When talking to smaller, local organisations the same problem seems to come up over and over again – ‘we haven’t got the budget and advantages that the bigger organisations have, and we are limited in what we can do’ Contrary to this, I believe that smaller organisations should stop worrying about what the large brands are doing, and take advantage of their ability to tap into, what is often seen by the public, as ‘the true meaning of charity’. Be personal Identify the specific ways that your supporters help you (this isn’t necessarily financial). Segmenting data by things that actually matter to supporters, and recognising that seemingly small things are special (they took the time, thought and effort to think of me); make sure your supporters know you’ve noticed. An organisation that I worked with made a point of thanking the supporters who provided hand-made gifts for their gift shop. The re-sale value of the gifts wasn’t particularly high, but when writing to this group of supporters at Christmas, the effect of appreciating and recognising the contribution that their hand- made gifts made collectively, saw the number of gifts received (when compared to their response to the previous year’s Christmas mailing) double. The average gift amongst this group was also 60% higher. Extrapolate this effect across all the different groups of supporters on your database, and with a little work on a mail merge you could see a substantial improvement in response to your Christmas mailing. Invest in training volunteers and staff Volunteers and support staff come into contact with your supporters in the everyday context of their work and they can’t be expected to take on fundraising responsibilities without understanding the organisations fundraising goals, and having some investment in how to make fundraising asks. After all, asking for money isn’t easy. Proper training gives not only the fundraising context (breaking down the barriers that often exist between fundraisers and staff in other departments) but also delivers clarity around regulatory requirements, and confidence to know when, how and what to ask for (and equally when not to ask). Not all volunteers and support staff will be suitable, nor indeed want to fundraise -  but those who are, will enthuse supporters and they and their colleagues will feel a greater sense of accomplishment. Share investments If you can’t afford the proportionate cost of taking on a new member of staff, why not get together with other local organisations and share the cost? Choose an organisation geographically close to you, who share similar values and ethics. Sharing an employee can be rewarding and varied for the employee (especially if tasks are repetitive) and will give you the opportunity to attract a better calibre employee. For example, your telephone fundraising aspirations may be too small to use an agency, but a shared employee could make those aspirations a reality. Equally, shared training cost when using outside trainers can make an uneconomic project feasible. Whilst this might at first glance make practical management sense, these are exactly the sort of common sense propositions that appeal to high and major donors. So it may be a scary prospect, but the concept for a supporter helping more than one organisation at a time and funding these kinds of initiatives can also be a distinctive and attractive proposition. From the supporters’ perspective we should not forget that in fundraising terms smaller organisations often offer distinct advantages over larger ones – they can get closer to beneficiary and supporter needs more easily; with appropriate training and guidance they are often more flexible and capable of delivering a ‘real’ tailored supporter experience and they can cooperate with likeminded organisations to offer significant efficiencies in fundraising performance.   Jane Cunningham has been working in the forefront of fundraising for nearly 25 years. Known for the high quality of her fundraising practice and practical experience in segmentation and analysis, she has pioneered many new fundraising initiatives in the UK, Europe and the US.   In everything she develops, she believes that the starting point should be to take the donors perspective, which will ultimately lead to developing the most effective strategic and creative responses; resulting in donor satisfaction and financial success. http://www.janecunninghaminsights.co.uk/   Found this blog post useful? You may also like:     Storytelling Tips for Charities by Becky Slack Get your charity’s voice heard by Duncan HatfieldThe Power of the Twitter Hour by Richard BarkerHow Small charities can overcome barriers to brand investment

The Grow Your Tenner Awards recognise local charities and community groups that show outstanding creativity and fundraising expertise through our annual Grow Your Tenner match fund campaigns. With Grow Your Tenner 2016 kicking off tomorrow (18th October), what better time to celebrate the fundraising campaigns that moved and motivated us in 2015. With so many campaigns and causes to choose from, deciding our winners was not an easy task.  