Setting the Scene

If there is any sector where engaging audiences is important, it is in the not-forprofit sector. A good public relations strategy will draw supporters to the vital activity that supports an organisation’s cause. The work of an effective communicator paints a picture of the work a not-for-profit does and engages both new and existing audiences to help further its cause. This then translates to more financial support, advocacy from policy makers, time from volunteers and becoming a significant part of public discussion on what is most important in our society today.

However, while an effective public relations strategy will bring enormous benefits to a not-for-profit, there are also some extraordinarily difficult challenges in public relations work that affect all areas of the communications industry including the not-for-profit sector. As Bivins (1987) has remarked, ‘the stain of unsavoury acts performed by frequently well-known practitioners has left the public with a bitter taste in its mouth concerning the term “PR”.’ Simply put, public relations often have something of a sour reputation among the laypeople. Ironically for a profession that concerns itself with optimising image, it actually does not have the best possible standing itself. In Britain there is currently a growing level of dissatisfaction with the not-for-profit sector as there is an increasing amount of discussion about everything from the pay of charity executives to harassment and scandals around their fundraising techniques. One of the more recent scandals about unscrupulous fundraising strategies from charities arose when the 92-year-old lady Olive Cooke committed suicide. According to The Daily Telegraph newspaper (2015), ‘at one point she received 267 charity letters in one month, leading to suggestions that the hounding for money pushed her to take her own life.’ The event and media reports about it caused an uproar over not-for-profits’ ethical standards in their fundraising and communications activity. Following Mrs Cooke’s death, Prime Minster David Cameron called on the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) to investigate the allegations that Mrs Cooke had been driven to her death by excessive harassment from not-for-profits asking her for donations. In a report that the Board issued (FRSB 2005), it stated that following Mrs Cooke’s death, it received 384 complaints between 15 May and 9 June 2015 alone; 70 per cent of complainants stated that they feel ‘bombarded and overwhelmed by the number of appeals they have been receiving; including those from charities they have no current or previous relationship with.’ These statistics patently demonstrate public distaste of some charity engagement tactics. This sentiment of dissatisfaction is an enormous challenge in terms of public relations as it requires not-for-profit communicators to be very careful in their targeting of external audiences. It means finding an effective balance between getting an organisation’s message across to a large group of people without making those individuals feel pressured into joining a programme they do not in fact have much interest in.

Compassion Fatigue

However, it is not simply the frequency of communications that some external audiences may feel is a tool of manipulation used by public relations teams of charities to persuade people to donate money or volunteer time. As Norwegian communications advisor Sindre Edland-Gryt (2013) has written:

Mary Mitchell (2013), a strategist at digital public relations firm White Fuse, which works solely in the charity space, calls public relations campaigns like this ‘poverty porn … these images often depict starving, crying, troubled people (commonly, children) in need of Western intervention – victims of poverty awaiting rescue from richer nations’. Mitchell continues by arguing strongly that this is not an effective set of imagery as this kind of charity campaign strips an organisation’s beneficiaries of their dignity, and fills the beholder only with a sense of pity. As a consequence, rather than becoming engaged with the topic and actively wanting to contribute to the cause, the stakeholder often feels guilty and naturally begins to associate giving time and money to social causes with negativity and pessimism.

This is not to say that a not-for-profit public relations campaign that focuses on a negative situation is never effective. Short-term pessimism can work where longterm negative campaigns may fail. For example, in the event of a natural disaster, a not-for-profit can raise an enormous amount of funds to support its activity to help provide disaster relief to those affected by depicting the appalling circumstances that some emergency events can cause. At the time of writing, it is exactly two months since the earthquake that devastated large parts of Nepal on 25 April 2015. During those two months, the Disaster Emergency Committee launched a highly effective fundraising campaign focused on the awful humanitarian situation that suddenly arose in Nepal, with thousands dead, and millions needing help with injuries, homelessness and access to basic amenities such as food and clean water. Its flagship image was that of a man being pulled from the rubble and who had been turned completely grey from all the dust and rock under which he had been buried. Such images helped the Disaster Emergency Committee (2015) raise £79 million in just two months: a phenomenal sum. This example shows how public relations officers for disaster relief organisations can effectively engage audiences to donate by using a snapshot of a horrifying situation that needs support immediately. However, a long-term public relations strategy that is based on negative communications may not work. Making audiences feel guilty and compelling them to donate money and time through pity does not involve them in the cause in a positive way. Furthermore, this can induce compassion fatigue, which can result in a person refusing to support the not-for-profit organisation or even sector altogether. Backers need to feel they are making a positive difference and empowering the beneficiaries of the not-for-profit.

