beautiful world

NFPtweetup seven session preview: Highlights from past tweetups

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

For our final blog post, we hear from Jonathan Waddingham with highlights from past NFPtweetup events.

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:

NFPtweetup Collaborative Slideshow 24 Nov 08

View more presentations from Rachel Beer.

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.

NFPtweetup Collaborative Slideshow – 27 May 09

View more presentations from Rachel Beer.

Looking forward to seeing everyone later today!

Jonathan Waddingham

@jon_bedford

@JustGiving

Tags: Charities, Charity, events, Just Giving, JustGiving, NFPtweetup, non-profit, online, social media, Twitter
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NFPtweetup seven session preview: LifeSupport: Change through art competition

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

For our sixth guest blog post, we hear from Ollie Drackford at YouthNet with a preview of what he’ll be sharing at the NFPtweetup this Thursday:

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

Tags: awareness, Charities, Charity, digital, Flickr, Just Giving, JustGiving, NFPtweetup, online, outreach, social media, Twitter, video, YouTube
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NFPtweetup seven session preview: Whizz-Kidz social media overview and update

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Those who came to the last NFPtweetup on 4 March are sure to remember Rob Dyson’s presentation on the first steps he had taken to monitor and measure the impact of Whizz-Kidz social media engagement. If you missed it, you missed out on Rob’s uniquely engaging and humourous delivery, but you can still see his slides on slideshare:

Measuring Social Media Metrics – Rob Dyson at the NFPtweetup

View more presentations from NFPtweetup.

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

Tags: challenge events, Charities, Charity, donor acquisition, donor development, donor retention, events, events fundraising, Facebook, Fundraising, Just Giving, JustGiving, NFPtweetup, social media, Twitter, YouTube
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NFPtweetup seven preview: Amy Sample Ward’s tips for tweetups

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

In our fourth blog post to warm up for NFPtweetup 7, it is over to Amy Sample Ward and her thoughts on how to make the most of tweetups:

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

Tags: Charities, Charity, email, Just Giving, JustGiving, NetSquared, NFPtweetup, social media, tips, tweetups, Twitter, video
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NFPtweetup seven session preview: Dogs Trust and Twibbon fundraising

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Many in the sector still seem to doubt that social media can be used for fundraising – in large part because there are so few examples of charities having tried – so we’re really lucky that Jacqui O’Beirne of Dogs Trust will be sharing the results of Dogs Trust’s Twibbon fundraising experiment at next week’s NFPtweetup. In our third blog post to warm up for the event, Jacqui gives us a sneak preview of what she’ll be sharing:

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

Tags: Charities, Charity, communications, Fundraising, Just Giving, NFPtweetup, social media, Twibbon, Twitter
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NFPtweetup seven session preview: Active Fat campaign show and tell

Friday, June 4th, 2010

In our second blog post to warm up for NFPtweetup next Thursday, 10 June, we get a little taster from Joe Freeman of Diabetes UK about what he, and colleagues from Cancer Research UK and British Heart Foundation, will be sharing at the event:

Diabetes UK, Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation have been working together to raise awareness of the dangers of Active Fat. The fat that makes up your love handles – actually, I won’t assume that you have love handles, that would be rude… The fat that makes up my love handles doesn’t just sit there doing nothing. It’s active, and can cause cancer, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease – scary thought.

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

Tags: awareness, Charities, Charity, Facebook, social media, Twitter, YouTube
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Tough times ahead for Charities

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

So, just what is on the horizon for us in 2010?

There is of course going to be an election (finally!). Some say it will be as early as March, others that Brown will push it until the last minute in May.

But here’s the thing… it barely matters which party gets elected, they are all going to have to do the same: CUT public spending. Sorry did I say cut? It won’t be called it that. A phrase like “a radical overhaul of public expenditure” will be used to gloss over it.

Of the multiple, unpleasant effects that this will have, one will be to put more pressure on the third sector to try and deliver the services that government has unofficially washed its hands of.   Our fragile economy has been on life-support for the past twelve months. This is about to be switched off and, if it doesn’t just give up the ghost there and then, one of the early consequences is likely to be a rise in unemployment.

Simultaneously taxation, on those lucky enough to have a job, is going to rise steeply.

