Social media is vital for the growth of every charity, and is a powerful tool to deepen relationships with your beneficiaries, donors and supporters. Having engaging conversations and interacting with your audience will help you to build trust and relationships online, which in turn can lead to increased donations, traffic and awareness. However, it’s not always easy to engage and grow your charity’s online presence – it takes time, and should be done carefully and thoughtfully. I’ve had the pleasure of working with a range of amazing local charities recently. It has become apparent that working in a small charity often means that there is a lack of resource and time to focus on growing social media. With this in mind, I have compiled a list of seven recommendations on easy ways to help your online presence: 1) Use analytics to inform your content All social media platforms have their own analytics and insights, which show a range of data, including demographic breakdown of your audience, top interests and engagement metrics. By checking these insights on a regular basis across your different social media platforms, you can discover exactly who your audience is (rather than assuming you already know), and tailor content to ensure that it resonates with your audience. For example, on Twitter you can take a deep-dive into your audience’s interests. If the majority of your audience is interested in food and cooking, you could encourage them to carry out a bake sale fundraising at their work, raising money for your charity. 2) Source content from a variety of places (and ensure it’s relevant) (Photo credit: Georgia de Lotz) If all your content is from one source, the level of growth on your social media will quickly stagnate. Ensuring that content is a mix of own publications (blogs) and external publications will keep your audience engaged. If you find it difficult to source content from different places, invest time in creating Google alerts with relevant key words, making a list of publications that post interesting industry news, following thought leaders on LinkedIn, and creating Twitter lists. All of these methods will help keep your content varied, and keep your audience engaged. Remember to keep your target audience in mind – will they find this interesting or useful? What actions will this inspire them to take?   3) Make content visual, with a particular focus on video Research shows that video drives better results. For example, Facebook video posts have the highest average engagement and, on average, will produce twice the level of engagement of other post types. With more and more brands investing in video, charities could benefit from creating their own visual content. Information is more engaging if you see your favourite brand post a funny video or GIF, or explain a process through a helpful infographic. This is also the case for your charity; you can use a variety of content types to grow your audience, using humorous or compelling, interesting content to appeal to your audience. 4) Adapt content for different platforms (Photo credit: William Iven) According to GlobalWebIndex’s flagship report on the latest trends in social media, internet users around the world actively use an average of 7.6 social media channels. Using this data, it is safe to assume that your audience will be active on several different channels, and might even be following you on multiple accounts. As a social media consumer, their expectations of what they will see on each platform will vary. Avoid using the same content in the same format, across different platforms. For example, use fun and colloquial language on Facebook, post opinions on Twitter, and industry news and opportunities on LinkedIn. In addition, make sure image sizes and description lengths are optimised for each channel – always think of the user experience. There are various tools online that can help you to achieve this, for example you can use Canva for free, allowing you to amend images to optimal sizes for each social media platform. 5) Have a process for dealing with negative comments It’s not always sunshine and rainbows in the social media world, and there are often occasions where your charity will have to deal with negative responses online. Having a process in place will allow you to deal with these types of comments in a swift and professional manner. Our simple but effective online harassment infographic will help you navigate the process, with advice on when to comment, when to ignore and when to block. 6) Know what best practice looks like on each platform The layout, functions and purpose of each social media platform are different, therefore what works well on Facebook may not work well on Instagram. By knowing the fundamental basics and best practices of each platform, it will allow you to maximise your charity’s reach and engagement with your audience. If this is an element of your social media strategy that is challenging, then check out our sister company Lightful’s best practice guides for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to help you. 7) Don’t use social media just to promote your organisation and services If you simply promote your own campaigns, you can guarantee that people will soon stop engaging with your platforms and your audience will slowly decrease in size. Social media should be about having a conversation and building relationships, posting a mix of stories about your audience, industry news and thought-leadership articles. This way, people will use your social media as a hub for information, where they can also discover more about exciting campaigns, news and your services. I hope you find this article useful; if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to find us on our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram! Angharad Francis is a Community Manager at Social Misfits Media, who work exclusively with charities, foundations, social enterprises and non-profits to help better use social media to reach their goals.   