To combat compassion fatigue, therefore, and sustain genuine support and interest in a not-for-profit’s cause, it is necessary for public relations professionals to be creative and proactive in crafting a positive narrative about their organisations. One option would be to follow the principles set out by ‘The Fun Theory’, an initiative established by Volkswagen (2014), the car manufacturer. The central philosophy is that a fun or positive activity or thought is the easiest way to change a person’s behaviour for the better. To encourage people to exercise more and choose to walk up stairs rather than use an escalator, they installed a ‘piano staircase’ at a metro station in Odenplan in Stockholm. They decorated the steps to look like a keyboard, and installed a sound system so that when people walked up the stairs each step would make the sound of a different key on a piano. The use of the stairs increased by 66 per cent.

For a charity, voluntary organisation or social enterprise, it is impossible to provide services and goods effectively or have a successful fundraising and volunteering plan unless one communicates well with staff, clients and supporters. Organisations need to be creative and proactive in their communications both internally and externally. As Edland-Gryt (2013) remarks: ‘It’s a simple logic: if we’re smart, there will be no need to hunt people down in the streets. They will come to us.’ The mark of a successful public relations and engagement strategy from a not-for-profit organisation is that partners, donors, employees and supporters come to offer their support and collaboration of their own volition, without the need for undue pursuit.

So how can one leverage an organisation’s relationships and information to the best effect? The next section describes what the not-for-profit sector is. It also explains how bodies in the third sector can best engage with stakeholders to get more buy-in from customers, volunteers, fundraisers, and the public at large.

What is the Not-for-Profit Sector?

In the United Kingdom there are three economic sectors. The first is the private sector, which is comprised of companies that exist to make a profit for its private owners or for its shareholders. Examples include Royal Dutch Shell, multinational clothing company Inditex, and car manufacturer Ford. The second economic sector is the public sector, which is made up of organisations funded by government. This includes government departments, local authorities, universities, museums, public agencies and the NHS. The final sector is known as the third or not-for-profit sector, whose organisations do not make a profit, or reinvest all their income into their operations. Based on figures from the Office of National Statistics, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) (2012) has estimated that the gross valued added (GVA) (which is an estimate of production or output similar to gross domestic product (GDP)) to the British national economy by the not-for-profit sector is £12.1 billion per annum. This calculation highlights how essential the not-forprofit sector is to British society – the entirety of the agricultural industry by comparison has a GVA to the economy of £8.3 billion. The consequence of having an effective not-for-profit sector is not just positive emotion. The housing, food, education, and so on that is provided to those in need allows those individuals to find stability in their personal lives, access employment and housing, and ultimately gives them spending ability and power. This means that the economy receives a boost purely due to the fact that an area of society now functions more effectively.

What then, is the not-for-profit sector comprised of? There are three bodies that fit into this category: charities, social enterprises and voluntary organisations. These will be described in more detail below.

Charities

Charities are fundraising or volunteering organisations that must function in aid of a charitable purpose as defined by the Charities Act (2011). The Act lists twelve charitable purposes, listed in Table 18.1.

In England and Wales, Charities are regulated by the Charity Commission. In Scotland they are regulated by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and in Northern Ireland, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. The Charity Commission (2014) states that there are 164,097 registered charities in England and Wales. According to the Charity Commission (2015), examples of the top ten charities in England and Wales in terms of income are Oxfam, the National Trust, Cancer Research UK, and Save the Children International. The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (2015) states there are 23,845 charities registered in Scotland in total. Similarly, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (2015) estimates that there are between 7,000 and 12,000 charities in the region.

The possession of charitable status can be controversial. Some people argue that private schools should not be given charitable status even though they conform to the legal criteria. They contend that private schooling is a preserve of the elite and therefore should not be awarded charitable status that makes these schools exempt from certain taxes and eligible for donations and Gift Aid. This means that many private schools have undertaken public relations work to improve their standing. The first activity that this has included is running image campaigns depicting the school’s work in the community to widen its public benefit. This can include pupils participating in local community service such as volunteering at a local elderly care home, or promoting the increase of means-tested bursaries for those students whose families might otherwise not be able to pay the sometimes considerable termly fees. The second area of public relations work that private schools have undertaken to justify their charitable status is lobbying politicians and governmental officials at all levels. One body that performs this work on behalf of a group of private schools is the Independent Schools Council (2015), which lists its extensive lobbying activity on its website. Lobbying will be discussed in more detail later on in this chapter. However, the essential matter here is to understand that the work of public relations teams in not-for-profits may even involve crucial communications to validate the very charitable status of an organisation in the first place.