Net effect: fewer donors with less money in their pockets.

The great challenge to our sector this year will be to meet ever-increasing demands for resources with a falling income.

We are going to have to work incredibly hard to do that. And we’re going to have to be open to the idea of working differently. The old way of doing things may simply no longer work.

We are entering a period of huge, dinosaur-toppling change.

Online will be more important than ever as charities search for ways to open up new income streams.  We’re all aware of an explosion in the use of social media (watch out for the inevitable cack-handed attempts of political parties to do an Obama with it as we head into election fever.)

Many charities have been cocking a suspicious eye towards Twitter and Facebook, and some (Dogs Trust, Adopt-a-Word, Childs-i, Oxfam, RSPB, Amnesty to name but a few) have grasped these new media with both hands.

Some of the more far-sighted charities have been preparing during 2009 by establishing new digital departments. Good move. While the rest of the sector puts a committee together to agree the wording of their first tweet, they will be well placed to start connecting with new supporters online and to begin developing their digital brand identities.

As well as an election there is another tired old contest about to be re-run this year: the World Cup. Of slightly more interest, if you’re a techie, is the fact that there are apparently millions of 3D TV sets stock-piled for the event.

2010 is definitely going to be a 3D year. So here’s another prediction: the first 3D TV ad for a charity. (Heck we might even make it ourselves – any takers?)

To summarize, here’s the whole post in one Twitter-sized bite: CUTS, unemployment up; income down; online v big; huge change; dead dinosaurs; 3D World Cup: England loses.

Tags: 2010, 3D TV, Charities, Charity, election, social media, unemployment, World Cup
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Charity video – is anyone watching?

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

These days, charities are getting a lot of encouragement to have a video presence on the web. Good thing, too.

YouTube, now the world’s second largest search engine, runs an excellent service for non-profits – with the ability to put links in your video that go directly to your website. It should definitely be considered as part of an effective SEO strategy – rather than just somewhere to shove old DRTV ads and odds and sods of old footage. Check out Michael Hoffman’s post on the subject to find out why.

One of the most vocal new promoters of video is See The Difference. If you haven’t sat through one of their infectiously enthusiastic presentations this year – where have you been? See The Difference, when it goes live sometime this winter, will be a spectacularly shiny environment, with all sorts of bells and whistles, where you can display your charity’s fundraising videos.

It represents what the web is about: fluid communication that allows you to move intuitively from one interesting thing to another, following your whims and hunches, donating a bit here, a bit there? The only question that keeps nagging at me is whether donors will bother to go there and look. I really hope they will, because the demo site is seriously cool.

screen-shot-2009-10-27-at-1226121

But – and there is a big ‘BUT’ – people won’t watch your video unless it is emotionally engaging. No-one will give to your cause as a result of your film unless you have made a persuasive case. And no-one will want to watch any video online, no matter how worthy, if it’s long, meandering and doesn’t make an interesting point – and fast.

Doing this is simply not as easy as it looks.

If people have got short attention spans nowadays, there’s nowhere they’re shorter than online. (By the way, the optimum length for an online video is between 3 and 4 minutes.)

A while back I met with some lovely people from a medium-sized charity who had just made a See The Difference do-it-yourself-style film. They opened the laptop and pressed play. I watched footage, which ran for several minutes, without any voiceover, then stopped abruptly.

Apart from the missing branding and lack of logo (you might easily be left wondering which charity it featured), the missing case for support (who knows what they were actually going to do with your money?), and the fact that in their film everyone seemed pretty happy and healthy (you do have to illustrate some need when you’re fundraising) – it wasn’t too bad a piece (a bit worthy and dull, but not, you know, awful).

Perhaps these were basic errors that many charities would avoid? I’m not so sure.

The thing is, charities are often so passionate about the change they create, and so convinced of the need, it often makes them incapable of taking a critical view of their fundraising and realising potential donors might need a bit more persuasion.

But consider this: technology has brought production costs down so much now that making a video is within the reach of just about anybody. This means more and more people churning out their own mini productions (hence the phenomenal growth of YouTube).

Although that’s great for charities, it’s also going to make it harder and harder for your cause to stand out and be noticed. And it’s also going to get more and more difficult to persuade the average person to give up three minutes of their life to watch your film, instead of someone else’s – not to mention to watch it and donate.

