I was sent a link to this article yesterday by a friend (who works as a fundraising consultant).  She asked me what I thought about it ‘from a data perspective’.  Given that the sample was so small, did I think it was indicative of anything useful to know?  Its headline was:

‘More than a fifth of people plan to reduce regular donations.’

Now, the research says it questioned ‘a 496-strong nationally representative sample in June and July’.  All sounds good so far.  It’s not a massive sample, but if you think about it – asking 496 people requires quite a bit of time and effort.  Compare that to the 5,100 households that represent the nations TV ratings and it doesn’t look too puny either. A great deal of money, careers (and egos) are dependent on that sample size.

It isn’t the sample size that strikes me as a bit odd.  It’s the ’nationally representative’ bit that I find misleading.  Don’t get me wrong, it is obvious why a researcher would do that. This isn’t a contentious point; it isn’t wrong, but I think the conclusions are a bit misleading because of it.

To draw conclusions about something general from a general group makes sense – ask a nationally representative group about if they feel happy or sad will be a good indication about the general ennui or euphoria of the nation.

But drawing general conclusions from something rather more discreet isn’t such a useful thing to do.  If you were polling people about who they were going to vote for, would you want to know if they were legally able to vote, and if they were, would they vote?  If you didn’t establish these groups and incorporate that into your analysis, you will get something like misrepresentation.  And of course, you get the problem of people not telling you truth, for one reason or another.

So to ask a nationally representative group about something that is, essentially, not evenly represented by the nation (not everybody gives) and even then, not to the same extent (even in the same socio-economic group, not everybody gives the same), I think, is a bit misleading.  Donors are neither ubiquitous nor equal (in terms of sheer capacity to donate, that is).  And I think of giving to charity as very similar to being cool – anyone that bangs on about how cool they are, probably isn’t very cool.

If you took your 496 people in this sample and worked out how much they gave to charity to start with, I could almost guarantee that only a small proportion gave ‘a lot’ of money to charity.  I would say that about 20 percent of those people would fall into the ‘giving a lot’ category and would represent about 80 percent of all the money given to charity by the group as a whole.  That’s the general Pareto principle – and it is usually pretty much accurate for most charities when you analyse what proportion of their income comes from what proportion of their whole donor base.  Not all charities, I would add, but most.

What do the top 20 percent of people say they are going to do?  Telling me that 23.1 percent of people would ‘give a lot less’ would be extremely worrying if that included all your top 20 percent plus a few more.  If it was the bottom 23.1 percent, then I am less worried, to the point where I am not worried at all.  The short term will be affected, ever so slightly, of course, but it will return, along with the economy, in the mid to long term.  We need a bit of clarity in terms of what these people are doing.  Suppose the headline read:

‘More than a fifth of people who don’t really give that much plan to give a bit less in the short term but it will all be good in the mid to long term, so be aware of it, but don’t worry too much.’

Obviously the sub editor would have to be fired, but you would sleep a bit easier wouldn’t you?

All I am asking is that if you are going to publish some research that focuses on a rather bleakish statistic, at least let me know which fifth we are talking about.

As someone rather succinctly put it to me once when I was wondering how much of my income I should put into a pension – it doesn’t matter Adam, four fifths of **** all is **** all.

With the seventh NFPtweetup upon us, you should be well on your way to knowing what to expect. But how did it come about, and what are the highlights you may have missed?

At the risk of navel-gazing, we’ve already done a “story so far” presentation (from November 2009) so you can see that to find out how it all started back in November 2008. But if you look at the first ever collaborative slideshow (we used to get everyone coming to send in a slide on a certain topic) it’s funny how some of the themes are still relevant today:

But that’s no surprise really – if you’re on Twitter then you’re communicating with people and are this involved in communications (to a greater or lesser degree). So you need to know who’s in control, what your message is, and what the goal is. The only thing that’s changed over the last couple of years is that there are more examples of charities doing these things well on Twitter (and other platforms).