What ultimately made these groups stand out was the way they used the skills, resources and networks at their disposal to create campaigns that punched well above their weight. The winner of each award will be sent a £50 Amazon gift voucher So, without further ado, the winners of this year's Grow Your Tenner Awards are: Fundraising Innovation : Baby Bank Network Bristol The Fundraising Innovation Award looked for the charity that ran the most effective, unique and inspired fundraising campaign during Grow Your Tenner 2015. Creative strategies to encourage donations can make a real difference to the total raised and we were looking for inspiring stories of how groups approached this challenge. The Baby Bank Network relieves poverty in the Bristol area by providing new and preowned baby items to families in need. What we enjoyed most about the Baby Bank Network’s Campaign was the way they used the core premise of Grow Your Tenner - to give £10 and have it doubled - for their own innovative initiative. Renaming their campaign #TeddyTenner, the Baby Bank Network shaped their communications  to appeal to the needs and interests of their own audience.   Throughout the campaign, they built momentum by encouraging people to donate and share photos of their favourite child’s toy holding a tenner, nominating others to do the same. Some supporters took this a step further, getting their cats and dogs involved! The #TeddyTenner campaign received £2,287.50 (including match funding and gift aid)  in just 11 days from 85 donors, spreading the message about their important cause in the process. Laura Williams, who volunteers as marketing lead for Baby Bank Network, said: "We're fortunate enough to receive hundreds of donations of items to give to people in need, but it can be a struggle to secure monetary donations. Grow Your Tenner was great for us as it gave us a valuable cash injection to help us buy the items we cannot distribute second-hand, such as new mattresses and bottle teats. We combined it with #teddytenner idea to make it a bit more fun on social media - there were some really cute photos, we'll have to get our thinking caps on again for this year's campaign." See the full #Teddytenner story here.     PR Superstar Award: Bishop Auckland Community Partnership (BACP) - Cultivate 4 Life The PR Superstar Award recognises the group that best engaged with the media during Grow Your Tenner 2015. Throughout Grow Your Tenner 2015 BACP - Cultivate 4 Life worked closely with their local and regional press  to ensure that their campaign received widespread coverage, including a front page splash in  Bishops Press and a main feature in the Northern Echo. This enabled them to reach both new supporters and beneficiaries. BACP approached local media (print and radio) at the start of their campaign with a clear angle - “we have just 30 days to save our project from closing”.  They then followed up with personalised thank yous, developing positive relationships with the local media that will put them a strong position for publicising future campaigns and projects. The impact of this funding has been huge: “Grow Your Tenner rescued our project from closure, it helped us to reach out to our Community and further afield, raising awareness about our project and highlighted our desperate need for help, with an amazing response” The campaign received £2,242.50  (including match funding and gift aid) from 30 donors. On receiving the award Julia Costello,  Cultivate 4 Life Coordinator said: “It was a wonderful surprise to open my email from Localgiving informing us that we had been selected as the winner of PR Superstar Award recognising our efforts via Media with 2015 Grow a Tenner Appeal. We look forward to receiving our Certificate which will be framed and have a pride of place and the £50 Amazon Voucher will be used as a Prize for a forthcoming raffle.   Last year was the first time we engaged in this wonderful fundraising opportunity superbly co-ordinated by Localgiving, and received huge support from Northern Echo, Bishops Press, Town Crier and Bishop FM too, the response was amazing almost achieving £3,000 in donations, these funds aided us with a lifeline, our project was on the brink of closure, so all concerned THANK YOU once again. We are most definitely taking part in this year's Grow a Tenner, this time aided with a video, which we hope to launch this week, posting onto all our media pages including Facebook and Localgiving and certainly will be involving local papers & radio too”.   Future Impact Award: The Pennoyer centre The Future Impact Award recognises the group who can best explain how the funding they had raised through the campaign will be used in a way that was demonstrable, quantifiable and emotionally engaging. The Pennoyer Centre is an education and community venue in South Norfolk. The Centre signed up with Localgiving to raise the funds to run a monthly lunch club with the aim of combatting social isolation in their community. Pennoyer Centre’s entry to the Grow Your Tenner awards brilliantly shows the impact that local initiatives, however small, can make to their communities: “We are delighted to have been chosen as the winners of the Future Impact Award for our Grow Your Tenner campaign last year. We found out about the campaign last October via social media and set about enrolling into Localgiving and then promoting the match funding campaign as soon as we could. We were thrilled that our supporters really rose to the challenge and managed to raise  £500 funding” “We are completely self-funding and therefore covering all the bills and licenses is a huge undertaking. “ “The Lunch Club does a great deal to combat loneliness and social isolation in a rural community. For example, Margaret is 79 years old and recently widowed. She can walk down to the centre for company and have a hot drink and some social interaction. Lunch club is one of the highlights  for villagers like Margaret who can use Pennoyer's as a meeting place.Margaret enjoys the monthly lunch club enormously  because she can meet with friends and socialise. This is  a great thing for someone who now finds themselves living on their own in a rural village and does