Highlights this month include: #WaistcoatWednesday, Charity Digital Code, IoF’s Fundraising Convention and diversity.
It’s been a month of relentless hot weather, football optimism and bleak world news. Plus another bumper crop of great charity content and digital reads.
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Content
Bloodwise launched amazing reactive fundraising #WaistcoatWednesday on 7 July to coincide with Gareth Southgate’s big moment on 11 July. At one point on the day #WaistcoastsWednesday was trending confusingly. National Trust spontaneously responded with a tweet about not wasting the coast but didn’t use #WasteCoastWednesday.
There was other fun football content including a forecast from The Met Office, #GarethSouthgateWould tweets including this one from Bliss, Scope’s brilliant BSL videos (see Football’s Coming Home), Give Blood’s missing Os, and many examples of Harry Maguire’s meme including this excellent one from The Horniman Museum. There were serious messages too including this striking image sharing stats about rates of domestic violence.
Also this month:
- Sane launched a disturbing video called #LetMeTalk which shows a man being violently prevented from answering his phone. The tag line says ‘Your depression doesn’t want you to talk’.
- Another difficult watch – Inside Childline. It’s pretty hard to make a helpline come to life. This video does it really well. Some of the topics discussed are really difficult to hear in the voices of children.
- Snazzy video from Alzheimer’s Research UK promoting Amazon Prime.
- Eye-catching gif from Shelter promoting petition sign-ups.
- Great use of a Moment from Whizz-Kidz capturing the stupid questions wheelchair users get asked.
- Video showing Anna from Oxfam’s visit to Tanzania.
- Have you seen Neville Southall’s Twitter takeovers? Read more in this Guardian interview.
- Animation of how the planes gathered for the RAF 100 years flypast.
- I liked this call to action to reply with the last picture of a dog you took on your phone by Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home. A simple, fun ask which should have connected well with their audience. Not sure why it didn’t take off.
- Can you describe your pet’s day in emoji asked PDSA for #WorldEmojiDay. Lightful collected more charity emoji day fun – how charities marked world emoji day 2018.
How do you promote your members or partner organisations? I love these tweets from Small Charities Coalition shouting-out to members for Pride and the football. Also London Community Foundation showcase grant recipients, in this case following Wimbledon.
Digital
Have you read and given feedback on the Charity Digital Code which launched in July? Consultation closes 25 September.
- Digital transformation at Wellcome Collection – ‘tent poles’ and why projects are anti-digital. Great post by Tom Scott.
- Future tech trends for charities to know about – Matt Howarth of Reason Digital busts the jargon.
- The state of mobile voice search in 2018 via eConsultancy.
- 5 things to try with social media advertising by Platypus Digital.
- Is it ever ok to sell off hashtags? asks PR Week.
- Useful new template library launched by Charity Comms.
- Lots of useful digital comms tools and tips in this thread from Sophie Drouet.
- Your monthly reminder about accessibility. This time – how to do good image descriptions / alt text.
- Bonus accessibility link – how do I create subtitles? Useful tips from the BBC.
- Oh and this one – Designing for accessibility is not that hard – 7 easy-to-implement guidelines to design a more accessible web by Pablo Stanley.
- Why GOV.UK content should be published in HTML and not PDF – so many reasons in this GDS blog post which was widely shared.
- The value of prototyping everything – 7 minute read from the digital team at NSPCC in their Digital Dunk series.
- What animal charities should know about pet owners, research by nfpSynergy.
- Is your charity desperately drowning in data? by Sally Dyson of SCVO.
- Why digital is a service enabler, not a service solution by Vilma Appadoo.
- 5 tips for recruiting volunteers through social media by Jenna Wood of Contact the Elderly for JustGiving.
- What is the right structure for your charity’s digital team? Zoe Amar investigates.
- What a digital organisation looks like by Janet Hughes.
- The benefits of undertaking a Digital Maturity Assessment by Dorset County Council.
- Three ways technology is amplifying the voice of the charity sector by Vinay Nair on DigiLeaders.
- Failure to launch: five reasons why good strategies fail by Jon Ware for CharityComms.
- Love this 28second video from Tenovus Cancer Care sharing internal comms around their CRM project.
