Highlights this month: Notre Dame, Extinction Rebellion, New Power, April Fool comms, surveys and more….
Another Bank Holiday? Already? Excellent! Catch up with charity digital content and reads you might have missed while you were trying to squeeze some work in between days off.
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Content
- Did you spot any good April Fool comms? I liked the National Trust nightclub film and CoppaFeel’s google doodle. Lightful shared a collection of other charity April Fool comms.
- RSPB released the first ever single of bird song, along with some nice content – such as album covers with birds on. It is currently No2 in the charts (behind Taylor Swift – hence the excellent hashtag #swiftsOverSwift). It is the focus of a campaign all raising awareness about disappearing wildlife. Let Nature Sing.
- Thread from Greenpeace UK about what a climate emergency would entail.
- What happened the last time you got angry asked Young Minds. #ListenToAnger.
- Macmillan got into the spirit of #EdBallsDay.
- This year’s treats from #InternationalCarrotDay – carrot marmalade anyone?!
- The Miscarriage Association launched a range of greetings cards to honour pregnancy loss.
- Parkinson’s Is…. campaign for World Parkinson’s Day.
- Charity emoji fun – curated by UK Fundraising.
- Creative fundraising can lead to creative content. One of BHF’s shops started selling books without their covers, instead inviting customers to choose a book based on the opening sentence. This prompted HQ to run Friday fun Twitter polls to test knowledge of opening lines of novels.
- I also liked this handy spring clear-out flowchart from BHF.
- I love a behind the scenes blog post or story. This month I read this from RSPB – Behind the scenes on our kids’ mags from 2017.
- More craft fun in these videos from Cats Protection.
- #LiftTheBan is a campaign run by Refugee Action and a coalition of 150 charities challenging the right to work of people seeking asylum. Have you seen any of the eye-catching graphics – such as this one shared by Asylum Matters? Find out why The Bike Project joined.
- The National Library of Scotland were one of the first to respond to #BlackHoleDay, modifying one of their usual weather updates.
Comms and marketing
- Work as a charity communicator? Take the annual Charity Comms survey. Closes 24 May.
- There’s also the Charity Digital Skills survey to benchmark where the sector is at with digital, now in its third year. Closes 14 May.
- Pressing pause: a playlist for comms team development – comms2point0.
- A quiet revolution: from case study to person with real life expertise – Philippa Budgen about the changes in representation in the media.
- 10 ways charities are using Instagram stories – Kirsty Marrins for Lightful.
- Little Village were named as one of Harry and Meghan’s baby shower charities (see #GlobalSussexBabyShower). They responded brilliantly to the exposure and donations. Their instagram following doubled.
- Engaging with the media: 6 lessons from a small charity – soundDelivery share lessons from Little Village.
- In case you missed Charity Comms video for charities event – here are the slides and resources. Plus Raw London’s benchmark report (and top takeaways) about charity video.
- Films to inspire change – great examples from Molly Clarke of Charity Comms.
- More and more charities as producing films which are more like documentary. Did you see this 12minute film comissioned by RSA about low income rural Britain?
- Snapchat publishes new report on the evolution of video consumption – Social Media Today.
- Lightful’s latest social media round-up.
- Applying for the Google Ad Grants programme has got a little easier say Platypus Digital.
- The best digital marketing stats we have seen this week – eConsultancy.
- Lush announced that they were switching up social and moving away from company channels, instead focussing on #LushCommunity. See also Stop shaming companies that bail on social media and content marketing by MarTech.
- What’s NOT new for social media in 2019 – refreshing review of the principles of good social media management by Digital Mums. (See also their 5 year social impact report.
- Have you seen JRF’s talking about poverty toolkit? Here’s a tweet which shows why it matters to use accurate terminology about poverty.
- Here’s another jargon buster – this time about phrases used in health and social care.
- Does your organisation talk about its work to drive change, as clearly as Gingerbread?
- Or Extinction Rebellion?
