ESG commitments: helping charities and social causes win in a digital world

Wherever there’s a crisis, and whatever the risks, one group is always there to help. As longtime admirers of the Red Cross’s, it’s been a privilege in helping strengthen the group’s communications and fundraising capability. Our charitable grant of £40k helped develop:

• A bespoke training programme for marketing and fundraising teams
• 6 months of Live virtual workshops
• A year of elearning courses
• And tactical advice for how to strengthen their digital operations longer term

Take a look to see the amazing work they’re doing by helping people in need the most..

https://www.redcross.org.uk/

The British education system is world-famous and world-class. This British charity and professional membership body plays a key role behind the scenes to maintain and improve excellence across the higher education sector. Their mission is to help higher education organisations be the best they can be, by unlocking the potential of their people. Their strategic goals include enhancing confidence and trust in higher education, addressing systemic inequalities and advancing education to meet the evolving needs of students and society. It provides a range of research, knowledge and resources for members, as well as accreditation for teaching and learning and equality charters to advance gender and race equality in higher education and research. We were so inspired by their work, that our leadership team awarded them a £50k corporate social responsibility grant -spread across two years. We’re supporting them internally to strengthen the way Advance HE works, and how it develops its marketing strategy, communications and channels.

There has to be a balance between the desires of companies and their marketers, and respect for the privacy and rights of individuals. At the heart of this are the codes of conduct, the regulatory framework and the adjudications from the Commission responsible for enforcement.

• We’ve supported the Commission since 2009
• This year we gave input on how to record, manage and explain the journeys that data travels on
• Our data journey framework also works as guidance for journalists covering the industry

Coronavirus has affected everyone. And we’ve stepped-up in many ways, helping our clients tackle the impact of Coronavirus on their people and businesses, with rapid response crisis management planning, communication and training. Behind the scenes we also helped in other ways…

• Advising charitable groups on communications audits and strategies
• To tackle the crisis we donated time to supported national policy initiatives through NGOs lobbying for increased healthcare capacity for ventilators, ICU beds, PPE and other key constraints
• Giving paid time to key team members to coordinate volunteer efforts
• Donating all spare office supplies to foodbanks

Our own business capabilities were not impacted as we took the decision to switch to remote working well ahead of the UK government’s advice, and already had the supporting technology in place.

The leading children’s care provider in the UK wanted to up its game in digital marketing and communications. We helped them review how their digital channels work to find foster families that will turn around the lives of children. They’re passionate about making a difference, educating and caring for young people when they need it most. We’re passionate about helping them be even more successful at achieving that. Find out more at www.nfa.co.uk

The Royal League is one of the longest standing UK-based arts charities, and a global membership organisation. ROSL runs global arts and culture competitions that stimulate the next generation of talent, shining the spotlight on up-and-coming musicians and artists. We’re developing ways to help strengthen their digital communications so more people see the work across more countries, and engage more deeply. Digital channels give ROSL the opportunity to amplify news and bring audiences closer to the artists and their work.

Programmes to help lawmakers strengthen the role of the UK in international trade and development by strengthening communications and the use of social media.

We continued our support of these start-ups, helping nurture the next generation of digital talent through the Collider accelerator. This was focused on the marketing and advertising sector where we shared our insights and skills. Collider continue to do outstanding work in nurturing start-ups with transformative ideas for improving the effectiveness of marketing communications.

We believe the web is a massive force for good and a driver to change and improve society. This has been part of our belief since we set up back in 2000. Sadly, 2016 and 2017 saw a new trend in fake news and social divisiveness in the UK, the USA and many of the more mature digital markets.

Against that backdrop, our team considered where they could support and help the quality of public debate. Democracies rely on strong access to impartial information, and effective mechanisms for leaders to be able to communicate through the media, which has come to mean social media. We set up a fund of €80k for advanced coaching on social media for lawmakers here in the UK. These sessions helped lawmakers learn more about what the landscape can offer and how to engage effectively.

As the demands of the modern world outstrip resources available, society needs to find new solutions. This means thinking differently around the systems used by all of us and finding some new approaches.

From corporations to capital, cities to care management, we need to develop new systems for funding, management and growth that will befit future generations. This is arguably the biggest of all recent challenges, and we selected SystemIQ to benefit from our support. This fusion of think-tank and funding operation understands how vital systems operate in ways that are uneconomic and unsustainable. Their leaders know how system failures create costs in the trillions and weaken the economy, environment and society.

They are a new kind of enterprise designed specifically to tackle system failures by mobilising talent and capital to cultivate, incubate and scale solutions that accelerate system change and deliver improved economic, environmental and social value.

Developing the talent of the digital industry is key for maintaining the breathtaking innovation of the last 20 years since the web started to go commercial.

We continued our support of start-ups, helping nurture the next generation of digital talent through the Collider accelerator. This is focused on the marketing and advertising sector where we can share our insights and skills. Collider continue to do outstanding work in nurturing start-ups with transformative ideas for improving the effectiveness of marketing communications.