not have their own transport. The great thing about our lunch club is that we have people who are comfortable with going on their own as there are familiar faces there from the centre and others they know from the village. “Our monthly lunch club has really taken off over the last year. Our lunch club now regularly has an attendance of 25-30 people per month and the group enjoy a full roast dinner with homemade pudding for £11. We had to buy a new cooker when our old one broke in autumn last year. So the Grow Your Tenner funding came just at the right time and we were able to replace the cooker. This is an essential piece of equipment for our kitchen and for our lunch club.” “In the future we want to see the club continuing at an affordable price. We want to provide the means for people to get together thus aiding social inclusion in our rural Norfolk community” “This October we are going to run Grow Your Own Tenner again. We have set a target of £600 this time. As with last year we are looking for funding to buy new chairs and also refresh our café table coverings which are worn out and in need of replacement”. In 2015 The Pennoyer centre raised £496.25 from 20 donors.   A huge Congratulations to each of the three winners - a £50 Amazon voucher will be on its way to you very soon! We also want to send a  massive thank you to everyone who took part in the awards by submitting an entry. Sustainability Survey Prize Draw We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who took part in our Local Charity and Sustainability Survey over the summer. We are currently writing up the results and plan to release a report in the coming months.   All participating groups were entered into a draw to win a donation of £500 to their Cause. We are delighted to announce HELP Counselling Centre as the winners of this donation. Help Counselling Centre provides short and long-term affordable counselling for adults in west London.  Helen Stokes, Director, Help Counselling Centre has said: ‘We are delighted to win £500 from Localgiving as a result of taking part in the Sustainability Survey 2016. It’s increasingly important that local charities make their voices heard and we were keen to give our views as part of the survey – winning this prize has been a lovely bonus! It will help us to continue to offer affordable one-to-one counselling to a wide cross-section of the London community across a range of issues, including depression, anxiety, family and relationship issues and bereavement.’ Grow Your Tenner 2016 Grow Your Tenner 2016 will run from 10am on Tuesday the 18th October until the match fund runs out, or 5pm on Thursday the 17th November - whichever comes first. During the campaign one time donations made to local charities via Localgiving will be matched by up to £10; as will Direct Debits by up to £10 a month for the first 3 months. Is your group taking part in Grow Your Tenner 2016? Do you want to find a local charity or community group to support?  Get involved now: www.growyourtenner.org     

We are thrilled to announce the launch of a new partnership programme with the FSI, NCVO, Sported, and the Small Charities Coalition.  Local charities and community groups that are members of these organisations are now able to claim their first year membership of Localgiving for free. This offer is initially running until the end of 2016.  This collaboration will give thousands of local groups across the UK the opportunity to benefit from regular match funding campaigns, fundraising skills training and digital resources at zero cost. Those groups that join up before October 18th will be able to take part in our upcoming national match fund campaign, Grow Your Tenner. In 2015, Grow Your Tenner raised £631,245 for 899 local charities and is set to be even bigger this year. Our partners are equally enthusiastic about the opportunity that this collaboration presents to their members: Amber Shotton, Head of Membership and Learning at The FSI has said: “Localgiving is a fantastic resource for small, local charities and we at the FSI are delighted to offer our members free membership with Localgiving. This gives access to match fund initiatives like the Grow Your Tenner campaign as well as resources and support with online fundraising.”   Kathryn Berry, Head of Member Services for Sported said: “The opportunity that Localgiving provides for community organisations is fantastic! Sported members have accessed a huge amount of funding through Localgiving already, enabling them to strengthen their organisations and offer more opportunities for disadvantaged young people to get involved in sport for development activities. To be able to offer free memberships to all our members is invaluable and something that we hope that they will take up.”   Felicity Christensen, Communications & Events Manager at Small Charities Coalition said: "We are delighted to be partnering with Localgiving to reach more small charities across the UK and provide them with training that will strengthen their fundraising activity. It's fantastic that our members will be able to benefit from free Localgiving membership and all the opportunities that this will afford them."   Gillen Knight, Head of Marketing & Membership at NCVO said: “These are tight times for small and local charities, so we are very pleased to support this new partnership. NCVO provides a whole package of support to our members and it’s great to be able to give them even more so they can really develop their digital fundraising skills to help them make a bigger difference.”   If you are a member of the FSI, Small Charities Coalition, Sported or NCVO then why not become a member today!

