Digital round-up – September 2019

Highlights this month: a lesson in crisis comms from RNLI, climate change comms, diversity in the sector, guide to wellbeing.

It’s overwhelming to try and keep up at the moment. Aside from UK and world news, this is a busy time of year for awareness days and campaign launches. Here’s a small snapshot of some of the best charity content and reads from this month and some from August too.

How to use this round-up: Pick and choose links to read, or open in new tabs for later. Or bookmark this post. Even better, subscribe and get future round-ups direct to your inbox.

Content

Big campaigns

• Alzheimer’s Research UK launched a new video starring Samuel L Jackson as part of their #ShareTheOrange campaign. It’s all over social and has been viewed over a million times on Twitter. No mention of it on their homepage now World Alzheimer’s Month has finished though. The campaign has now been running for five years. ARUK also shared a behind the scenes film from the shoot.
• Clic Sargent shared this video about the cost of travel to treatment, as part of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
• Peter Andre shared his experience of bullying at school as part of The Diana Award’s #Back2School campaign. More stories on the Back2School website.
• This one-minute film from Royal British Legion has powerful copywriting – They Still Go.
• The We Are Undefeatable campaign has been telling inspiring stories all month since it launched.
• Did you join in with Oxfam’s #SecondHandSeptember? They created some nice graphics and explainer content. Take the pledge.
• Guide Dogs shared this video of Ainsley Harriot to promote their My Guide Service.
• Dogs Trust shared this video (with very upsetting content) to mark 15 years of their Freedom Project, removing a barrier for families escaping from domestic abuse.

Creative content

• ‘Choose your own adventure’-type Twitter thread from Trussell Trust to raise awareness about Universal Credit and drive signups to their #5WeeksTooLong campaign.
• Twitter game from The Tower of London – can you escape The Tower?
• Time to Change shared a Moment of what people want you to know about suicide, for #WorldSuicidePreventionDay. They have also been sharing illustrations of what it is like to have mental health problems. This showing physical symptoms is very powerful.
• I like these short videos from Dogs Trust sharing fun games to play with your dog.
• Emergency services around the world got their kit out as part of the #TetrisChallenge. See examples from Tower RNLI, St John Ambulance and West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
• 8.1k views for this London Fashion Week video from London Fire Brigade.

Reactive content

• A few charities live-tweeted along with the documentary about Jade Goody. This thread by Cancer Research UK did well.
• Word on the Curb did their own version of chicken box comms to tackle knife crime.
• Have you seen people changing their profile image to colourful stripes (eg Help Refugees)? Take a look at the #ShowYourStripes campaign.
• Some charities used #WorldPhotographyDay to share images from their work.
• Cakes rated by Macmillan.
• Reactive Error 404 messages from political parties (as discovered by Will Cardy).

Celebrity endorsement of the month: The Hoff visits RNLI Penarth.

Did your organisation do anything to join in with the #GlobalClimateStrike either by joining a strike or sharing messages of solidarity or making statement about your own organisation’s commitment to addressing climate change? On a day where there was a global focus on the issues, it was good to see some (mostly environmental charities) pulling out all the stops. It was disappointing to see so many others saying nothing. Here are some examples of charities who joined in with the #GlobalClimateStrike.

Comms

It can be stressful and relentless being on the comms frontline. Your work is key to building and protecting your organisation’s reputation and impact, while also battling internal pressures. This month, Charity Comms launched A wellbeing guide for comms professionals authored by Kirsty Marrins with contributions from others sharing case studies and tips. It aims to help build resilience and look after mental health. Do have a read if you haven’t seen it already.

This month, RNLI faced a backlash then a rush of support, following a story profiling their overseas work. Their messaging on Twitter was an example of patience and warmth. The volume of incoming comments was relentless through the week. They responded by writing personal messages to thousands of people. Their initial tweet has been liked 44.8k times.

I wrote a short thread through the first day as the situation developed including tweets of support from other charities. Dan Slee blogged with more examples and UK Fundraising showed some of the ways people challenged the press story.

What was striking about RNLI’s response was that they took ownership of the situation and proudly communicated their values and mission. For example they changed the image on their homepage (see above) and shared beautiful images from their overseas projects on social media. They also did lots to connect with new and established supporters (see this tweet from Shappi Khorsandi, a thank you email and a thank you video from Dave at Poole Lifeboat Centre).

Would you be ready to respond to a crisis comms situation?

