CorpComms Magazine

The people you see on Kiva's site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material proclaims the 'about us' page of the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website.

The statement seems to point to a growing cynicism among potential charity donors, who fear that too often their money gets lost in the operational wheels of the charity machine. By contrast, Kiva enables individuals to take control of their money and lend directly to entrepreneurs in impoverished communities.

Its business model, which is completely transparent, aims at improving the economic independence of working poor across the globe. The fact that it is using the Internet to achieve this goal marks a transition in charity communications; and one that presents both opportunities and huge challenges to the charity sector.

'The voluntary sector is talking a lot about new innovations, such as Kiva,' says Fiona Duncan, director at Think Consulting Solutions. 'They are giving people far more control over their donations, which, if it really took off, could have a real long-term impact. They may even diminish the need for large voluntary organisations.' Duncan thinks developments such as Kiva are a healthy wake-up call for charities that the environment is rapidly changing. 'The question is whether charities are really keeping pace,' she says. 'These new organisations can move very quickly - they are not dependent on the often slow decision-making hierarchies of established business.'

While the Internet may spawn new business models to challenge the norm in the not-for-profit sector, social media is also raising major questions for charities and their communication strategies. 'A key issue is going to be working out the real potential of using social networking sites,' says Jeremy Payne, chief executive of Endometriosis UK. 'Most charities that can are doing it to some extent, but beyond a feeling that it's generally a positive thing in allowing your message to be spread in a very cost-effective way, I'm not sure we're yet completely clear where it fits in the overall communications picture.'

Valuing communications

The delay in capitalising quickly on these online developments may be hampered by internal difficulties in many charities, particularly in their communications infrastructure. Indeed, many seem to struggle to recognise the value of communications in delivering mission goals.

According to The Communications and Marketing Benchmark Survey 2008, conducted by professional body CharityComms, 46 per cent of respondents from larger organisations strongly agreed with the statement that their organisations see communications as a way of punching above their weight, compared to just three per cent of respondents from medium-sized charities. While the larger organisations may be keeping some pace, communications professionals in mid-sized charities are clearly more frustrated.

'Communication in the bigger charities has greater prominence. They are likely to have both a director of communications as well as fundraising,' says Joe Saxton, chair and founder of CharityComms, and co-founder of specialist not-for-profit research consultancy nfpSynergy. 'In these organisations, communications are seen as an integral way of doing business and delivering what charities do. There still remains, however, the challenge of convincing people of the value of communications in medium-sized organisations.'

This problem is compounded by the fact that charities may well be the victim of their own growth and success. 'The number of charities struggling to get their message heard is huge and I defy many people within the sector, let alone among the general public, to be able to distinguish between the roles of, say, Shelter and Crisis, or Action for Children and Barnardo's,' says Payne.

For charities that get it right, Saxton describes an 'upward spiral' as they realise just how powerful communications can be. But, he agrees that chief executives can often be blinkered to the possibilities, despite the real need for differentiation in a crowded and competitive market.

More than fundraising

A key to pushing communications higher on the charity agenda may well lie in understanding just where it fits in the chain of external messaging. Where fundraising has for so long been the mainstay of external communications, there is now a much broader picture emerging, that includes raising awareness and changing attitudes by demonstrating just what charities do. 'Communications is on the rise in charities, and around services,' says Saxton. 'There's increasing appreciation that communication can change attitudes and improve the way people understand, say, heart disease.'

This service-related agenda, however, can lead to internal conflict. 'I've known situations where there is genuine tension between the optimum fundraising message, and the message that the service-delivery function is most comfortable with,' says Payne.

Before joining Endometriosis UK, Payne was a professional fundraiser at Leonard Cheshire and the Samaritans. At Leonard Cheshire, he says that the most effective fundraising message centred on the needs of disabled people, whereas the message service users were most comfortable with was one of independence. Similarly, at the Samaritans, the general public strongly associates the charity with suicide, but real efforts have been made to position it as a help point for people, long before they consider taking their own lives. 'Neither of these situations was in any way insurmountable, but compromise and flexibility was required,' he says.

Duncan also sees this as a potential challenge. 'There's sometimes an issue where fundraisers want to engage with an organisation but service delivery people don't want to work with the company for ethical reasons. It can lead to a bit of a battle between service deliverers and fundraisers,' she says. Such tensions are understandable where charity partnerships can generate significant negative publicity. For example, global protests followed the 2002 link-up of child health and welfare charity Unicef and fast-food chain McDonald's.

It also works the other way around. 'The most difficult thing for me has been gaining credibility with service-delivery colleagues, some of whom have assumed that because I'm first and foremost a fundraiser, that must be my agenda whatever the situation and requirements of a particular campaign,' says Payne. 'I think I have managed to win over most of them given time.'

In fact, in describing the work that he is most proud of - Leonard Cheshire's 'Enabled' campaign of the late 1990s and the Samaritans' email campaign between 2004 and 2005 - Payne more than demonstrates his bent to joined-up thinking. 'The Enabled campaign was the first serious attempt to position Leonard Cheshire as a contemporary organisation, responsive to the needs of disabled people and, as such, it had a huge impact. The email campaign at Samaritans ran for three years, across a wide range of media, produced measurable and sustained increase in email traffic to the charity, and markedly changed the perceptions of younger people towards the charity, memorably summed up in a quote about the image of Samaritans volunteers as being Less tweed, more denim', he says.