Social Enterprises

Social enterprises are businesses that operate for a charitable purpose. They generate income by selling products or services. This income is used to support the charitable purpose of the enterprise. Any surplus cash or profit is reinvested into the enterprise to further its work.

An example of a very well-known social enterprise in the United Kingdom is the Big Issue. Founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991, the organisation offers homeless men and women the opportunity to become vendors of The Big Issue magazine. They have to buy the magazines they expect to sell from the Big Issue and they then earn a profit through the sales that they make. The Big Issue has been seen as a model example of how to integrate homeless people back into society through giving them meaningful work. Its website (2015) states that there are currently around 2,000 vendors of The Big Issue selling approximately 100,000 magazines per week. In the past year the Big Issue has put in excess of £5 million into the pockets of its vendors.

Voluntary Organisations

Voluntary organisations exist to provide assistance to a charitable purpose in the form of pro bono support or work. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (2012) estimates that the value of the output for the whole of the UK (the number of volunteer hours times the median wage) is worth £23.1 billion in terms of GVA to the British economy.

The largest women’s voluntary organisation in the United Kingdom is the Women’s Institute, which celebrates its centenary in 2015. Through its regional groups, it educates women who are members in building new skills and equips them to campaign and volunteer to help with issues that affect their local communities. For example, since 2008 the National Federation of Women’s Institutes has been campaigning for raised awareness of and action against violence against women.

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Action for Children – Myth-Busting Campaign

Action for Children is one of the biggest children’s charities in the UK and offers a wide range of services to children, young people and their families.

A vital part of the charity’s work is recruiting new foster carers who can provide a supportive home for children who are in the care system. In 2012, the charity received 247 enquiries from prospective carers but they needed many more people to come forward.

The national charity The Fostering Network (2015) has estimated that the UK faces a shortage of 9,000 foster carers. In its own research, Action for Children found that widespread misconceptions were preventing people from applying to foster children in care. According to Action for Children’s research, vast swathes of the general public believed that people from the LGBT community, men and women over 55, renters, employed people and single people could not foster. These myths were creating a significant shortage of carers.

Rather than a national advertising campaign to bust these myths, Action for Children decided to launch an integrated public relations campaign that brought teams across the charity together to engage with potential foster carers who wrongly believed they were ineligible.

The charity’s in-house communications team developed 15 stories based on case studies of foster families. The team had to work closely with colleagues in the charity’s frontline services to help them shape the campaign and also to identify stories that would resonate with a wider audience and change the public’s misconceptions. For example, three years ago, Tracy and Jenny, who live on the Isle of Skye, became the first same-sex couple to foster in Scotland.

Figure 18.1 Action for Children – myth-busting campaign

The communications team contacted broadcast, print and online media outlets and provided the stories, which were then covered on national TV news, in newspapers and websites. The charity signposted its online Myth Busting Academy webpage which it had developed for the campaign. The webpage was also promoted on social media and through video.

The campaign was covered 351 times in newspapers, television and online. Most importantly, the campaign attracted 734 new fostering enquiries – up 203 per cent on the previous recruitment drive.

Stakeholders

Just as it is essential for any corporate firm to have an excellent relationship with stakeholders in order to sell its services and goods for the greatest possible profit, it is crucial for a non-profit organisation to engage well with a range of audiences in order to enact its charitable purpose in the most effective way. In this section a range of stakeholders will be examined whom third sector bodies might expect to work with.

Internal Communications

No matter how much effort a third sector organisation spends on galvanising its relationships with external partners, it will never be successful in its operations unless it has the full support of its employees and volunteers. Not-for-profit organisations will often have a mix of paid staff and volunteers. It is vital that any person who is involved internally with a charity, social enterprise or body of volunteers is fully supportive of the cause and the work of the group as a whole. Some of this sentiment will come from a personal, intuitive connection to the organisation. For example, somebody interested in the arts might be naturally inclined to support the work of a museum by getting a job or volunteering in its galleries. However, there is much work to be done on the part of the body itself to maintain this positive backing.

