- For example, face-to-face guidance from product experts is the driving force of Clarins’s retail sales and profits. When stores suddenly closed, they needed a new way for customers to consult with Clarins beauty advisors.Launched just two weeks into the lockdown, their Clarins & Me video consulting service saw more than 450 bookings in the first month alone.
- Key Actions for 2021:
- Add more channels to improve ROI
- Create fun in the online buying process - Interact with Social Media
- Put Social Back in Shopping - Use social media as a platform for customers to build trust in products.
- Engage in proactive social listening - Fix that snag that customers have been commenting about for years.
- Remember all those brands with the nearly identical “unprecedented times” ads? Instead of following those popular social media trends, Coors took a different approach.
- They lamented the “sucky, suck, suck, suckiness” of 2020. They launched a social campaign where people could nominate someone who #CouldUseABeer. They then sent 500,000 beers to grateful customers.
- Key Actions for 2021:
- The average Facebook user has only shared one post in the last 30 days.
- Reach and reaction are much more realistic engagement goals than mass participation. Provide value for the people who see your content, rather than just trying to get them to reshare.
- Back up social listening data with search data
- Replace costly content production with User Generated Content
- For example, Australian supermarket Woolworths used a Facebook campaign and augmented reality (AR) filter to gain an 11-point lift in brand favorability and a 46-point lift in message association among women aged 55 to 64.
- During the campaign, Woolworths rewards members could plant and nurture a virtual Christmas tree using the AR filter. They could also donate their rewards to an environmental charity to have a real tree planted on their behalf. More than 6,000 trees were planted as a result.
- Key Actions for 2021:
- Target baby boomers by passions or hobbies
- Include baby boomers in your creative—without stereotypes - Don’t always portray baby boomers as old, because thats not how they feel themselves.
- Use online reviews to build trust. - This could be by promoting the Google My Business Site.
- The vacation property brand Pierre & Vacances Center Parcs Group united their social and CRM teams. Both operating within the sales department, the teams now share tools and data. The new insights for both teams have allowed them to engage more effectively with customers before, during, and after their stay.
- Key Actions for 2021:
- Hold social accountable for more than just reactive engagement
- Take small steps toward gathering measurable data from social engagements
- But you can’t talk credibly about your brand purpose on social unless it really informs your company culture. Consumers are smart. They don’t care much about brands posting statements. They are much more concerned about whether a brand really works to make the world a better place.
- Key Actions for 2021:
- Create or revise your internal social media policy
- Set up a social media crisis communications workflow
- Use social listening for intelligence, not interrupting
- Technology can also help charities identify who they should contact to offer a pause or reduction in monthly donations during difficult times, which can reduce those critical attrition rates.
- Technology allows you to improve the quality Increase fundraising and engagement “Technology allows you to improve the quality of communications, which enables you to communicate in a more meaningful, targeted manner” of communications, which enables you to communicate in a more meaningful, targeted manner.
- Automation and integrated communication tools, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, track how users interact with your charity,
- Integrated platforms can make charities nimble and fast-moving, which keeps supporters engaged.
- Ninety-three per cent regard spending on technology as an investment in impact.
- focus first on becoming efficient with core IT systems that enable secure remote working.
- Consider what set-up would enable your organisation to grow and offer consistent experiences in every location.
- You don’t have to do this yourself — it’s about getting help setting up the right tools in the right way within your budget. ‘Making do’ will only get you so far.
- Remember system changes should not just be about the platform or technology =, it should be a complete review of how you go about delivering your services. Consider how technology could help you increase your impact, prove your your impact, or just make it easier for staff to complete the process.
- Remember to future proof your plans, use ‘Best Case Scenario’, where would you like to see your charity in ten years, and what infrastructure might you need to deliver this..
- Protecting personal data has never been more important — or easy to get wrong.
- The ICO urges organisations to regularly review security and data governance practices to ensure they are effectively safeguarding personal data.
- Charities can manage these risks by choosing the right privacy supporting controls from the big cloud vendors.
- Consider how you might be able to share these purchases with other organisations, can bulk buying reduce costs. This is the beginning of exploring shared services.
- I would recommend consulting a professional IT firm to get the best advice to meet your needs. Consider also any additional security that maybe required due the databases used on different contracts, what are the funders expectations?
- Consider which analytics you need to capture the most relevant data as well as how to maximise its value within your budget.
- Start by developing a data strategy that describes not only how to improve what you currently do but also where you want to end up.
- Organisations also need to consider finding the right balance between ‘build’ and ‘buy’.
- Building systems inhouse provides flexibility; buying in systems reduces risk and ensures you can meet your requirements within a set budget.
- Many systems on the market allow for a mixture of both by providing baseline features that can easily be extended by in-house teams.
- Do not pick technology for current needs; choose a platform that also caters for future requirements.
