In this episode, we hear from two Young Trustee movement ambassadors Amelia Ireland, Trustee at the Holocaust Educational Trust and West Midlands Ambassador for the Young Trustee Movement. We also hear from Kate Roberts, Policy & Campaigns Officer at The Brain Tumour charity.
In this episode we explore why charities should consider working with trustees, barriers young people face when exploring trusteeship, and how charities can work with young people to excel in their position as charity trustees. Both Amelia and Kate share their experience as a trustee and why diverse trustee boards are key to embedding lived experience into charities’ board of trustees.
1)What is the Young Trustee Movement and why is it important that we have young trustees
The Young Trustee Movement aims to double the number of trustees under the age of 30 by 2024. Although the movement focuses on age, it is part of a wider movement calling for diversity on trustee boards. They hope to challenge the norm of what a trustee board looks like.
Although many charities support young people, they are missing potential insights from a lack of young trustees. There is a clear need to diversify charity trustee boards, with 75% of current UK trustees earning above-average household income and the majority of trustees are above the age of 65.
2) Barriers to trusteeship for young people
The first barrier young people do not necessarily understand is that a trustee role is something they can do. Charities can tackle this by editing the job description and reflecting on whether you need 20+ years for the role. Additionally, the way trustee roles are advertised, often it’s word-of-mouth and community networks, which is why it’s important to advertise trustee roles on a wide variety of platforms so you can reach different audiences. Once you have a young trustee on the board, the charity should empower them to take up space on the role.
3) How can charities recruit and work with young trustees?
Additional training is a great way to support young trustees; Amelia shared that financial training has helped her in her trustee role. The charity has also supported her with a mentor, this has enabled her to talk through any questions she may have about charity governance.
Job Title Corporate Communications Manager – Marketing
Directorate Communications, Marketing & Brand
Reporting to Assistant Director
Grade Grade 10
Salary c.£42,821 – c.£47,747 per annum
Working Hours 37 per week
Contract Fixed-term contract (maternity cover, anticipated to be for up to nine months)
We’re looking for a Marketing and Communications Manager to join Essex County Fire and Rescue Service on a nine-month fixed term contract.
Our mission is to make Essex a safe place to live, work and travel, and when they’re done right the safety campaigns we run help to change people’s behaviour and make a real difference to our communities.
We need a brilliant communicator who can manage a small team, producing engaging communications across a wide-range of print and digital media for all our audiences.
No two days are the same; we need a fast-paced thinker and confident individual who works to high standards and challenging deadlines. Flexibility, a can-do attitude and the ability to develop excellent collaborative relationships with partners will all be second nature.
As part of a rota system that provides a 24/7 media service, you’ll also help report Service incidents to the press and the public via our website and social media.
Our people are our service, and we all play a role in making Essex a safe place to live, work and travel. We know that for many of our support colleagues, there are various ways and places to work that can then lead to better delivery outcomes. That’s because, for some, work is something you do, not somewhere you go. So, we trust them to decide how, where and when they work, combining remote and collaborative working with a flexible approach.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible to apply for the role, you will have
• Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma or Certificate and / or a degree or professional qualification in public relations, or equivalent.
• Proven track record in managing successful marketing campaigns which have delivered against objectives.
• Experience of producing advertising copy, media releases and PR materials, often to tight deadlines
• Experience of managing a diverse group of staff to ensure effective service delivery
How to apply
You are required to submit a supporting statement of no more than 1000 words detailing how you meet the essential criteria from the person specification and would be an ideal candidate for the role. Please ensure you have uploaded the supporting statement before clicking Apply.
Assessment and selection
The assessment activity will involve a combination of values and leadership, and job specific assessments:
Stage 1
• Shortlisting
Stage 2
• Values & leadership presentation; job specific interview;
Should you wish to have an informal discussion with regards to the role, please contact Emily Cheyne, Assistant Director on 07736198279 or via emily.cheyne@essex-fire.gov.uk
Closing date to be considered for this vacancy is 12pm, Thursday 4th November 2021
We anticipate the interviews will be held virtually in the week commencing 8 November 2021
Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Fire and Rescue Authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.
It is our policy to require all applicants for employment to disclose if you are currently being investigated by any regulatory body or have any decisions or sanctions pending or in progress in respect of your suitability to work for the Service.