This is what I find really interesting about the tweetups – hearing stories from the people who are actually making things happen, and them sharing their advice. There’s no self-promotion or agenda, no question is too simple or stupid, everyone’s very open and honest about their success and failures. And as much as we all like to communicate online, there’s no substitute for meeting people in real life (or IRL if you like) and putting a face to the avatar.

We’re proud at JustGiving to have supported the tweetup for the last two years, as I think so many people have taken away so much from all of the events. And they don’t happen by accident – it takes a lot of time and effort to organise the venue, speakers and agenda. So this time we’re even more excited than normal to support the event at our new office. I only hope it’s big enough for all you NFPtweeters!

But I’ll leave you with probably my favourite collaborative slideshow so far, on “finding your Twitter voice”. I think it’s the hardest thing to crack when you first join Twitter, and in these 18 slides, there are some fantastic examples of people, organisations and charities who manage to communicate their mission, calls to action and their personality in just 140 characters.

YouthNet’s online guide to life, TheSite.org, is a trusted source of information, advice and guidance on whole plethora of issues, ranging from relationships and sex, to the law and health.  It also holds a wealth of impartial articles, videos and podcasts about finance, supporting thousands of young people a month through problems around budgeting, bankruptcy and debt.

The recent economic crisis has heightened these problems for young people: with financial issues also impacting their job prospects, their study choices, relationships and mental health.  With this in mind, we set out to develop a campaign that would generate greater awareness of the related content, services and support available on TheSite.org.  Finance, however, doesn’t have quite the same ‘sex appeal’ as some of TheSite.org’s other website content – so how could we encourage young people to express their opinions on this topic?

The idea: a creative competition, ‘LifeSupport: Change through art’, asking 16 to 25-year-olds to submit artwork based on their experiences of the recession.  A competition that would engage and encourage them to share their thoughts and experiences on these troubling times, offering them a place for their voices to be heard on the issues, whilst at the same time signposting them to the support and advice on offer from TheSite.org.

With funding from the Citi Foundation, support from our agencies, beautiful world and Theobald Fox, and the involvement of our entire Communications and Marketing team, what started as a relatively small idea grew to a major integrated marketing and PR campaign.

Through a mixture of offline and online activities (with a particular focus on social media work), we were able to create a unique and pretty exciting campaign. You need only look at the awards exhibition, or the shortlisted entries and jaw-dropping winning video to see how successful and unique it was.

Join us on Thursday to find out more.

Ollie Drackford

@YouthNetUK

@OllieFD

Who do you go to when your PC or printer stops working? If you’re lucky, it’s the tech person in your office, whether that’s their job title or they just seem to know lots more about tech than you do. If not, it’s your tech friend or neighbour. We all have useful contacts whom we turn to when our computers and related kit stop working.

But it’s always a person. Of course we can search online for advice, but nothing is more reassuring as you stare at an alarmingly blank screen or search for that document that was in that folder than a calm, friendly tech person who has sorted out this kind of problem many times before.

The same is true of the headlong rush that is social media and all that it seems to offer to charities and voluntary organisations.

Which is why I’ve attended almost all the NFPtweetups that have taken place, and will be at the seventh one this week.

Don’t be put off by the jargon: NFP = not for profit, and tweetup = a meeting of people arranged via Twitter. Once you are through the doors of these increasingly popular (and free) events, you’ll find a room full of people from all kinds of charities who are keen to learn from each other. And, given the frenzy of activity around social media, there is always something to learn.

NFPtweetup events are always slightly different, which keeps them engaging.

Previous events have included collaborative slideshows of ideas, thoughts and lessons learned (where each slide is sent in by a different contributor), breakout groups and workshops to discuss specific areas of work, objectives or challenges many charities share, and there are always a selection of short presentations – usually case studies – from charities about their use of social media, sharing what has, and hasn’t worked for them.