Also this month:

• Here’s a lesson in how to communicate a rebrand! Great blog post by Vicky Browning of ACEVO. We want to change the world but how?
• Other rebrands this month from National Children’s Bureau and The Vitiligo Society.
• Beyond the font – How to use your brand refresh for fundraising; simple tips from the British Heart Foundation – CharityNikki.
• Is your charity’s brand future-proof? – nfpSynergy.
• “We are no longer in need of financial donations” – The Red Box Project starts winding down its operations.
• A message to your #5YearOldSelfie – insights from the successful campaign from Shirin Zaid of Young Minds. Here’s the #5YearOldSelfie launch tweet.
• Thread from Aimee Vance about the danger of seeing social media as a quick fix solution.
• Update from The Brain Tumour Charity about the success of their campaign to raise awareness in teenagers – Our Snapchat symptom campaign success continues.
• Afternoon Tea with Breast Cancer Care – campaign insights from Torchbox.
• Great thread of ideas from Richard Berks about sharing research insights internally. Could also be used as part of any buy-in process or internal roadshow.
• How charities can reach new audiences by live-tweeting TV shows – five different ways to join in, also by Richard Berks.
• Do you follow Joseph Freeman’s weekly updates?
• How to create a social media approval process for your charity – Lightful.
• Facebook tips for small and medium charities – webinar from CAF.
• Content is not king – is content marketing just filler asks Andrew O’Keeffe.
• Here’s what’s wrong with Content Marketing World (and what’s right for your content strategy) – wise words from Kristina Halvorson.
• Understanding 10 types of fake news – really useful post from Social Simulator.

Digital – strategy, design, culture

• Don’t Feed The Trolls – new report and advice.
• Listen to this Radio 4 programme about digital skills and the social divide created by the digital world. Dr Josie Barnard explores reasons why 22% of the population are being left behind. Digital Future: the new underclass.
• Lessons from the Charity Digital Code of Practice – Principle 4: Strategy – Zoe Amar for Charity Digital News.
• 7 cultures that digital needs to survive – Platypus Digital.
• 6 big questions charity digital leaders need to ask – Ross McCulloch for Charity Digital News.
• The Digital Practice work-stream’s first output: de-fragmenting digital maturity – The Catalyst.
• The best UK charities at digital service delivery – Charity Digital News.
• Five UK charities making the most of digital communications in 2019 – Charity Digital News.
• Monthly accessibility tip: Designing for accessibility – part 1 and designing for accessibility – part 2, useful tips about web design both from GOSS.
• How Virtual Reality is helping bridge the communication divide for people with autism – Charity Digital News.
• How charities can gather images ethically? – Rachel Erskine for Great Charity Speakers.
• Joe Freeman blogged: ‘I’m so bored of hearing about digital‘ on Charity Connect.
• Amazing work from suicide prevention organisations who have managed to influence so many digital platforms to automatically share content about prevention in response to keyword searches. This tweet from Ben Bowdler-Thomas shares some screenshots from Twitter, Facebook etc.

Fundraising

• Age UK partner with Cadbury in #DonateYourWords. 30p from every special Dairy Milk bar will be donated to Age UK.
• Paddington’s Postcards – subscription scheme from Unicef UK.
• 5 fundraising campaigns built on social media – Lightful.
• How reward and recognition schemes can motivate your fundraisers – JustGiving blog.
• Remember a Charity Week was 10 years old this year. Here are some examples of how charities joined in on social media. Legacy fundraising on social media.
• Time for action! Why we have to invest in sustainable legacy fundraising – 101 Fundraising. “Build inspiring legacy fundraising communication creating connection and trust. Do not get lost in technical or legal advice at the expense of inspiration.”
• How St Mungo’s used Pinterest to reach potential legators at the right time – Civil Society. Hayley Creasey shares their journey into online marketing for legacy fundraising.
• TOP 10 list of design mistakes I see in direct response over and over again – John Lepp for Agents of Good.
• The Blurt Foundation smashed their £35k crowdfunding target. Their long-read plea to help save Blurt was a great example in transparent and authentic comms. They did the same in a Twitter thread.
• Putting the story straight about Olive Cooke. Radio 4 programme Olive the Poppy Seller.
• Have you seen the IoF’s public perceptions of the fundraising profession report?
• New website and manifesto from #NonGraduatesWelcome.
• Donation boxes in museums – guide from Association of Independent Museums.
• The Tudor Trust mapped their grants against the UK areas of deprivation. [See the latest figures – English indices of deprivation 2019.]
• Get ready for #GivingTuesday (3 December) with these PDF toolkit guides.
• And don’t forget to say thank you on #YouMadeItHappen day next week – 11 October.

