Last month I spoke on this topic at the TEN Conference organised by Rapidata, HomeMade Digital and Artez Interactive.

I came up with five key points using the NSPCC’s Letter from Santa campaign as an example.

Here’s a copy of the presentation slides. Have a look!

Things you’ll need for success

1. A great idea. Don’t get distracted by technology. Make sure your idea is compelling, easy to ‘get’, timely, and relevant to your charity’s brand.

2. All the help you can get! Don’t go it alone. Invest in campaigns that will be marketed across your organisation and via all media channels. If you’re a smaller charity or have limited resources, consider timing your campaign to coincide with your major communication/awareness campaigns in order to maximise exposure.

3. A targeted online marketing campaign. Know your audience, and use appropriate creative and ad placement. Make sure you have proper tracking in place so you can review your progress and adjust your plan as needed.

4. Ad spend. Digital is not free and investment is essential. Try to pool your marketing budgets across teams in order boost the digital spend. If you don’t have any budget, see about getting donated media from corporate sponsors or apply for a Google Grant. And invest time in grassroots, word of mouth promotions using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

5. A great team. It’s always ‘all about the people’, and when it comes to digital, it’s even more important to get the right people. Skilled staff and agencies are key to managing specialist digital marketing techniques. If you’re unable to bring in specialist staff, consider putting together a volunteer board made up of digital experts who can offer pro bono services.

Recently I adopted the word ‘mesh’ from Adopt a Word, in part because I named my business Mesh Strategies.

Adopt a Word is a fundraising campaign that supports the work of I CAN, a UK charity that helps children overcome speech, language and communication difficulties. (The campaign struck viral gold a few months ago when Stephen Fry adopted the word ‘wordy’ and tweeted about it to his flock.)

Now I should really be buying gifts for OTHER people as we approach the holiday season. But I just couldn’t resist. And since my gift supports a great charity, need I feel guilty? Even if I bought an accompanying fridge magnet?

So why do I love the word ‘mesh’? Well, there are a few reasons.

The figurative meanings of the verb ‘mesh’ are, for me, wonderful ways to describe how charities and communities work to bring about social change. According to WordNet Search 3.0, ‘mesh’ can mean:

And in computing, ‘mesh’ is used to describe a network that, among other things, can provide continuous access to wireless internet. A wireless mesh network is also referred to as a ‘mesh cloud’, though lately you seem to just hear about ‘the cloud’. Now I don’t purport to know much about this technology, but I like the idea that it’s a ‘self-healing’ and ‘very reliable’ network, as described here on Wikipedia:

“…each node in the [mesh] network may act as an independent router, regardless of whether it is connected to another network or not. It allows for continuous connections and reconfiguration around broken or blocked paths by ‘hopping’ from node to node until the destination is reached…Mesh networks are self-healing: the network can still operate when one node breaks down or a connection goes bad. As a result, the network may typically be very reliable, as there is often more than one path between a source and a destination in the network.”

This concept can also be a good metaphor for the work of charities and communities. And of course the technology itself has great potential. It’s already being set up in diverse municipal areas such as Calgary, Swindon and Guadalajara, and in the future it might be used in disaster zones (Hackers create tools for disaster relief).

I called my freelance business Mesh Strategies because I help nonprofits develop digital programmes that ‘mesh’ with their existing communication and fundraising programmes. This can mean ‘meshing’ a number of things, such as messaging across social media networks, marketing across channels or data across platforms.

So it’s an all-time personal favourite word that means a great deal to me. When it pops up in conversation I have to resist the urge not to imitate a game show gong. Thinking about it, this probably stems from a love of the cult classic ’80s TV show Pee-wee’s Playhouse, which featured a secret word of the day. Each time the secret word was spoken, everyone would scream.

Mesh. Let’s all say it together, shall we?

Amy McGeever of Mesh Strategies and Sarah Hughes of Charity21 will offer delegates a chance to air their new media fundraising questions and concerns on issues such as:

- developing an integrated, data-driven digital strategy;
- building and maintaining relationships online; and
- taking care of your web presence and not just your websites.

Mesh Stategies and Charity21 are joined by Everyclick and Baigent Ltd at this half-day event taking place at The Royal Society starting at 9:30 am. There is no charge to attend but pre-registration is required.

To pre-register and for more details about this Perfect Pitch event, visit UK Fundraising.

Ms. McGeever will present an integrated online fundraising case study from her recently completed project for the New York City-based public media and educational organisation, Thirteen/WNET New York.

This event is free but reservations are required. For more information and to register, visit www.nfpsynergy.net/eventsandseminars.

About nfpSynergy
nfpSynergy is a think-tank and research consultancy for the not-for-profit sector. Their mission is to provide ideas, insights and information to help non-profits thrive.