APPLY NEWSDESK THINKING TO GROW YOUR MOVEMENT.

Radical collaboration is important to us. And we are very lucky to operate within a fabulous community of talented people. A Barbican coffee and a catch up with the wonderful Kat Sladden of Chorus Campaigns led to us collaborating on the article below for Civil Society magazine. We’ve only just got around to posting it here. Let us know what you think…

---

We live in a world when a tweet from the US President sent at 2am resets the entire news agenda and when a powerful photograph can travel the world in minutes and bring more attention to a forgotten global crisis than a meeting of world leaders scheduled months in advance. As the way we consume our news has changed so has the speed people react, share opinions, spread hashtags and plan action. In this new reality, mission driven organisations that want to connect with people and make change, need to adapt to succeed. The era of the ‘five year campaign plan’ or writing emails to supporters three months in advance is over. Charities and campaigning groups need a new approach: we like to call it ‘newsdesk thinking’.

Newsdesk thinking takes lessons from how media outlets set themselves up to be flexible to react to breaking news events and adds that to smart campaign strategy, so that when the moment arises, your team can spot it quickly and has the confidence to be first out with a way supporters can channel their reaction into a constructive response.

“Organisations spend so much time and money creating contrived ‘moments’ - when there are real moments happening every single day ripe for hijacking.” Says John Coventry, who runs GoFundMe’s Europe and Australia operation and previously led Change.org’s global comms team. “There are so many News cycles happening all the time it’s hard to make sense of it all sometimes - but if your teams are set up right, empowered to execute quickly and given the space to fail well, the rewards can be huge: the perfect triangle of reputation, donations and real world impact.”

Hope Not Hate are an example of an organisation that does this brilliantly. When President Trump tweeted that the four US congress women should ‘go home’, the global outrage to this racism was instant. Hope Not Hate, who stand against racism and fascism in all its forms, decided that they needed to act, so they wrote an open letter of solidarity to the four women and asked their supporters to sign it. It gave people something to do to channel their anger in a constructive way, it showed that Hope Not Hate would act on its values even if it means taking on a President and it helped them reach out to new supporters who were mobilised in their disgust for the tweet. And this instant reaction to the news cycle resulted in close to 5,000 new people joining the Hope Not Hate email list.

---

Matthew McGregor, Campaigns Director at Hope Not Hate said, "This was a quick feel-good piece of campaigning. We did it because we were angry and because we thought our supporters would be too. We wanted to say something, even if it was a small thing, to send a message. And in this case we saw our list grow as a result too. It's important to have a theory of change, but our theory on this one was that sometimes it’s nice to say 'p*ss off, Mr President'.

It was this newsdesk thinking that helped grow Change.org from a small site with a few thousand signers to the world’s largest petition platform. It was a bank holiday Monday when the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Ian Duncan Smith said on Radio 4 that people complaining about welfare cuts were wrong and living on £50 a week was easy. The reaction on Twitter was instant. Outraged people called him out for being out of touch. Change.org’s then Director of Communications John Coventry spotted an opportunity, reaching out on Twitter to suggest that people should start a petition. Within an hour the petition to ‘get IDS to live on £50 a week’ had started and before civil servants had got back to their offices from the long weekend the petition had ten of thousands of signatures. It went on to be the first petition on the site to reach over a quarter of a million signatures and led the news agenda for over a fortnight, opening the space for people experiencing the sharp end of welfare cuts to talk about their impact.

So how can other organisations adopt newsdesk thinking, we’ve broken it down into 6 steps:

Be ready: Every media outlet has a clear editorial position. You need the same. Having a clear vision of the world you are trying to create, the issues you care about and the values you hold are the essential starting point. Newsdesk thinking isn’t about jumping in with your hot take on every Love Island breakup, it’s about knowing what you care about and being confident to act when an opportunity emerges.