People and organisations

There has been lots shared this month about representation in the sector. Here’s a selection of useful reads and resources

• It’s time for us to recognise the barriers that BAME people face in the charity sector – Sushi Juggapah for Charity Digital News.
• HuffPost – charity workers share shocking incidents of racism.
• 70 per cent of CEOs at largest 100 charities are men – Civil Society
• #CharitySoWhite launched on Twitter.
• Practical steps towards a more diverse team – great post by Krislyn Tan for JustGiving.
• Inclusive recruitment toolkit – Snook.
• Salary and Organisational Culture Report – new report from Charity Comms based on 668 survey responses. Includes data about pay, diversity, career paths and attitudes towards comms staff. The report links to useful guides and includes a list of actions for staff, leaders and recruiters.

Also this month:

• Recruitment tips: from a candidate who’s been there – really useful insights for recruiters from Lara Burns.
• JRF’s new start for new starters — a user’s perspective – Hannah McCulloch. How does your induction process measure up?
• 5 excuses for not having young trustees – OSCR.
• Planning for tomorrow’s workforce – report from NCVO.
• Speaking up: How to manage introverts in your team – Matt Chittock for Charity Comms.
• Radio 4 programme about managing volunteers.
• NCVO launched the Trusted Charity Essentials Tool, a new online diagnostic toolkit for small charities to judge how well they are working and how to improve.
• Why our organisation is closing for an entire week – Simon Blake on MHFA England’s August shutdown.
• Did you see this year’s Independent’s Happy List 2019 which was released in August? And this response by Kirsty Marrins for The Independent – Here’s to all the small charities you’ve never heard of.

And finally….

Well done for getting to the end! Here’s some fun stuff.

• 2mins44sec video of Sandi Toksvig giving hugs on QI.
• Bored at your desk? Take a 10 second trip on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway.
• Or watch a Viennetta being made.
• Want a random page from 80s pop mag Smash Hits to pop up on your timeline?
• Joyful Soviet soldiers dancing to MC Hammer.
• Naughty goats have to wear pool noodles. Who knew?

Your recommendations and feedback

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

Could you also tell me if these round-ups are useful. It takes quite a long time to put them together. How do you use the round-ups? Please share any feedback. Thanks!

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

Digital round-up – March

With more wintery weather heading our way, poke your head out from under the duvet for some of the highlights from March 2018. It has been a bumper month (snow, data abuse, more snow, lots of hashtags) so this round-up has lots of gems.

Campaigns

• Bullying UK launched an interactive video – your choices change the story.
• Advice and how to spot the signs of cyberbullying in this video by NSPCC.
• Time to Change shared another video as part of their #InYourCorner series.
• The 50 mums | 50 kids video released on World Down’s Syndrome Day has had 3.4m views.
• 10 things you can do to use water wisely – shared on World Water Day by Eden Rivers Trust in Cumbria. See also this Moment of #WorldWaterDay tweets.
• There was lots of great content for #InternationalWomensDay.
• Love this information for applicants video from Big Lottery Fund Scotland
• Dog’s Trust are raising awareness of dog theft with their Family Pawtrait campaign.

Comms good practice

• This from Jenny Pennington at Shelter is important – How to talk about your beneficiaries well.
• Why you shouldn’t say Thank You by fundraiser Nikki Bell.
• How to solve the wrong problem – Kate Brennan looks at CRUK’s OB_S_TY campaign.
• Complexity bias: why we prefer complicated to simple by Farnam Street.
• Stephen Fry’s message about prostate cancer spurred me on to get checked (HuffPost) or why public information doesn’t work. Here is the video announcement from Stephen in case you didn’t see it.
• If you are looking for an antidote to giant cheque pictures (just say no), take a look at this video from RNIB supporters in Peebles, Scotland or these golden shiny balloons for CLIC Sargent.
• In a recent flurry of #CharityJobs, this one stood out. Rosie Downes of Crisis shared 5 reasons to apply.
• 15 marvellous microcopy examples (and how they improve UX) – eConsultancy
• Is your password in the top 500 list (Information is Beautiful)? Best change it if so!