What’s the solution? An old one I’m afraid. Unless you’re an expert yourself, find someone who is. As media channels have proliferated beyond all recognition, certain things have never gone out of fashion: ideas and craft.

No, you don’t have to spend a fortune on film any longer; a home video camera will do (or even a mobile phone). But you still have to work damned hard to get someone’s attention. You still have to think. You still have to use your imagination.

Frustratingly, this can’t be done with a checklist. Making a film like that is a bit like painting by numbers – it looks like a painting, but it doesn’t make you feel anything.

Moving images are still the most instantly emotive way to connect with people. Cleverly used they can make you cry, laugh, gasp with amazement and have you diving for your wallet.

So, remember, while you’re cutting costs, that you still need to invest in the skills required to make this medium sing sweetly. They’re worth their weight in gold (or pounds sterling!).

Tags: Charity, film, Fundraising, See The Difference, SEO, video, YouTube
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Why it’s worth learning to write for Twitter

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

When I look at my Twitter-stream, I find that there are some people whose tweets regularly stand out. They offer a beguiling mix of information and wit that burst onto my screen like verbal fireworks. Beautifully formed thoughts that give the impression of having just rolled effortlessly off the keyboard.

A friend of mine, Mark Wnek, who moved out to The States to become Chief Creative Officer of Lowe NY, is a masterful Twitter writer. He’s got a brilliant mind, a razor sharp wit and doesn’t suffer fools. His tweets sometimes read like the verbal assaults of an ego-maniac, but they’re always underpinned by self-deprecation and humanity. Love him or hate him, his tweets are a joy to read. How the hell does he do it?

Well, for starters he’s a copywriter with 25 years experience behind him. A writer who’s taken years to learn his craft. If you come from a background of press ad and poster writing, you can’t help but feel at home on Twitter. (The optimum length for a poster headline is 6-8 words.)

For the would-be Mark Twain of Twitter there’s a lesson in this: follow the right people. Make sure you read at least some top quality tweets each day for inspiration.

But, like the spoken word, tweets barely even exist before being swept away by a never-ending torrent of newer posts. Does it really matter what you write? Well, unless you’re happy talking to yourself, yes it does.

So, what makes a good tweet?

It’s a remarkably difficult question to answer. Inevitably, it’s a combination of factors: brevity; wit; interesting information; timing; personality.

If you have established an engaging tone of voice, then a few words from you can have a huge impact. Stephen Fry, for example, sounds witty saying almost anything. Easy if you’re him, but since you’re not, you’ll have to work at it.

If you’re tweeting on behalf of your charity, you need to ask yourself:

1. Are your tweets the optimum length?
2. What should the mix of messages be?
3. How often is it okay to ask for support?
4. How do you write a tweet that will get re-tweeted?
5. How do you track your tweets?

(Answers at the end.)

There are some tweeters who come totally left of field. One of my favourites is Drsamueljohnson. He (or she?) writes every tweet in the style of the esteemed 18th century author. Believe it or not, it works. The tweets are unmistakable and often hilarious.

One of the ways to become a good writer on Twitter is to become a good listener. What I mean by this is learning to spot subtext.

There is a constant stream of people ready to denounce Twitter for being banal. Even Ken Burnett recently, rather wickedly, described Twitter as ‘drowning in a sea of trivia’. He was being deliberately provocative, I know, but the point I want to make back to Ken is: learn to read between the lines, you’ll get a lot more out of it.

For example, I saw a tweet the other day from someone who’s a real social media ‘pro’, which read (I’m paraphrasing):

“Goodness it’s 3.30, where has the time gone?”

Can you get more trivial than this?

Think about it again.

This is a guy who keeps up a pretty constant stream of tweets and has a huge following. He’s been off air for hours. His tweet is telling me that he’s back (sorry if he ignored me in the interval); he’s telling me that he’s up for a chat; he’s telling me that he’s been incredibly busy; he’s saying hello. Trivial? I don’t think so.

There is another reason it’s worth honing your craft when it comes to Twitter writing. It will make you a better writer – period. Being brief, concise, witty, attractive and informative all leads to writing that is more effective. If you can write for Twitter, you can write for anything.