Welsh electro-pop musician Bright Light Bright Light aka Rod Thomas, recently became an ambassador for Localgiving. It has been an exciting and hectic few months for Rod including an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, a support slot for Take That and the release of his third album, Choreography. While in London, Rod swung by for a chat. During our conversation Rod explained why he feels so passionately about grassroots charities, how his friendship with Elton John has influenced his desire to ‘give back’ and his experience of growing up in South Wales as a young artist. Can you sum your incredible year up in 3 words? “Amazing, Brilliant and Exhausting” What makes you so passionate about grassroots charities and community groups? “It’s really cool to be involved in something that isn’t just music based – as well as music based. Getting involved with Localgiving is really nice because you get to think about the real world outside of music which is a really refreshing change. Nobody knows what a community needs more than the people within that community, so grassroots charities are very important. It is people addressing specific needs within a specific location and trying to improve things from the bottom up When I was growing up I didn’t feel connected to places like London or New York or even really Britain generally because it felt like such a small part of the world. It was south Wales and a lot of the talk of what was happening in culture or education or finance was very localised. So I think that having charities that really focus on localised operations and localised problems is important”. You  are friends with Elton John, one of Music’s leading philanthropists. How has he influenced you? “It is really inspiring seeing someone who is one of the busiest musicians in the world and one of the most successful musicians in the world also finding as much time as he possibly can to raise awareness and raise money for charities. I think this is so incredible and I think that’s something that very very few people make the time to do when potentially they’ve got a platform to do that.” If you could set up a charity in your home town of Neath what would it do? “It would probably be something quite arts based, particularly focussing on business skills. When I was growing up people weren’t really taught about ways they could make the arts into a sustainable career or even an option. I always thought that music would be alongside a job and be a labour of love. I think being taught younger about how to make long-term plans would really help a lot of people to have a feeling that there is support and possibility for their ambitions because a lot of talent goes to waste because people just don’t know how to translate that talent into success.” Why should people support local charities? “Whether you like it or not you are always thinking about your locale and your neighbourhood, you town, your city, your friends… or at least you should be. So whatever you can do to support people within that immediate network is really important Localgiving is an excellent opportunity to do something small that makes a big difference!” Find out more about Bright Light Bright Light, including his music and his work with Localgiving by following him on twitter @Brightlightx2 and facebook.  And why not take this opportunity to find a charity near you?    