Small and local charities often operate on a shoe string so are acutely aware of the need to balance income and expenditure whilst generating social value. Critically, each charity must generate enough income to fulfill its mission whilst meeting social objectives.    For a charity to be viable, donors, funders and supporters must be in no doubt that the money that they give to a charity will be used to make a positive change in the lives of beneficiaries.   Outcomes and long-term impact are the significant changes, benefits and learning which has resulted from an organisation’s work. All too often, charities find it easier to communicate about outputs, detailing the numbers of people who have attended an event for example (quantitative information), rather than provide the more interesting qualitative information, detailing the difference made to someone’s life following an intervention. A lack of understanding about this can have a detrimental effect on an organisation’s ability to communicate the difference they make. This is also directly linked to the ability to raise funds and write compelling proposals to funders.   At the centre of performance management and understanding impact, is the requirement for services delivered by charities to serve the needs of beneficiaries who, after all, are the reason that small and local charities exist. This includes creating projects or areas of work that will address specific problems or issues, being able to evidence that need and explain why the need exists. The ability to analyse performance is also a management tool which allows organisations to ascertain whether the services they are delivering are effective and whether they are wanted or needed by beneficiaries. With the right information about need and impact, small and local charities can develop new services based on the changing needs of beneficiaries and abandon ineffective ones.   There is an inherent need for small and local organisations to demonstrate the effectiveness of their work but with limited resources this can be difficult. A first step is to have a clear plan of what must be achieved for a project or area of work, to clearly define aims and the outcomes/impact that will be produced, along with objectives and outputs. The NCVO Charities Evaluation Services planning triangle is a simple theory of change framework which can be used to achieve this. A monitoring and evaluation framework can be created to record outcomes and outputs by defining a series of KPIs (outcome and output indicators). Learning from the evidence collected and communicating successes with the world outside, including funders, is the part that is often neglected. Understanding impact with the ability to engage supporters is vital as impact is like a commodity which is bought/funded by donors.   Impactasaurus is a free impact monitoring and reporting tool which was designed for small and local charities. It is easy to use and focuses on soft outcomes, ideal for organisations helping individuals over time. Demonstrating and learning from your impact has never been easier.     Lydia Edwards – Corporate Fundraiser and Impactasaurus volunteer who has worked in organisational development roles at CVS’ building the capacity of small/local charities and in several fundraising/communications roles.   

Recruiting trustees is an ongoing challenge for charities. The latest statistics suggest there are more than 100,000  unfilled charity trustee vacancies in the UK, with 74% of charities reporting difficulties hiring the trustees they need in 2018. It’s not only recruiting trustees that is challenging, it’s recruiting trustees with the right skills. Many charities face serious skills gaps, for instance many lack relevant legal, digital and marketing skills at board level. Increasingly, trustee boards are recognising the need to recruit trustees with more diverse skills, from a variety of different professional backgrounds to improve their effectiveness. The Charity Commission’s Taken on Trust report found that out of 700,000 trustees, two-thirds were male, the average age is 55-64 and 92% are white. The report highlighted there is a “danger that charity boards might become myopic in their views and in their decision-making”.  So how can charities ensure they have a diverse board with a broad range of skills and experience and that this is maintained? Here are some tips for recruiting Trustees in 2019: Conduct a skills audit Carry out a skills audit to check what skills the board already has and where the gaps may lie. Also check when the term of office is over for current trustees, so you can plan accordingly and ensure good succession planning. Think about your charitable objectives What is your mission? Does the board reflect the community you are serving? For instance, if you are a youth charity, can you appoint some younger trustees on the board that understand the issues younger people face today. If this is the case, you may need to change things to accommodate them. Younger trustees might not be able to take time out of their working day to attend meetings, so you may need to hold evening meetings instead.   