Now, back to those questions I posed earlier. You can get the answers to all of them, plus a whole heap of really useful tips, at Writing For Twitter, the course I’m running on 5th October. Hope to see you there.

Tags: Charities, Charity, Dr Samuel Johnson, Fundraising, ken Burnett, Lowe NY, Mark Wnek, marketing, social media, Stephen Fry, Twitter, writing, Writing for twitter
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Cheapskate Cliff Richard Fans

Monday, August 10th, 2009

What’s wrong with the following statement?

“We are mailing half as many people this time round, so we need to halve the income target”

Now, I guess that sounds entirely reasonable, but in fact, it isn’t.

If the number of people you mailed was in a direct proportion to the number of people that responded, then it would indeed make total sense. But fundraising doesn’t work that way. Why?

Let’s say I ask this question:

“Who wants a free ticket to see Cliff Richard?”

sircliff

There is a finite number of people who would be interested in this question. Some people would probably take you up because it is free; some people would take it up because it is Cliff Richard; and some people would take it up because it’s free AND it’s Cliff. We have three distinct groups here:

Cheapskates
Cliff Richard Fans
Cheapskate Cliff Richard Fans

The best responders will naturally be those who admire Sir Cliff and like free tickets. That’s a reasonable expectation because this offer is, like, ‘so totally up their street’.

There is a finite number of people who are ever likely to take you up on your offer – whatever that offer is.

Response rates are funny things. I could, for example, get you a 100% response rate by only asking myself and responding. However, that would just be me and Sir Cliff, which would be pretty uncomfortable for us both.

If you had the money, you could also contact everyone in the whole country. You would certainly have asked all the right people, plus a whole lot more. But the point remains – it’s only going to be people in those three groups who are ever likely to respond. Of course, you’d get a few randoms… people who were just passing, some lost tourists and the like, but they are going to be in the minority. However, even including this minority, the number of people interested in your offer is finite.

So what is wrong with the original statement?

The point is you need to optimize your outbound communications. Doing anything else results in what some people call junk mail. It is also what I call a terrible waste of money and you shouldn’t do it.

Regardless of that, at some point, you will hit the maximum number of people who are ever going to take you up on your free Cliff ticket.

I’m going to take the next section very slowly. Simon, who’s almost allergic to numbers and is looking pretty blank at the moment, is my litmus test. If he gets this bit, anyone can.

The relationship between the volume compared to response is not linear, it starts getting further and further apart the more people you contact.

(Simon’s nodding doubtfully).

In other words you’ll get a worse and worse response rate, while the costs go up and up. Knowing how and when to judge this optimum point is a real skill. When you hit it just right – you can get some brilliant results. The nifty thing here is that when judgement is applied in this area by someone who knows what they’re doing (alright I am talking about me, not Simon), you not only get brilliant results, but you know in advance that you’re likely to get these kind of results. They’re wonderfully predictable. You can’t predict what one person will do, but you can predict what 10,000 people will do.

Far from reducing your income target, you could well be in a position to increase your income at the same time as you cut your costs. It is possible to achieve a greater net income by asking half as many people, as long as you cut out the half that was not likely to respond.

(Nod and a wink from Simon.)

So if, by some curious twist of fate, you actually are wondering who to contact to get rid of a barrel load of free Cliff Richard tickets, the answer is: cheapskate Cliff Richard fans.

Tags: Charity, cliff richard, communication, costs, Fundraising, income, net income, numbers, response, response rates, target, targeting, volume
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An open letter to the next beautiful intern

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Dear next beautiful intern,

Since today’s my last day at Beautiful World and you have yet to start work, this letter is the best way I could think of to do some kind of a handover to you.

I won’t be going through all the ins and outs of working here. The partners of Beautiful World don’t suffer fools gladly and they all come with built-in bullshit detectors. That’s why I’m confident whoever they pick as the next intern will be a pretty clued up person to figure it all out.

What I will do is flesh out my version of the beautiful intern specification and share some of my experience, in the hope that you can use it to make the most out of your time here.

First of all, you have to bring something to the table, like an opinion. If it also makes the partners laugh, it’s a real treat. Their laughter is infectious and it’s the best thing you could hear in the agency, other than news of winning pitches, raising millions for good causes and getting paid.