Also, catch up with the slides from CharityComms’ content strategy conference and read Eleanor Dean’s blog with her key takeaways – Three thoughts on creating better digital content for your charity.

Social media

• 7 ways to prepare for inevitable digital platform changes – how to stay ahead of the game by Ben Matthews on CharityComms.
• Why we are actually loving the new Facebook algorithm – Julia Kirby-Smith of RightsInfo on Charity Comms.
• What does it means for communicators if we #deleteFacebook asks Albert Freeman on Comms2Point0.
• Post Cambridge Analytica, Luke Williams looks at ethics and asks Micro-targeting and Psychographic segmentation – what are we happy with? And this thread by @SaraDannerDuki is a good explainer about the story.
• Making content to fit a trend – the best how-to videos as curated by Magneto Films.

Digital evolution

Have you read the Charity Digital Skills Report? How you does your organisation compare? Do you have a digital strategy? Do your trustees ‘get’ digital?

I went to the DigitalAgenda Impact Awards and heard about lots of brilliant Tech for Good projects. Here’s a blog post from Ross McCulloch about some of the winners (4 examples of digital innovation) and a blog post about the Citizen’s Advice case management system which won an award. Is tech for good on your radar? Are you working on projects or know who is in your space?

• Ten things I wish I’d known 10 years ago – John Slack shares his experience of digital in museums.
• 5 things we learnt from rebranding and rebuilding our website by Anna Chapman of The Bike Project on JustGiving.
• SCVO’s new website – what we’ve learnt so far. The organisation moved from a static content site into a data-driven platform integrated with back office systems and feeding to and from external sources.
• Making public sector websites age-friendly – a useful reminder about accessibility on Digital Leaders.
• A SEO PR primer by Stephen Waddington.
• Tipping Point: Agile procurement is in a precarious position as Waterfall looms large by Dominic Campbell of FutureGov.
• Prototyping – how to learn just how bad your ideas are by Tom Barrett.
• Digital design principles for the UK charity sector by CAST.

Tech trends

• Top tech trends for charities in 2018 by Lisa Hornung at NCVO.
• Why charities need to embrace voice assistants on Macmillan’s digital team blog. Includes examples from Comic Relief, British Red Cross and Arthritis Research UK. See also Breast Cancer Care’s taking care of your breasts tool.
• 5 ways charities are using VR on Charity Digital News. Includes lots of examples. Also read the BBC’s blog on what they are doing with VR.
• 22% of searches start in Google Images, how can you optimise your content? The rise of visual search.
• 10 breakthrough technologies 2018 by MIT.

Charity reads

• Why the local pound matters – How Preston took back control.
• Small change, big difference – Karl Wilding looks at the importance of micro donations.

And finally….

If you are looking for some cheering up, try these:

• chair dancing with this 93 year-old lady
• how to put orphaned kangaroos to bed
• photos taken by people trying to sell their mirrors
• pet-hates in response to Stuart Heritage who doesn’t like pianos in train stations
• find out how many Londoners do the same journey as you
• next time it snows do this with glowsticks or get a gate like this to make a pleasing pattern
• listen to the call of seals in Pembrokeshire, part of this 3D audio BBC radio programme Sounds of Wales
• almost as good as the sound of ice being dropped 90m down a borehole. Weee!

What else?

What were your good reads in March? Please do share.

If you want more, see also:

• Lightful’s digital round-up
• JustGiving’s top 10 reads in February
• Third Sector’s digital round-up.

Can I help you?

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

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Did you miss Jan/Feb’s round-up? Catch up with more good reads!

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280 characters on Twitter

In case you missed it, Twitter started to roll-out its 280 character limit to all users today. Personally I think it is a sad day and mourn the opportunity that everyone had to get a message across clearly and concisely in 140. Of course there is no reason why you now have to use the full 280. Readers still have short attention spans so being clear and concise still wins in my book.

Many took to the platform, responding quickly and creatively to mark the change by spreading important messages using their first #280Character tweets. Here are some examples taken from my #280Characters Moment.

Samaritans Ireland reminded us what they do. Haven House Children’s Hospice shared their impact in 2016/17.

Mental Health Foundation shared stats about mental health (as well as an image asking for donations). Crisis simply repeated their pledge to end homelessness.

Scotland Fire and Rescue used it as a chance to share some important numbers.

