In this category we want the most innovative uses of social media and what impact they’ve had. This category is for the best use of social media in the not-for-profit sector. Some examples are that the project could be using social media as a delivery method for a wider marketing campaign or it could be the implementation of social media across the company.
In this part:
Easy fundraising
easyfundraising.org.uk is the UK’s leading charity online shopping website. It helps more than 33,000 good causes (both large and small) to raise money when people shop online for everyday items. An average 5% donation is given to the shopper’s chosen good cause. The easyfundraising.org.uk model was developed by Ian Woodroffe, who, while recovering from a serious illness, received help from a number of charities. Unable to work but with an active mind, Ian was struck by just how difficult many of the charities were finding it to make ends meet and set about designing ideas to help.
In the past two years social media has become key to easyfundraising.org.uk’s success by engaging with good causes, online shoppers and retailers. The active blog supports good causes with advice on how to raise funds, as well as sharing tips on good practice. The good causes are now very active in spreading the word about easyfundraising.org.uk’s and encouraging other charities to register and shoppers to use the site.
Web Content and Social Media Manager Becky Coleman communicates with good causes, encouraging them to make use of available PR opportunities. Becky has built up a good rapport with charities and has been especially helpful with new causes joining easyfundraising.org.uk. Through the use of Facebook and Twitter, Becky encourages open communication with causes.
Good causes are invited to join in with the social media strategy. For example, easyfundraising.org.uk asks good causes to reveal their most unusual fundraising activity or post information about their celebrity patrons.
Social media has also become an integral part of easyfundraising.org.uk’s PR strategy with case studies being sought through Facebook and Twitter. For example, easyfundraising.org.uk is featuring a bride and groom who are encouraging their guests to buy wedding presents through the site.
easyfundraising.org.uk engages with journalists through social media to help promote the good causes as well as the website. Daily Telegraph columnist Pete Wedderburn highlighted easyfundraising.org.uk in www.telegraph.co.uk blog with 6,494 followers. Other journalists have picked up on good case studies; such as the Rudozem Street Dog Rescue in southern Bulgaria.
Every month, easyfundraising.org.uk supporters are asked to vote for the Cause of the Month. This gives social media exposure to the nominated 10 good causes and PR coverage for the winner.
Becky Coleman’s use of social media has also created an easyfundraising.org.uk community where small, isolated charity volunteers are supported and receive recognition for their hard work. Open communication is encouraged and good causes are welcome to submit questions through Facebook or Twitter. Members are invited to share their fundraising successes and spread the word about their cause by using the social share buttons on the site and in mails.
Social media has been key in promoting new features on easyfundraising.org.uk. When the easyreminder was launched, Facebook and Twitter followers were asked to comment on the usability of the new tool that reminds shoppers to login through easyfundraising.org.uk every time they start to shop with an easyfundraising.org.uk retailer. When changes were made the easyfundraising.org.uk website, social media followers were asked for feedback.
Freegle
Freegle is a grass-roots network of over 300 online reuse groups throughout the UK with more than 1.2 million members across the UK. Each group helps its members give away and receive unwanted items for free. Each month tens of thousands of items are passed on.
Traditionally Freegle groups have been hosted on Yahoo! Groups, but that platform is starting to show its age. With a large proportion of people spending much of their online life on Facebook, it’s increasingly important to find ways to reach out via that medium.
Over the last year, Freegle have developed a system which allows groups to also be used from Facebook and Twitter – which means we can provide a much better user experience. Because this works in parallel with the existing groups, it avoids a forced move from one platform to another – which users hate – but provides a much more usable platform while retaining the crucial critical mass of members and messages.
Freegle is entirely volunteer run, and this platform has been completely developed by volunteers with no funding – an outstanding example of how passionate volunteering can change society.
Sky Sports Living for Sport social media campaign
Sky Sports Living for Sport (SSLFS) is a free initiative delivered in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust which uses sports stars and sports skills to improve the lives of thousands of young people in secondary schools across the UK. Athletes regularly visit schools to talk to pupils about the impact of sport on their lives
PR company, Midnight Communications, was seeking new and alternative ways to interact with the various SSLFS audiences - PE teachers, pupils and athletes - as part of its communications programme and we took the plunge into social media.
We took our campaign across the entire social media mix, focussing on three channels - facebook, twitter and YouTube - using news, views and blogs on each platform.
The majority of athletes were unfamiliar with twitter and so we faced an education issue. We devised crib sheets encouraging them to send a tweet before a school visit, tweet while there, and after they left. Teachers and pupils were encouraged to do the same. All were encouraged to retweet.
Students were given flipcams and encouraged to upload athlete visits to the youtube site.
