This is the 10th such seminar I have run with my co collaborator Jackie Dawkins and during that time we have had numerous and varied charities attend and a huge number of testimonials for this free event.

So what could a marketer or PR person from a charity gain from attending this seminar? Well the seminar will give an insight into how social networking can help your charity to:

• Communicate your cause
• Increase your following
• Interact with the community
• Improve your fundraising
• Increase your volunteer base

As with all our training seminars, interaction and participation are encouraged and we welcome all charities who want to learn how to make better use of these new media technologies in a fun and challenging way.

Booking is simple just use the Eventbrite form below, or if you have any questions or maybe want to talk about a dedicated training for your team why not get in touch here or email alistair@gleavemedia.co.uk.

We are delighted to be able to confirm a new GrowMyCharity.com is on the way in early 2012, as you can see from the YouTube video we made below.

If you want to know more then please add you email details to our newsletter signup and we’ll let you know more about it in early 2012.

Friday 13th May the launch of GrowMyCharity, yes we chose the date well!

The launch of GrowMyCharity.com a collaboration between myself (Alistair Gleave) and Jackie Dawkins. Why you may ask?  Well we have both been working with charity clients for a number of years and wanted to find a way to support charities of all shapes and sizes to grow and flourish by providing them with resources, ideas and tools.

Our opening event was at TTS in Bideford, the picture shows me in full flow….  The event saw a number of charities come along for an opening presentation and group discussion on online marketing for their charities, something close to our hearts, and where we believe we can offer real value and support to charities.

The site and events will grow significantly over the coming months with more resources, information and guests posts etc, please come and join us on our new Facebook page here.

We’d love to see you at the next event at the wonderful Seale Hayne on June 22nd and you can book a FREE place for your charity here http://growmycharitysh.eventbrite.com/

This is what Jackie and I are doing with GrowMyCharity.com – COLLABORATING.

It’s true meaning is “working together to achieve a goal” Jackie has added some extra words – “people from two different organisations working together to achieve a goal“. The impact of having people from different organisations, companies, charities, nations working together has great potential. Obviously there has to be an agreed goal and a common aim to ensure that people work well together, a meeting of minds if you like, but think what can be achieved. If you increase the amount of creative thought, energy and enthusiasm you put into a project it’s not unreasonable to expect great results.

Recently St Loyes Foundation and Exeter Drugs Project combined forces to jointly employ an HR Manager, neither organisation required a full-time person for their role and they had similar workforce issues. Their offices are only a couple of hundred yards apart! Obviously, this type of collaboration requires careful planning and a clear understanding of how the relationship is going to work for it to be successful.

Jackie and I are looking forward to collaborating with others in the charity sector to provide great services, exciting events, lively discussion and already we have Mark Tyler of SAV Media and Anita Newcombe of Anita Newcombe Public Relations on board to contribute to the site, others will follow.

Long live collaboration!

www.GrowMyCharity.com

Well think again – whether you want to communicate with your beneficiaries, your community or corporate supporters, volunteers or the general public at large, you will no doubt find the most of them have a presence on at least one social media site.

Find out where they might be and how you can engage with them and develop their support for your organisation.

Friday 13^th marks a new chapter in my life as an online marketing consultant with a presentation to a number of charity delegates in North Devon.  The venue of the keystone centre is owned by Torridge Training Services, an innovative and entrepreneurial charity keen to encourage other organisations to make use of this fantastic space.

This is being run with Jackie Dawkins on Shine Charity Recruitment and there are a few places left, further details and booking can be made here http://www.shinecharityrecruitment.co.uk/events.php

This afternoon I spoke at the excellent Social Networking for Fundraisers at the Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education on Topsham Road in Exeter.  The topic was Inbound Marketing for Charities and was a full on session with discussion, interaction and input from the Charity Fundraiser’s from the Devon area who attended.

Regular readers of this blog will know I do a lot of public speaking (read more about it on my blog here) on web related topics and in particular web communication and social media for Charities.  Indeed during the number of seminars I’ve run it never ceases to amaze me the diversity of charities, from Hens to the RNLI (yes I said Hens) we really do have a diverse charity sector in the South West and I am pleased to do my little bit…

Also the Flip Camera that i refer to and heartily recommend for YouTube – i have one and this can be found on Amazon here.  I find the Flip Camera ideal for its simplicity, ease of use superb high quality.  There are other great HD camera’s available and some good examples again can be seen on Amazon here.