Digital – strategy, design, culture
- Digital investment: charity’s money problem – important read from Matt Collins.
- What we’re learning about how the sector understands “digital” – Cassie Robinson.
- Looking for a new blog from a digital team? Catch up with the work that Addaction are doing. The latest post is Why we’re using our webchat service as the starting point for our new content.
- Latest post about NCVO’s digital journey – The receptionist, security guard, decorator and delivery person — NCVO’s front controller.
- Read about and vote for the nominees in this year’s Digital Leaders 100. Voting closes 10 May.
- Monthly accessibility tip: have you seen these HTML versions of the Home Office’s posters about designing accessible services?
- New website from Inspiring Impact packed with useful stuff about how to plan, understand and improve your impact.
- Design shouldn’t be a secluded or self indulgent process – Stephen McCarthy, head of design at GDS.
- Argentina just made driving licences digital in 65 days – Mike Bracken of Public Digital.
- User testing on the cheap – University of Bristol.
- 15 month of fresh hell inside Facebook – Wired.
- Have you seen the National Cyber Security Centre’s guide for small charities?
- Podcast – digital distraction and cutting through the hype – Charity Comms featuring Matt Collins.
Fundraising
- Read Paul de Gregorio’s future of fundraising presentation at the NCVO conference.
- There were lots of responses to the money raised for Notre Dame thinking about the role of philanthropy. See threads from Rhodri Davies, Angela Cluff, Nikki Bell.
- Do you have an emergency fundraising plan asks David Burgess. Would you be ready to respond to a crisis?
- New e-learning course on legacy fundraising for small charities from FSI.
- 10 donations in 10 weeks – lessons about thank you’s and platforms from Lime Green Consulting.
- GDPR: what we didn’t know last year – Institute of Fundraising on their updated guide.
- Looking to refresh your fundraising mojo and can get to London? Sign up to the latest Charity Meetup. 23 May.
People and organisations
There has been lots of talk this month about shifts in power, diversity and representation. Here are some useful reads (and watches):
- Watch keynote speeches from the NCVO annual conference from Danny Sriskandarajah (or read the transcript of Danny’s speech) and Ruth Ibegbuna
- Write-up from an Association of Chairs event looking at the Civil Society Futures report with thoughts about diversity of boards.
- Understanding ‘new power’ – by Jeremy Heimanns and Henry Timms in Harvard Business Review.
- Examples of co-production and how to manage potential risks – Zurich Insurance.
- Why we need to hear from more people with lived experience – why Gemma Pettman is supporting the Being the Story network.
- Raising the bar of leadership excellence – ACEVO launch a new leadership framework.
- Breast Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Now officially merged. The new name and brand will be released in the Autumn.
- The secret rules of getting hired – from Twitter rant to blog post by Terence Eden – check your recruitment methods.
- Spotting the signs of someone struggling – Clare Lucas on Charity Connect.
- Field guide to the future of work – 7 thought-provoking and eclectic perspectives on the future of work curated by RSA.
- Long read about XR and its rise as a movement – Lets talk about Extinction Rebellion by thinking, doing, changing. Is this the future of charities?
- Climate change for charity leaders outside the environmental sector – Jake Hayden blogs a call to action for ACEVO.
- No Royal Road: finding and following the natural pathways in advocacy evaluation by Center for Evaluation Innovation.
- Big growth in community rail volunteers – new research from ACoRP.
- Celebrating women driving #BalanceforBetter in the charity sector – Catherine Raynor introduces four women who inspire her.
- NCVO’s empowering women in the workplace event sold out. Hopefully there will be a good hashtag so others can join from afar. Watch out for it on 10 May.
- Podcasts – lots to explore in Do More Good’s rich back catalogue.
And finally….
- Did you watch the thought-provoking Miriam’s Dead Good Adventure about death and ageing? Catch up on iPlayer.
- Mesmerising Ocado robot order packers in action.
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 March’s round-up? Catch up with more good reads!
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