Their team fuse ambitious founders with progressive brands and specialist investors. They inject smart capital, expert coaching and forge commercial connections. Through productive collaboration, they foster the fastest route to product-market fit, follow-on funding, competitive edge and revenue.

Their work fits with our core values, and the belief that digital will continue to be disruptive on today’s business models. And we wish the best of success to all the latest Collider cohort.

We’ve pledged to help develop the knowledge and skills of the ASA team, the leaders for ensuring commercial content on the web is legal and truthful. The UK is the world leader in effective co-regulation, maintaining the freedom to work commercially with the operational needs of business. In the advertising sector, the ASA created and owned this approach. Their work has been copied by dozens of countries and, as they embrace more and more digital advertising channels, their teams had the opportunity to dive deeper into what they are and how they work. We were proud to be a partner on that journey.

Find out more at www.asa.org.uk

We continued our annual sponsorship support of the UK’s self-regulatory framework to create better digital marketing regulation, protect consumers, and ensure industry is following best practice. The DMC is the main self-regulatory body in the UK and our CEO continued to be the Commissioner specialising in digital channels. This was a £60,000 consultancy and services award.

The new code of principles we created this year: www.dmcommission.com/the-dma-code

Personal data is at the heart of direct marketing and the web has unlocked new types of personal data, gathered in new ways and used for new purposes. The projects we have run for the DMC include coaching workshops, research, marketing strategy advice and marketing tracking tools. It’s a privilege to support by the Direct Marketing Association, and the DMC. Their work is to champion industry codes, protect consumers, and ensure best practice is followed.

We restarted our support of start-ups, helping nurture the next generation of digital talent. Collider is a start-up accelerator focused on the marketing and advertising space, finding start-ups with transformative ideas for improving the effectiveness of marketing communications. They nurture start-ups who help brands and agencies identify, understand, engage with and sell to their consumers. They invest capital in these start-ups, coach them through a highly structured programme and connect them to potential corporate customers and investors. The aim of the game is to help these start-ups become sustainable, rapidly growing businesses. The thing that defines them is the laser focus on the sweet spot between start-ups and brands, and the action-orientated outputs. This means they invest specifically in technology start-ups that are building disruptive platforms, products and services that enable brands to better engage, understand and sell to their consumers.

They fuse ambitious founders with progressive brands and specialist investors. They inject smart capital and expert coaching, and forge commercial connections. Through productive collaboration, they foster the fastest route to product-market fit, follow-on funding, competitive edge and revenue. Their work fits with our core values, and the belief that digital will continue to be disruptive on business models.

Find out more at www.collider.io

Collectively is an inspiring force for change. Through working together they uncovered, shared and scaled-up exciting ideas for a future we all want to live in. They focus on ideas that make our lives better today and the world better tomorrow: from lifestyle tweaks to game-changing interventions at planetary scale. They share ideas and celebrate people who are doing amazing things that help society and the environment thrive. They help those stories and ideas spread and take hold; and we helped them strengthen their publishing strategy. From entrepreneurs to academics, designers to campaigners, from the world’s biggest brands to the smallest start-ups, every day the most creative minds in the world are thinking, designing, testing, building and launching awe-inspiring new solutions to help people thrive – re-imagining food, fashion, travel, and more. This young content start-up celebrated these, and we’re delighted to have helped them on their journey.

Digital marketing is in the mainstream of marcoms and direct marketing is increasingly at the heart of digital. That’s why, when the DMC approached us, our CEO was delighted to continue the role of being one of the inaugural commissioners for the regulation of this sector. Supported by the Direct Marketing Association, the DMC’s work is to champion industry codes and ensure best practice is followed.

Personal data is at the heart of direct marketing and the web has unlocked new types of personal data, gathered in new ways and used for new purposes. The projects we have run for the DMC include coaching workshops, research, marketing strategy advice and marketing tracking tools.

This was a £60,000 consultancy and services award each year.

Find out more at www.dmcommission.com

Digital marketing is in the mainstream of marcoms and direct marketing is increasingly at the heart of digital. That’s why, when the DMC approached us, our CEO was delighted to continue the role of being one of the inaugural commissioners for the regulation of this sector. Supported by the Direct Marketing Association, the DMC’s work is to champion industry codes and ensure best practice is followed.

Personal data is at the heart of direct marketing and the web has unlocked new types of personal data, gathered in new ways and used for new purposes. The projects we have run for the DMC include coaching workshops, research, marketing strategy advice and marketing tracking tools.

This was a £30,000 consultancy and services award each year.

Find out more at www.dmcommission.com

Digital communication is a key way for charities to maintain their profile, communicate with stakeholders and raise awareness of their work. Blind Veterans UK is a long established cornerstone in providing care for blind and visually impaired ex-service men and women from the armed forces here in the UK, and Digital Strategy’s team were delighted to donate advice about how they can improve the effectiveness of their operations by using digital communication channels more strategically.

Find out more at www.blindveterans.org.uk

We’re passionate about recycling and reducing the environmental impact of businesses. This is one of the guiding principles in our digital strategy and training programmes. Since 2000, we’ve been showing media companies and big brands how to switch their communications from publishers, posters and direct mail, into digital media.

