Corporate

They say birds of a feather flock together and that’s certainly true in the case of the Rovio and Bird Life International.

I was reading the tweets from the very useful @marketingdonut team and was pleased to see them share  renowned marketing expert Drayton Bird’s “35 things I have found to be almost always true”.  I was pleased to see it again as I didn’t get the chance to add to the list from a not-for-profit perspective... something I aim to put right below for the most impactful of Mr Bird’s points:

1. Relevance matters more than originality – 100% agree but originality tends to get more cut-through than cliché
2. The most important element in any creative endeavour is the brief – ie; the robust thinking that went into it and how the organisation can articulate that to an outsider
3. The urgent takes precedence over the important – but a mixture of both is likely to be the right thing to do (if your plans are robust, that is)
4. The customer you want is like the customer you’ve got – so true... but as well as the new types of donor, volunteer or supporter, not instead of!
5. The internet is just accelerated direct marketing – I think it's more than DM these days.  Perhaps it’s just a hugely powerful means to achieving a whole raft of objectives (including traditional direct marketing)?
   

Always ensure your proposals never end up in the srubbish bin by using the spell-checker. Simples.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-thompson/0/898/a5

Inspired by many disappointing purchases, umpteen instances of terrible customer service plus a plethora of generally weird and/or wonderful occurrences, I thought it would be cathartic for me, and

Today's final edition of the News of the World features adverts from 26 charities, eight of them full page.

One of the best parts of my job is that people bring new ideas to me to develop into workable, real-world solutions for the charity sector.  Sometimes they don't take off but occasionally, I come across people who are thinking really creatively about how to help others.  

I want to share one such idea with you in this blog which potentially sees the financial 'system' working for vulnerable individuals and investors alike.

I have just spotted this via the Global Business Register LinkedIn group. I am not sure how important this will be, but it appeals to the anorak in me.

There are plenty of clever people and organisations out there trying to make fundraising as simple and easy as possible.

It’s easy to think of turbulent times as just a threat, rather than an opportunity. After all, aren’t lots of our donors about to lose their jobs and won’t statutory grants be drying up soon? The challenge then is to look beyond the usual solutions and find new ways to raise resources.

In an exclusive interview with HR Magazine recently, Richard Branson gave the current view of CSR the last rites claiming: "CSR in my mind is defunct now… compartmentalising the socially responsible i