Others like Breast Cancer Care, the Met Office and Rethink Mental Illness used just emojis. (See also this from the Cookie Monster!)

Some used the extra space to say thank you. Oxfam used a video and RNLI a simple thanks.

Book Trust started a conversation about favourite characters (nice tie-in!) and got lots of replies.

Some just went mad with the extra space! See GiveBlood NHS, Age UK Lambeth and the Science Museum. Plus Macmillan’s cake tweet and London Ambulance’s nee-naws (currently clocking up 15,000 likes and a nee-naw-off with other emergency service accounts!)

Well done to all who reacted so quickly in such brilliant ways!

Does your comms / social media strategy allow you the space to be reactive and creative?

See the full collection including tweets from museums and heritage organisations in my #280Characters Moment.

See also How 280 twitter characters could benefit comms people by Kerry-Lynne Pyke of Macmillan Cancer on comms2point0  with notes about how the increase should benefit charities who tweet in English and Welsh.

Did you spot any other good examples? Do you have a story to tell about your reactive comms? Please share in the comments.

Saying thank you on #GivingTuesday

Giving Tuesday started in the UK in 2014. Charities use it in all sorts of different ways. Some ask for money or time. Others ask for action. (See Do something good this Giving Tuesday by Kirsty Marrins for some examples).

Others just say thank you. Here are some of the creative and lovely thank you’s I have seen today.

Videos

Mind’s staff read out messages from people who have been helped by Mind. At the end it says ‘We can’t thank you enough for helping us to give people a place to turn and a way forward’.

The Trussell Trust have been tweeting very short thank you messages covering all aspects of how people support them. There is one long one (37s!) on YouTube.

The Donkey Sanctuary said thank you to their supporters with lots of lovely pictures of donkeys.

Images

War Child UK shared a thank you photo with children holding up letters and waving.

Refugee Action shared ‘thanks to you’ numbers showing how many people they had been able to help.

Marie Curie have been using lots of different ways to say thank you. Here they share statistics showing the impact of their work. Other tweets show them writing thank you letters. Members of staff talked about this on their personal twitter accounts too. And they made fab personal doodles.

Personal thanks

Rethink Mental Illness also called supporters to say thank you. In total they contacted 221 people!

Breast Cancer Care started a #ChainOfThanks.

The British Heart Foundation thanked their 68,000 event fundraisers and also tweeted a special thanks to the Marathon runners. They also tweeted personal thank you’s using gifs and red and white images to certain supporters. And the CEO Simon Gillespie tweeted his thanks to staff and volunteers.

Dogs Trust thanked their corporate partners, saying they were ‘wagtastic’.

How do you say thanks?

It is easy but important to say thank you. How do you do it?

A general thank you works well with an image or video to attract attention. These images, videos and actions are low cost and reasonably low-effort. You don’t need a big budget to say thank you well using social media.

Have you seen any other creative thanks today? Please do share them in the comments.

Thanks for reading 🙂

See also GivingTuesday’s Twitter Moments showing some of the UK charity activity and how brands got involved.

How digital is your organisation?

A recent Guardian Voluntary Sector Network article by Zoe Amar argued that charity boards are failing to adapt to the digital age. And Karl Wilding argues on the NCVO blog that digital changes everything.

Some organisations already have digital at their core. Just look at how Parkinson’s UK advertised for their new role of Director of Digital Transformation and Communications. Whereas many know they should be doing more but don’t know where to start and others just don’t see digital as a priority.

Charles Handy at this week’s Cass CCE Charity Talk talked about the need for organisations to find their second curve to survive and in particular the impact of digital on this. He predicted that online platforms (such as Uber) will be central to the way we live our lives.

Two free resources this week look really useful to help organisations understand where they are digitally and improve their skills. Share them with your boards / Senior Managers / colleagues.

Measure and develop digital skills in your organisation

NCVO released a new free toolkit developed by Helen Ridgway. Building a digital workforce ‘includes templates, resources, tips and examples – and a series of bespoke workshops, training and support – to help you plan, design and deliver a comprehensive digital skills development programme for your organisation’. It is packed with 25+ documents including several about conducting a skills audit.

Also on my radar this week is the Third Sector Digital Maturity Matrix developed by Breast Cancer Care. It was developed to ‘to assess the maturity of an organisation’s digital capability (i.e. the current state) and compare it to where they aspire to be (i.e. desired to-be state)’. Download it for free.