Without an enthusiastic team of employees or volunteers, the quality of operations flails and it is very difficult for a charity, for instance, to market itself to an external audience.

In addition, it is vital to take into account the role of any unions of which employees may be members. Positive and productive relationships with unions are enormously important, and a breakdown of engagement can have potentially catastrophic effects. If a strike or a walk-out is called, this can affect not only the internal operations of a charity but also any outward-facing activity, such as providing a service to customers such as a food bank, a shelter for the homeless or care for the disabled. It is important to maintain the buy-in of the unions, as this will underpin effective internal communications brought forth in conjunction with the Human Resources team. Examples of the main unions in this sector include UNISON, Unite and the GMB.

It is necessary to have an effective internal communications strategy. This means ensuring that all internal stakeholders are kept up to date with the latest news on the work of the organisation. It involves being certain that everybody knows, not only about the successes of colleagues’ work, but also about potential challenges so that a sense of belonging and solidarity is established: ‘We’re all in this together.’ It is vital to make sure that everybody knows about the charitable goal of the organisation. It is equally essential that everybody feels supported in their knowledge of internal processes and systems in the event of a negative situation or crisis. A clear and efficient communication line between all teams means that if ever anybody has a question he or she would like to raise, it is clear who should be contacted. The matter can then be dealt with as promptly as possible. Employees and volunteers who believe that the organisation is concerned about them as an individual, and not just as a worker, will be much happier and much more productive, which in turn will mean that the quality of their output will increase immeasurably. (For further discussion of this topic, see Chapter 13, Internal communications.)

Engagement with the Government

Many organisations in the not-for-profit sector will need to lobby the government at some point in their life cycle. This may be in order to submit an application for funding, to influence policy decision making or the creation or amendment of legislation. On occasion a government department may reach out to a charity to consult on a specific topic, and this will help to establish a productive connection. On the whole, however, it is extremely useful for not-for-profit organisations to have a proactive lobbying function.

In Britain a relationship with government means making positive links on two fronts: with Parliament as well as with government officials. The former means engaging with interested Members of Parliament and their private office, with Select Committees, and in particular with Ministers in the scope of whose portfolio one’s organisation’s goals lie. The latter means engaging with government communications teams and senior officials. Both groups have a significant interest in partnering with charities. Collaboration with not-for-profits shows Members of Parliament and government officials to be in touch with the real world, and not just the ‘Westminster bubble’, and proves their will to enact change and do good.

It is important to remember that while Ministers and Members of Parliament act in the long-term best interests of their constituents and of the public at large, some may also have their eye on the electoral timetable. The Fixed-term Parliaments Act of 2011 means that unless a General Election is called early, each political administration will only be able to rule for a maximum of five years. Some Ministers and Members of Parliament might be very keen to simply enact the terms of their party’s manifesto and any additional positive social and economic change well before the next election campaign is run. This would be in order to maintain their position in office by being re-elected on the basis of the positive story that will hopefully form the record of their time in power. Some people contend that this means the view of some politicians can be comparatively short term. It must not be forgotten, however, that personal interests and views of politicians may be influenced by an official party line that they may be asked to support. It is therefore essential to consider not only what a politician may want in terms of his or her own personal objectives, but what their parties consider to be priorities and how one’s organisation can understand those too.

Making and maintaining positive and productive relationships with senior Civil Service officials can be a different proposition. Civil servants are often subject matter experts (some Ministers may not be). In addition, Civil Service officials will only be marginally interested in how a project can improve any given situation over just one year or even five. They will want to know the impact of their work on their assigned area in terms of the next 10, 20 or even 50 years.

There is an important restriction to lobbying activity in the United Kingdom. The Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act (2014), sets out a number of restrictions that can affect charities. For example, the law states that charities cannot spend more than a certain amount of money on campaigning activities in the 12 months prior to a general election without registering with the Electoral Commission as a ‘non-party campaigner’. (For further discussion of this topic, see Chapter 3, Public relations, politics and the media.)

Engagement with International Bodies

Some organisations may want to appeal to an international governance organisation such as the European Union (EU) or the United Nations (UN). Positive engagement with such bodies brings the opportunity of highly prestigious support, international visibility of one’s work and, importantly, access to transnational funding pots. Some not-for-profits are an integrated part of these bodies already, UNICEF being a good example as the charitable foundation of the UN that provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to mothers and children in developing countries.