With thousands of newspapers, book publishers and magazine titles touched by our training and strategy projects, this means billions fewer square meters of paper. In our training we aim for 50% of material to be digitally delivered, though create printed study guides because of their effectiveness as a training tool, so we print on recycled materials and have recycled more than 97% of office waste for over 15 years.

Environmental charities we’ve supported include Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), donating consultancy time to the latter to advise the global team in Switzerland on the improvement of their own communications. For more information on our environmental policies, contact your project leads here at digital.

During this year, the three charities receiving cash donations from us were Oxfam for our old furniture and equipment, the Alzheimer’s Society (as our UK charity) and Medecins Sans Frontiers as our international charity.

This year, the Science Museum and the National Railway Museum were among the many museum charities benefiting from the special £15k charity awards from the Digital Training Academy.

It’s part of our annual pledge to donate consultancy time to causes where digital strategy development can prove game-changing. The Science Museum has been a world class seat of learning and knowledge, and we were delighted to play a small role in helping their teams step forward in building a digital strategy to inspire a new generation of online learners, the way the that the physical museums inspired many of our teams as children.

The RNLI is the charity behind the brave men and women who go out into the worst weather around the British Isles to rescue people in difficulty. They won the Christmas award from Digital Strategy because this year’s big freeze was sure to make their tasks even harder. Our goal was to help raise the profile and awareness of their work, building stronger cut-through through digital media.

This was a £10,000 consultancy award.

Find out more at www.rnli.org.uk

Creating the right regulatory framework for online marketing and data protection is key to a healthy society as well as a healthy economy. Personal data will be the battleground for crime, justice and social cohesion, and for people and companies not up to speed with the issues, it could be uncomfortable and costly. That’s why we donated some of our time to helping the ICO’s team work on drafting a new code for the use of personal data and why we spent time and energy campaigning to raise the importance of these issues in government’s messaging. Our work included acting as readers for proposed documentation, giving guidance the way we have to ministers and departments as policy advisors in the past, and building up the right set of tools and messages for explaining these issues to industry.

This was a £10,000 consultancy award.

Find out more at ico.org.uk

Digital marketing is in the mainstream of marcoms and direct marketing is increasingly at the heart of digital. That’s why, when the DMC approached us, our CEO was delighted to accept the role of being one of the inaugural commissioners for the regulation of this sector. Supported by the Direct Marketing Association, the DMC’s work is to champion industry codes and ensure best practice is followed.

Personal data is at the heart of direct marketing and the web has unlocked new types of personal data, gathered in new ways and used for new purposes. The projects we have run for the DMC include coaching workshops, research, marketing strategy advice and marketing tracking tools.

This was a £20,000 consultancy and services award.

Find out more at www.dmcommission.com

Connecting consumers to the right medical services is an area the internet can play a fundamental role in. That’s why Digital’s team were delighted when the UK government’s Cabinet Office approached us about helping citizens get more value from their public healthcare provider in the UK, and increase the take-up for volunteering in medical related support charities. We wanted to help the National Health Service get more value from their massive network of websites. By forming new connections we could see ways they could connect people more effectively to both medical services and supporting charities. A summary of our strategy was included in the final policy recommendations presented by the Minister.

Marie Stopes International is a not-for-profit sexual and reproductive health (SRH) organisation that delivers state-of-the-art programmes in: family planning; safe abortion and care; maternal & child health; and HIV/AIDS reduction and the prevention of STIs.

From our work in the Horn of Africa in 2000-2001, we’d understood the link between population control and effective economic and agricultural development. MSI has been at the heart of this area for over 30 years and with the deep damage HIV/AIDS is inflicting on entire nations, issues of sexual and reproductive health have never been more important. Our role was to strengthen the knowledge and skills of their teams, and to help build a strong digital communications programme that moves their websites to the heart of their communications mix. We developed audience segmentation strategies, introduced the power of blogging, the development of news and content strategies, developed new CRM approaches, and applies search thinking to content marketing. This was all driven by the marketing funnel, with the goals of increasing MSI donations and government contract income.

We have helped MSF since we came across them while supporting healthcare and educational projects in Ethiopia in 2000. We helped on the first healthcare intranet in Addis Ababa (for the country’s only teaching hospital) before our team began building digitally networked teaching resources to help improve university teacher training (key in overcoming development and healthcare challenges).

The courage of the MSF doctors and fieldworkers was as inspiring as the needs they work to fill are daunting.

The global reproductive healthcare charity needed a guide for their digital marketing transformation. Starting with marketing audits, we reviewed their digital tools and channels to identify ways to strengthen the effectiveness of heir communications in a digital world. The support meant that their messages would reach more people without needing more budget.

In Ethiopia health care remains almost non-existent, and across the country MSF helps treat people with malaria, kala azar, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Their projects bring TB treatment to nomads and, in the South, their mobile clinics bring medical care and food to tens of thousands of people. Read more in the annual review.