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How to Create Effective Charity Hashtags

January 15, 2020by Libby Mahoney in Blog, VCS Feature tagged ,

Looking to leverage your supporterbase via social media? Here’s our five-step guide to creating effective charity hashtags.

Have you admired recent charity digital campaigns? Dreaming of going viral but unsure how? Charity digital leaders may have read our earlier tips on how to leverage social media, and how platforms can add to the fundraising toolbox. Creating hashtags on social media allows for audiences to contact charities regardless of location or size.

Adding to the power of hashtags, these digital portals can also work as a call to action. Charity digital marketing and communications teams have created memorable hashtags across Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, targeting audiences for charity fundraisers, new product launches, announcements, and brand awareness.

Additive to every charity digital leader’s toolkit, here is a quick DIY guide to creating an effective charity hashtag.

1.Decide how you want your hashtag to work

Hashtags can, and should, form part of the charity social media strategy. When deciding how you want the hashtag to work, marketing and communications goals may be helpful.  Social Media Today advocates deciding on what value can be derived from the hashtag:
•Is there a specific event happening?
•Is this a digital fundraising appeal?
•Or, maybe the aim is to create a buzz?

Once decided, brainstorming a catchy, memorable phrase is important to motivate audiences. Simple ones tend to work very well – #GivingTuesday is a prime example of how worldwide charitable events can come together.

To read the full Charity Digital News Article click here.

Source: Charity Digital News

5 Tips to Improve Your Charity’s Email Marketing Strategy

January 15, 2020by Libby Mahoney in Blog, VCS Feature tagged ,

Is it your charity’s new year’s resolution to improve its email marketing campaigns? Here are five things you can do to get ahead now and start improving the click-through rates and engagement of your emails.

New digital channels like social media and virtual assistants might be stealing the headlines, but email remains king when it comes to charity marketing. Studies from Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor put email open rates for charity emails at around 20-25% compared to a universal open rate of 6%, proving that good causes still make a big impression in people’s inboxes.

However, there are always things you can do to further improve the performance of your emails and build stronger relationships with your valued supporters.

Here are five strategically-driven ways to give your charity’s email campaigns a boost in 2020.

1. Have clearly-defined goals

First and foremost, it’s important to have a solid strategy for each email campaign you send. This means setting out in as much detail as possible:

What you ultimately want to achieve

How your emails fit into the bigger picture of your other brand campaigns

Who your target audience is

How you will measure success

This guide to email marketing strategy from email marketing platform Uplers gives a good grounding in how to set out your strategy, and particularly your objectives and key results, so you’ll always know what you’re working towards and stay focused.

To read the full Charity Digital News Article click here.

Source: Charity Digital News

Creative Black Country requires Storage Space

January 14, 2020by Mazeline Hemmings in Blog, VCS Feature tagged ,

Creative Black Country (based within SCVO in West Bromwich) are looking for storage space to keep project items for when not in use.

The storage space would need to be at least 2.3m wide x 3.5m long, lockable and accessible 24/7.

If you have a storage space which meets Creative Black Country’s requirements and you are happy for the team to use it for free, please get in touch with Rosalind Argo at info@creativeblackcountry.co.uk or 0121 525 1127 for further discussion.

Funding Officer wanted at One Walsall

January 14, 2020by Mazeline Hemmings in Blog, Vacancies, VCS Feature tagged ,

One Walsall provides infrastructure and support for the borough’s voluntary and community sector organisations in Walsall. The Charity would like to recruit a Funding Officer to join the small energetic team.

Hours: 37 per week
Salary: £26,000 per annum
Term:  12 months fixed with potential to extend based on performance and funding.

The Funding Officer would be responsible for supporting voluntary sector organisations in Walsall to develop project ideas from initial thoughts into submission of high-quality bids. The post holder will work closely with One Walsall’s Development Officers who support organisations around their structural governance and capacity.

The successful candidate will be required to maintain a strategic overview of current and future funding opportunities for both internal and external use, from which a funding digest can be created.

Please click here for further information, job description, person specification and detail on how to apply.

The closing date for applications is 4 pm on Friday, 7th February 2020.

Four of the Best Charities Leading the Push for Digital Transformation

December 20, 2019by Libby Mahoney in Blog, VCS Feature tagged , ,

Charities with digital transformation on their list of New Year’s resolutions need look no further. Through efficiencies gained from digital fundraising, operational speed, and time-saving processes, digital transformation can give charities of all sizes a make-over in both online and in offices. Here we showcase four of the most inspirational transformations.

Parkinson’s UK data-led approach to digital strategy
In 2017, the UK charity focused on determining internal digital maturity levels and developing a digital strategy.

“We now talk an awful lot about our data maturity as an organisation and about making sure that our 400 staff know how to use information to make better decisions,” said Ms Dodd, Director of Digital Transformation and Communication, when speaking to Computer Weekly magazine.

“That stretches from our strategic priorities right down to a project-level basis, where our people use information to make better decisions.”

Since then, one of the major challenges Ms Dodd has worked on is to link up data sources across the organisation. A cloud-based solution was found using Snowflake to centralise data.  For the inside scoop on the journey, Charity Digital News interviewed Carolyn Nutkins, Director of Organisational Development at Parkinson’s UK – the video can be found here.