Other not-for-profits can benefit by having a connection of their own to international governance organisations. For example, the European Social Fund, managed by the EU under its Structural and Investment Funds programme, has investments that cover all EU regions. According to its website, ‘more than €80 billion is earmarked for human capital investment in Member States between 2014 and 2020, with an extra of at least €3.2 billion allocated to the Youth Employment Initiative’. Not-forprofits are eligible to apply for this funding, which is significant in its amount to say the least. Similarly, the UN has bodies that support not-for-profit work through grants. The International Fund for Agricultural Development, one of the United Nation’s development funds, focuses exclusively on rural poverty reduction. According to the United Nations (UN IFAD 2015):

One therefore sees how beneficial it can be for not-for-profits to have a close working relationship with organisations such as the European Union and the United Nations as the amount of funding that they may be able to provide could be of enormous support in the expansion or bettering of not-for-profit operations that may otherwise be solely reliant on donations.

However, direct funding is not the only motivation that not-for-profits should have in mind when cultivating their relationships with such organisations. An affiliation with such a body gives an organisation international visibility that can open a large number of doors in terms of partnerships, indirect funding and general awareness among the global public. Having an established brand is significant in terms of attracting donations and volunteers’ time. When an organisation’s cause is widely known and becomes a prominent item in public conversation, this purpose is furthered indirectly by the public turning its care to the cause of the not-for-profit. For instance, in the United States of America, there is an alliance of NGOs in the US working together with men and boys to promote gender equality called MenEngage. MenEngage has benefited enormously from its connection to the UN campaign He for She, which is a solidarity movement that encourages men to speak up for gender equality for women. The He for She campaign went viral after the actress Emma Watson gave a speech at the UN headquarters in September 2014 to launch He for She. The speech generated an enormous amount of press coverage from around the world and millions of views on YouTube. By being connected to the He for She movement, MenEngage has been able to sit at the top table and promote its message effectively to a wide audience. Gary Barker, co-chair of MenEngage was part of a panel of experts that gave evidence to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in March 2015. Being able to make use of such a prestigious platform in order to promote an organisation’s message is of immense value. It implies that one has already gained the support of some of the most influential decision makers in the world, which in turn makes it easy and appealing for other partners and supporters to join the cause. This is why it is useful to be actively engaged with and supported by not just national government, but also international bodies such as the European Union and United Nations.

Celebrity Patronage

Brockington and Henson (2014) have published an article in which they argue that though celebrity patronage of charities is widely believed to be a successful phenomenon in attracting a larger group of supporters, in actual fact celebrity patronage is not an enormously effective vehicle for communicating a not-for-profit’s message. However, it can also be argued that not-for-profits, and voluntary organisations and charities in particular, commonly use celebrity patronage to great effect. As Brill and Marrocco (2012: 407) state, ‘such relationships, when well developed and managed, can deliver positive benefits and long-lasting results.’ Typically the most effective relationships with celebrities will arise when a not-forprofit employs a celebrity management team who coordinate the partnerships and collaboration with the organisation’s famous supporters. There are two recognised ways of gaining the public support of a celebrity. The first is through active pursuit, whereby a not-for-profit makes use of contacts or carefully targeted communications in order to engage their chosen individual. When trying to gain their support it is equally important to consider the celebrity’s agent who will have an influential position in deciding what the priorities and activities of their client are to be. Having convinced an agent that it would be beneficial for their client to partner with an organization, it is often much easier to engage the celebrity quickly and effectively.

The second way to develop productive relationships with celebrities is if they have a personal interest or a relevant personal experience. A medical charity may gain celebrity support due to a family member developing a particular illness. The mental health charity MIND has received support from the comedian, actor, presenter and writer Stephen Fry as a result of his personal struggles with bipolar disorder. In addition, as Brill and Marrocco (2012: ibid.) noted, ‘celebrities may have particular concerns or life values which move them towards specific campaigns such as poverty or disaster relief.’ Roger Moore is personally interested in animal rights, which led to his active support of and involvement with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Brill and Marrocco (2012: ibid.) argue that supporting a not-for-profit also brings a benefit to the celebrity. They write:

Whatever a celebrity’s motivation may be, the benefits of having a productive connection with a high profile individual are extensive. As Brill and Marrocco (2012: ibid.) note:

An example of such a link is Angelina Jolie’s fronting of the British government’s campaign against sexual violence in military conflict zones. In 2012, Jolie launched the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative together with former British Foreign Secretary William Hague. She had been inspired to become an activist on this topic as a result of writing and directing ‘In the Land of Blood and Honey’ in 2011. The growth of celebrity culture means that celebrities – whether ‘A’ or ‘Z’ list – are very much held in awe by many people who come into contact with them. They have an enormous influence on decision makers in finance and policy who strive to be associated with them and their glamorous status. Not-for-profits can benefit if their celebrity patrons take their cause to the top table and make it a priority issue for those in powerful positions.

The objective of a not-for-profit in acquiring celebrity patronage may not necessarily be about the celebrity’s persona but about accessing the thousands or even millions of fans to whom they are a role model. Lady Gaga regularly tweets about the not-for-profit work that she is associated with, such as the Born This Way Foundation, which she founded in order to support the wellness of young people in the face of sexual abuse, mental health problems, addiction and eating disorders. Every tweet that Lady Gaga sends out has the potential to reach over 47 million people across the world. This demonstrates the large number of people whose support could be drawn to a cause by someone who has a large following.

It is important to note that while a relationship between a celebrity and a not-forprofit is positive, both parties can benefit enormously. However, if this connection suffers, any fallout has the risk of being enormously damaging to the charity in particular. The wealth and glamour that comes hand in hand with fame can lead to some individuals partaking in behaviour that puts the reputation of any partner charity at risk. In some cases, the personal character of the celebrity may not match his or her public, kind and generous persona, and the revelation of immoral activity can be enormously problematic for not-for-profit organisations that sought these celebrities’ support. For example, after his death, the television and music presenter Jimmy Savile was embroiled in such an enormous sexual abuse scandal that two of the charities he set up, the Jimmy Savile Stoke Mandeville Hospital Trust and the Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust announced that they would distribute their funds among other charities and subsequently close down. On the one hand this is rather an extreme situation, but on the other it does issue a message of caution to not-for-profits to choose their celebrity endorsements carefully, since being affiliated with the wrong individual could even mean the demise of one’s entire organisation.

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Diabetes UK – Diabetes Risk Score

Diabetes is one of the biggest public health issues that modern society faces today. Diabetes UK (2015) states that 3.9 million people now live with diabetes in the United Kingdom: the largest number on record.

In this light, in 2013, the charity began its most widespread campaign to date in order to raise awareness about Type 2 diabetes and the impact of the condition. Its aim was to get people to log on to the Diabetes UK website and use an online tool to assess their risk of developing the disease. The campaign was made up of public relations, digital and print advertising, as well as radio announcements, and was sponsored by Diabetes UK’s national partner Tesco.

The communications team’s work sparked a great deal of national media coverage, both written and televisual, and included items from the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mirror and Sky News. This was supported by a targeted regional media campaign, and so overall the campaign was covered in over 890 news pieces. However, this public relations campaign peaked when celebrity Jodie Prenger, whose relationship with the charity was established earlier in the year due to her work on the BBC’s Long

Live Britain, publicly supported the campaign in an interview with ITV’s Daybreak, alongside Diabetes UK’s Chief Executive, Barbara Young.

This effective use of press coverage and of Diabetes UK’s unique relationship with Prenger encouraged approximately 30,000 people to assess their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes on its online tool, 30 per cent of which were identified as high or moderate risk. This campaign was therefore very significant in allowing a large number of people to become aware of their high potential to develop this very serious condition and so hopefully take some pre-emptive action.

Figure 18.2 Diabetes UK – Diabetes Risk Score website

Source: Used by permission of Diabetes UK

Partnerships with Corporate Organisations

In recent times, many private sector organisations have begun to place a greater emphasis on CSR (see Chapter 9). Corporate social responsibility involves organisations in the private sector engaging in activity that goes beyond its usual profit source and brings a wider benefit to the world, going outside what is required of the company by law. An effective partnership between a not-for-profit and a corporate organisation can be beneficial to both sides, as the company receives a boost to its ethical status and the not-for-profit can receive either substantial donations to contribute to its work, volunteer time or pro bono work. Many leading solicitors’ firms have a connection to LawWorks, a charity that brokers pro bono legal advice to other not-for-profits and to those in need of legal advice who do not qualify for legal aid. The charity and its beneficiaries acquire the services of some of the top legal brains in the country for free. Meanwhile, the law firm is able to augment its status as an ethical company.

