CharityComms 2021 Digital Conference

From getting cut-through in the noisy, COVID-dominated news agendas to keeping up with the constantly changing digital landscape; and from rebuilding face-to-face relationships to protecting your team from burnout, the last 18 months has thrown up a lot of challenges for charity PR professionals. In this candid discussion, we’ll be talking to award-winning teams and leading charity PR lights about how they’re tackling some of the big sector issues.

Most social and media managers dread that sinking feeling when a negative story hits – and why is it always at the weekend, out of hours or at the end of the day? The RNLI has had its fair share of negative coverage over the past few years and, in this fireside chat, Vanessa will be asking Rich about how they’ve been able to turn storms of negative coverage into groundswells of support. Rich will also offer his top tips for looking after your team during a crisis.

The past 18 months had charities adapting their fundraising approaches to suit a consistently unpredictable economy and society. These new approaches have proven themselves during the toughest of times. Matt Haworth, expert in all things charity digital, encourages charities to continue down this new path. Matt will showcase how charities can innovate on traditional methods by approaching fundraising in the same way that we approach digital; test propositions, gather more data, iterate, embrace lean ways of working and react quickly to change. All of which can result in a lower cost of failure and higher chance of success in a fast moving and ever-shifting landscape.  

Back in March, Mind launched its 27 27 event with the aim of encouraging students to run 27 miles in 27 days. Using student created content and a highly targeted, optimised recruitment campaign using social, they attracted over 10,000 students to sign up and raised £1,072,813 – the first time a Mind product has generated over £1 million. In this talk, Alex will share learnings from this campaign and offer top tips for your charity.

The gaming and streaming worlds are largely untapped by charities, yet they offer exciting opportunities to reach new audiences and drive income growth with strong potential for scalability. One charity that has been successfully tapping into this potential is the British Red Cross. In this talk, Georgia will talk about how they have been successfully working with gamers that resonate with their cause and how your charity can too

A digital project never failed because of bad code – it’s all about people – 85% of job success comes from well‐developed people skills. The greater your skills in leadership, emotional intelligence and resilience, the more likely you are to succeed. In this fast-paced and interactive session, Trenton uses principles from his latest book to highlight how we can all develop emotional intelligence to ensure that we and our teams are productive, happy and healthy. These principles can be transferable to any teams (from marketing to product development) and actually, for many life situations!

During COVID many people were forced to grieve alone. According to recent research, almost half of us don’t know what to say to someone close to us who is grieving. To help tackle this, Sue Ryder launched Grief Kind, aiming to help people support their loved ones who are grieving. We’ll hear how the Sue Ryder team used Facebook ghost testing to listen and attract new audiences, helping them to successfully identify and develop a blended digital and offline product to launch the campaign across social. 

In this short and practical talk, Rebecca gives her top tips for protecting your charity’s reputation online. She’ll be exploring techniques for excellent online moderation and engagement and how to handle sensitive or divisive topics. She will also be talking about online safety and responsibility for employees, volunteers, partners, and influencers as well budgeting for crisis.

Behavioural science has allowed nonprofits to multiply their donations and increase the average amount given by up to 30%. However, over half of new donors never return to make regular contributions, meaning good causes miss out on the vast majority of their lifetime value.  This talk shows how fundraisers can unlock lost revenue by making charity addictive. Using the behavioural toolkit developed by big tech and social media, nonprofits can make good habits irresistible and improve donations online. 

Change is constant. The pandemic meant implementing changes in technology, behaviour, structures and working practices – and things are still shifting as we work out what the future will look like. Ruth Richards is a coach and ex-charity leader who will draw on both psychological theory and experience to talk about how change affects individuals and teams. This session will help you think more clearly about change, whilst keeping your values at the heart of everything you do.

Scouts’ digital strategy puts people at the heart of what they do. Being digital first isn’t just about technology – it’s a combination of changing how people, processes and technology work together. Its digital principles are the foundation for how it does things, including the launch of its inspiring new programme for 4–6-year-olds, Squirrels. In this session, they will talk about how they enabled the launch of a new service by embedding their digital principles in everything they do. 

In this talk, Beth Murray (global lead, Workplace for Good at Meta), will share what a charity leader needs to know about engaging, motivating, and communicating with their staff as we move into hybrid working.

The talk will cover:

• How employees are feeling – and what that means for your organisation
• Why you should care about employee experience
• The new rules of engagement for hybrid workforces
• How modern charity leaders communicate

Moving supporter data between tools and technology is critical to creating tailored, meaningful and effective supporter experiences. In this session, digital mobilisation experts more onion will share case studies and discuss how better connecting your tools and data can help you increase your campaigning and fundraising impact. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to refine your existing systems, this session offers practical tips and takeaway examples on how you can improve your integration. 

During the pandemic, many more of us experienced loneliness. Responding to this, the Samaritans created The Feel Good Book club – a product that not only boosted its income but tapped into our human need for connection with an online community based around books and feeling good. In this session, we’ll hear about innovation at the Samaritans including their design process and audience-centred approach to developing products and services. There will be plenty of key take-aways that can be applied to many areas of work – from marketing to fundraising.

From AI, machine learning and computer vision to 5G and the Internet of Things – there are some exciting trends on the horizon. In his talk, Robin will explore how these new technologies can be harnessed to enable the development and deployment of tailored charity services. Robin will also consider the existence of specialist technology solutions in a rapidly developing landscape of embedded accessibility. You will also consider the role that humans will play in the workplace of the future.

Hear from the team at Target Ovarian Cancer, on how they successfully redeveloped their website using an agile, incremental approach which put users’ views and accessibility at the heart of the design. In this talk, we will hear how they surfaced and implemented rich user insights to steer the redevelopment of the site and how they continue to evolve and optimise the site even after launch. Amy will also share how they took a mobile-first approach that works beautifully across all devices plus she’ll tell us what they did to ensure an outstanding performance in their Core Web Vitals. This talk is a must-attend session for anyone looking to improve or redevelop their charity’s website.  

Thanks to the work of GDS, the UK is consistently ranked as a world-leading digital government. Throughout the pandemic many new services were designed and existing ones evolved. In this talk, you’ll hear from head of technology and lead technical architect from GDS on how they design digital services with inclusion in mind and how your charity can do the same. They’ll run through the UK government’s design principles and examples of how they’re used. There will also be plenty of opportunity to ask your questions – so please come armed with these.  

In this talk, you’ll learn about how the marketing, communications, and digital job market has transformed post-pandemic: how candidates’ expectations have changed; how to recruit an inclusive and diverse team; and how to compete to find the best talent. This talk is perfect for directors and heads of department who are looking to grow creative and innovative marketing, communications, and digital functions. 

The CharityComms Digital Benchmark is a group of UK charities who pool their digital data to compare and evaluate their website’s performance. In this talk, Alexis will share some of the top findings and interesting trends from this year plus some potential pitfalls we can see on the horizon. This is a must-view session for digital leaders looking to understand the wider picture in 2021. 

Producing work that is truly creative is no mean feat. With the need for processes, objectives, a multitude of content and a raft of key messages sometimes it can feel like creativity is lost from content production. At Morever, they strive hard to make original film and animations that keep creativity alive. In this talk, Abi will share insights and practical tips for staying creative and inspiring creativity in your teams and colleagues, especially in these times where so many of us are working from home.