Therefore, having a sense of humour helps tremendously, because working for the greater good does make you want to tear your hair out sometimes. Add to that bags of unwavering enthusiasm and you will never lose sight of why you’re really here.

Take initiative. Roll up your sleeves and do as much work as is humanly possible. When you’re done, ask for more. While the partners can do the tasks given to you much better and faster than you can, they sometimes forget that they have way too much on their plate. You’re here to help, so help them. You’re also here to learn, and I guarantee you’ll learn a lot by getting stuck in.

The great thing about working in Beautiful World is that you even get to run a few ideas of your own. If it wasn’t for me, the beautiful pouffe would still be called a footstool.

RHah

Other very useful skills to have are great attention to detail, being highly organised and super efficient, as well as making a gorgeous cup of tea/coffee.

Upon reflection, here are a few highlights from my experience:

Best moments
I know it sounds cliché, but it has to be everyday at Beautiful World. There aren’t many places where you go to work happy and leave work happy, so I’m one very lucky intern.

Greatest challenge
Deciphering Rachel’s handwritten notes.

Biggest regret
Making horrendous coffee for our beautiful visitors. It’s a fact I’ve learnt only recently and I fear the coffee could have been the deal breaker for some of our new business pitches. The partners might have to invest in a ‘million pound coffee maker’. No wait, that’s Adam.

What I’ve learnt
The past few times I’ve been asked the all important question, I couldn’t give a straight answer. I can only hope the words ‘muppet’ and ‘tosser’ didn’t spring to mind.

Some key discoveries:

The kettle takes years to boil
Chas and Dave
‘Quick’ and ‘dirty’ are words you can also use to describe data

In all seriousness, I’ve learnt more than just recency, frequency, value and not to mention, propensity models. A lot of what I take from the internship is through observing how the partners all work together and how effective they are in conjuring up really great solutions for the challenges that clients have. It’s been a great eye-opener and a huge inspiration for me to do the same, if not better.

I’m really grateful to have had the chance to work with the partners of Beautiful World, and to Simon for relinquishing creative control over this letter. They’re really nice people and I know you’ll like them as much as I do.

I do hope that I’ve left Beautiful World a little bit better, more organised and a livelier place to work in and my wish for you is that you will make Beautiful World better in your own way too.

Finally, if any of the partners threaten to superglue you to your chair at the end of your internship to keep you here, it might not be such a bad idea to say yes to that.

Sincerely,

Rebekah

Tags: #hirefriday, agency, Charities, Charity, data analysis, Fundraising, intern, internship, job, jobs, marketing, non-profit, nonprofit, opportunities, Rebekah Hah, training, work experience
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Is fundraising becoming a dirty word?

Monday, July 27th, 2009

So here I am, sitting down to a meeting with another potential beautiful client and we’re doing the introductions.

The guy to my left is in charge of ‘Supporter Retention’ (not development, just retention?). The lady to my right looks after ‘Supporter Acquisition’. Chairing the meeting is the Head of Supporter Relationship Marketing.

A couple of days before that, I was in a meeting with someone whose job title was ‘Individual Giving Officer – Acquisition’ and, recently, with someone else in charge of ‘Supporter Marketing’. A week or two ago I met a Head of Supporter Services, who was actually the head of the Individual Giving function at that particular charity.

In fact, all of these good people are fundraisers.

Back at the beautiful office, we began to wonder, is this a little like bin men becoming waste removal engineers? Or how about the window cleaner who is now a vision clearance executive? And the coffee guy who has become a barista?

Perhaps this rash of obscure job titles is symptomatic of a deeper issue? Are charities (at least some of them) becoming embarrassed at the idea of asking for money?

Could part of the reason be the proliferation of ‘social media experts’ flooding into the sector offering charities advice? These self-proclaimed gurus, many of whom have little or no fundraising experience, sell a beguiling dream of online social communities coalescing around charities and good causes in a beatific haze of generosity. Nothing as crude as asking for money need ever happen, if you engage in a dialogue with them, people will just give…

The hell they will.

You won’t find corporate fundraisers pussy-footing around the idea of asking for money. They’d be out of a job. The same applies to Major Donor Fundraisers. (Note the word fundraisers in the job title.) You know exactly what they want when you’ve had a conversation with one of these people, and so does your bank manager.