Social Media and the Internet

Digital media present opportunities for charities to communicate widely, especially when budgets are tight. Many not-for-profits have used digital communications to great effect. The challenge of using this medium is that communicators are always in competition with very large numbers of other people. Getting a not-for-profit’s message through to its target audiences is therefore very difficult. Nevertheless, there are countless examples where charities have engaged incredibly large numbers of people through the powerful reach of social media. First, there is the ongoing social media work that all modern not-for-profits will undertake. For example, the Oxfam International Twitter page alone (the organisation maintains several to cover different areas and regions) has over 680,000 followers who have opted to receive regular updates and messages from the charity. This is a fantastic and low-cost resource that makes it incredibly easy to spread a message to a very large number of people who in turn may ‘favourite’ or ‘retweet’ messages so that the text is distributed to an even wider group of individuals across the world. As described above, this is where celebrity patronage can become extremely useful. Again, imagine if such a famous and idolised individual as Lady Gaga were to use their social media network to support a not-for-profit’s social media messaging: the reach of the organisation’s message would be phenomenal. It is also important to emphasise the value of forward planning in social media in relation to national or international awareness days or even weeks of awareness or celebration of a particular issue. For example, the charity the British Royal Legion runs an annual headline social media campaign in the days running up to and culminating in Remembrance Day.

Alongside this ‘baseline’ social media work, not-for-profits will sometimes also explore the opportunity to launch a viral campaign. For example, UNICEF persuaded its UK ambassador Jemima Khan to launch the #WakeUpCall hashtag, where individuals posted a selfie on Twitter of themselves having just woken up, along with a donation to UNICEF. The Guardian (2014) estimated the viral campaign to have reached over 300 million people, with all donations going to UNICEF’s operations in Syria. However, many viral campaigns grow organically without any initiation from the charity itself, such as the Ice Bucket Challenge. This was a viral Twitter phenomenon started by students in the United States of America but quickly spread around the globe with people videoing themselves being splashed with a bucket of ice cold water on their heads, posting it to Twitter and donating to a charity working to combat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS), such as the Motor Neurone Disease Association in the United Kingdom. The Motor Neurone Disease Association (2014) alone reported an extra £7 million of donations in the short time in which the Ice Bucket Challenge was live on social media.

This extra source of donations is obviously significant and valuable. However, it must be borne in mind that there are some potential pitfalls to social media campaigns. A campaign, and especially one that goes viral, takes on a life of its own. It gives power to the community and the audience, not the centre, meaning that the not-for-profit launching the campaign can lose control over the message. Second, there is the risk that public relations professionals chase after fans, followers and retweets but these may fail to have lasting effects on the charity. It is important to consider the difference between social media support and bankable support, and to bear in mind that it’s not just awareness and retweets that a not-for-profit needs, but ‘real life’ support that is translated into volunteer time or donations. It is therefore vital to consider the ‘conversion’ rate between, say, a number of Facebook likes into a certain amount of actual, and not just virtual, support.

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Battersea Dogs and Cats Home – Cat Takeover

In 2013, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home was celebrating 130 years of looking after cats. However, large numbers of people were only aware of the organisation’s care of dogs. A new awareness campaign was necessary in order to bear down on the increasing number of cats that were waiting to be rehomed, and the Cat Takeover campaign was launched. Its aims were to:

• increase rehoming numbers by 10 per cent and reduce waiting lists by 30 per cent;
• raise the profile of cats at Battersea, increasing awareness levels to 50 per cent;
• attract 500 attendees to newly introduced cat-related events held at the Home’s three centres;
• increase visits to cat pages on battersea.org.uk by 5 per cent and cat-related social media engagement by 20 per cent.

The objective was to access the enormous numbers of people on the internet who love cats. Supported by some traditional print materials such as tube posters, a wide range of social media was put into action for the campaign, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest, and all posts included the #CatTakeover hashtag.