Active scanning: What are people talking about today? That’s the question to keep asking. Keep an eye on leading activists on twitter, instagram and blogs. Often this is where issues rise up before they make news. It’s not about everyone in the office listening to the Today Programme, often 5 Live, Victoria Derbyshire and LBC are more helpful to get a sense of what people are talking about outside of Westminster. Consuming the news and talking about the news needs to be a part of day to day life, not just something the comms team do.

Ideas culture: Journalists are expected to turn up with new ideas for stories everyday. Building an ideas culture in your office is vital. Create a safe space for people to share without worrying if it’s a good or bad idea. It could be at daily stand ups, a ‘have you seen this?’ whatsapp group or slack channel - whatever works for your team. Not everything will lead to an action but it’s only with a culture that welcomes ideas that you’ll spot the golden opportunity quickly when it comes.

Rapid response: When a story matches your issues and values and has got people talking, speed matters. Attention spans are short and to capture the energy of the moment you need to be out with an action quickly, we’re talking hours not days. That means having a set up for rapid response campaigning - a faster sign off process, a way to queue jump to get an action email out and a nimble team that has the permission and power to move fast.

Invest in systems: Spend some time making sure that you can produce beautiful customised landing pages at speed that seamlessly integrate with your email platforms. Time after time we see organisations de-prioritise this type of work and then give the absence of these resources as a reason not to act when they should. If you build the things you need to respond quickly, you will be itching to use them and it will drive your speed of response!

Fail fast, fail forward: If you are taking more risks and testing more actions, not all of them will fly. That’s ok! After each take the time to understand what worked and what didn’t. Moving quickly means taking risks and piloting more actions, so it needs to be ok to fail and learn.

Newsdesk thinking is more than a process, it’s state of mind backed up by practical steps so when you have an idea you have the tools and processes already established to make it happen. It’s an approach that can bring real energy to how your organisation engages with the public and connect your organisation more closely to the conversations people are having everyday.

It’s fun, it’s fast and without the right attitude can deliver big results. We urge you to try it out!

---

Written by Kat Sladden & Paul de Gregorio: Originally posted here: Why charities should apply ‘newsdesk thinking’ to grow their movement http://bit.ly/37PcjHH

---

Header photo by Brad Neathery on Unsplash

GEEK CHRISTMAS DAY

We’re not going to lie. We LOVE data. Good quality data that drives the way we think and how we identify opportunities and potential problems.

So the day that this report comes out is very special to us. And we think you will love it to.

Digital 2020 Global Digital Overview (January 2020) v01 from DataReportal

Some highlights:

• More than 4.5 billion people are using the internet at the beginning of 2020.

• 60% of the world’s population is online and it’s predicted that over 50% will be using social media by the end of the summer.

• Global internet users will cumulatively spend over 1.25 billion years online in 2020. (Wow!).

• Mobile accounts for half of all global internet use.

• Social rules, with half the time we spent online spent in social.

• Top four global social platforms are: 1) Facebook 2) YouTube 3) WhatsApp & 4) Facebook Messenger.

Our key takeout? You probably need a messaging strategy before a TikTok strategy.

Email us with your hot take. We’d love to hear it.

More information on the report can be found here Digital 2020: Global Digital Overview.

Main image: Photo by Calwaen Liew on Unsplash

STAND TOGETHER. DO SOMETHING.

Every now and again we see a film that knocks us off our feet and leaves us with the strong desire to take action.

This is one of those films.

As we approach Holocaust Memorial Day we urge you to watch it and to share it.

We all need to be an active participant in the fight against prejudice and hatred. We can all do something.

You can find out more about the film here.

And while you’re here, please go and take part in the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s #StandTogether project. All the details can be found here.

Main image: Photo by Kadir Celep on Unsplash

HOW CAN YOU HARNESS THE POWER OF PEOPLE?

If you need some January 2020 inspiration. We think we’ve found it for you.

Go get yourself a cup of something and dedicate the next eight minutes to watch this incredible video from the Sunrise Movement.

We’re OBSESSED with the concept of People Power.

Not as a call to arms or superficial rallying cry, but more of an alternative to traditional politics. We think it’s our responsibility (we’re including you in this!) to put our energies into proving to the public that they have power and lighting the path for them so they know how to use it in the most effective way possible.