Clear role description Conduct an audit of the competencies, knowledge and experience needed for the role and recruit in line with that brief. Make sure you have a clear vision of what your ideal new trustee will be like. Think about why someone would be interested in coming to volunteer for you. Robust recruitment process Plan the recruitment process properly scheduling in all activities and making sure those involved in the process are fully briefed. Recruiting a new trustee can take several weeks, so make sure you allow the time to do it well. Communication channels To attract the best talent, charities need to look outside their immediate networks. This may mean using communication channels such as social media. Think about where the people you would like to attract would be likely to see your advert – whether it's a local venue, specialist press, a volunteering website or elsewhere. Advertise the role Write a punchy advertising post it on your website and link to this via your social media networks. If you produce a newsletter, make sure you include the advert. Also use your current networks and engage the whole board in the process. Make sure everyone knows there is a trustee vacancy available. Use a specialist recruitment firm Consider using a professional recruitment firm with a track record of recruiting trustees. A recruitment firm will have a huge database of professionals seeking trustee roles and will able to match candidates to your exact requirements. Many companies offer a cost-effective service based on the size of the organisation. Be clear about the decision making process This needs to be clear upfront to avoid surprises later. Have a clear process for informal meetings, tours of services and interviews and who will conduct these. Interviews should be evidence based to test motivation as well as skills and experience. Make sure you always take verbal references at interview stage. Engaging new trustees A great induction can make all the difference to engage new trustees. It can also be useful for charities to assign a buddy to mentor and support new trustees. We find this can help new recruits get up to speed quickly and learn some historical details about the work of the trustees, which will help them feel more able to participate from the start at board meetings. Remember, trustees are custodians of the whole organisation, so recruiting the right people who will fit culturally with the organisation is crucial. Recruitment is an opportunity to talk about what the charity does and spread the word about the great work you are doing. The process itself can help to induct new trustees making them feel part of the organisation by the time they’re formally appointed. Sophie Livingstone is Managing Director of Trustees Unlimited. She is also Chair of early years charity Little Village and a trustee of the Royal Voluntary Service and of youth social action charity Generation Change, which she co-founded in 2013. Sophie also provides leadership to our burgeoning Step on Board programme which is transforming senior level employee volunteering.    

As an organisation who work on abortion rights, which is still considered controversial in Northern Ireland, we were delighted when Isobel Anderson approached us to collaborate on a music video project. Isobel wrote a song in 2015, “4284_ / I'm A Life” using the words of one woman’s journey to England to access an abortion she should have been able to get here. We felt that suddenly this gave us an opportunity to speak to people who may not normally engage with political posts on social media or may not be aware of what the situation is still in Northern Ireland. Isobel has worked closely with Alliance for Choice since September last year and has high hopes for the music video, she explains, “I had wanted to write about the abuse of reproductive rights in Northern Ireland since I had moved to Belfast in 2009, but I found it difficult to know exactly how without misrepresenting people’s lived experience of the issue. Then, more and more people started sharing their stories online, and when I read Janet’s incredibly moving account, the song came together” Having had a number of successful appeals on Localgiving already, we knew it would be a great place to host our music video appeal. If we can raise our £5K target by 2nd March, we will launch the video live at a Queer Feminist Activist-run space in Belfast, with live music from local acts. We saw the power of stories with the referendum campaign in the Republic of Ireland, so we know how much more people can empathise when they can picture themselves in someone else’s shoes. Alliance for Choice have worked on a variety of education projects over the years and witnessed the incredible power of creating a space where people feel comfortable talking about their experiences of abortion, sex education, pregnancy and all of those stigmas. Reaching our target means we can make many more of these workshops and events happen. We are so proud of the video and so delighted that the song is so beautiful. Janet, whose incredible words are used for the song told us when she watched the video; “I cried. The opening line had me catch my breath, and the next thing I knew I was crying. They were complex tears, of surprise, tinged with sadness & then of joy. When I shared my story 4 years ago, I had no idea of the impact it would have, I am deeply honoured to hear some of my words in Isobel's song and I hope it had a profound effect on people as it did me. All of the people in the video have been involved one way or another, some people have travelled for abortion care, some people have helped others access it in Northern Ireland, others have been campaigning on the issue since the 1970s, there’s a whole range of activists and abortion seekers present in the video. To watch the teaser please go here: https://youtu.be/VFgHLjxWhiI To donate to the campaign please visit: https://localgiving.org/imalife For further information about Alliance for Choice please visit http://www.alliance4choice.com/ For further information about Isobel Anderson please visit http://www.isobelanderson.com/about     Emma Campbell is Co-Chair of Alliance for Choice, mother of Luca (nearly 2!) and a practising photographic artist. Alliance for Choice won the Liberty Long Walk to Freedom award with London Irish Abortion Rights Campaign and the FPA in 2017 and the Political Studies Association Campaign of the Year Award of 2018 for our work aiding the Repeal referendum in Ireland and the continuing work in NI      

