Highlights this month: tools and resources to accelerate digital progress, responses to the Oxfam report, diversity, spontaneous comms.
For one month only, here is a combined round-up with some of the things you might have missed in June and July. Wishing you a productive or restful month whether you are in or out of the office.
How to use the round-up: Pick and choose links to read now or later. Even better, subscribe and get future round-ups direct to your inbox so you don’t miss any.
Content highlights
- There was lots of comms to mark 50 years since the moon landing. Some charities spontaneously joined in with #UnlikelyFirstWordsOnTheMoon, like this one from The National Trust. Royal Museums Greenwich live tweeted the last 13 minutes to touchdown.
- #BringYourDogToWork day comms from Dogs Trust and Book Trust.
- Following the leadership contest result, the Charity Retail Association cheekily tweeted this.
- Oxfam’s supermarket scorecard campaign – nicely presented data to inspire people to use their consumer power. See also this Behind the Barcodes video.
- Charities are starting to talk about their responses to the climate emergency. Here’s an example from The National Trust.
- BPAS raised awareness of abortion laws in Northern Ireland with this video message for Donald Trump.
- Nice reactive content from Blue Cross and Battersea to the new Cats Movie trailer.
- Kittens love tennis – who knew?! Wimbledon tweet from Cats Protection.
- Love this behind the scene thread from small charity Tiny Tickers. Their six staff all work from home.
- Lovely thank you video from The Bike Project.
- Brand new videos about the UK asylum system – bite-sized videos in eight languages from Right to Remain.
- 3min video from The Law Society about the problems affecting the justice system.
- 50 stories to mark St Mungo’s 50th anniversary.
- Changing Faces shared an open letter from parents of a girl who was badly burnt in a fire. It gained a huge response including hundreds of comments and worldwide coverage.
- How do you keep people safe on the beach? RNLI are trialling sand signage in Cornwall.
- Some creative comms in this Moment of #WorldEmojiDay tweets.
- It was very hot last week, lots of charities were sharing useful tips. Some highlights in this heatwave Moment.
- Staff pic of the week from Battersea.
- Local funder Camden Giving showcased amazing organisations they support in this A-Z thread for Small Charity Week.
Twitter takeover of the month: VIP (very important pony) Dennis held the reins of Mencap’s Twitter for a short time during Volunteers Week.
Video of the month: The Bank of England revealed the new face of the £50 note in this video. Genius or awful? You decide…..
Comms: best practice
- Updating your style guide? Take a look at the universal content style guide project started by Sarah Richards. Rather than everyone coming up with their own, “what if there was one place where we, as a community, shared knowledge and created a style guide that was accessible, usable and – if we wanted – evidenced?”
- 6 practical tips to designing content with greater impact – Lightful.
- A definition of copywriting vs content design by Sarah Richards on ProCopywriters Network.
- Are personal stories too personal? The challenges of advocating for more progressive media coverage of criminal justice – Clinks.
- Do you live-tweet? My top tips for live reporting from events and conferences. Includes examples from the recent mighty #IoFFC.
- Dr Richard Berks shared examples of charities live tweeting through a recent documentary about leukaemia. Does your charity join in with relevant live TV events?
- After the event: using social media to maintain momentum – lots of useful tips from Gemma Pettman.
- Meaningful engagement: do you need a social strategy? Lisa Clavering for Charity Comms.
- How to nail your tone of voice on social media – Kirsty Marrins for Lightful.
- Practical tips for dealing with trolling online – Zoe Williams for Charity Comms.
- Oh…so you CAN go viral on Instagram! – Time to Change’s Natasha Dillon for Charity Comms.
- Doncaster Council had a party to celebrate hitting 20k followers!
- Five big ways that the world of media has changed in the last two decades – 5 trends plus what it all means for charities. nfpSynergy post from November 2018 which you might have missed.
- Small but mighty – key takeaways from our Small Charities conference – Charity Comms.
- Top tips for communicating in a crisis – Charity Comms.