A creative director who once made my life a misery hammered home a very good piece of advice when it comes to charities and donors: tell people what the problem is, and tell them what you want them to do about it. You want money? Just ask.

Very few people put their hands in their pockets on the basis of a hint. Time after time, one of the top reasons donors cite for giving is, simply: ‘I was asked’.

Let’s not be embarrassed to be fundraisers. It’s a noble profession.

Tags: acquisition, Charity, controversy, corporate fundraisers, donors, Fundraising, Individual Giving, Major Donor Fundraisers, opinion, retention, social media, Supporter Acquisition, Supporter Relationship Marketing, Supporter Retention
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Beautiful internship

Friday, July 24th, 2009

We have this wonderful intern. She’s bright, ruthlessly efficient, a real pleasure to have around.

She’s learned about fundraising and marketing, and loads about data analysis, since she’s been with us.

There’s only one problem: she’s leaving to do an MA.

Know anyone who could replace her?

Email: rachel@hellobeautifulworld.com

Tags: #hirefriday, agency, Charities, Charity, data analysis, Fundraising, intern, internship, jobs, marketing, non-profit, nonprofit, opportunities, training, work experience
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Monday, June 22nd, 2009

19th June 2009

Joe Freeman and Maeve Clarke from Diabetes UK graced our beautiful sofa and doodled on the beautiful pouffe.

Joe’s official version of a beautiful world is, “one where everyone leaves a gift to charity in their will.” (His unofficial version involves being King, with plenty of sunshine, cold beer, sandwiches, cyclists who obey red lights and people to make him tea on demand – milk and one sugar, thanks very much.)

In Maeve’s beautiful world you always get, “a taste of Ireland…some Barry’s tea, smell of a good turf fire and ALWAYS find a four-leaf clover!”

Tags: Charities, Charity, Diabetes UK, non-profit
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Monday, June 22nd, 2009

18th June 2009

Shormeh, Andrea and Debbie from Centrepoint came in for an hour on the beautiful sofa to talk about data and social media. In return we got a beautifully drawn butterfly from Shormeh. It really is splendid.

Tags: Centrepoint, Charities, Charity, non-profit
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Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

17th June 2009

Leah Williams, Communications Officer at the Women’s Resource Centre, stopped by the beautiful sofa to talk online networks and social media.

Leah’s idea of a beautiful world is, “a world of mutual support and respect, peace, love and earl grey tea. It’s not asking much…”

Tags: Charities, Charity, non-profit, social media, Women's Resource Centre
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Is it me, or has charity become cool?

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Well, I’ve just checked with a few people and apparently it isn’t me. According to my daughter I score “zero” on the cool-o-meter. So it must, therefore, be the world of charity.

At the weekend, business woman, Mary Portas observed in the Observer that: “Our cultural G spot has moved. It used to be greed. Now it’s giving.”

Only a couple of years ago, when I mentioned that I did work for charities it brought a quick, embarrassed silence to the conversation. Now the same people look at me as if I’m some sort of saint (if only they knew!).

Charity, it seems, has become like rehab – everybody who’s anybody is going there.

So what’s happened? Well for one thing the rich and famous are still at it. This morning the papers were full of Madonna adopting a second orphan from Malawi. Comic Relief has just had its best year ever. Everywhere you look someone famous is involved in a little judicious giving.

In an article in the New York Times, Naomi Levine, an expert on philanthropy at New York University, said young people, “more than ever want to do something.” Judging from the calibre of the people who want to come and work with us, this is definitely true.

Of course, social media is playing a role in this as well. Earlier this year Hugh Jackman (better known to many as Wolverine) offered to giveaway $100,000 to whichever charity could make themselves most appealing in 140 characters:

This is exciting stuff. Anyone could play and many of us did.

Politicians are also doing their bit (albeit unwittingly) by making such a public display of greed and incompetence. Enough to drive anybody in the opposite direction.

Then of course there is the recession, forcing all of us to re-examine our values. Finally there is the environment. The once cranky idea that you don’t just consume but need to put something back is now mainstream.

These may be hard times but, in many ways, people want to give back more than ever. Now that’s cool.

