Digital round-up – October 2019

Highlights this month: big hashtag events including #YouMadeItHappen and #WorldMentalHealthDay, legacy fundraising + the sector’s response to the climate emergency.

October is a massive month for awareness days and creative content so this is another bumper issue of 100+ links. I have also included a new section on the sector’s growing response to the climate emergency.

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Content

• Love this new campaign from Battersea – #RescueIsMyFavouriteBreed. “You don’t have to be a Dane to be Great.” Dogs Trust shared it too.
• New ambitious campaign from MS Society UK – #StopMS. Appeal webpage has a powerful message and pledge totaliser: “By 2025, we want to be in the final stages of testing treatments for everyone with MS. Treatments that slow or stop disability progression. We believe £100 million could take us to a future where no one has to worry about their MS getting worse. But we can’t do it without your support.” They also shared an animated video explaining MS and its symptoms.
• Great responsive campaigning from Girl Guiding who spotted Boris Johnson’s coffee cup shuffle as an opportunity to share their Plastic Promise.
• Shocking video from Oxfam GB for their #BehindTheBarcodes campaign.
• A Moment of St Mungo’s #50Lives campaign.
• Great video from Keech Hospice Care for #HospiceCareWeek.
• How much do you know about hospice care? Hospice UK shared this quiz.
• Amnesty UK share a beautiful animated poem by the illustrator Axel Scheffler about refugees for #NationalPoetryDay.
• The Poverty Alliance in Scotland shared this animation for #ChallengePoverty week.
• I liked this warning from Breast Cancer Now to their supporters ahead of their new campaign about secondary breast cancer.
• Did you hear any birdsong on RSPB’s #LetNatureSing takeover day?
• Perfect Friday afternoon thread: #MakeABookChocolate from Book Trust.
• There was some great Halloween content. Like this spooky game in a Twitter thread from The Globe, a quiz about museum enemy critters from Museum of London using #CreepyCrawlyTrickOrTreat and these spooky sounds from The British Library’s archive. This Halloween Moment has more examples.

#WorldMentalHealthDay is a very busy day. Here are some highlights and other mental health-related content shared this month:

• Great thread from CIPR Not-for-profit sharing charity comms highlights from #WorldMentalHealthDay.
• Sometimes simple works best. This post-it tweet from Time to Change shared on #WorldMentalHealthDay, a very busy day, got 2k RTs and 3k likes.
• 407k views for this Samaritans video shared on WMHD.
• “A bit OCD.” Poem shared by Time to Change for OCD Week which has had 95k views.
• ITV partnered with Mind and Young Minds to launch #BritainGetTalking. The replies to this launch tweet by ITV were not very positive.
• #EveryMindMatters was also launched by Public Health England. The Every Mind Matters website has a quiz and information.
• Getting outside definitely helps my mental health. I liked this from London Wildlife Trust.

Did you join in with #YouMadeItHappen day this year? Here is a #YMIH Moment of some of the stand-out comms and a #YMIH blog post which goes into more detail.

Comms

• Telling stories with Instagram stories – Helpful Digital.
• How other charities do…. achievements webpages – packed with examples to give you food for thought. Gathered by Richard Berks.
• Innovative charity annual reviews 2019 – Jennifer Campbell. See also  slides from Charity Comms’ Annual Reviews seminar.
• CLIC Sargent launched their 2019 impact and accountability report including a 9minute video about things that didn’t go so well.
• There were negative responses to TV’s Lorraine’s Boob Bus for Breast Cancer Awareness Month including this article in The Independent about excluding women of colour and this tweet from Stella Duffy.
• How charities are innovating with digital outdoor advertising – Charity Digital News.
• You have until 1 December to vote for your favourite in the Charity Film Awards.
• Rebrand: Breast Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Now merge to become Breast Cancer Now.
• Rebrand: Greater London Fund for the Blind becomes the Vision Foundation.
• New partnership between Battersea and Street Vet.
• 7 tips for freshening up your comms – Helpful Digital.
• Are you guilty of using alienating jargon in your internal and external comms? This post from Virgin Money Foundation is a useful reminder about the words we use.
• Opportunity knocks for social change, even in divided times – JRF. How culture can hold the key to driving shifts in attitudes towards people trapped in poverty.
• JRF now do a weekly round-up newsletter sharing publications, blogs and stories in the news.
• Do you live-tweet through relevant TV programmes? Here’s some tips from sounddelivery – How charities can use programmes to raise their profile. And an example from WWF who tweet through #SevenWorldsOnePlanet.
• Accessibility tip of the month: don’t use images / gifs which flicker as they could trigger a seizure in someone who has photosensitive epilepsy. Useful information from Epilepsy Action.
• Facebook comments: Here’s the advice you need if you’re a public sector Facebook page admin wondering how to reply to a comment – Dan Slee.
• A lesson in Twitter storytelling in this thread about his dad’s hospital stay by Rajesh Thind.