- There was lots of coverage about how NSPCC dealt with its recent crisis comms following events with Munroe Bergdorf. This statement had 700+ comments.
- New brand launched on Action for Children’s 150th anniversary. New Choose Childhood campaign launched too with strong messages and images on Twitter.
- How Samaritans managed the launch of its new brand identity with digital – Charity Digital News.
- 30 Days Wild challenge reaches new record – 400,000 people took part in The Wildlife Trust’s annual event.
- 1.7m views of Emilia Clarke’s video recreating workplace stock photos.
If you are a Charity Comms member, don’t forget to vote in the trustee election. Closes at 5pm, 19 August.
Digital: strategy, design, culture
The Catalyst, a UK collaborative to bring a social purpose to the digital revolution, launched. They are a coalition of major foundations, digital design agencies, civil society bodies and the UK government, seeking to massively accelerate the use of digital in the UK’s voluntary and charity sector. Sign up via the website for information and updates. Read this post by Dan Sutch to find out more – digital, design and data for social good. And follow The Catalyst on Medium too.
More transformation resources:
- If you work in the arts, take a look at the Digital Culture Network which launched in June. This from MoDA is good too – A Museum of the Digital Age.
- New website to fast-track digital transformation in adult social care – VODG.
- Start Somewhere – report on making tech imaginable and usable for small charities – CAST and IVAR. Summary includes five suggestions for small voluntary organisations. And this thread by CAST includes tips for those supporting smaller organisations with digital. And this thread by IVAR shares tips for funders.
- Digital Leadership 101 conversation starter pack – useful resource for boards and CEOs from Superhighways based on the Charity Digital Code.
- 3 eras of digital transformation: Are we facing fatigue? – Webcredible.
Did you see the results from this year’s Charity Digital Skills Report, now in its third year? More than half (53%) of charities are aware of emerging tech developments but aren’t planning for them yet. Just 12% are planning for how this could change their charity. How does your organisation compare with the results?
- Six ways to increase your organisation’s ‘Digital IQ’ – Elizabeth Marsh for Digital Leaders.
See also:
- What are ‘digital ethics’ and why should charities care? Useful round-up of good reads by Charity Digital News.
- National Lottery funding to boost voluntary sector’s digital capabilities – eight organisations receive a share of £3.4m.
- Building a digitally accessible front door to the NHS – Digital Agenda.
- Microsoft’s Inclusive Design resources.
- New digital marketing strategy webinar series launched by Media Trust.
- 6 things I learned in 6 months as a user researcher – Zoe McClatchey, product design graduate at NHS Digital.
- The best Artificial Intelligence resources for charities – Charity Digital News.
- I updated my digital teams blog list to include some of the new teams now blogging.
- The guides I wish I had when starting digital work in charities – lots of useful links from John Dunford of The Developer Society.
- Giant thread of charity service design resources by Ross McCulloch.
- How to write a digital strategy for smaller charities – Michael MacLennan for Charity Comms.
- Culture is our strategy – Emma Stace for Digital Leaders.
- No more ‘computer says no’ – everyone in Barnardo’s is getting a new computer. Dan Fryer.
- Monthly accessibility link: RNIB aims to redesign emojis for visually impaired users – UK Fundraising. Includes some useful tips about how to make your use of emojis more accessible.
- Love this animation of the changing popularity of different browsers over the past 10 years. [No voice over though so accessibility is poor. Summary is that Chrome overtook everything else from 2012.)
Fundraising
- Ready. Aim. Fundraise! Clever fundraising campaign from Help for Heroes. Fab graphics. #BakeForHeroes.
- Rehoming Alerts – new text message-based way to donate to Battersea.
- Oxfam launch their first ever crowdfunder – #BeesForNepal.
- NSPCC launches innovative digital platform for regular giving.
- WaterAid’s Fempowered project: Harnessing the monthly power of periods – Nicholas Spandagos for Charity Comms.
- Thread of tweets from IoF’s Communicating with Older Generations event – #IoFOlderGen.