Localgiving has recently released Striking a Match: Incentivised Giving Report 2016. In recent years we have been exploring incentivisation as a way to engage people with their local charities and community groups. In 2015 we gathered these ideas into a coherent calendar programme for the first time. Over the year we ran six match fund campaigns featuring a range of different incentives to encourage donations. These included 1:1 match funding, ‘randomised’ match funding and fundraiser competitions. Striking a Match compares and contrasts these Incentivised Giving Campaigns. Using donation data and donor feedback, this report looks at the impact of each campaign on the overall amount raised; charity and donor participation rates; donation size and frequency; donor sentiment and retention.  This report provides an insight into how financial incentives affect people’s donation decisions. The findings show that different incentives – ranging from match funding to competition prizes – can be used to engage supporters in charitable causes, as well as stimulating higher, more frequent donations. The report finds that: The vast majority of donor survey respondents see campaign incentives as a crucial factor in their decision to donate. In the February 2015 #GiveMe5 survey 83.4% of respondents said that match funding had influenced their decision “a lot” or was the “only reason” that they had donated. Donor surveys show a clear, positive correlation between the likelihood of a donation being matched and the amount donors are willing to donate. Deterministic match funds (in which donations are guaranteed to be matched) see the highest participation levels, but require substantial initial investment in terms of match funding.  Competitions increase the average donation size and provide the best leverage for campaign funders, but show lower participation rates amongst charities. Download the full PDF report Our next national match fund campaign, Grow Your Tenner 2016, will be launching on 18th October and will run for a month or until the match fund runs out. During this campaign Localgiving will be matching monthly donations of up to £10 given to our members for up to three months. Why not take a look at our campaign page to find out how you and your charity can benefit.   Found this blog post useful? You may also like:    4 Steps to the perfect charity VideoHow Small charities can overcome barriers to brand investmentHow Google Grants can provide £78,000 to your Charity

The new Fundraising Regulator was launched on 7th July 2016. The Fundraising Regulator will set and maintain the standards for charitable fundraising in the United Kingdom – ensuring that fundraising is respectful, open, honest and accountable to the public. This regulator has been formed in the wake of the fundraising scandals that hit the third sector in 2015. It has been tasked with strengthening regulation following widespread public and media concern about how charities contact potential donors. The regulator’s role includes: Setting and promoting the standards for fundraising practice (‘the code’ and associated rulebooks) Investigateing cases where fundraising practices have led to significant public concern Adjudicating complaints from the public about fundraising practice Operate a fundraising preference service In the case of poor fundraising practice, recommending best practice guidance and taking remedial action. At Localgiving we are proud of the high fundraising standards that we set and of the conduct of our members.   Despite trust issues in the wider charity sector, confidence in local, grassroots charities has remained high. To ensure that these high standards are maintained,  we strongly recommend that all Localgiving members: Register with the Fundraising Regulator from Autumn 2016. Although this is voluntary, registering signals commitment to good practice Make sure that you are aware and up to date with the Fundraising Code of Practice. All charities that engage in fundraising come under the remit of the new fundraising regulator and are expected to adhere to the Code of Practice.

  Jess is event planner for CharityComms, the membership network for communications professionals working in UK charities. At CharityComms we recognise that smaller charities face different communications challenges. How can you keep up with developments and trends across different communications disciplines when you cover them all? Who do you turn to for input and feedback when you're the only comms specialist in your organisation? And how do you make time for strategy when you may be the only one around to deal with the day-to-day? That’s why we’re delighted to announce the launch of our first dedicated small charities conference on 23 September. This will enable communicators from smaller organisations to connect with peers and access advice and shared experience on how to deliver comms impact with very limited resources. We’ve kept the cost as low as possible to make it accessible – just £80+vat for the full day for CharityComms members, £100+vat for non-members and £160+vat for corporate partners. See the full agenda and book now Understanding the comms needs of small charities Last year, we conducted a survey of small charity communicators to help us better understand their needs. Here’s what we learned: ‘Small’ is a relative term While the majority (64%) were from charities with income between £100k and £1m, 24% were at charities with over £1m turnover. A surprising 7% were from charities with over £5m turnover, but who presumably still considered themselves ‘small’. The NCVO’s Almanac classes a charity over £1m as ‘large’. We’ve targeted our event where we feel we can provide the best support, crucially to organisations which have at least part of a role specifically dedicated to communications. So our ‘small’ charity category encompasses incomes from £100k to £2m, though we reckon any charity of any size with just one person (either full or part-time) doing all the comms work also fits the bill. Training budgets are often the stuff of dreams Two-thirds of our survey respondents depend completely on free support. A quarter had attended no learning outside the office in the last year, and 30 respondents (27%) had attended no training, events or networking at all. This included charities in all size categories, including over £1m. One in three said they learn via networking with peers. Small charity communicators feel isolated Many of the people we spoke to said they felt the lack of a peer group, or of colleagues who understood their work. Said one, ‘I don’t have anyone to bounce ideas around with. My colleagues expect mine to be the last word on communications.’ Skills are missing across PR and digital – and time is always short The most frequently mentioned skills gaps were press and media relations, digital and social media skills and communications strategy, followed by the challenges of getting internal support, and of course, lack of time and resource. Targeted help We’ve developed the agenda for our small charities communications conference on 23 September in response to what we’ve learned, offering:  Expert sessions on some of the key areas raised in our research: strategy, PR, digital, brand and more Structured peer knowledge exchange using the Open Space model (sometimes called ‘unconference’ or ‘Birds of a feather’ sessions) Inspiring ‘Lightning talks’ from small charities doing great comms work on a shoestring What else does CharityComms have to offer small charities The CharityComms website has extensive free resources, including best practice guides to social media, crisis communications and more, and we’re looking at developing an online directory signposting good quality free or low-cost online resources and training opportunities. We’ve recently been awarded funding to provide free media training to small charities. More info on this in due course as we take this initiative forward. Find out more about the CharityComms Small charities communications conference Found this blog post useful? You may also like:    The Power of Storytelling: Six Top Tips by Mike Zywina  Storytelling Tips for Charities by Becky Slack 5 free tools to share your organisation's story by Nisha Kotecha How to make friend with the media by Kay ParrisGet your charity’s voice heard by Duncan Hatfield  

Joe Burns is the North West regional development manager for Localgiving. Before that he was a corporate fundraiser for a national charity, and worked with firms in the FTSE 100 as well as small family run businesses. Just 24 little hours are all some of our groups need to make a real difference in their communities… A few weeks back Localgiving formally ‘launched’ its regional development programme in the North West. To mark the launch we attended  a pond building session run by the Manchester social enterprise Sow the City, who were building the pond as part of Manchester City Council’s “Growing Manchester” initiative. To the uninitiated, a pond building session might seem like a small thing. But just by focusing on this one activity, we can get a real sense of the good work local charities do every day, the seemingly little things which can make a real difference.   For this was no ordinary pond, and this was no ordinary exercise in pond building either. For this pond was being built at a care and respite centre in Baguley, catering for adults with long term mental disabilities. Those of us who have never used or visited care centres may think of them as  dull, depressing places. Nothing could be further from the truth. Residents are encouraged to take part in a range of activities, activities which help to build a sense of community and fun. Of the many activities this care centre provides, one of the most popular is a green fingered gardening club for residents. This club has developed an overgrown garden into a veritable Eden in a few short years. It was for this reason that we were there building our pond. First and foremost, this pond building was an opportunity to further develop a green space used by all the residents; a chance to make the centre an even more pleasant place to be. A good wildlife pond acts as a magnet to a whole host of creatures and plants. And so, a small patch of Baguley is now teeming with greenery and life which wasn’t there only 24 hours earlier. Perhaps even more importantly, this was a chance for residents to get stuck in. A chance for them to get their hands dirty, to get a bit of exercise, to have a bit of banter, and a chance to learn a bit more about nature - a chance many residents took with aplomb! Building that pond turned a fairly mundane Wednesday into something memorable, something enjoyable and fun. And the pond was theirs. They had helped to build it, and in less than a day too. One pond building activity, taking place over one day. We see something that looks, on the surface, small and inconsequential. But like the ripples of a pebble dropped in water, the good vibrations spread out beyond that one day into an entire community. This is just one example I’ve seen amongst many with the groups we support on Localgiving. They all make real, lasting differences – and this is why local charities not only need, but in fact they deserve and demand our support.  Want to make a difference in less than 24 hours? You could do a lot worse than to donate to one of our charities.     Found this blog post useful? You may also like:  Corporate Fundraising for local charitiesHow small charities can overcome barriers to brand investmenThe Power of the Twitter Hour by Richard Barker  