At Localgiving we like to highlight the inspirational challenges individual fundraisers carry out for our amazing charities and community groups. Every month I (Byron,Localgiving’s Membership Coordinator and helpline guy) pick out some of the very best active fundraisers on the platform. Here are some of the most inspiring causes and fundraising appeals we have seen this month: Beesands to Beesands coastal marathon challenge - Home-Start South Leicestershire Emma is the bee's knees by running the Beesand to Beesand half marathon (13.1094 miles). Emma is taking on this feat to support help support families; helping give children the best start in life. Emma has done a truly amazing job fundraising - raising over £2000 for the cause! A big well done from all of us at Localgving. Home Start supports families focusing on those with young children, who are struggling in their parenting role for a variety of reasons. Home Start operates across the large rural District of Harborough, and for many families the rural geography, in addition to other family pressures compounds their difficulties and the isolation they feel.  Twins run for Womankind - Womankind, Bristol Women's Therapy Centre Leela and Yasmin Carr-Bond, identical twin sisters, will be running a half marathon for Women Kind. Most people are going to be asking which one came first. This challenge is to raise awareness around the importance of mental health. Currently the duo have done an amazing job, raising over £1,800 - 305% of their initial target. A big well done from Localgiving. Womankind provides a helpline offering support to women in distress which received over 6,500 calls last year. Our face-to-face services for women with mental health problems include counselling, outreach therapy, group therapy, and a befriending service.The recent press stories of sexual abuse have prompted more women to ask for our help - almost half of the callers to our helpline have suffered sexual abuse/ assault, rape or domestic abuse. The need for our services has never been greater.  What a Grand Idea - Wessex MS Therapy Centre Kate is running the Bath Half for Wessex MS Therapy Centre. Kate has had MS for the past 5 years and says that the Wessex MS Therapy Centre “has not only helped me though the biggest change in my life but so many others”. Kate has currently raised over £700 for the charity and hopes to hit her Target of £1,300 for the charity. Wessex Ms Therapy Centre provide a range of therapies for our members in a well-equipped and friendly environment. Their healthcare professionals tailor programmes based on individual needs, whether you have been recently diagnosed or have been living with your condition for some time. They regularly review our services, taking into account the needs of our members, with the aim of providing the best possible care.   

Precious Sithole (CEO, Social Practice ENT) With 2018 having been marred in part by scandals, it is safe to conclude that now more than ever, all charities small and large must consider having a code of ethics in place. At Social Practice ENT, we work with charities to promote socially responsible practices that ultimately help improve the sector. In this guide, we share our 3 top tips to successfully integrate ethics into your fundraising strategy in 2019. 1: Start at organisational level A good fundraising strategy flows from the overall organisational strategy. Likewise, before focusing on ethics at a functional (fundraising) level, it’s worth first considering your charity’s ethical position at organisational level. Ask yourself, what are the charity’s core values and principles? What are the core values and principles of the trustees and chief executive, as individuals? Is there congruence — do the values of the individuals align with those of the charity? Having this information to hand will be useful when it comes to resolving ethical issues and assessing suitability of relationships with new funding partners and individuals. This ultimately helps to ensure that you put your core values at the heart of everything you do. If you do not have a code of ethics for your charity, there is a wealth of resources available online to guide you, including ACEVO’s report titled ‘leading with values’ and NCVO’s newly published set of ethical principles for voluntary organisations. 2: Consider the intersection of regulatory compliance and ethics Now that you have your charity’s values and principles established, you can focus on your fundraising strategy. Firstly, consider familiarising yourself with the Code of Fundraising Practice issued by the Institute of Fundraising (IoF) — and make an honest commitment to adhere to it. Remember, ethical decisionmaking is not just simply complying with regulatory guidance; rather, it is more about making a conscious decision to uphold high standards and ‘live your values’. Adhering to the code will help to ensure that your fundraising activities are legal, open, honest and respectful. Additionally, hold third parties that you enter into partnership agreements with to the same high standards that you hold yourselves. After all, it’s very easy for external partnerships to bring the name of your charity into disrepute. 3. Ensure a monitoring mechanism is in place The final step in any planning process is to monitor and review progress. Consider placing an ethical fundraising policy on your website, somewhere it can be easily accessed by interested parties Include a complaints handling procedure, to ensure that any issues noted by the public can easily be brought to your attention. Also consider setting a date within 12 months, to review the ethical components of your strategy at board level. For charities with resource constraints, monitoring and reviewing ethical procedures may be at the bottom of the priority list. However, it pays to be ethical — as a good ethical working environment: increases employee morale; reduces the risk of reputational damage as a result of scandals arising; and increases employee willingness to report issues of misconduct to senior management.   