You agree to inform the Service within 24 hours if you are subsequently investigated by any agency or organisation in relation to concerns about your behaviour towards children, young people or vulnerable adults.
The information you provide will be treated as strictly confidential and will be considered only in relation to the appointment for which you are applying.
We are an equal opportunities employer who welcomes applications from everyone and values diversity in our workplace. A commitment to promoting diversity and developing a workplace environment where all staff are treated with dignity and respect is central to our recruitment process. All applications will be considered solely on merit.
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About Charities Against Hate Live
Charities Against Hate is a broad coalition of charities and campaigners who are working together to bring positive change to social platforms.
Join Charities Against Hate at their first event to learn more about what they do, hear from some great speakers, and help shape the work going forward. There will also be an opportunity for you to find out the different ways you can get involved.
Sign up above to join us at November’s event!
To access this event you are required to sign up to Charity Digital, so we can monitor those who wish to attend.
Make the best out of your corporate relationships by following our easy tips
Having a great partner to work with makes a real difference. For charities, corporate social responsibility (CSR) means building a relationship with the right business partner increases fundraising potential.
CSR can also give charities an increasing pool of volunteers and a partner willing to support marketing and comms. There are myriad benefits to CSR programmes. In the present article, though, we show charities how to successfully plan and raise funds through CSR programmes.
Understand your partner’s needs
Before thinking about ways to increase fundraising efforts, consider the aims of your corporate partner. Put yourself in their shoes. Forbes Magazine says that businesses pursue CSR because they are expected to. Firms are “obligated to pursue achievable and good long-term goals for its people and the world at large”.
For charities, it’s important to understand what that perspective looks like. Oonagh Turnbull, who runs Boots UK’s CSR programme says she gets cold calls from potential charity partners. “Lots are very professional,” Turnbull says. “But many could do much more research about us and our CSR – and would get a better reception if their approaches were properly targeted.”
The Giving Machine puts things more bluntly: “The focus of CSR is to boost shareholder trust and increase long-term profits in a sustainable and ethical way by taking ownership of corporate decisions and improving them.”
Do your homework and think about what the business wants from a CSR relationship. Once the strategy is established, consider how fundraising events align with the company’s ambitions and brand.
Fundraise from company employees
One of the best ways that charities can fundraise through their corporate partner is payroll giving. Payroll giving is a tax advantageous way of giving directly from wages.
The programme is set up from the side of the business partner. Donations are made through the PAYE system. From a tax perspective, donations are made from wages before National Insurance payments are deducted. Employees get tax relief from being generous.
Charities are using digital to take advantage of the huge fundraising potential that comes with payroll giving. Barnardo’s, Crisis, The Royal British Legion, RNIB, and WaterAid have come together to launch Good Giving. The joint venture will use digital software to increase donation opportunities. The aim is to raise £150 million from payroll givers.
Summarising the advantage of payroll giving, Richard Packman from Good Giving says: “Giving through payroll is the most tax-efficient way for employees of any company to donate to any charity of their choice.”
Allocations for the first round of the Levelling Up Fund and details of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund were among the announcements included in today’s Budget statement.
Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, unveiled his Autumn Budget in the House of Commons today.
Sunak has been under pressure to help people with the cost of living as he announced plans that he hopes will transition the economy beyond the pandemic.
Here are some of the main points of his statement that affect charities:
Under the umbrella of levelling up, the chancellor announced more than £2.6bn for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund over the Spending Review period, which he said would focus on helping people into jobs and “getting on in life” across the UK.
£560m will be given in funding for youth services in England over the next three years, enough to fund 300 youth clubs.
The first round of the UK-wide Levelling Up Fund has been allocated with £1.7bn of local investment in local areas, which include the redevelopment of Inverness Castle in Scotland.
21 projects will benefit from the £150m Community Ownership Fund, which will help communities around the UK to protect and manage their assets, such as pubs or Post Offices.
£850m will be given to protect museums, galleries, libraries and local culture in England.
The Chancellor confirmed that the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will at a minimum match the size of EU funds in all nations each year. He also announced £11bn in Overseas Development Assistance, and an additional £458m for asylum and refugee support that would be delivered by 2024-25.
The Recovery Loan Scheme was extended until the end of June next year, although there was no mention of the Community Renewal Fund.
