Digital round-up – November 2018

Highlights this month: #YouMadeItHappen, #GivingTuesday, Christmas campaigns, Charity Digital Code launched.

November is always a rich time for content with Giving Tuesday and Christmas appeals. This month it was also the first ever #YouMadeItHappen day. It was great to see so many large and small charities joining in by thanking their supporters and sharing detail of the impact they had made.

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Content

Christmas campaigns:

• Dogs Trust’s A Dog is for Life Not For Christmas video.
• Heart-warming video from Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.
• RSPCA’s #KindnessAtChristmas video made in-house.
• Rethink partners with Virgin Trains in #ItsAWonderfulLine. Have you seen this in a station near you?
• Christmas isn’t cancelled in hospice Compton Care’s campaign. Get the tissues for this one.

Need more Christmas? See UK Fundraising’s collection of Christmas ads and my top 5 charity digital advent calendars.

Giving Tuesday:

• Reason Digital hosted an epic Twitter takeover representing nine different charities. People told their stories in a marathon effort.
• Nice thank you video from Marie Curie.
• Tiny Tickers’ appeal aimed to raise £750 to pay for one new pulse oximetry machine and ended up raising enough to pay for four. Tiny Tickers’ CEO Jon Arnold took over their Twitter account for an hour and later said that his fingers hurt at the end.
• There were a number of GT campaigns which focused on everyday acts of kindness. Lovely examples in this @ZurichVolSec Moment.
• More #GivingTuesday examples in this post from Lightful. And Blackbaud reports new #GivingTuesday record.

Also this month:

• Love Age UK’s #FridayFeeling tweets.
• This year the local government annual tweetathon, #OurDay generated 33k tweets and had a social reach of 26 million.
• There were some nice messages around for Black Friday as #BuyNothingDay, like this one from Herts Wildlife Trust.
• Access to Justice expert Philippa Budgen gathered examples of the crumbling court system as a follow-up to the coverage she secured in The Times.
• Dogs Trust marked the sudden death of their CEO with a thread about some of his achievements. It was also lovely to see so many other organisations responding to the news with their condolences.
• Another google search inspired piece of content from the Blurt Foundation. Can depression….?
• #SmallTalkSavesLives – new video from Samaritans.
• Can you lip read? asks Action on Hearing Loss. They also shared tips for navigating social situations when you have hearing loss.
• CRUK asks will you stand shoulder to shoulder with the NHS against cancer?
• The National Trust welcomed December with the sound of a robin.

Did you join in with #YouMadeItHappen day? The hashtag reached 5.4m people. Here are some highlights of YMIH 2018.

Twitter takeover of the month: Scope for International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Comms

• Kick-ass campaigning from Mind in this thread about Universal Credit and Esther McVey with 401k views and 5.5k likes. Here are the responses from The Trussell Trust and Gingerbread who were also mentioned.
• My charity is better for being open about failure writes Street League’s Matt Stevenson-Dodd.
• Breast Cancer Now and Breast Cancer Care shared merger news. Supporters received letters through the post on the same day the news was publicly announced.
• What’s wrong with young men? How awareness of charities changes for different demographics – new research about brand awareness from nfpSynergy.

Don’t forget to book your ticket for the Social Media Exchange in February.

Digital – strategy, design, culture

Following the consultation period, the Charity Digital Code has now officially launched. Do have a look if you haven’t already.

The Small Charities Coalition challenged Zoe Amar to explain it in three post-it notes. And in Charity Digital News she shares 7 things you can do in 30 minutes a day.

The Code advocates digital skills across staff and the board. This helpful infographic produced by Zoe Amar, Ellie Hale, Sally Dyson and Janet Thorne asks Do you need a digital trustee?

Also this month:

• Is your charity ready for digital transformation? 10 examples of non-profits doing it well from Electric Putty.
• Behind the National Trust’s historic digital roadmap – Charity Digital News checks in half way through their 10-year strategy.
• Unlocking success in digital transformations – McKinsey.
• This year’s Social CEOs winners. Hear more about them – How charity leaders are taking digital to the next level.
• The latest UK Business and Charity Digital Index from Lloyds Bank. Now in its fifth year.
• Monthly accessibility tip: check you instagram settings and add alt text. Instagram adds automatic image descriptions to assist visually impaired users – Social Media Today
• Is your charity ready for the fourth industrial revolution? asked Zurich for Charities.
• Ethics in service design. Adding value by adding values by Ben Terrett.
• Have you seen Nesta’s Share Town which explores a local government approach to user needs and service design?
• Good Design is Good Civics – transcript and podcast of the story of Boston Mayor’s Office’s app development.
• Write ups from Charity Comms’ Charity Digital conference from Kirsty Marrins and Eleanor Dean (plus these tweets from Joe Freeman). The slides and Wakelet are on the Charity Comms conference page.
• Charity Comms podcast: engagement wasn’t built in a day.
• Supporter journeys: The nut every charity wants to crack – NSPCC’s Digital Dunk.
• Top 5 tips to maximise your website traffic – DSC.
• 5 tips for getting the most out of your Google Ad Grant account – ACEVO.
• Social Media Analytics: how to measure success – Lightful.
• Check your data – But is it statistically significant?
• Seeing isn’t always believing: a deep dive into Deep Fake. Serious implications for trust in broadcasting.

Fundraising

JustTextGiving to close in March next year. Are you ready? (See also Figure for text donation plummets by £86m and donr announces text giving service.)

• Movember launches contactless fundraising badges – UK Fundraising.
• Big Issue partners with iZettle to bring contactless payments to vendors.
• Interesting insights into legacy fundraising in this Radio 4 programme – Inheritance: Give it up or pass it on?
• League table reveals top 20 charities for legacy considerers – UK Fundraising.
• Have you seen Jes Bailey’s crowdfunding platform decision flowchart?
• The Institute of Fundraising launched its Change Collective. Take the survey by 18 January to help benchmark diversity.

People and organisations

• Change to avert ‘catastrophic decline’ in individual giving, says WaterAid executive – Third Sector. Johnty Gray warns about the dangers of a risk-averse culture and old-fashioned corporate structures on innovation.
• How vInspired went from £50m to bust in less than ten years – Civil Society.
• New sector interactive data hub from SCVO.
• Slides from Charity Comms seminar on diversity and inclusion. Time to act: tackling diversity and inclusion in charity communications.
• Congratulations to the Charity Comms Inspiring Communicator Award winners.

And finally….

• Demolition of a huge chimney in Australia.
• The social psychology of female pedestrians.
• The UX of hotel rooms: 11 anti-patterns by Sharon O’Dea.
• Video of Danny Boyle’s Pages of the Sea.
• Twitter’s John Lewis ad.
• The Lord Flashheart mix from Blackadder. Genius!

Your recommendations

What did you read, watch or launch this month? Please add your links in the comments.

Can I help you?

Get in touch if I can help you with content planning, training or strategy. I work with charities of all shapes and sizes. I can help give your comms or digital processes a healthcheck and ideas injection.

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Did you miss October’s round-up? Catch up with more good reads!