  Dorset Parent Infant Partnership have just launched a new appeal on Localgiving! DorPIP work to ensure that parents and babies can access the support they need to build secure, long-term attachments. This includes providing psychotherapeutic intervention and promoting the importance of investment in early relationship building between parents and their children. As Vivian Allen, the founder and CEO of Dorset Parent Infant Partnership explains: "After 10 years of working as a counsellor, helping children, teenagers and adults who suffer from the effects of poor attachment, I started to look at where their pain had begun and often found it started right at the very beginning of life during the first 1001 critical days, when ‘natural bonding’ should have taken place. Having also experienced problems bonding with my own children i was inspired to set up a specialist community based preventative service to help families when bonding does not come naturally”.   They need to raise a total of £3,600 to run their our #keepintouch groups. These groups ensure that families receive ongoing specialist support during the vital first 2 years of a child’s life. “This support is good for babies, good for families and good for our society too. Please donate now to our appeal. These #keepintouch groups are a lifeline to parents and babies who really need your support." Help DorPIP to continue to provide this invaluable service to parents and babies in Dorset: Make a donation here      

No matter what sector you’re working in and what social issue you’re working to address, every small charity shares the same challenge. Everyone is spending substantial time fundraising - whether it’s from the government, corporates or individuals. In this hugely competitive landscape charities are increasingly finding their offering pressed, having to either compromise their quality of service in order to be competitive or dedicating valuable resource to endless bid writing and event organisation. We’ve been looking at this for a long time; how do you create a sustainable income stream, and how can you make this fit with your overall mission? We’re a charity, not a social enterprise A registered charity can still be a social enterprise. If you’re already running a shop or selling items to raise money to reinvest into the activities that make a difference to people - just like Mums in need in Sheffield - you’re already halfway there. Of course, running a shop isn’t for everyone, it’s still time and labour intensive - and you need to have premises, volunteers and budget for overheads.   Developing a meaningful concept First and foremost in creating a sustainable income stream is coming up with an idea. You need to identify something which fits into your overall mission, preferably which has a social impact, whilst raising funds at the same time. Wristbands, lapel pins and even giant daffodils are great for awareness and brand building, but if you want to create something which is truly impactful on a social level you need something that tells your story. Knightsof.media is a good example of this. Investment Think about the cost of development time and resource, but also where are you going to get the funds to get your idea off the ground? Do you believe the concept is strong enough to warrant investing time in it? Can you allocate a proportion of your budget to it or do you need to look externally for funding? Crowd Funding You have your idea and believe it’s strong enough to invest time in, but you don’t have funds. Crowdfunding sites are great platforms to use, but you only get the money committed to the project if you reach your full goal. In our case, our crowdfunding campaign didn’t reach our target, but it generated awareness and ultimately a single donor who believed enough in our idea to give us the full financial backing we needed. Timing Bear in mind that for any new enterprise it can take up to three years for an idea to start generating a profit for you. A sustainable income stream is not an overnight solution to short-term cash flow. Together Equal - Our Solution Our aim as a not-for-profit is to support small, independent charities working towards equality by helping to develop a sustainable income stream through these conversation cards. We really believe that by driving conversations around key talking points we’re building awareness, consideration and ultimately deeper understanding of the challenges arising from the lack of equality in our society. Our roots are in working within the VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) charity sector so this first set of conversation cards has been developed in association with our charity partners -  specifically The Dash Charity. Together Equal drafted an initial list of questions which we then refined with Dash, replacing some with questions that came from their education team so we ended up with a deck that we are all really happy with. How it works Our charity partners take the cards from us at cost, enabling them to retain all profits for themselves. We use the money returned to produce further sets of cards. We ourselves raised our first round of funding indirectly via Kickstarter. Whilst our current cards address issues around gender we’re keen to support charities focusing on equality across all aspects of society. If you’re reading this and think it could work for you, please get in touch! Sarah is co-founder at Together Equal, specialising in producing conversation cards which raise money for charities while having a social impact by creating conversations which challenge social stereotypes. Follow Sarah and Together Equal @betogetherequal @sarahairdmash.  