The campaign ran for six months and audiences were kept engaged by the continuous production of new, enjoyable content across all the Home’s social media channels. Downloadable content included screensavers, Twitter wallpapers, and Facebook cover photos and profile pictures. Daily posts on Facebook and Twitter drove interaction with supporters promoting cats for rehoming and prompting shares of stories, photos and videos. A Twitter competition that asked people to share photos of their own pet cats ‘taking over’ in their homes encouraged more than 250 entries. London’s Evening Standard picked up the story and ran its own winner’s gallery with its favourite pictures on its website. The Home cre ated three #CatTakeover Buzzfeed pages. The most successful was called ‘15 ways that cats are trying to take over our lives’, and was read by more than 10,000 people. Funny cat videos were put on YouTube and were viewed more than 12,000 times. A cat called Baby Girl took part in a Twitter Q&A and a family who saw the interview subsequently adopted her.

Figure 18.3 Battersea Dogs and Cats Home – Cat Takeover campaign

Source: Used by permission of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home

Cat Takeover exceeded expectations. Waiting lists were reduced by 83 per cent to just 56 with 1,164 cats rehomed in total. Cat rehoming now regularly outperforms dog rehoming – this had never happened before. In addition, 1,093 visitors attended the evening Cat Takeover events, more than doubling the expectation of 500. Moreover, engagement with cat lovers on social media improved by 40 per cent with the #CatTakeover hashtag being used over 4,000 times throughout the campaign, Facebook and Twitter reach rose from 90,000 to 150,000 people and post retweets tripled during the campaign, averaging at 60 per post. Pageviews on cat-related pages on battersea.org.uk increased by 5.3 per cent. Finally, in a nationwide survey 79 per cent of respondents answered positively when asked ‘Are you aware that Battersea Dogs and Cats Home looks after cats as well?’

This work won the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ 2014 Excellence Award for Best Use of Social Media.

Harnessing the Power of Trends and Movements

Apart from initiating trends, it is essential for a public relations professional in the not-for-profit sector to keep up to date with relevant topical news, trends and movements with which a charity can align itself. For example, the food and drink sector has given rise to many not-for-profits that have an association with Fair Trade, a social movement whose goal is to help producers in developing countries achieve better trading conditions and to promote sustainability. Members of the movement advocate the payment of higher prices to exporters, as well as higher social and environmental standards. In the UK, a well-known social enterprise founded on Fair Trade principles is the Divine chocolate company (Divine Chocolate 2015). Their profits go to empower a cocoa farmers’ co-operative in Ghana, ‘Kuapa Kokoo – which means good cocoa growers – has a mission to empower farmers in their efforts to gain a dignified livelihood, to increase women’s participation in all of Kuapa’s activities, and to develop environmentally friendly cultivation of cocoa.’ The benefit of establishing a link with a well-known movement such as Fair Trade is that its brand gives a certain established credibility to the reputation of a not-for-profit, especially if it is a new organisation. Potential supporters are always asking why they should support one charity, voluntary organisation or social enterprise over another. Therefore being able to show a direct connection to a trend or movement that has already been granted trustworthiness and authority by the public at large implies that one’s own organisation is in possession of the same qualities and therefore worthy of support, whether financial or in kind.

Measuring Impact and Using Case Studies

Measuring impact is a critical part of the work that a not-for-profit should do. It is crucial to have a record of the impact that an organisation is having on society. Public relations professionals must ask this question of their not-for-profit: what is the actual change that the organisation is effecting? As the think-tank New Philanthropy Capital (2015) states, ‘most importantly, measuring impact helps both charities and funders think about what they are doing well and where they could improve to make an even bigger difference in people’s lives.’

One of the most powerful ways to show impact is by using case studies. Case studies do not solely have to focus on beneficiaries but also on supporters and those who carry out the work and help the charity to carry out its mission. An effective charity communicator will have a library of these case studies available to give to media organisations or to support their own communications, internal or external. These stories of beneficiaries, staff, supporters and volunteers bring to life the work of the organisation. There are a number of considerations to bear in mind when using case studies. Charities must have the informed consent of the subject.

This is even more important when subjects are under the age of 18 or are vulnerable in some other way. It is also important to consider whether case studies should be named, anonymous, illustrated with photographs or have the imagery feature models in order to protect the identity of the subject of the narrative.

Conclusion

Public relations have an enormously important part to play in the not-for-profit sector. Brill and Marrocco (2012: 396) note:

Public relations practitioners create the most significant connections that a charity, social enterprise or voluntary organisation can have with its supporters. They establish their employer’s or client’s cause on the public agenda, which attracts policy, financial and volunteer support that is the key to the organisation’s success.