Integrated strategy

For Duncan, this integration of communication strategies and ideas is vital. 'There's a development in charities to move fundraising and marketing under one umbrella, with just the one communications picture. The tone of messaging has often changed too, with charities campaigning to change attitudes and effect change. Fundraisers are more likely to be saying Help us to make the difference as part of that campaign, rather than suggesting fun ways for fundraising, which was the old style of increasing donations,' she says.

To achieve this more integrated communications strategy, Duncan argues that there needs to be an underlying 'core message framework', with buy-in from the very top of the charity. 'This will underpin the value of the brand and underline the way things are done across the organisation,' she adds.

It seems that charities may have some way to go to achieve this though. 'Charities may have as many as 15 different disciplines sitting under a communications director,' says Saxton. 'For maximum communications success, you have got to get them all working together, but for many charities that synergy has yet to be realised.'

The challenges of achieving internal coordination are perhaps best considered by drilling down into a specific communications role - that of Benjamin Ward, head of press and media relations at the World Wildlife Fund UK (WWF). As an international non governmental organisation(NGO), the WWF has teams located across the globe. 'This is my first experience of working within a large and complex NGO network,' says Ward. 'A particular challenge is to draw together information and stories from the field - and different time zones - all over the world, and prioritise and present them to the UK media with relevance, clarity and coherence.'

Ward joined WWF in March, and he has clear goals for success. 'Internal communication is critical. You have to spend time with your colleagues, briefing them on what the media is saying and reporting. It's all about being joined up in your thinking,' he says. In future months, he intends to focus strongly on new media opportunities and how that can become part of the traditional press function. 'We have a dedicated online team and I work very closely with them,' he says.

Shortly after he joined, Ward was part of WWF's 'Earth Hour', in which millions of people across the globe switched off their lights for one hour to send a visual and symbolic message to governments about the importance of climate change. 'The challenge for us is to make sure that the public and stakeholders understand our focus and what we're doing to address climate change. We have to keep up our media presence and get global - demonstrating to politicians and the public the impact of global climate change,' says Ward.

Changing attitudes

The role of charities in political lobbying has been the subject of some debate in recent years, but the success of Earth Hour in getting the lights dimmed or even switched off in Downing Street is testament to the ability of charities like WWF to make an impact, when a campaign is backed by integrated thinking - and perhaps most of all a strong key message. 'Particularly good examples of charity communications are where organisations have put issues in the public eye, with a view to changing attitudes,' says Saxton. 'For example, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) has been very successful in getting people to think differently about heart disease, and some others are very successfully using communications for direct lobbying.'

While charities may not be the speediest of organisations to keep pace with the rapidly evolving communications landscape, there are signs that some are rising to the challenge of the new media age. Numerous charities are now using social networking sites to galvanise the younger generation, with some, including Save the Children and the NSPCC, developing their own applications for campaigns and fundraising, in which members can form their own groups for specific fundraising events.

Charity Research UK went one further last year in launching its own alternate reality game Operation: Sleeper Cell. The game which combined both online, traditional media and text messaging, was not only a way to raise funds for Cancer Research, but was also a powerful and innovative means to increase awareness.

For the majority of smaller charities, however, these steps are probably some way off yet. 'Print media is dwindling, while online is increasing,' says Saxton. 'But many charities are still working out how to respond to that. They may have a website and a new media team but they are not often integrated.' Saxton also thinks there are relatively simple ways of doing this - for example, using mobiles to send text messages about a latest advertising campaign or news story. 'There's a lot of potential in SMS text messaging - and it's very cost effective. But it's an area currently not used strongly enough,' he says.

In many senses, the charity sector struggles under the weight of its own speedy development and success. Charity communications began as the need to raise as many funds as possible but, as organisations have grown, so have the various sophisticated awareness raising strategies as well as media channels through which to distribute stories and ideas. In some charities, this has led to a rather disjointed communications infrastructure, little helped by the fact that many chief executives do not appreciate the real value and breadth of communications.

With online and social media making such rapid advances, however, it seems that charities will be forced to implement change. The alternative is to lose out to innovative business models such as Kiva, which can far more rapidly shift to meet the needs of potential donors and supporters. The largest charities are already doing it - linking up communications teams to produce integrated campaigns, across all media channels, that both raise awareness and funds. For smaller charities, the way ahead may seem more daunting, but by valuing the potential of communications to achieve cost-effective results, the future remains a promising one. 

The challenges

• Communications teams are increasingly getting the support of their CEO, either through being valued or through the CEO's willingness to act as a spokesperson, but this is more of a struggle for medium-sized charities.
• There is growing cultural respect for communications and brand building, but results show that there is still much to be done in this respect.
• Communications people think that their trustees know and understand little about communications.
• Communications teams in medium-sized charities appear to be struggling more than either large or small organisations, to both gain respect or convince their organisations of the value of communications.

Source: Communications and Marketing Benchmark 2008

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