At Localgiving we like to highlight the inspirational challenges individual fundraisers carry out for our amazing charities and community groups. Every month I (Byron,Localgiving’s Membership Coordinator and helpline guy) will be picking out some of the very best active fundraisers on the platform. Here are some of the most inspiring causes and fundraising appeals we have seen this month: The Liberal Jewish Synagogue - 10,000 Steps commemorate Kindertransport Esta Charkham and Susannah Alexander walked a whopping 10,000 steps on the 2nd of Dec, more than deserving of a sequel Proclaimers song named after them. They achieved this feat to commemorates and celebrate the refugees who were welcomed into the UK in 1938. They have raised a massive £2,585 for  The Liberal Jewish Synagogue. Everyday throughout the year, the synagogue welcomes members and the broader community to a wide range of social, outreach, community care and educational services, activities and programmes for people of all ages. Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support (SARSAS) - Little Vic Big Trek - Everest Base Camp for SARSAS This Christmas I've climbed a mountain novelty toblerone; Vic is climbing Everest! Vic’s challenge starts with 15 days in Nepal where she will have to acclimaise to the altitude. Best of luck from all of the Localgiving team! SARSAS provide free, confidential, trauma informed specialist support and counselling services to relieve the distress and rebuild the lives of survivors of rape and any kind of sexual abuse who are aged 13 and over. They specialise in working with women and girls. SARSAS raises awareness about rape and sexual abuse through informative campaigning, advocating for survivors voices to be heard and training for change.   Young People First- Skydive Challenge 2018 A big well done to every one of the 40 skydivers raising money for Young People First. Between them they have raised a sky-high £4,000! Young People First provides support to some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged young people living in Warwickshire and Coventry. The vision is to inspire young people to reach their fullest potential and support them in overcoming the personal barriers preventing them from achieving. The charity is committed to providing a long-term, holistic service which is centred on building positive relationships of trust with each young person.    

22 years ago the world changed forever. Nicola, a daughter, sister and one of my best friends sadly passed away. She was beautiful, so popular, funny, warm, and caring. We had so much fun growing up and I miss her very much. From that day I said to myself that I would try and live my life to the fullest because Nicola was no longer able to. Running the London Marathon was always on my ‘list’. When I entered the ballot this year I never really thought I would get in, but what happened? I got in first time and I am now entered to run 26.2 miles round London in April next year. I feel incredibly lucky to be given this opportunity and so I wanted to run for a charity that meant a lot to me. After doing some research I found a local charity called Solve It which is based in Northampton. Solve It was set up in 1988 by a woman who lost her son in the same way as Nicola. The charity works with teenagers, parents, carers and other organisations to educate people about the consequences of new psychotic substances (aka NPS or former legal highs) and in particular solvent abuse. Nicola is still missed and loved so very much. I am running in her memory and would love any support to help this small charity keep up the amazing work it does. Running a marathon is going to be a pretty big challenge for me as, although I ran the Oxford half last year, I have not run much since. I also have a slipped disc to contend with! However, knowing I am running for a wonderful charity that is reliant on fundraising is motivating me enormously. No one has run the marathon for Solve It before. I am so honoured to be the first. I will keep you updated on my training progress HERE and if you would consider sponsoring me that would be great. Thank you for reading; both myself and Solve It really appreciate your support.