- Smee & Ford Legacy Trends 2019 – free whitepaper if you give your email address. See also this thread from IoFFC by Howard Lake about multicultural in memory and legacy giving.
- Five creative ways to thank your Facebook fundraisers – Kirsty Marrins for GivePanel.
- Instagram donate – insights from WWF by Nicola Gee.
- IoFFC blog from Ruth Smyth.
- Branding: Help or Hindrance? The relationship between branding and fundraising by Roger Craver.
- The A-Z of writing fundraising appeals – Mark Phillips.
- What does fundraising ethically even mean? – Ruby Bayley-Pratt on Great Charity Speakers.
- Useful thread from NCVO summarising the Charity Tax Commission Report.
- Highlights for fundraisers from this year’s NCVO almanac.
- Fundraising Everywhere – virtual fundraising conference in November. FREE for small charities. Register now.
- Lizzie Hollis’ mega google doc list of fundraising learning resources.
People / careers / sector
Oxfam:
The Charity Commission’s report about Oxfam came out at the beginning of June.
- Here’s Oxfam’s video response from their Chair and their written statement.
- Karl Wilding shared some wider lessons for the sector.
- In this talk, Danny Sriskandarajah talks about the role of civil society and organisations like Oxfam. It was recorded at the end of his first 4months in post as Oxfam’s new CEO.
- Oxfam: doing well in reputation rehab – interesting data on trust up until July 2019 – UK Fundraising.
Diversity in the sector:
Karl Wilding was appointed as NCVO’s new CEO. While welcomed, the news prompted heated discussions about diversity. Here’s a small selection.
- Should white men step aside? by an anonymous white male fundraiser on Great Charity Speakers.
- Elizabeth Balgobin: To improve diversity in charities we must do more than tick boxes – Civil Society.
- Kirsty Weakley: Charities need to deal with the white man problem, but don’t get personal – Civil Society.
- BAME people are under-represented in our sector. This article from Charity Digital News says that it is time for us to recognise the barriers that BAME people face in the charity sector. If you know a digital BAME star, there may still be time to nominate them as a top charity digital BAME leader.
- Creating race equity: CEO and chair programme – new from ACEVO.
Other reads
- “What if the future of altruism isn’t a charity sector stuffed with variations on a theme? What if it’s a completely different set of business models which generate the power to change the world?” I failed and I liked it – Ben Holt.
- See also What will charities look like in the future? James Plunkett
- Getting ahead in your comms career: my key takeaways from the Charity Comms conference.
- Clore Social Leadership Talking Leadership report. Plus take a look at their Backpack of tools to address leadership challenges.
- ACEVO / Centre for Mental Health report into bullying in the sector – In Plain Sight. Here’s a thread of the six recommendations in the report. Plus actions for Chairs and trustees from Association of Chairs.
- Lucy Caldicott: If we’re the good guys, why is there still racism, homophobia, bullying and misogyny in the sector? – Civil Society.
- Why you should perfect your elevator pitch TODAY – Nicky Weelen. Good tips for freelancers.
- Why charities need to offer better flexible working options – TPP Recruitment.
- Managing overwhelm at work – advice from a realist – useful advice from Helen Reynolds.
- Case study: Changing leadership culture to drive innovation – WaterAid’s Marcus Missen for EFA.
- How do you attract people to work in your organisation? I liked this video from Shelter. Shame no subtitles though.
- Being the Story’s spokesperson network was launched.
And finally….
- Do American supermarkets have a British food aisle asked Joseph Freeman. [Also see Joe’s weekly round-ups which are excellent.]
- Check your copy. Proof-reading fail from Waitrose.
- More signs – love these shared for #NorfolkDay by @beakpie.
- Quiz: How much do you know about memes? BBC Arts.
- Did you watch the fully interactive episode of BBC Click?
- Have your thought about your own digital legacy? Interesting thread from Marie Curie from a recent event.
- What went right? January-June 2019 – the Positive News stories you need.
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 May’s round-up?Catch up with more good reads!
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