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Charity CEO’s - There may be trouble ahead – but, STAND FIRM!

The job of the charity CEO is a particularly challenging one. Not only do they have the responsibility of “steering the ship” - leading and directing those in the organisation while guiding and developing their senior management team - but they are also faced with the additional pressures of keeping trustees informed and remaining in touch with the beneficiaries their organisation supports. It’s a tough call, particularly when some consider that the Chief Officer role is something to be grateful for! Even to the extent that the incumbent should be content to accept remuneration much less than the norm when compared with their professional counterparts in the business world. It’s no wonder that, in the face of unrelenting pressure to “bring in the money”, a CEO can be tempted to stray away from their core purpose. When, for example, during their weekly brief with the fundraising team, it is revealed that there is a “pot of money up for grabs – BUT, we’ll need to change wha...
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Churches don’t need marketing? – OR DO THEY? 5 things that churches can do to attract more people and build their congregations

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I spoke to someone recently, explaining that I was helping a church with their marketing, and he replied “Oh, so do churches have websites then?“. So, this got me thinking … I guess most people’s perception of a church is that old building with a pointy roof, where people go on a Sunday – plus maybe for christenings, weddings, funerals etc. I have to say, as a practising Christian, that’s not how I see it. In fact, “THE CHURCH” is not the building at all, it is in fact “THE PEOPLE” – so straight away, you can see that churches have something of a perception problem. OK, so getting back to my original question – do churches need marketing? – well yes, of course they do! ANY organisation that wants to change the public’s perception, tell people about their mission, publicise events, support people in need, etc - needs to communicate with people … And that is where Marketing comes in – contemporary, Digital, 21 st century marketing. So, what can a church do to improv...
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Sell it with your heart - how professional presentations can help your charitable cause

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Most of my professional career has been in selling; promoting goods or services to potential customers in the hope of getting a positive decision leading to a lucrative contract. So, is selling relevant to a charity? Or can the third sector rely on goodwill alone to get those essential funds rolling in? I believe that when applied professionally and used empathetically within your target market, good sales techniques can be extremely beneficial. Intelligent sales methods can help you to win new supporters, gain supportive philanthropists and cement valuable relationships with others who can assist with achieving your charity mission and goals. So, let’s look at the example of a PowerPoint presentation, the natural weapon in your armoury that you bring out to get the best of an invitation to “tell us what you do”. Naturally, you want to start with who you are –the name of your charity or cause, a bit about the history and how you came up with your name, a picture of your...
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Case Study - The Jericho Foundation - Nexgen Marketing with 58 Productions

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Case Study – The Jericho Foundation The Jericho Foundation changes lives through enterprise.   The Foundation seeks out and engages people who have experienced significant barriers to being fulfilled, skilled and employed.   To help them, the Foundation provides real work experience in one of its eight social enterprise businesses, combined with an individually-tailored package of personal development support for each client. Jericho is a complex organization as the eight social enterprises, all have varying product and service offerings, some in the B2C space, some purely focusing on businesses. All of these enterprises are wholly-owned by a registered charity reflecting the organisation’s mission to help people into sustainable employment. Jericho required a wide range of marketing direction, planning and implementation in order to gain further customers (especially large corporate organisations), more orders and extra patrons. It was essential to raise the profil...
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Cheap as chips or designer label - what does the price of your product or services say to your customer ?

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The 4 Ps of marketing (maybe there are 5 now, or maybe even 7 or 9?!)   Anyway, one of the original 4 Ps of marketing is one that is all too often just passed by and not really given the attention it deserves. Yes, I’m talking about Price. So, there are several approaches to pricing your product or service, you can work out how much it costs to make, add a margin and that’s your price. Or, a better way is to fully understand the price that your customer will pay for your product or service and use that as your price. Also, you need to think about how your product is perceived in the marketplace – are you saying “buy this because its cheaper than my rivals” – or are you saying “buy this because it will make your life better – or happier or, give you a better experience? Think about a few of our well-know high street brands – what about BMW – the ultimate driving machine – or Pound shops, 99p shops, Home Bargains.   Then think about some of the premium brands that w...
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FREE advertising grants from Google – only charities need apply!

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Your charity web site is finished and looking attractive, it explains your mission, who you help, and incorporates some interest-provoking photography and videos. You are driving traffic to the website through your digital activity, including newsletters, emails, and social media etc. This is excellent - but how can you attract additional traffic without spending a fortune? How can you lure increasing amounts of visitors to your website, so that and even wider audience can find out what you do and become further engaged with your charity? Did you know that you could apply for a little FREE advertising from our favourite search engine Google? This is based on the Google Adwords platform, where you can bid for individual keywords, which when typed into Google, bringing your web site to the top of Google rankings. Google AdGrants offers the same facility – but free to charities! There are restrictions - for example the adverts must be non-commercial and reflect the charity ...
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IT for the not-for-profit sector – the last thing on your mind? 5 top things to look for in your IT specialist 

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OK, so your main focus is on doing the good work for the people you support and that is your driving force – the reason you set up your charity or social enterprise in the first place. But just step back for a moment and think of all the things that need to be done to deliver the work, to help the people and to support the needy. You need to communicate – send letters, emails, phone people, engage on social media, keep track of your supporters, send invoices, take payments, online banking etc – the list goes on. And how is much of this done? By computer of course – and yet, sometimes, it’s the last thing on your mind – as long as it works its fine. But what if it doesn’t? Don’t worry, this isn’t a pitch on behalf of my favourite IT specialist ( www.nexgenltd.com ) – but I did want to give you some pointers as to what to look for in an IT partner, and yes, I do use the word partner, because I think that this is most important. So what are my top 5 ‘must haves’? Rel...
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