- Be wary of buying technology that ties you into a single vendor. Choose platforms that give the intellectual property to your organisation and can be worked on by a range of vendors.
- Charities can also take advantage of various free offers. For example, Microsoft’s TSI team provides a free and effective fundraising and engagement platform.
- A Clear Digital Strategy
- Understanding your business and audience is crucial for successfully operating online.
- A great way to obtain such data is through Google Analytics. It can be an overwhelming insight at first with the in-depth analysis provided, so here is a great article outlining 10 easy findings you can discover from your Google Analytics account.
- This information of existing donors can then be used to create a plan of how to go about converting potential donors. A brilliant method to follow is the ‘See-Think-Do-Care Model’.
- The STDC model functions as a simplistic yet powerful framework for businesses that aims to remodel the way you market and communicate with your designated target audience.
- Being Found on Google (SEO):
- This is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes into its own, which functions to increase the quality and quantity of traffic to your site through organic search engine results:
- Quality: Anyone can visit your site, and you want visitors who are genuinely interested in volunteering or donating to your charity.
- Quantity: Once the right users are entering your site from the search engine results pages (SERPs), the more traffic the better.
- Organic results: Ads make up a large proportion of multiple SERPs. Organic traffic, on the other hand, is any traffic you don’t pay for on a “per click” or “per impression” basis.
- Site Optimised for Conversions
- A charitable website with clear calls-to-action (CTA) and navigation for users will certainly elevate the likelihood for potential donors to convert into new donors.
- Over the course of 2020, 48% of charities failed to access any form of digital fundraising. 50% cited a lack of funding as the largest barrier to digital processes, a similar figure to the prior year. Hence, optimising a site for conversions will provide great foundations to increase raising funds.
- An example of a charity with its website digitally optimised for conversions can be seen below, Imperial Health Charity.
- Digital Fundraising
- Digital fundraising is a lifeline for charities, acting as the sole fundraising channel.
- Here are a few ways your charity can raise funds through digital services:
- Social media use to reach existing and new audiences.
- Virtual events that take place on a certain day, or last for an extended period of time.
- Use of video, both on your website and a dedicated YouTube channel.
- Digital Skills and Technologies Required
- It is likely that a significant proportion of charity staff will be working remotely. This poses a number of challenges due to charities having to adopt various new technologies and the staff requiring new digital skills to make use of these technologies.
- Streamline Current Digital Processes
- It's a good time to review your current use of digital and technology and make sure it is:
- Performing well and adding value to the charities operations by saving you time, integrating key services or delivering on the charities aims and goals
- Of reasonable cost and flexible enough to allow you to what you want to do
- Make the most of Freebies
- Everybody loves something for free, but there is actually some really great stuff for charities on the Charity Excellence Framework website in the Free Goods/Services section
- The Charity Digital site also has a wealth of information for charities. The Topics section has a huge variety of different charity related information, from Data & Analytics through to Fundraising, Marketing Risk & Compliance. There are even Events and Webinars so you can get stuck in!
- Nonprofits have been hit hard by the pandemic. The majority of respondents have had to cancel fundraising activities and around half have struggled to reach beneficiaries or deliver services in lockdown.
- More than six in ten respondents predict their revenue during 2020 will be lower than expected at the start of the year, and this is particularly prominent for smaller nonprofits.
- Over a third report that income from individual donations and services fell during the pandemic, and that their capacity was reduced (with a drop in staff or volunteers).
- Since the pandemic struck, nonprofits have ramped up their use of digital to raise funds, engage with supporters and deliver services.
- More than half of respondents have found new ways to deliver services, with an increase in those being offered online.
- The most common challenge facing respondents is the ability to raise sufficient funds. Nonprofits are transforming their future fundraising strategies, embracing digital and diversifying their approach to use a broader range of channels.
- When asked to identify the top three most challenging issues, the ability to raise sufficient funds topped the charts, followed by reaching and engaging supporters.
- Asked how the pandemic was likely to impact future fundraising, only one in ten respondents (11%) thought their strategy was likely to stay the same.
- Around three in ten respondents said they would increase their focus on legacies.
- COVID-19 has given us permission to try new things, never more obvious then with event fundraising,.
- Hybrid Events - These have grown in number, and have been a life saver for some charities.. The creativity that charities have demonstrated from online micro sites to digital tracking platforms.
- Online Community and Connection - This has driven the hybrid events, the ability to talk to other participants and support each other note only creates a welcoming and engaging environment for new supporters but also helps to increase income achievements and participants numbers.,
- Know Your Audience - Knowing your target audience – their worries, their hopes, the channels they like to communicate with you in, their connection to your cause will always help you create better experiences for them.
- Cross Functional Teams with Shared Goals - The need ‘to make things happen’ has united people. When I reflect on the projects that have had the most success in the last six months, having a cross-functional team aligned to one, common goal appears to be an important factor.
