebrand without knowing what problems you have, and what needs to change. Carry out research with all your audiences – service-users, staff, volunteers – and find out how they feel about your organisation’s vision and future. Parkinson’s UK found that even internally people could not articulate what the charity was about, and that their name, Parkinson’s Disease Society, was unpopular – something that had not been appreciated. The information you collect from research will help you recognise your priorities.
2. Test your ideas on your audiences. During the development of the organisation’s updated vision, mission and values, and their new name and strapline, ideas were tested on reference groups made up of all their audiences. Later, options for the visual identity were also tested with these reference groups. Their feedback directed the route chosen, and the ideas that ended up before the board. By doing this, you can ensure your brand is created by your organisation, not imposed on it.
3. Keep in touch. Explain your intentions and decisions clearly at every stage of the process, using multiple channels of communication. For example, the Chief Executive of Parkinson’s UK wrote to local branches at key stages of the rebranding process, to ensure that all parts of the organisation were included in the changes and kept in the loop. It seems this continuous communication was effective in helping them identify with the new brand: 74% branches had adopted it after the first month.
Whilst you can’t guarantee that everyone will be happy with the changes you make when rebranding, you can work to give your staff and supporters a sense of ownership over the new brand.
If, like me, you are lucky enough to have known and remember your grandparents, you may feel a twinge when you see one of their contemporaries enjoying the sun on a park bench, when you read about Second World War veterans in the news, or when you’re reminded of their favourite TV programmes.
However, as colleagues working in comms targeting older people know, there’s a lot more to the over 50s market than the stereotypes of little old ladies leaving their money under the mattress to the cat.
Communications with older people can be improved by following some key principles:
AGE = identity. Anyone inhabiting their own skin for six decades plus is likely to have worked themselves out and have a strong sense of self. Older people are a sophisticated – sometimes cynical – audience. And they quickly spot tokenistic or patronising campaigns.
From marketing or communications materials they will probably be seeking:
information, rather than image benefits, rather than brands logic, rather than logos
AGE = diversity. Be careful about targeting older people on the basis of their age – unless you’re offering a specialist product or service that is designed for this age group. Look beyond age – this is an incredibly diverse sector of society that runs from newly minted 50 year olds to both active and vulnerable 90 year olds, and everyone in between.
Lifestage, health, income, values … all underpin mindsets and behaviour.
AGE = renewal. Older people are looking for new, refreshing, more representative forms of communication in materials aimed specifically at them, or at mainstream audiences that include them.
If we are to engAGE, rather than enrAGE, we need to begin our creative approach with some baselines:
recognise older people’s life knowledge, lifeskills and sense of self.
reflect their strengths (individuality, acquired wisdom, flexibility) and their unique life
experience.
respect their concerns, problems and needs (including the need for tailored design of products, services and materials).
reject stereotypes – re-think your ideas about older people.
These tips are taken from a new good practice guide: Engaging Communications: communicating with and about older generations, produced by AGEncy. This new arm of the communications agency Forster aims to help reframe how society sees old age and to re-establish the value of being older.
We’re also running a free series of monthly seminars on communicating with older people, beginning next Tuesday 13 July. For more information email donna@forster.co.uk or call 020 7403 2230.
Donna Tipping (donna@forsteragency.co.uk) is a Project Director for AGEncy – the service dedicated to communications for older people at integrated communications agency, Forster. Follow us on Twitter @ForsterAGEncy
As we all know, we are currently living under the governance of a hung parliament. How will this affect your e-campaigning tactics and strategy going forward?
Uncertainty
Will the coalition crumble at the first sign of opposition or will it be here for the full five years? At the moment, no one really knows (though it will be fun to watch!). The length and success of the coalition government will drive your organisation’s strategy considerably. Will you be building relationships with MPs for years to come or will you be getting back to election campaigning if we all go to the polls again in a few months time? You will need to be very reactive to the situation.
A new class
About a third of the current crop of MPs are new to parliament – 232 in all. They are from different backgrounds and are as young as 26 in some constituencies (Airdrie and Shotts MP, Pamela Nash). This means that campaigning organisations are talking to a group of politicians who may never have been contacted by their constituents on charity issues before. This really is the time to get in front of them and get your voice heard. Soon.
Policies
The coalition has committed to tacking the national debt, meaning that funding for your organisation’s causes may be cut to finance the repayments. It’s more vital now than ever to make sure your issues are really in front of MPs and the government. If you know that certain MPs are supportive (maybe they pledged to help you during the election), make sure you use their support in any way you can. For example, get them to support bills, sign Early Day Motions or join relevant All Party Parliamentary Groups.
The role of each MP has been amplified – take action!
In the past, even if ‘back-benchers’ voted the other way, bills generally were passed, due to the fact that Labour had such a big majority. Similar ‘revolts’ could now cause major issues. Your organisation needs to use this fractured decision making process to your benefit. If you know certain MPs are involved in committees or groups, or are interested in certain issues, get your supporters to send messages to them with relevant questions, comments or asks. Pull in party specific issues and local statistics too. Get your supporters to be personal with their MPs. This will help get the message across and could really impact on your campaign’s success, or lack of it.
Be direct
Running alongside supporter based actions, you should also consider sending emails directly to MPs asking them to support your cause, come to an event or just download some materials. Segmenting email communication based on personal information and past activity can help your open rate and participation rate email stats, just as with your supporters.
On the subject of supporter emails… how many of you know the constituencies that your supporters live in? If you don’t, you should – and then use this information to send out targeted emails at vital times. For example, if a bill is being passed and you know that certain MPs are wavering, and you also know that you have a sizable number of supporters in those constituencies, you can send an email just to these people, asking them to take action and convince the MP(s) to back your campaign. Segmenting like this can have a great lobbying impact but it can also help to engage your supporters as they will really feel like they are making a difference.
Jonathan Purchase is Head of Market Development in the UK for Advocacy Online, a leading provider of integrated e-campaigning and fundraising software. Contact him here: jonathan@advocacyonline.net
