Charities have an ever-growing responsibility to help tackle social issues, and effective communication is vital in helping them make an impact. Clear messaging can help raise awareness, increase understanding and create opportunities for people to help push for change.
To inspire your teams, here are some of the ways charities are using great comms to address some of the most pressing problems society faces on a daily basis.
Energy Saving Trust – Crafting messaging and tactics for maximum impact
As a society, we are all feeling the impact of the rising cost of living and charities are working hard to help the UK through the ongoing energy crisis. At Energy Saving Trust they are signposting the public to helpful information though engaging content – busting common myths and sharing simple tips.
Writing about ‘bringing together campaigns, advice, and policy to support people through the energy crisis’ they explain how they used audience insight to produce a campaign that aims to encourage people to make small and achievable behavioural changes. Their messaging is centred around helping the public understand which actions to prioritise, using three main themes: keeping the heat in your home, knowing how best to use your heating controls, and taking care of your heating system.
Bite Back 2030 – Harnessing the energy of young campaigners
The people that charities aim to assist are often the most effective advocates for a campaign to help create change. At Bite Back 2030 they have been working with young campaigners to give them a platform to share their stories and lead the fight to transform our food system.
In ‘How Bite Back empowers young people to drive social change’, Joe Twilley explains how the charity’s focus has been to employ “flexibility to build and sustain pressure over time. To do this, we’ve used a mix of digital content, media engagement and behind-the-scenes outreach to keep the pressure up.” The powerful “More Than a Meal” film, which depicts young people pleading with the Prime Minister to provide free school meals to those in need, is one way that Bite Back 2030 have kept up this momentum. As they explain, “our campaign is clearly a marathon, not a sprint”.
Bite Back 2030 recently presented at the Social Media Network event on video content creation and shared their insights on creating their ‘More Than a Meal’ film.
Turn2us and Trussell Trust – Developing different ways of co-producing work
One method that charities are using to bring about systemic change is co-production. This is a way of working where charities and those with lived experience collaborate to create tailored solutions for the issues affecting society.
In ‘How co-production can be used as a tool for systems change’, Turn2us have learned from research that it “can be more successful to have someone with lived experience interview someone who has used our service, rather than a staff member.”
The standout advice from the Trussell Trust that is useful no matter what comms function you do, is that “we must keep challenging ourselves” by showing “teams across the organisation that participation is not just for experts.”
WaterAid – Using creativity and authenticity to tell stories through animation
The environment has been a huge talking point over the last few years and WaterAid have been looking for different ways to engage people in the global water crisis and, in particular, using an approach that highlights storytelling in an authentic manner.
In ‘using animation to engage people on the global water crisis’ they share how storytelling through animation with a core theme allowed them to create an emotional connection that resonated with their audience.
When considering how to communicate an important issue they suggest to “start with the messaging and what you want your audiences to understand and then work out what is the best way to tell that story and build a campaign around it.”
IMIX – Using framing to change narratives around asylum seekers and refugees
Framing is an important aspect of communication when discussing complex issues because it impacts how the audience interprets and understands the information being presented. This can then influence how they behave and engage with a topic.
At IMIX they worked with Eden Stanley, and a network of civil society organisations and refugees to develop new framing and narratives about the experience of refugees and asylum seekers to generate long-term support from the public.
In ‘Framing matters: Refugees and their struggle for safety’ they delve into how they used research to identify common values and discovered that “a narrative focused on the struggle for safety and overcoming the odds struck a powerful emotional chord.”
Working to help address major social issues is tough but as a comms community, we can all look to each other for help, support and of course inspiration. That’s why we’ve created a social issues hub where you can read more about what charities are doing to tackle the biggest social issues in more detail.
If you haven’t already, check out how Reset Communities and Refugees have been growing the community-led welcome of refugees over a cuppa.
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