- Balance Long Term Planning with being Agile - Our research shows that charities with event plans that look two to five years ahead are more likely to report income growth than those with just one-year plans. If you’re able to balance this with the agile approach we’ve seen during lockdown whereby you rapidly test new virtual events, not only will they potentially give you the immediate income boosts your organisation needs, but also give you insight into what works (and what doesn’t) and where to invest longer term.
- Inclusive Cultures - Being passive about the culture of your organisation allows the status quo to persist – the same attitudes and biases that disadvantage diverse communities, whether that manifests in how our colleagues are treated or how we portray service-users. Leaders have a big impact here, but ultimately everyone contributes to a culture and is responsible for perpetuating it.
- The Make Up of Your Organisation - Decisions made during or in response to this crisis have the potential to impact the makeup of the fundraising community for years to come, so it is vital they have equality, diversity and inclusion threaded through them.
- Looking to the Future - But fundraisers have specific opportunities to make change; whether it’s how you recruit, who you train or promote, the culture you create, or through engagement with the millions of people who support charitable causes.
- Leaders as community managers. Work is no longer about travelling to a physical officeit’s really a network within which we can all collaborate, learn and grow.
- The ability to pivot. Over the last year we’ve seen some great examples of charities pivoting. I love how the London Marathon reinvented itself twice, firstly as The 2.6 Challenge (raising over £11 million) and then as a virtual event raising more than £16 million. It is this agility and the ability to move fast into new digital products, services and markets that we need to see in our leaders.
- Adaptability. Leaders need to come up with new ideas to help their charities fundraise effectively in a highly volatile, competitive environmentand they also need to switch up their own leadership styles too. One of the behaviours I saw amongst leaders during the crisis has been rapid codeswitching between different types of leadership – from collaborator to coach to command and control, as a situation requires; sometimes over the space of an hour.
- Transparency. In 2020 charity leaders are being open and honest about the challenges they are facing and where their charities are at.
- So, the main actions to take away are:
- optimise your paper usage
- make sure it’s from certified / recycled sources
- print double-sided
- allow your supporters to choose whether they want materials through the post or they are happy with online versions
- when creating paper assets make sure you’re not putting dates on them so these can be reused later
- Still using window envelopes? It’s time to change. That little piece of plastic will end up in the bin straight away.
- Also, it’s not acceptable to use balloons or bang sticks at charity cheer points or include them in fundraising packs anymore.
- We all have to come up with creative solutions to stand out. It is absolutely possible to continue without balloons!
- Think about the food you provide at events; sandwich trays, bowls of crisps, plates of cookies and jugs of water are always better than individually wrapped items – less packaging is always better for the environment.
- Food is another area where it’s really important to know your labels, making sure you are going for sustainable and fair-trade options.
- Start, Stop, Continue
- Common Best Practices Remain Uncommon
- Mobile is the New Normal - You most consider this when building webpages and payment systems.
- Socialising with the Crowd - People give to people and this is hyper-activated when social media is used. A great example of this is the new Facebook donate suggestion on your birthday.
- The vulnerability of charity staff
- From every angle charity staff are vulnerable to mental health difficult, from just the basics of the people they work with and the situations they deal, through to challenges with pay and public perception of charities.
- Setting Boundaries and Managing Expectations
- Managing this tension is therefore one of the challenges leaders face. It is essential that CEOs set clear boundaries and manage staff expectations, while acknowledging their agency and power to foster and encourage the safest cultures possible.
- The Impact on Leaders Wellbeing
- CEOs may feel that to be authentic, they should be honest and open – at the same time, it might not be appropriate to share business or personal struggles across the organisation. Expressing vulnerability and being approachable can mean feeling pressure to ‘rescue’ the people within the organisation who need support. These feelings are in constant tension for charity leaders.
- When the Ground Shifts
- Leaders can have systems and processes in which everyone feels supported, but the external environment is out of their control. Managing huge changes to the ways in which a charity can work, as well as taking care of themselves, is an issue that has taken on new significant for leaders in recent months for a variety of reasons.
- Governance & Strategy
- Board responsibility for mental health within organisations could be stronger.
- For so many organisations this governance arrangement was simply not fit for purpose; many CEOs said their trustees and chair did not even ask how they were. The level of pressure placed on an individual in times of crisis is untenable, and there is a clear need for more compassionate, sensitive and flexible governance in many organisations.
- While safeguarding, staff wellbeing and workplace culture remain the collective responsibility of boards, chief executives and senior leadership teams, charities should nominate at least one trustee and one senior manager to lead on staff workplace wellbeing.
- Potential future work
- The initial exploration from this working group about supporting workforce mental health exposed some deeper issues about the fragility of the sector and the position of the CEO, and governance structures within charities.
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