But, above all, it is an opportunity to chat with people facing the same issues as you, and a chance to ask the ‘silly’ questions‚ that you think would mark you out as far too behind the times with social media.

It’s a genuinely supportive event, and I leave every one with a list of new ideas and solutions to try out. I also always meet interesting people, some old friends and some new contacts. Even better, we stay in touch after the event via Twitter. So, I end up boosting my list of helpful people whom I can ask next time I get stuck.

Howard Lake
UK Fundraising
@howardlake

In our fifth blog post in the run up to NFPtweetup on Thursday, we hear from Rob, Pam and Jess from Whizz-Kidz with a preview of the update they will be giving us on Whizz-Kidz social media journey, including some of the tactics they use to engage with events fundraisers:

At youth mobility charity Whizz-Kidz we’ve been steadily increasing our social media and real-time web use over the last 18 months; trying and testing different platforms for different communications with our supporters and users.

However it’s only recently that we’ve really begun to evaluate and measure the reach of this experimentation. Pleasingly, the feedback and engagement levels kind of shows that, erm, we’re not experimenting anymore; we’re actually getting rather good at it.

There’s no room for complacency though, and there is constant demand for innovation in terms of how we harness our supporters, and importantly, how we subscribe more people to our bottom line: donating or fundraising so we can support more young disabled people year on year.

At the NFPtweetup on 10 June, we’ll be giving a brief overview of what works for us (it may not work for you).

Specifically:

Having a Facebook profile as a person – “Jess Whizz Kidz”, has proven an incredibly popular way to engage with our London Marathon runners. Participants may not always pick up the phone, but they do like using Facebook: you’re on their turf and building great relationships. Plus it’s on a Facebook wall (not stuck in an email) so can be shared, added to, and built upon by other runners.

Twitter is a fantastic viral tool, so we use it when we want to get messages out quickly and to a wide audience – we have loyal ambassadors who retweet us. We also talk a lot – chat, converse, ask questions and have discussions. We make friends.

YouTube (promoted via Facebook and Twitter) is the bees knees when wanting to paint a picture of the impact of our work. We have a growing portfolio of videos made by our young people telling their own stories, in their own words.

We hope you get some ideas from our short session, and we’re looking forward to hearing your successes to! We’re all learning.

Rob Dyson, PR & social media Manager – @robmdyson & @whizzkidz;
Pam O’Brien, Events Fundraising Manager;
Jess Leigh, London Marathon Project Manager and Events Fundraiser – @whizzkidzevents
Whizz-Kidz

This coming Thursday is the next NFPtweetup, taking place at JustGiving‘s new offices. As part of a blog series leading up to the event, I was asked to share some thoughts on the event, especially for those coming along for the first time that may not know what to expect. As I started to collect my thoughts, though, I realized that my impressions and recommendations were really applicable to any tweetup or offline gathering of online networks.

I’m sure that you’ll have more to add—and I hope you will—but, here’s my list of key tips for making the most of tweetups!

Tip #1: Share Great Stories

You aren’t bound to 140 character updates any more, so let your storytelling flow! NFPtweetups and other events where online networks come together offline are unique opportunities and hear from practioners and colleagues and get the “real story.” There’s time and space to sit down and learn more about how others are doing what they do: the success stories and the not-so-successful stories. Lesson: Listen!

Tip #2: Ask Hard Questions

Whether it’s Twitter or email or a social network, people often find it difficult to ask hard questions online because it could be seen as overly negative or critical, maybe the shared glossary of terms don’t match up and the question is misunderstood, or there’s details that one side or the other don’t have access to. That’s not the case when you get to meet up face to face. This is a great chance to ask hard questions (when someone’s telling a success or not-so-successful story, ask for more details, ask why/how/what/when) and know that you will be able to be understood as will the answer. Especially with the NFPtweetup, these events are intended to be educational and valuable. Lesson: Ask!

