The Charity Place

It's a beautiful world

You might have noticed that it's gone a little bit quiet at this blog lately (quieter than usual even).

The reason?

I've recently launched an agency called Beautiful World.  We do fundraising, marketing and communications for charities and other organisations that want to do the world some good (no surprises there, I'm sure).

I've started Beautiful World with two beautiful business partners, Simon Frank and Adam Waller, both of whom I've done great work with with before at other charity specialist agencies.

Social media is one of our specialisms (naturally).  We've already helped a number of charities get started with Twitter, get better at Facebook, get buy-in across their organisation, develop integrated social media strategies, build communities of support, and begin to leverage them to fundraise, and engage with volunteers, campaigners and other stakeholders.

We're also helping charities integrate their online and offline activities - because giving stakeholders and supporters a genuine, joined-up experience of your brand, across all media channels, is more important than ever now everything (and almost everyone) is joined up online.

We also know a thing or two about how to measure and evaluate your fundraising, marketing and communications activities, and how to use data (the information charities hold on their databases, including how donors were recruited, how many times they've donated, how much they've given, when and how often, what other types of support they have engaged in) and web metrics to improve results and return on investment.

We've just helped one charity more than double their projected income AND halve their mailing costs - which has tripled their return on investment.  I can't tell you how happy and proud we are about that.

Anyway - and returning to my original point, finally - I'll be posting content over at the Beautiful World blog from time to time now, as well as from time to time here, although you'll still mostly find me on Twitter!

Serious fun from SXSW - the Social Media Nonprofit Poetry Slam

I've just been catching up with this session - run yesterday at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas - via the Twitterstream and the links to various blogs that people have shared in their tweets.

Conducted entirely in rhyme (yes, really), the session was moderated by Beth Kanter, with contributions from:

• Danielle Brigida - National Wildlife Federation
• Wendy Harman - American Red Cross - National Headquarters
• Carie Lewis - The Humane Society of the United States
• David Neff - American Cancer Society [Judge]
• Katie Paine - KDPaine & Partners [Judge]
• Holly Ross - NTEN [Judge]

Unsurprisingly, Twitter is mentioned heavily - along with a range of other social media - in the examples shared by the panel.

Beth has kindly shared a comprehensive range of content from it here, on her blog - including the slides, transcripts of the poems recited by each of the panelists, along with a variety of links to help you get a fuller picture of the nonprofit case studies, experiences and insights that the session pulled together and shared.

And here's a video (via the NTEN blog) of the panelists in action:

Looks like a lot of fun, whilst making a serious point about how charities - and brands in general - are re-evaluating their traditional views on metrics, measurement and ROI to account for a different style of engagement with supporters through social media. 

It's really quite clever to deliver a session on measurement and metrics in such a unusual and engaging way - reflecting how social media enable nonprofits to engage supporters in helping them meet their challenges in new and innovative ways.

Beth also shares some reflections from the session on her blog here.

NFPtweetup - sponsored by The Charity Place and Just Giving

This is primarily a heads up for anyone reading this blog who may not have heard about NFPtweetup yet.

This event is taking place between 4.30-8.30pm (GMT) on Monday, 24 November and is open to anyone working in the not-for-profit space who either uses Twitter or has an interest in the applications of Twitter, and other social media, for charities and nonprofit organisations.

There are more details here on the wiki, and you can participate in the event either by attending it physically at the Coach & Horses, Greek Street, Soho, London, or by participating online (if you attend in person, you'll be able to enjoy a drink or two with the compliments of those nice people at Just Giving, who are kindly supporting this event).

All details and information are on the wiki so, if you are interested, please have a look.

You don't need to register for the event, although it would be nice if we knew to expect you - either in person or online - so we can do our best to include everyone in the conversation; and signing up to the wiki is probably the best way to make sure that happens.

If you're reading this, don't be a lurker - join the flock!

A disclaimer

I've been trying to turn more charities onto the possibilities of social media for a while, because of the enormous power they have to enable organisations to meet their objectives - if used strategically.

I'm saying that again, because it's key and it concerns me that it's a point that many people keep missing.

I'm not advocating using Twitter, or any other social media, for the sake of it (or because it is cutting edge, 'cool', new or exciting).  I am keen to develop a deeper understanding that social media are a powerful set of tools that can help charities and nonprofits achieve important objectives that contribute towards their corporate/ organisational plans, and their missions.  This means activities like building awareness of their work, raising funds, delivering support, scoping and understanding need, communicating important messages to supporters and stakeholders, recruiting donors, campaigners, volunteers, staff, advocates, growing a greater voice to influence policy and provision of local and national services, developing better solutions and so on.

I'm also very aware that there are some very practical barriers for a lot of organisations - whether they are rooted in resources (time, money, people power, structure), knowledge, understanding, experience or a combination of these - factors can make it very difficult to put together a business case, or create a culture, for testing these tools.

So, where was I? Oh yes, that's right:

NFPtweetup is all about coming together with others to explore these (and any other) burning issues, share thoughts and ideas, meet new people and maybe even collaborate.  I hope that it turns out to be a great forum for people not using Twitter or any other social media yet in their organisations to consider what might work for them.

Is it worth building your own online networks?

You probably had a look at MyActionAid when it was launched by ActionAid last February – perhaps you've even used it?

It’s a brilliant platform for events and community fundraising – a bit like an own-branded version of Just Giving – and you can see how it has the potential to be so much more; a social networking platform for ActionAid to engage with its supporters, for them to engage with each other, to take ActionAid’s messages to their social networks and bring their friends into the fold.

Adding different ways for people to engage aside from fundraising – I'm thinking campaigning in particular – and further integration with other platforms would add value to the experience and make this site a really rich way to engage with ActionAid, its work and its community of supporters.

It’s great to get some insights from their experiences and to find out a little about their future plans, including making widgets available to integrate with supporters on Facebook.

I always want to hear about how this kind of initiative is working, and I’m impressed that they're citing ‘double the giving rate compared to presence on other sites’. That's got to make doing something like this well worth the effort, surely?