What do you use?

Have you spotted any other useful resources? Or like NCVO and Breast Cancer Care, have you shared your own tools for other people to use? Please share in the comments below.

What can we learn from #nomakeupselfie?

On Wednesday (19th March) social media exploded with #nomakeupselfie. It was started by someone independent of any charity. It quickly caught on and was met with a mix of joining in and dismissal (‘what has this got to do with cancer’?). Two days later it quite clearly has got something to do with cancer as the meme has resulted in £millions being donated to various cancer charities (including £8m+ to Cancer Research alone), lots of self checking messages and widespread news stories.

Clearly viral explosions of this size don’t come along very often and are impossible to create (see this blog post from Social Chic on why you shouldn’t replicate #nomakeupselfie). What can we learn from it so that it / when it does happen (on whatever scale) we can be ready?

1. Be ready to react

The beauty of social media is that it is ever changing, fun, interesting – bringing unexpected challenges and opportunities to charities. When something big happens, you have to decide quickly what to do. If you have to put in a business case to react three days later, you are going to miss out. Sometimes the decision to ignore or get involved is obvious, sometimes not.

Your social media strategy can be your friend here as it should include some element of crisis comms planning (good and bad). You could create a flow chart like this one from the American Airforce which shows how they decide to deal with comments on blogs. Your social media strategy should also be loose enough that you can drop everything to run with a big event such as this.

2. Just go with it

It might not be on-brand or on-message but if your supporters are involved, then maybe you should join in? This event evolved and organically became a fundraising-related.  But charities helped this with strong messages and an easy ask.

3. Keep watching

A number of cancer charities chose to ignore #nomakeupselfie because the early message didn’t fit with them but didn’t join in when it did change. For the charities who chose to get on board with it, it has raised unexpected income.

On day 2 charities were better at joining in with the spirit of it, sharing their own photos. On Friday Male CEOs of Macmillan and Beating Bowel Cancer both shared their selfies.  And the meme was copied and evolved into #manupmakeup, #whataman and even #YorkshireSelfie. Macmillan’s male staff did their own Vine.

When the excitement showed no sign of stopping, charities started buying ad words connected with #nomakeupselfie. Clearly the world was searching for information so they spotted an opportunity to raise their profiles further. Clever.

4. Have your JustTextGiving details to hand

Make it easy for people to donate. Make sure your JustTextGiving details are easy for people to share. Giving a regular reminder of these details is useful.

You can’t watch every hashtag. This meme turned from fun into fundraising because people got frustrated at its sharing with no action. It was easy for them to share the JustTextGiving details and equally simple and short for people to donate this way. (See more about Twitter fundraising.)

NB, it is important to check and double check your details. See this BBC article: thousands make #nomakeupselfie donation error.

5. Say thank you and share success

People like to feel involved especially if it is something big. Donating £3 might be a small action but the collective effort has made the news. For every person who did something, it has been an important part of their day. So say a public thank you to everyone. Say how much has been raised and what difference this will make. This builds trust and makes people want to get involved again. (See more about transparency.)

This thank you tweet from Cancer Research has been RTd 14,000 times. And their brilliantly written FAQs post about how they’ll use the money (published on Tuesday 25th) is an important response to the millions of people who helped raise such a significant sum.

#nomakeupselfie – what the charities say

• Views and comments from macmillan’s community blog, cites 20x increase in text giving as a result
• Anthony Nolan report 400% increase in donor registrations (Thursday 20th)
• £2m for cancer charities (Third Sector – Friday 21st)
• Breast Cancer Campaign raises £140,000 (ITV – Friday 21st)
• 800,000 donations in 24hrs to Cancer Research (Telegraph article – Thursday 20th)
• 700+ RTs, 130 favourites for this Breast Cancer Care breast awareness tweet (same content was tweeted two days earlier and got 98 RTs)
• small cancer charities benefitted too – £200+ donated to Kidscan
• Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s Facebook album
• 750,000 euros raised for Irish Cancer Society (UK Fundraising – Tuesday 25th)
• How Cancer Research raised £8m from a campaign we didn’t even start (Tuesday 25th) – brilliant article by Senior Social Media Manager Aaron Eccles

Coverage and comment

• Storify of the best selfies
• selfies on Facebook won’t beat cancer alone (comment is free, Guardian)
• No-makeup selfies generates £2m windfall for cancer research (Guardian)
• Why the nomakeupselfie campaign raised £2m (BBC)
• it even reached mid Devon – Mid Devon joins no make-up selfie trend on Facebook and Twitter
• and then Australia – Australia Cancer Research Foundation.