Tip #3: Meet Real People

We all work hard to present ourselves online the way we want to be seen, either for our job/professional careers or to keep a line between personal life and work. Only knowing someone by their avatar or their username may make it difficult to share stories and ask hard questions, online. But, now you’re offline and can enjoy the presence of lots of other real people (note: we assume you’re a real person, too!). So, make friends! Find out what you have common (hobbies, music, travel) and what drives people to do the work they do (personal stories, passions, skills). It’s okay to be human, and it will actually strengthen the network when the offline event is over and people move back to the online connections. Lesson: Socialize!

Tip #4: Stay Present

I know it can be tempting to tweet, blog, and video every moment of the event. But, remember why you’ve come together. You are here to tell stories, ask questions and meet/make friends. Most events, like NFPtweetup, will have set up a live stream and nominated people to tweet and share in real time for those who couldn’t attend in person. The reason that those roles are selected and covered ahead of time is to free up all the other participants to stay present. Say thank you and enjoy the freedom! Lesson: Participate!

What are your tips for making the most of a tweetup? Have you attended the NFPtweetup before – will you be there this time? Look forward to connecting with you!

Amy

Global Community Builder
NetSquared
@amyrsward

Dogs Trust, as most of you know, are sometimes heralded as the ‘best practice’ for NFP social media, and while we love that tag there was always a missing element for us that niggled – we never raised any money. We rehomed loads of dogs, which is our charity aim, but we never had a figure in our income column come month end.

We went into social media as a communications tool, not a fundraising one, but sitting in department of 30 others who are raising money made us feel a bit inferior.

So, never ones to pass up an opportunity, when JustGiving and Twibbon approached us about being their guinea pig for a product they were launching how could we say no?!

At next week’s NFPtweetup I’ll be sharing the results and learnings from our Valentines Day Twibbon Experiment, as well as answering any questions you may have about our work online.

See you all there!

Jacqui

Digital Marketing Manager
Dogs Trust
@jacquiobeirne @dogstrust

With this in mind, it was decided that we should raise awareness about it. Three charities, combining their powers to spread the message about the evilness of active fat. And Active Fat is evil, as I’m sure you’ve all seen in the wonderful animations that were created to spread the awareness message:

All three charities have a large online supporter base across a multitude of social networks and, by working together, we were able to share joint messages and spread the word much further than we would have been able to do on our own. We’ll be talking about how we did that and to what extent this was a success. Oh, and did we learn anything from it? We’ll share that too!

Joe

Digital Communities Manager
Diabetes UK
@JosephFreeman

We have some fab speakers coming along to share experiences and insights from their work with social media, from charities including British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK, YouthNet and Whizz-Kidz, there are 94 people registered to attend the event from a range of charities large and small, and in between, representing a whole host of causes and a diverse range of specialisms, including (but not limited to!) marketing, fundraising, campaigining, volunteering, PR, digital and community management.

We decided we might have to channel some of this excitement into something constructive that people will find useful and that will set the scene for the event, so – starting today – we’re going to do a blog post per day until the day of the event. We hope it will help to get you warmed up for Thursday, and that it will be especially useful for people who haven’t been to an NFPtweetup before and aren’t sure what to expect.

We’re going to include some guest posts from speakers at the event, giving a preview of what they’ll be sharing on the night, and we’ll also have some other social media-related posts along the way, from some other people you might have heard of… (how mysterious).

So, look out for the next post in the series tomorrow, which will be a guest post from Joe Freeman from Diabetes UK, giving us a preview of what we can expect to hear from him at the event next week. I’m looking forward to it already!

Rachel

YouthNet asked us to develop an online art competition for them.  Young people are asked to give their impression of the current economic climate and what it means to them through photos, videos and comic strips.

What’s really special about this campaign is that it’s promoted entirely through social media, supported with a little PR. There’s also a smart technical solution working behind the scenes that finds new entries hosted on Flickr and YouTube and pulls them into the site automatically – making management of the campaign super-simple.