Recent Testimonials from our Charity Seminars

‘Really interesting seminar that gave lots of food for thought‘ – Donna, now with RNLI

‘James and Alistair are very entertaining and make the seminar fun!‘ – Anon

‘Really useful, good to think about integration‘ – Chris Penberthy

‘I’ve learning how to use my Twitter account more effectively‘ – Philip King, Devon Air Ambulance

By using the power of SlideShare that presentation is below, i have had to remove a few images and links – you have the key parts below.

This post follows on from my free Google grants for Charities that can be found on my blog here.

If you are a Charity and want to use the power of YouTube to connect with your supports through this incredibly popular visual medium then YouTube can help through its non-profit program that over four distinct program benefits.

1. premium branding and increased upload capability
2. you will be listed on the not for profit channels and video pages on YouTube
3. you can add calls to action overlayed on the video, so you have space to add a message and YouTube encourage you to do just that.
4. finally you have the option to ask ‘the crowd’ so you could for instance asked an expert YouTuber to create a video just for your charity.

As with all YouTube content there are some basic rules to follow;

• Upload videos that get the viewers watching and talking, then ensure you answer any responses you get.
• Upload content regularly, much like your website don’t let it go stale.
• Don’t forget to embed the code for the video across other platform, news, blog and Twitter to name but three.
• And finally be yourself, if you are fake then you will be found out!

You can find out more on http://www.youtube.com/nonprofits

This evening I co-hosted another of our Social Media Seminars for Charities at Bishop Fleming accountants in Exeter.  This is a latest in a number of free seminars I have co-hosted with James Barisic and Jackie Dawkins of Shine Charity Recruitment.

We covered how through a plethora of tools and features, including discussions forums, blogs, videos, photos, instant messaging, etc…. the trusted social media sites and we cover all the main sites.  We then show how these sites have quickly become a part of the day-to-day life of their supporters and volunteers, who the charity can/should develop a rapport with, and trust in.

I always find these enlightening not just because I am passionate about what I do, also it’s great to talk to so many varied charities from around the South West.  We have had everyone from the British Hen Welfare Trust to Childline to Devon Air Ambulance Trust and I for one am honoured that these charities are prepared to give up time to listen to me….

‘Really interesting seminar that gave lots of food for thought’ – Donna, now with RNLI

‘James and Alistair are very entertaining and make the seminar fun!’ – Anon

‘Really useful, good to think about integration’ – Chris Penberthy

‘I’ve learning how to use my Twitter account more effectively’ – Philip King, Devon Air Ambulance

‘Had a brilliant time and have got some really good ideas to share with other charities’ -  Holly, Headway Devon

On the 18th November I spoke at the Shine Charity Lunch Event at the beautiful Hestercombe Gardens which is just outside Taunton.I have never been there before so i was very pleasantly surprised at the stunning location.

Hestercombe is a unique collection of three gardens spanning three centuries of garden history and design.  All have undergone acclaimed restoration works funded by the charity, The Hestercombe Gardens Trustand from what I saw of it, definitely worthy of a visit.

The Shine Charity lunch is fast becoming an established monthly fixture for those who work in the Charity Sector to meet up, exchange ideas, explore partnership working and generally network and it was a real honour to be asked to speak at the November event on the topic.

‘what Social Media has to offer the third sector in terms of engaging with the wider community, how it can be used to promote fundraising efforts and develop your volunteer base’

I only had 15 minutes which is by no means enough time to cover all that is needed but i hope everyone got a taster of what could be achieved in their respective charities.

As expected we did overrun a little and i did have quite a few questions, i hope all left knowing this is nothing to be scared off, inbound marketing and social media is here to stay – embrace it!

Thanks to Jackie once again for the invite, she is pictured below introducing me.

For charities in the South West we do run a number of FREE seminar that go into far more depth, the next one is on December 10th, more details and booking can be found on http://shinesocialmedia.eventbrite.com/.