Building a sales mindset can be hugely powerful for your charity – but where should you start? This month’s guest post comes from sustainable income advisor, Ruth Dwight, who has provided some great ideas for how to discuss the need to grow income in new ways with your employees and volunteers. As the funding environment for charities continues to get …
5 great ways to improve case-study gathering
During a session on engaging content at a recent conference, the speaker talked about how to gather a case-study. Whatever your organisation does, you will have great stories of the work you do and the difference you make: used well, these will have a powerful effect on your intended audiences. But before you can start using those stories to achieve …
How to handle CAVE dwellers
Every organisation has its CAVE dwellers. You know, those people who greet every new initiative, improved process or attempt to build excitement with snorts of derision. “We have seen it all before!” “What a lot of tosh!” “That will never work here.” They are, in short, Constantly Against Virtually Everything. CAVE dwellers. I first came across this term at an …
The story of a hot-desk and other ideas
Earlier this week I facilitated table discussions at the CharityComms Internal Communications Special Interest Group. The topic was story-telling and we heard from a range of speakers, giving us first a framework for stories and then real-life examples from charities St John Ambulance, Mencap, World Animal Protection and Scope, who have used story-telling to engage their people. Armed with this …
What is effective communication?
I often talk about ‘effective communication’ in my presentations, comms strategy conversations and training workshops. But what does that phrase actually mean? A good friend asked me this question after reviewing some text for me. And I thought ‘If Pat wants to know what effective communication is, then other people will probably be wondering the same thing’. Simply put, I believe …