kevin baughen's blog

I’ve been working on a few events with a well-known charity recently and it made me realise what a specific science event planning and hosting is.  Having organised event for years, I almost take for granted the various stages which are critical to ensuring success but meeting with less experienced folks was a wake up call. We often invest significant sums of money and time in events programmes so getting it right is crucial.
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Following discussions with a charity team last week, I wanted to suggest a few tips on how to integrate e-marketing and social media.  Then, I found an article by the very prolific team at Marketing Sherpa which talked about how a business in the USA had successfully integrated their email and social media activity.  On the grounds of not wanting to reinvent the wheel, I think there is a lot of learning here for NFP organisations as well as businesses.
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In his latest blog, fundraising guru Ken Burnett has created his fundraising dream team for UK charities.  Whilst he has named a few of the great and good names we may already know, of most interest to me was the actually roles he describes which constitute a great team.
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It's an old and often-debated question and the answer varies depending on what kind of organisation is doing the asking and the target audience's wants and needs.
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For a while, I have been talking about how brand credibility not only gives charities the right to ask for donations but also how it can protect them when things go awry.  This month I personally experienced a great example of the latter.
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According to Wikipedia, social capital is:

"a sociological concept used in business, economics, organizational behaviour, political science, public health and the social sciences in general to refer to connections within and between social networks.... variety of definitions share the core idea "that social networks have value. Just as a screwdriver (physical capital) or a college education (human capital)
can increase productivity (both individual and collective), so do
social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and groups"
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For all those amongst you who can’t quite see how social media can help short-term fundraising efforts, I present the following tale.

A recent issue of PR week from across the Atlantic (thanks to Andrew Ballenthin for the tip) covered the story of a record-breaking fundraising campaign which used twitter and other social media as it’s starting focus. 
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We all love a good story whether in the form of a humorous anecdote, a play, a novel or a loved one's reminiscing. But have you ever thought about what makes these stories compelling? Do we carry these attributes through to our fundraising and campaigning messages?
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As more and more digital services and social media tools are launched, the more I’m starting to struggle with what I really need to know as opposed to what is nice to know.
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If the number of current job adverts for corporate fundraisers is any indicator, many charities are increasingly looking to larger donations to help meet income shortfalls caused by the recession.  But, according to an article in Third Sector magazine, charities just aren’t sophisticated enough in terms of their approach.
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