Charity insider blog posts

• CharityChap: 5 uncomfortable lessons from the #nomakeupselfie campaign
• Why #nomakeupselfie became popular and what charities can learn from it (fairsay)
• How do you catch a cloud and pin it down – insights from Lisa Clavering who works for a cancer charity
• #nomakeupselfie – why it worked (Guardian Voluntary Network)
• What can we learn from #nomakeupselfie (JustGiving blog) – includes stats on number of charities who benefited (215)
• The JustGiving numbers behind #nomakeupselfie – Jonathan Waddingham’s blog post, packed with stats.

What do you say?

What have you learnt from this week’s events? What do you think of #nomakeupselfie? Have you done your crisis comms planning for events like this?

This Nan selfie is my favourite:

Can I help you?

Please also get in touch if you’d like me to help you review your crisis comms, digital fundraising channels or supporter engagement. I am a freelance web editor and can help you give your communications a healthcheck and ideas injection.

You can also sign up to receive my blog updates by email. Just add your address to the text box on this page (top right).

Is your SMT/trustees page inspiring?

How to give the web pages about your senior managers and trustees a digital facelift.

Most charities have a page introducing their senior managers and trustees. These pages are mostly dull and uninspiring. But they could be so much better. With a few tweaks, they could help to boost transparency and trust. They could be inspiring; bringing the passion your team has for the cause, to life.

Bog standard

A standard ‘meet the team’ page has a photo and biography information for the CEO and other senior managers. There may be a separate page for trustees using a similar style. These sit, reasonably buried in the ‘About us’ section, often in a subsection called ‘How we are run’ or ‘Our people’.

On the face of it, it might feel like these are must-have pages which don’t need much content investment in them. They probably don’t get a lot of traffic other than from journalists or people looking for jobs / trustee roles. They are usually very functional pages which accidentally help to highlight the lack of diversity in the organisation’s management. Because they don’t get much attention, they don’t give any insight into the cause, or an understanding what and why these people do. The pages are very static, not doing much to sell your organisation. They are a website dead-end.

But actually these pages are important. Done right, they make organisations feel more personal. They help with transparency.

Here are some suggestions for how these pages could be improved to drive a deeper insight or conversation.

1. Integrate social media

Zoe Amar and Matt Collins have been on a mission to get CEOs tweeting since 2013. They produce tips and examples as well as an annual list of the top 30 Charity CEO tweeters. Many senior managers do embrace social media as a way of sharing successes, challenges as well as learning from and connecting with others.

But many ‘our people’ pages still don’t include these links. Few promote the CEO’s Twitter address (including most of the winners of Social CEOs). And even fewer, include their blog or LinkedIn profile. Links for the senior team are not included either. What does this convey about the digital culture of the staff and wider organisation? If your senior managers are representing the organisation on social channels, this page should help people to connect with them.

Organisations which do promote their team’s individual Twitter addresses are few and far between. Out of the 50 or so charities I looked at, I only found Breast Cancer Care, Islamic Relief, Diabetes UK, The Scout Association and Parkinson’s UK who were doing this.

A few organisations were going further and including multiple channels. For example, SCVO’s full staff list includes contact details, individual listings include blog posts, NCVO’s who’s who pages links to blog posts, Twitter and LinkedIn, as does the people page for JRF.

Do your trustees tweet about your charity and the work they do to support it? If so shouldn’t this information be included in their biogs too? Show current and future digitally-savvy trustees that you want them to use social media in their role. Even if just one of two of your trustees use social media or are happy for this information to be shared, add this to your page.

There aren’t many organisations who are doing this. For example Clive Gardiner of NSPCC is the only CharityComms trustee who has his Twitter and LinkedIn links included in his biog. Small Charities Coalition have added buttons to the profiles of their trustees who are on Twitter. NAVCA have Twitter links for their trustees alongside their short biogs.

NB While thinking about transparency and contactability, what is your organisation’s policy on publishing the email addresses for senior managers or trustees? How contactable are they? Contact information for trustees is especially rare to see. Take a look at Crisis who include the social contacts and email addresses for those who have them and Trussell Trust who have email links for all their senior team.

