Like many organisations, nfpSynergy has grappled with how we use interns and volunteers as part of our workforce. Up until two years ago, our approach was relatively informal. If we stumbled across a suitable intern, we would get them into to work in a way that suited both them and us.
The Royal British Legion, RSA and Comic Relief are the top three UK-based charities with the largest “social media presence” - in terms of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube engagement - according to a major briefing out today.
Is your organisation a planned economy?
The economist Paul Seabright once mentioned travelling through London with a Russian bureaucrat who asked him ‘tell me, who is in charge of the supply of bread to the population of London?’ It’s a dazzling question – and the answer is, of course, no-one. Who, after all, could possibly calculate the needs of the city, and plan the delivery of your daily bread from seed to toaster?
People yet to write a will comprise a larger potential new legacy market for charities than those who have already written one currently without a
We have a shiny new government. It is ready to give the voluntary sector the big bear hug of an embrace and the big wet kisses of an over-enthusiastic relative. The government also has its own agenda of the ‘big society’. But before we get carried away with the government’s agenda of what it wants to sort out – what are the issues that the sector needs to sort out. What are the big tasks that the sector needs to tackle to move onto the next stage of its development, to become an even stronger force in society today – indeed to play a full role in the big society?
At the heart of a strong brand are strong beliefs. Too many organisations were founded on strong beliefs and then they cover them up and let them grow mouldy. So take the time in 2010 to make those implicit beliefs explicit. Beliefs are important because they are also what inspire people. People join a cause because they share a desire to do something and they believe your organisation can make the difference.
Quantitative easing, pay freezes, efficiency savings and paying down national debt are fancy ways of saying that there is not as much money as we once thought, and so all of us are going to have to make do with less. We may celebrate 2012 for the Olympics, but also the return of 2008’s levels of prosperity. This loss has already happened and the argument now taking place in public and in politics is how to share the pain out.
Not every charity can spend millions of pounds on awareness advertising to boost its awareness. However every organisation can integrate its communications at minimal cost in order to maximise the impact of its message. Integration can be done at the tactical level or the strategic level. There are two broad ways in which an organisation can integrate at a strategic level.
Chief Executives play a vital role in creating awareness – yet all too often they are bystanders in the awareness process. It is interesting that in the commercial sector most CEOs would see themselves as the guardians of their brand (of which awareness-building is the first step) yet in the charity sector most CEOs are at best neutral and often hostile to branding and, by inference, to awareness-building.