- Insights from Tom Loosemore who helped start GDS.
- Art and copy: bridging the gap between design and content – great post on avoiding silo’d working by Lauren Pope.
- How charities are using CAST’s digital design principles via CharityComms.
New websites
This month BHF launched their new website including new font.
Launching a new website, even though it has been a huge project, is not always big news for your audience. I liked this promo video from SUSE (Scottish Union of Supported Employment) to launch their new site.
- Things to think about before you contact a web agency – useful list from agency Electric Putty.
- Relaunching your website? Here’s how to manage SEO. ‘What gets measured gets improved’ SEO Migration Necessities by Aimee Cuthbert.
Fundraising
- I’m a fundraiser. Crowdfunding. How hard can it be? Lucy Gower shares her crowdfunding experience via UK Fundraising.
- What charities need to know about Blockchain (and what they don’t) – Civil Society.
- What do digital kitties have to do with charities? More about blockchain. This from Rhodri Davies of CAF.
- Supporter experience through instant messaging – a massive opportunity says Dan Papworth-Smyth.
The digital stream at this year’s IoF Fundraising Convention looked excellent. Catch up with a few of the expertly curated Twitter threads and blog posts if you weren’t there:
- Successfully using social media to be brave and drive social change (Kirsty Marrins) – presentation by Melissa Thermidore of NHS Blood and Transplant.
- Breast Cancer Now’s Wear It Pink (Kirsty again)
- Digital leaders panel session (Lisa Clavering) and the same digital leaders session curated by Kirsty
- Howard Lake’s illustrations from sessions were excellent too. See how to build a personal brand and 10 ways to become digital for less than a tenner.
- Kirsty’s blog posts wrapping up day 2 and day 3 have much more detail in them.
- All sing along to the GDPR song.
Crisis comms
I ran a workshop at the Hospice UK Comms Day which was about brand and reputation. Here are some useful tips from crisis expert Kitty Hamilton. Hospice UK produced a Wakelet of the day, sharing useful tips for hospices. And here is the blog post I wrote about using social media in crisis comms.
See also:
- Keeping your charity’s brand safe on social by Erin Niimi Longhurst on Lightful.
- This blog post from nfpSynergy shares themes and insights from research done with 144 journalists about how to respond to a charity crisis or scandal. Has your charity had a media crisis? Here’s some journalists’ advice.
- The Oxfam team shared insights from their experience at IoF Convention. Here’s a thread of the session curated by Hugh Radojev.
- Faking It: Fake News and how it impacts on the charity sector – downloadable report with particular reference for NGOs by IBT (International Broadcasting Trust).
Leadership
This month there have been lots of discussions about diversity. Vicky Browning from ACEVO shared her commitment to creating a more diverse and inclusive charity sector. Jane Ide from NAVCA blogged Diversity: it’s time to make it real and Diversity part 2: nobody said it was going to be easy.
How do world leaders use Twitter? Lots of data to get stuck in to from Twiplomacy.
10 charity digital people who should be on your radar – some top people who regularly share their digital knowledge. Very happy to have been included. Thanks Lightful.
And finally….
- Naughty and nice penguins of the month. Great storytelling!
- The fab new Stabilo adverts which were all over my timeline.
- The dangerous diseases lurking in caves – eww!
- Bold tweeting from the University of Reading. 75k likes for their non-nonsense reply about a scholarship for refugees.
- Are you mansplaining? Useful chart to help you check.
- Get down with the kids’ mums by brushing up on mumsnet acronyms.
- Lovely storytelling in Birmingham by HuffPostUK.
- I kept seeing the 20-things list meme, Doncaster Council did one well.
- Here’s the passive-aggressive bin font you have been looking for.
- Love these cross stitch control panel images from Present and Correct.
- Who knew that a video of a lemon rolling down the road would attract 9.5m views?!
Does social media negatively affect your mental health? Why not take time out with #ScrollFree September? You don’t have to go full Cold Turkey? Cut down as a Night Owl or Sleeping Dog. Check out the website to find out more.
Don’t forget to book your ticket for Being the Story in October. Super Early Bird rate ends 24 August.
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 digital copywriting, 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 June’s round-up? Catch up with more good reads!