How are you going to find the 3.5% of the population to get behind your cause?

Let us know if you need some help. We’re so up for it.

Main photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

SICK KIDS. THE RESULTS...

We posted about Sick Kids a while ago and it prompted a ripple of online debate concerning its effectiveness.

So we thought you might be interested in the results. It did just fine. And from what we can remember from the talk we saw at IFC 2018, this is just the beginning.

Here’s our original post with all of the incredible films.

NEXT STEP INNOVATION.

We were really pleased to be asked to write a piece for the Charity Comms Innovation Report that launched this week. The report is packed full of excellent tips, instruction guides and opinions. The full report can be found here. Our piece follows…

Innovation is very of the moment. It seems all UK charities are creating innovation teams, appointing innovation staff or outsourcing the innovation process to external agencies.

It’s very clear that we need to innovate. Fundraising using the models, techniques and channels we’ve come to rely on is becoming increasingly difficult and I think it’s fair to say that fundraising has had a tough couple of years in the UK.

Where we’ve come from

I don’t want to dwell on the negative elements of the past few years. Enough, probably too much, has already been written and presented about that. But it is important when considering future innovation to look at the reasons — above and beyond a hostile press and increased regulation — that have resulted in the UK fundraising sector ending up in the current situation.

1. We’ve struggled to keep up.

Technology is changing at a rapid pace and human behaviour is changing at a similar rate. It was only 12 years ago that the first iPhone was introduced and it’s incredible to consider how important the smartphone has become to our everyday lives in that relatively short time. Our expectations of service have changed too: we want things quicker, we want them more easily and we expect more in return for our custom or support.

It’s no longer acceptable to offer a poor online experience if our audience is expecting something better. And it’s here where we have struggled when we compare ourselves to other sectors.

2. We’ve focussed on fundraising products over values.

It feels as if we’ve stopped putting our values and mission up front when fundraising. Instead we’ve put all the focus on the thing we want people to do, rather than on what our organisation is here to achieve or what the impact of a supporter’s donation will be.

3. An (unhealthy) addiction to monthly giving.

As a sector we became obsessed with monthly giving and with very good reason. It’s an amazing way of raising money. But I’d argue that the approaches and channels we use to recruit monthly donors have become the public’s experience of charity and not always in a positive way.

4. Incrementalism at the cost of transformation.

The dominance of monthly giving has meant that we’ve focussed on working the monthly giving model as hard as possible. Of course optimizing and improving performance is critical. But surely not at the cost of investing time, energy and resource into exploring alternative offers.

5. Recruiting supporters, not attracting support.

Large scale supporter recruitment and growth has become our focus. We’ve broadcast a general message as wide as we can afford to in order to appeal to as many people as possible and hit recruitment targets — rather than inviting people who subscribe to our values to join us and change the world together.

The drive towards innovation is a good and necessary thing. But we must learn from our innovation processes and practices of the past. Particularly in monthly giving, as the copycat nature of our sector has meant that offers and channels converged across different brands and the public’s experience became about the giving mechanism, not the reason to give.

Innovating with technology

A lot of my focus is in the use of technology to deliver impact. So whenever I’m thinking about innovation or new approaches to new or old problems I always refer back to this simple diagram, to make sure I am focusing my energies in the area where they will make the biggest difference.

Technology. What does technology enable?

Does the technology exist to do the thing we want to do? It’s possible to develop anything if you have the time and money, but building from the ground up is expensive and fraught with danger. Before we build anything we need to be sure there aren’t already platforms or products in existence which we can fuse together to deliver our idea. I honestly believe that the organisations that invest time and resources on establishing the most effective way of bringing together existing technologies will be at the forefront of redefining the fundraising model.

Behaviour: What are people actually doing?