Tags: Charities, Charity, comic relief, Fundraising, Giving, Hugh Jackman, maryportas, Observer, Twitter
Posted in Fundraising, blog | 4 Comments »

You can’t please all the people

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

It’s very far from being a secret that we have been plugging our entry for Bullying UK in the CBS Outdoor bus side competition. If, by some freak of nature, you’ve missed it go and vote for us immediately (please). It’s a slightly odd voting system – you can vote every day, not just once. Trying to keep our percentage of the vote has been like running a mini-general election where polling day stretches into polling month. We have used Facebook, Twitter, email and even the telephone to persuade friends, acquaintances and total strangers to lend us their support. It is, after all, in a good cause. Not just good, vital. A little boy of only 11 killed himself recently in total despair – a result of bullying he received at school. Bullying UK is a tiny charity doing a massive job. It really needs the oxygen of publicity that some free bus sides could bring.

In our haste to support a cause we care deeply about, we have upset some. One recipient of regular tweets urging him to vote finally protested. “This is e-chugging. Stop it.” Hmmm. He’s right of course. As someone who regularly ducks and dives chuggers, like an ageing rugby winger, I know how he feels.

So, should we stop? Should we just rely on people to remember to vote? Unfortunately, I don’t think we can. So, in this instance, we just have to accept that we risk upsetting some of the people. If one of those people is you – I’m truly sorry.

The overall point is a good one. It’s too easy to to fall into robot mode and keep pushing out messages like commands. This isn’t the way to make social media work. It’s a conversational medium. One where you need to be interesting to get people’s attention. Repetition just gets duller by the minute. As one of the Apprentices fired by Alan Sugar last night said, “Thank you for your input. I will try and take it with me and be a better person.”

This blog post is part of Zemanta’s “Blogging For a Cause” campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.

Tags: Adverts, BullyingUK, Bus, Charities, Charity
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NFP Tweetup Live Streaming & Collaborative Slideshow

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

We’re very excited about the third NFPTweetup tonight, which is hosted at Christian Aid in Waterloo.

There are plenty of people coming along from a wide range of charities and nonprofit organisations to learn how to use Twitter, and other social media, more effectively.

Tonight’s theme is ‘Developing your Twitter Voice’, but there will be plenty of opportunity to explore, learn and share experiences more generally on anything and everything that might relate to social media, digital, mobile technology, more traditional media and how to integrate these to get the best results.

If you can’t attend, you can follow the event online and join in by tweeting.

We’ll also be live streaming video from the event between 17:30-20:00 this evening for everyone that can’t be there in person.

Please tweet along with us, asking and answering questions, and adding your views. And remember to include the event hashtag (#NFPtweetup) in all of your tweets, so they all appear in the stream and are easy for everyone to follow.

And here’s the the collaborative slideshow, so you can view it online at the same time as we’re running through it at the event:

NFPtweetup Collaborative Slideshow – 27 May 09

View more OpenOffice presentations from Rachel Beer.

See you later!

Tags: Charities, Charity, Christian Aid, NFPtweetup, non-profit, social media, Twitter
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Proof: social media works

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

So here we are. Day three, since our official launch. Slightly breathless from it all. From the outset we knew we’d use social media for our “hello” to the world. As the zealots we are, how could we do anything else? We thought our launch might make a good case study to prove our expertise to potential clients. Pretty cunning huh?

So here’s a progress report. Howard Lake said our launch story on UK Fundraising has received more views than most of the news stories on the site for a while. At the time of writing we’re receiving around seven or eight tweets per minute from well wishers and people interested to know more about what we do. Our Facebook page looks set to top 100 fans any time now (Not joined yet? Shame on you). Our followers on Twitter (and people we are now following) is mushrooming at a faster rate still. We have been found by two formidably qualified interns and have a whole host of other talented people to talk to. Our sofa has attracted a cult following all of its own.

It feels a little like someone pressed the “warp speed” button on Monday morning. Far from slowing down, the sense is that the whole spread of our launch is gaining momentum and pace with every hour that passes. It’s an extraordinary feeling to be so instantly in touch with so many interesting people. The reach of social media is awe-inspiring. When it works, boy does it work.

Posted by Simon

Tags: Charities, Charity, Facebook, Howard Lake, non-profit, social media, Twitter, UK Fundraising
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Posts Tagged ‘Charity’