Digital – strategy, design, culture

• What comes first: Digital transformation or workplace modernisation – Digital Leaders.
• Thomas Cook and how not to go digital – ZoeOnTheGo.
• In which I am a bit over this digital transformation business – Catherine Howe.
• The digital leadership challenge – Joe Freeman for Charity Comms.
• Moment from Digital Agenda’s Power and Responsibility Summit 2019. Read the Digital Agenda Green Paper too.
• ‘Say hello to digital‘ – fab promo film for Reason Digital. Good one to show your trustees about why a digital strategy is important.

Fundraising

• My notes from the IoF’s legacy fundraising conference.
• Legacy and In-Memory Giving 2045. Double the income. Double the opportunity. Meg Abdy for DSC. Download Legacy Foresight’s Giving Tomorrow report.
• Legacies and laughter – Rob Cope for Charity Choice.
• The emergence of NHS charities – Vanessa Holmes for nfpSynergy.
• CAF’s UK Giving 2019 report.
• Engagement is more than a fundraising rebrand – Rally.
• Where is the value in subscription box fundraising – Mark Philips
• Before diving into ‘platform philanthropy’, charities need to ask some big ethical questions – Rhodri Davies for Charity Digital News.
• IoF thread about safeguarding and sexual harassment.
• Help for Heroes launches ‘40,000 strong’ miniature figures campaign – Charity Digital News.

Charity on the climate crisis

Extinction Rebellion have sector specific branches for doctors, lawyers, the arts etc but there isn’t one for the charity sector? I have added this section to share some of the sector’s response.

Action:

• Climate change and social change: How funders can act on both – report from 10 Years’ Time.
• 20+ funders have signed the Funder Commitment on Climate Change.
• Climate change for charity leaders outside the environmental sector – ACEVO.
• Useful tips from the Catalyst including about the footprint of your digital systems – Responding to the Climate Crisis – Chris Thorpe.
• Here are ACEVO’s environmental commitments.
• The IFC Holland Conference shared their environmental policy. (Image above as shared by Toast Fundraiser.)
• IoF shared ‘Our role in tackling the climate emergency‘.
• North East Together hosted an event – Climate change: a collaborative response.
• The new normal: leadership in the climate crisis – video of the RSA President’s Lecture 2019 from Emma Howard Boyd. Emma’s thread from her speech starts with: “Everyone needs to put the climate emergency at the heart of what they do. It should not be given a cursory 10 minutes at the Board meeting before everyone gets back to “the business of business”. The climate crisis IS “the business of business”. “

There’s another global school strike coming up on 29 November. Will you get involved? I wrote this about the sector’s response to the strike in September.

Campaigns and comms:

• Woodland Trust is recruiting citizen scientists to track the effects of weather and climate change – Nature’s Calendar and pushing their #EveryTreeCounts target.
• RSPB shared this animation made by young employees: “Young people are not just supporting the global climate movement. They are driving it.”
• The best charity digital campaigns tackling sustainability – Charity Digital News.

Useful reads:

• ‘It’s a crisis, not a change’: the six Guardian language changes on climate matters.
• This is a crisis: Facing up to the age of environmental breakdown and Putting people at the heart of the green transition – IPPR.

People and organisations

• New safeguarding resources from NCVO.
• A guide to impact assessment for charities – free tool from In Kind Direct.
• A coalition of 13 Foundations have formed the DEI coalition – Foundations make a stand for diversity, equity and inclusion. See more in this thread from Fozia Irfan.
• From diversity data to meaningful change: the sector responds to our newest report – Charity Comms.
• Are there young people on your board? Take a look at the Young Trustees Movement.
• Horizon scanning at RNLI – Martin Wilson.

And finally….

• Stamp out the hate with the Goodness Bot.
• Animated paintings at Tate.
• The Rijksmuseum shared this image of William III for #ComingOutDay.
• Everyday tasks done with joy in this 2minute video.

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 September’s round-up? Catch up with more good reads!