Communications, press and influencing support

Lloyds Bank Foundation have created downloadable guides that are designed to help you achieve strong, impactful communications with as little demand on your time as possible. This communications, press and influencing toolkit provides a detailed overview of storytelling from a charity perspective and is designed for use by people of all levels of experience or prior knowledge.

The toolkit provides guidance and support on:

• Defining your audiences, messages and channels.
• Building your brand.
• Approaching press.
• Designing events.
• Creating video content.
• Succeeding on social media.
• Web design and content.
• Getting started with influencing.
• Useful resources.

The guides can be accessed here.

Covid-19 continuity planning for social business and charities

This is a crowdsourced collection of resources for social businesses and charities created by ventures from the Year Here network. This guide is updated regularly by the community. It covers a variety of topics including webinars, HR, legal and governance, and business planning.

Access the resource here.

Covid-19 resource hub for charities and social enterprises

Good Finance provides information, resources and tools designed to support charities and social enterprises navigating Covid-19.

The support can be accessed here.

Crowdfunding in a crisis

One striking feature of the Covid-19 crisis is the crucial role that local communities have played in responding quickly to local needs and mobilising much-needed resources.

Identifying which local causes need support and getting funds to them quickly is a common challenge.

This blog from Nesta gives a short introduction to how crowdfunding can be a good way of raising funds in a crisis by connecting people to local worthy causes, fast.

Read more here.

Digital marketing strategy webinar series

The Media Trust’s Digital Marketing Strategy Webinar series consists of three modules designed to help charities to effectively promote their work online, grow and engage audiences and increase their visibility. The webinars have been designed specifically for charities.

The webinars have been broken down into three modules covering key areas including: Digital Marketing Strategy; The Basics, Content and Tactics; and Digital Marketing Channels.

Access the webinars here.

How to become a charity Trustee: a practical guide

Getting on Board are on a mission to change the face of charity trusteeship. They support people to volunteer as charity trustees, particularly those who are currently under-represented on trustee boards. That means helping more women, people of colour, young people, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, and so many others, to get on board with the causes they love.

They also support charities to recruit and retain diverse trustees, and help employers connect their employees with amazing volunteer opportunities. They run events from one-off workshops all the way through to supported recruitment programmes.

If you’re passionate about a cause and want to get on board as a charity trustee, Getting On Board can help.

Access the guide here.

How to support people with first-hand experience to do great media interviews

Across the UK, the voluntary sector and the media are seeing the power of people sharing their experiences and expertise in their own words. Done well, their voices aren’t just heard – they are able to change how the public understands and thinks about social issues.

With this guide, On Road have drawn on over 10 years of expertise in bringing people with personal experience of social issues together with journalists to collaborate on fresh, more nuanced content, in safe and strategic ways.

Access the guide here.

How to write a great grant application

Understanding how to put together a winning grant or funding application is essential – now more than ever. Succeed in your application and you could gain the funding you need for critical projects, however large-scale or focused they are.

Across three (transcripted) videos, Monica Brown, Head of Charity Advisory at Charities Aid Foundation CAF, addresses:

• What makes a great grant application?
• How should charities approach writing a grant application?
• What are common grant application mistakes?

Access the videos here.

Toolkit for social enterprise models that combine profit and impact

The Dragonfly Collective have put together a toolkit for social enterprise models that combine profit and impact. This toolkit explores how to build a social enterprise model in practice. It’s for the leaders of businesses that want to build purpose into their work, the leaders of charities that want to generate more sustainable sources of income, and the leaders of social enterprises that want to extend or strengthen their model.

It is based on the social enterprise toolkit developed in collaboration with Cass Business School in London. It draws on a review of 92 international journal articles on social enterprise models, and interviews with 18 leaders of social enterprise peak bodies in the UK that collectively support over ten thousand social enterprises.

Access the toolkit here.