Furthermore, we identified material ranging from student videos, Athlete Mentor photography and blogs which were linked together and distributed across each platform.
Competitions, case studies and ‘tweet and follow’ campaigns all contributed to the growing social community.
We also needed educational bodies and other sports organisations to know all about the SSLFS programme and so we targeted them and they subsequently followed us.
In order to deepen the relationship with our audiences and engage them on other social levels we launched a number of Q&A discussions via the facebook page with our athlete mentors and encouraged our new followers to ask questions about school sport and their own growing up experiences.
We also developed case studies from schools using their pupils as the stars. SSLFS followers were attracted to these stories and keen to hear how pupils managed to achieve their life goals through the SSLFS scheme. Stories were subsequently picked up by regional journalists.
All media coverage was uploaded to the website, posted on facebook and tweeted about regularly to ensure full use of each platform. There was a fantastic buzz from twitter and interaction via facebook which in turn improved the website’s SEO ranking and Google analytics.
Midnight’s social media campaign has proved highly effective in spreading the word about SSLFS and encouraging more schools to take part.
Askar Sheibani
Askar Sheibani is the CEO of IT repairs firm Comtek.
Sheibani has been campaigning to reduce e-waste for many years, recently bringing together MPs and experts in Westminster in an event to raise awareness of this escalating problem - according to a UN report, world e-waste growth is about 40 million metric tonnes a year. Not surprisingly, Sheibani believes reuse of electrical equipment should be the first weapon in fighting the growing mountains of e-waste.
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a worldwide Christian church and registered charity, working in 124 countries, demonstrating Christian principles through practical support; offering unconditional friendship, and very practical help to people of all ages, backgrounds and needs.
Founded in East London by William Booth in 1865, The Salvation Army is one of the largest, most diverse providers of social services in the UK. A visionary social reformer ahead of his time, William Booth believed that charity demeaned the individual and people should be offered a ‘hand up' and not ‘hand outs' to get them back on their feet.
Today, The Salvation Army extends a helping hand to those who are homeless, friendless and in need. We passionately believe that no one is beyond hope, however great their problems. That disadvantaged people are given respect and access to the practical, social and spiritual support they need to realise their God-given potential and recover their personal dignity.
Just Giving
JustGiving was started in early 2000 by Zarine Kharas and Anne-Marie Huby, with a simple vision. They wanted to use the power of the internet to enable people to raise far more for charities, easily and cost-effectively.
Everyclick
Everyclick Search is powered by Everyclick's technology platform. Everyclick is an award winning technology and fundraising company. To date, Everyclick products have raised £2,218,195.59.
Social Media is an integral part to our business , it allows us to share information with users and charities alike, sustaining our relationship with them and keeping them involved with our products.
Follow us online:
• www.twitter.com/giveasyoulive
• www.facebook.com/giveasyoulive
• www.giveasyouliveblog.com
With over 1,600 retailers now on board, Give as you Live continues to grow month on month and so does our social media community:
• In the past month our Facebook users have risen by 280%
• We’ve seen an increase of 80% of blog views
• Our Twitter users
We ran a Twitter Party where people were encouraged to tweet about Give as you Live using the hashtag #xmastips:
• Within an hour, almost two million (1,945,462) impressions were achieved, with 1,040 participants in the conversation
• Thirty minutes into the hour-long Twitter Party, #xmastips was trending worldwide at number two
• @giveasyoulive received over 200 direct tweets and over 100 additional followers
We designed an infographic to show how much a different Christmas shoppers could make for charities if they shopped online:
• The infographic was published by the Guardian online
• On Visual.ly, the infographic has received over 200 views
One of our biggest achievements this year is partnering with Vogue for Online Fashion Week:
• All purchases made through VOGUE.CO.UK during online fashion week will raise money for charity.
• This will be coupled with a Social Media strategy and pin point a new audience with Give as you Live.
• This means more users, which means more money raised for charity, which is what we are always striving to do.
Not only do we strive to raise the maximum amount possible for the charity, but we also look after our users:
• On Facebook and Twitter we are always sharing great offers from our retailers
• If there’s a sale on, we’ll be sure to share it with our network
• On our blog, we offer Gift Guides and share new stores and information, which have been optmised for social sharing
• Our Try it and Win competition let people give feedback to us over Facebook, Twitter and our blog, with over 150 entries and comments coming in via social media
Envrionment agency
We are an Executive Non-departmental Public Body responsible to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and a Welsh Government Sponsored Body responsible to the Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development.
Our principal aims are to protect and improve the environment, and to promote sustainable development. We play a central role in delivering the environmental priorities of central government and the Welsh Government through our functions and roles.