If your local newspaper were to offer your charity a free centre page spread, you’d jump at the chance. Who wouldn’t? Google have been offering charities the online equivalent for over 13 years. If you haven’t already, here’s how to make the most out of this opportunity. So, what is AdWords? When looking to find a service, a club or an activity what is the first thing we do? These days the vast majority of people would start with a Google search. It is therefore essential that your group appears on the first page of a Google search for your activity or services. Google AdWords is an advertising service designed to make this happen. Google Adwords ensures that display ads will appear for people searching for charities or groups like you.   It’s FREE! Through its Ad Grants programme, Google gives non-profit organisations $10,000 (£6,600) worth of free ads per month to promote their mission, services and harness new supporters, volunteers and donors via Google search. For charities that provide exceptional account management and can demonstrate a history of being able to meet account criteria, there is an opportunity for them to apply and receive ‘Google Grants Pro’ status benefiting from $40,000 (£26,500) per month of digital spend to use within Google search. If you already have a Google Grant, Receptional can help you increase your results - scroll down to the end of this article to find out how. How do we get started? It's easy to get started with Google Ad Grants. Firstly, you need to check your eligibility and sign up. Google provide clear instructions as to how to do this HERE. Once you’ve signed up, here are the 4 key steps you need to know: A) Think of the ‘keywords’ that describe your charity – these should be words that describe your cause and activities. Try to think of synonyms, too! B) Decide where people will see your adverts – as a local charity you may choose to restrict your adverts to your specific geographical area to ensure your adverts have maximum impact. A person in Boston, US is unlikely to be able to attend your activity in Boston, Lincolnshire! C) Write some clear, punchy content about your charity with a link to your donation page, website or campaign. D)  Decide how much of the grant money to ‘pay’ each time someone clicks through to your website via the link (a maximum of $2). Of course, the best results are delivered by companies that are Google Qualified. To fully benefit  from Google Adwords it would be recommended to use a resource that understands the more complicated aspects of the service - Bid Capping, Quality Score and how to compete with other charities that are also running the Google Grants programme. Need extra help? Receptional is a digital agency that works with a range of charitable organisations, both small and large for helping set up a Google Grant to assisting with management. They offer: Free advice for those charities that are interested in applying for a Google Grant and for charities that currently run a Google Grant but want to achieve better results, a free no obligation health check that provides clear actionable advice. Want more information? Why not contact Receptional for your Free Google Grant Health check today? Rob Bradley - Benefiting from a broad digital background encompassing start-up, professional services, business management and culminating with running a Digital Agency overseas Rob is a creative analyst at heart that enjoys helping organisations and Charities gain market share, increase their point of difference and improve their digital ROI. Found this blog post useful? You may also like:    The Power of Storytelling: Six Top Tips by Mike Zywina  5 free tools to share your organisation's story by Nisha Kotecha The Refugee Crisis: make a difference on your doorstep by Lewis GarlandHow Charities can tap into the hyperlocal by Zoe Amar  

Small Charity Week is here!  Over 95% of Localgiving’s members are small or micro charities.  We know better than anyone the inherent value of grassroots groups.   We are in the privileged position of hearing and seeing the positive impact that these groups make on their communities – every day in countless ways.   This morning alone I have been talking to a Darlington based group set up to save their local bowling green, a Swindon charity using theatre to change attitudes to refugees and a fans-owned football club in Scarborough. These are hugely different initiatives, with hugely different missions. What they all have in common however is an acute understanding of the needs of their communities and a genuine passion for improving the lives of those around them. Small Charity Week is about getting these small, local groups the exposure and acclaim they deserve.   So, how can you get involved? 1)      Find a small charity near you and spread the word about their cause and services.  Its easy to find a group in your area on Localgiving.org. Once you’ve found a group that inspires you, why not inspire your friends or colleagues too. Search for a Charity  2)      Donate! We’re running a #GiveMe5 match fund on Fundraising Day - Thursday the 16th June. We will be doubling 1,000 x £5 donations made through localgiving.org on the day. Our last #GiveMe5 campaign, held on Giving Tuesday 2015, raised over £36k for 548 charities in 24 hours.  Can you spare a fiver to support that inspirational group you just found? Small charities need your support. 3)      Look ahead -  Small charity week is about far more than 7 fun filled days. Think about what you can do to help grassroots charities in future. Can you offer your skills through volunteering? Could you provide ongoing financial support by setting up a direct debit? Do you know other people who would be interested in the work of the charity?   Our advice for small charity week is simple: discover, donate, and inspire!    Image (top SNAP- Special Needs and Parents, bottom  North Wilts Holiday Club for Children & Young People with Special Needs)   Found this blog post useful? You may also like:    The Sky is the limit for daring Granny WendyDawn rises over Mount Kilimanjaro