This is important. An idea that is built around a fancy piece of technology that doesn’t have mass appeal or mass adoption won’t drive mass response. It is that simple. And a piece of technology that requires people to do something that sits outside of their existing behaviours has to deliver real value and meet an identified audience need if they are to consider using it. There are too many ‘cool’ ideas that end up being launched and then die quietly. To get traction, our ideas have to born out of and be built upon existing behaviour.

And while we are here. Not very many people want another login to another closed platform. We all have too many passwords to remember and the only people who will bother are your most engaged. Strive to personalise the experience of people supporting you, but don’t hide it away.

Impact. What will deliver the biggest impact?

I worry this question doesn’t get asked enough. Will this idea deliver impact at the level we want or need? And for clarity I mean impact as defined by you, so that’s money, actions, likes, shares, whatever it is you know you need to do. Will your idea deliver it?

So, by all means develop your Virtual Reality fused with Android Pay idea. But don’t be surprised if the millions of people who don’t use Android Pay don’t get involved.

What next?

It feels as if we are emerging from a period of time where we’ve been really focussed on what we want people to do for us — and defining supporters as what they do for us, rather than as people who share our values and who want to see the same change that we do.

If we accept that this is something that needs to change, future innovation starts with an absolute focus on what your organisation exists to do and the means by which we inspire people to join us on the journey to delivering on our mission.

Inspired by movements of the past (e.g the civil rights and peace movements) and big digital movements of recent history like Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, I’m putting a lot of focus into understanding how charities can apply the strategies and tactics from movement building into their public engagement strategies.

What makes a successful movement?

When we study the most successful movements they have these five things in common:

1. A vision to believe in

2. A believable plan to deliver that vision

3. Values that can be subscribed to

4. Useful (and valuable) things to do for those who participate

5. Charismatic leadership or leaders

Which are things charities should have in abundance. And to effectively apply the strategies and tactics of movement building, charities should consider the following key factors.

We are not at the centre of the movement

A single organisation shouldn’t and can’t be at the centre of the movement. We need to listen to those who share our values, study the movement they are already in and then work out how we can respectfully harness the power and energy of the existing movement and ensure we are giving something back.

For example I imagine Friends of the Earth are aware that they are not at the centre of the environmental movement. They are successful because they recognise that there is a wider alliance of organisations, (other NGOs, governments, legislators and companies) all working together to fulfil on the shared objective of saving the planet.

Values. Not products.

To build an engaged, committed crowd of like-minded individuals at scale, we need to move beyond supporter recruitment and start attracting support by promoting our values instead of focusing purely on fundraising products.

Engagement and community building rather than broadcast advertising.

Advertising isn’t dead, but it’s starting to lose its relevance with the public. It feels as if the areas we should be exploring are around how we can build measurable engagement and a sense of community around a problem, or create campaigns based on shared values.

Moving on from two stage and hand raising

If we can inspire people through our values, if we are harnessing the power and energy of the existing movement, we need to be giving those who join us a range of useful and valuable things to do. Otherwise we aren’t being authentic and all we’re doing is recruiting prospects for conversion to our products.

If we are honest with ourselves, we know that if we continue with the status quo, or to tweak our existing approach, it is highly unlikely we will be able to meet our organisation’s goals and deliver the change in the world we are here to create.

We all know we need to transform our fundraising model. The key question is how.

The charities that keep up with human behaviour, successfully innovate their methods of engaging the public at scale by putting their values front and centre as well as offering the very best experience will be the ones that succeed over the next 15 years.

Originally published here.

Header photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

RALLY & 'NEW POWER'

I’ve found myself talking to five people last week about the New Power book.

Of those five people, only one had read it.

Which breaks my heart (ish), as I think it’s a really important book for these digitally disrupted and politically turbulent times.

So I’d love you all to read it. Or if time is tight, maybe just watch the TED talk or read this Harvard Business Review article.

I promise it will help you think about things in a different way. It certainly helped me figure a lot of stuff out when I was thinking about leaving my job and setting up Rally.

I want Rally to be a ‘New Power’ organisation. When you study this graphic I think you’ll understand why.

It looks a whole lot more fun on the right hand side as well.

Paul