Cancer Research UK’s journey is about digital cultural change
Two years on from the first conversations and implementation of the charity’s digital transformation, leadership and skills have come to the fore. Writing for CRUK’s blog, Ellie Budd, Digital Proposition Manager noticed how the charity’s entire operating model had shifted from demanding services to testing new, innovative digital ideas.

“For us, it’s a little about the technology, but a lot more about the skills teams have. We learnt very quickly those skills needed to be different for every team. Some would need to set up complex A/B tests, some needed to write user stories in BDD format, and some had to optimize their content for search,” said Ms Budd.

For CRUK, digital transformation and experimentation came with not only a shift in digital culture but buy-in from digital leaders throughout the organisation.

To read the full Charity Digital News article click here.

Source: Charity Digital News

Committee Seeks Views on Charity Accounting Framework

December 18, 2019by Libby Mahoney in Blog, VCS Feature tagged ,

The SORP-making body is looking for engagement partners that will form key stakeholder groups to help gather feedback and ideas for change.

The SORP-making body charged with developing the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (the SORP) is looking for engagement partners that will form key stakeholder groups to help gather feedback and ideas for change.

The SORP is the set of rules which governs charity accounting for charitable companies and larger charities (charities with an income over £250,000). The main purpose of the SORP Committee is to identify potential changes to the SORP and advise the SORP-making body.

Chosen engagement partners can be individuals or organisations. They will have an interest in charity financial reporting and the work of the sector, and will have the opportunity to work with the SORP Committee to make sure that their views are expressed correctly.

These partners will be put into stakeholder groups based on their main areas of work. Groups will be asked to reflect on:

  • the information needs of users of charity annual reports and accounts
  • how far the SORP needs to change to meet those needs
  • what information users of the SORP need to prepare for good annual report and accounts
  • opportunities to simplify and remove unnecessary reporting and ensuring technical compliance with the UK-Irish Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP).

The views of the stakeholder groups inform the work of the advisory Charities SORP Committee and so shape the future form and content of the SORP.

To become an engagement partner in writing the next SORP, please read this information pack. It provides you with all of the information you need about the role and how to apply. The closing date for applications is 31 January 2020.

Read the full Charity Commission article by clicking here.

Source: Charity Commission

Find Out How SAFL Can Support You

December 3, 2019by Mazeline Hemmings in Blog, Did you know...?, VCS Feature tagged ,

Sandwell Adult and Family Learning Service – SAFL – is the people’s choice for post 19 adult and community learning in Sandwell. The service provides a rich and varied range of learning activities at over thirty venues across the six towns in Sandwell.

Sandwell Council is committed to supporting and encouraging more people to enjoy and benefit from learning.

Visit www.learnsafl.ac.uk to find out how SAFL supported Care Worker, Lorianne, to improve her skills.

Telephone: 0121 557 0837

Email: contact_SAFL@sandwell.gov.uk
Tweet: @learnsafl

#StrongerSandwell – Call to Action!

December 2, 2019by Leona in Blog, VCS Feature tagged

#StrongerSandwell is a campaign all about highlighting the contribution that the local voluntary and community Sector in Sandwell is making towards building a stronger future for the Borough, especially in relation to health and wellbeing.

The image of ‘strength’ reminds us all of how we’ll achieve more if we recognise and invest in our existing strengths.  We want to keep investment in Sandwell and take an ‘asset based’ approach to services being delivered by local people for local people.

The #StrongerSandwell hastag is something that is independent of any organisation.  If you have a good news story or any other information to share when you are using social media, you are encouraged to use the #StrongerSandwell hashtag.

Further to this the Sandwell Public Health team have made a commitment to retweet/ share any posts by voluntary sector or community groups that uses the hashtag, helping to expand their reach and widely promote their work.

Young people and their experiences of health and social care

November 21, 2019by Mazeline Hemmings in Blog, Children & Young People, VCS Feature tagged , ,

Healthwatch Sandwell have started a project to find out the needs of young people and their experiences of health and social care in Sandwell.

This project seeks to understand young people’s knowledge of health services and their involvement with the services, with particular emphasis on mental health services.

There is a short survey, which Healthwatch would like young people to complete. There is also the opportunity to take part in focus groups.

Further information is available from the Healthwatch website.

Understanding The Role Technology Plays In Driving Accountability

November 21, 2019by Debra Hill in Blog, Did you know...?, VCS Feature tagged

If charities are clear what data matters to them and how to measure it, then digital transformation can allow them to focus their technology’s energy on where it is most needed, says Nathan Baranowski from OJO Solutions.

We live in the age of information. An astonishing 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created on the web every day – that’s the equivalent of 10 million Blu-Ray films every 24 hours. Yet despite all this data, we still often struggle to gain access to the information we sorely need to facilitate decision-making and work productively.

But the rise of AI and big data is transforming the way we see information and how we use data – opening the doors to data delivering real-time insight and providing a single truth.

A world in which it’s commonplace to view real-time fundraising figures and access financial performance and management accounts automatically, without human intervention, is within reach. Emerging technology has the potential to liberate us all and focus us on purposeful decision-making. This is the information age.

For more information click here

Source:  Civil Society

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