2. Write biogs which people will read

Cutting and pasting detailed information from someone’s CV just isn’t interesting or engaging, especially when it is replicated in a long list of trustees. Of course senior managers and trustees have impressive backgrounds and experience but supporters may also want to know about motivations, personal experience and skills. Equally, including information about someone’s CAMRA membership or love of ballroom dancing may not be appropriate.

Here are some alternatives:

• add quotes from each person – Breast Cancer Care’s trustees share quotes rather than CVs
• write in the first person (I did this) rather than the third person (Janet did this) which is much more engaging – see Oxfam’s senior managers and Epilepsy Action’s trustees. Brathay Trust’s people page is really nicely written.
• include impact stats showing what someone has achieved in their role, what are they most proud of
• keep it short and simple like this example from Lymphoma Action.

You could illustrate your team in a completely different way. How about a skills profile for the team (think LinkedIn endorsements)?

See more about writing great staff biogs in this nonprofithub post.

3. Get good photos

Getting a photographer in to do individual head-shots of everyone in the same style is worth it. A page where people have supplied their own photos of varying degrees of quality, can look messy and unprofessional. Instead get relaxed, warm pictures of your people. I love these pictures of the team at Ministry of Stories and how they are presented

Rather than head shots can you show your team in action? For example trustees from Blue Cross are pictured with their animals. Youth Music have roll-over images where the second picture shows each member of the team making music when they were younger.

A group picture of the team working together could be a good alternative if it is hard to get lots of single pictures. For example this from The Brain Tumour Charity in 2013. (NB This is now replaced by a video of senior managers talking about their strategy and individual headshots against a branded backdrop.)

If you can’t use photos for whatever reason, try something more creative. For example NSPCC use brightly coloured blocks for their trustees.

4. Think about your audience

Like with any page on your website, you should think about who is reading this page. Who is it for? What do you want them to do as a result (donate / feel sure that the charity is in safe hands / apply to become a trustee / want to know more)? It may be that all this biography information is not relevant, reading the detail of someone’s career can be quite alienating.

Keeping it simple might be the best answer. Try limiting each person to one paragraph or a certain number of words. Or just including their role and a brief summary. Beanstalk shown here in 2013 do a mixture of both which is really clear.

You could also think about doing more to showcase the people in your organisation who are doing frontline work. Their stories may be more engaging than the CVs of senior staff. Stop being so hierarchical.

Take a look at this series of videos from Macmillan in which we meet nurses, helpline staff and therapists. Breast Cancer Now do this well too.

British Lung Foundation do a really nice job of using their people profiles to link to more information about key areas of their work.

Test what works best for your audience by looking at your page statistics. Make some changes and see how it influences traffic and bounce rates. Change it back or do something different if it has a negative effect.

You could also try putting a call to action (donate / sign up to newsletter etc) at the bottom of the page and see whether anyone acts.

Checklist

• Do you have a page for SMT / trustees / ‘our people’?
• Do the photos / video look professional and help to make people feel approachable?
• Is your text interesting and appropriate? It should bring the work your people do to life. Be aware of word count and usability – realistically who is going to click on a page of names and through and read each one?
• Do you include contact details? If it is relevant, include social media, email, phone numbers, links to blog posts etc
• What do your stats show about traffic to these pages? Are bounce rates low? What can you do to improve click-on’s and make them more interesting?

Gold star examples:

• British Lung Foundation – first names, one sentence biog, one paragraph quote, link to the area of work
• NCVO’s who’s who pages – total transparency with Twitter, LinkedIn, blog posts and contact details showing that they are a naturally digital organisation
• Brathay Trust’s people – chatty, warm statements from the team.

How to convince your boss?

The internal politics and processes connected with tweaking these pages is not necessarily simple. Can you show senior managers these examples to help convince them that it is time for a digital facelift.

The profiles of the brilliant people who work of volunteer for you should do them justice.

Show that you are a digitally confident organisation and that your people naturally use digital channels to connect, share and learn. This could help to attract more digitally skilled staff and trustees to apply for future roles. See more from Reach Volunteering about how to attract and recruit digital trustees.

What do you do?

How do you make your staff pages useful? What difference has improving your staff pages made? Do you have reasons for not including social contact details? Please share good and bad examples you have seen. Am especially keen to find examples from small charities. Please share – go-on, add a comment!

Please also get in touch if you’d like me to help you improve your staff pages.

<This post was written in 2013 and updated in 2018.>