Business rates will be reduced by 50 per cent, said Sunak, alongside further tax reliefs for cultural venues, museums and galleries.
Other announcements likely to have an impact on charities and their service users include billions in spending on health and social care, cutting the Universal Credit taper rate by eight per cent and an increase in the National Living Wage to £9.50 an hour from the start of April next year.
Samantha Mercadante, policy manager at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, said on Twitter that the organisation welcomed the commitments made in the budget.
“NCVO welcomes new spending commitments on sport, culture, and public services and we are pleased to see that the Chancellor has listened to charities by acknowledging the need to bolster local government funding and make changes to Universal Credit,” Mercadante said.
“However, today’s announcements will not be enough to support charities and communities to recover from the pandemic and build a stronger society.
“In the forthcoming levelling up white paper, we want to see investment in social infrastructure, the creation of a Community Wealth Fund, and reform of the existing funds designed to support communities to level up.”
Full coverage of the sector’s reaction to the Autumn Budget to follow.
A new initiative has been launched to help charities close the digital divide.
The ‘Deloitte Digital Connect’ will be delivered in collaboration with CAST, a charity helping organisations use digital for social good. The programme will bring together up to 50 charities, including Deloitte’s ‘5 Million Futures’ existing charity partners, and connect them with expertise, advice, and a network to support their digital development.
Deloitte UK senior partner and chief executive, Richard Houston, said: “New technologies are rapidly changing how charities need to operate and there’s a growing digital skills gap that threatens their future. The pandemic has inflicted huge disruption to fundraising and volunteering and through our 5 Million Futures strategy we want to share our knowledge and resources to ensure that no charity is left behind.”
Deloitte’s ‘5 Million Futures’ team and CAST will be gathering information from all the charities to assess their digital needs and identify the most useful interventions to assist them.
The charities will also have access to a variety of mentors, workshops and one-to-one support from teams across Deloitte from tech and digital to law in addition to Deloitte’s offering of pro bono business support.
CAST director and co-founder, Dan Sutch, said: “The pandemic has shown how critical it is that charities have digital capabilities and capacity for service delivery, fundraising and how they operate. Over two-thirds of organisations see digital as a priority yet less than half, 42%, of charities have someone leading on digital as part of their role. Together with Deloitte, we are here to connect charities with expertise, advice and knowledge sharing – and to support charities to grow their influence and impact.”
Using case studies and amplifying the voices of people with lived experience is a vital tool in the charity communications armoury – but it’s important to get it right, for the sake of everyone concerned.
I was delighted to chair the latest PRCA Charities & Not-For Profit Group, which tackled this subject with the help of three expert guests.
Our first guest, Mark Webb, head of comms at the charity Shift.ms, has a unique perspective on the topic having lived with Multiple Sclerosis for more than a quarter of a century and himself been a case study in campaigns including one for the We Are Undefeatable campaign earlier this year. You can hear more about his personal and professional story in a recently-launched PRCA podcast.
Many of us may be listening to podcasts and many corporates may be using podcasts as an innovative medium to reach employees and other stakeholders. Perhaps, you have considered creating your own but are not quite sure how to get started. So, I thought it may be worth demystifying the basics and sharing some software you could use to create your own podcasts.
I recently attended a two-week podcasting course with Sonder Radio and learnt to create my very first podcast. So, I am sharing what I learnt with you here:
– Genre: A podcast can be of any genre (Interview, conversation, storytelling, theatrical, educational, monologue, conversational etc.) Choose what appeals to you and feel free to experiment till you find what your style is. I chose an interview-style podcast
– Concept: Next, brainstorm with a friend or on your own to narrow down the concept of your podcast. What would you like it to do? And who is your target audience? Once you have the podcast concept, you can start planning to create it.
– Guest(s): Depending on the concept of your podcast, you may or may not need to identify a guest. Schedule a preliminary informal chat with your guest if possible. Use this meeting to bounce off ideas and the questions you are planning to ask, check details of their story and finalise the final list of questions.
– Recording: Plan to meet in person or online to record the interview or conversation. You could use Zoom, your phone recorder or various apps based on what is your preference. I primarily used Zoom (https://zoom.us/) to record as I met my guest virtually. Podcasts can be of any duration but to make it easy to edit, try to keep your recording tight.
– Intro: An intro is a short introduction of your podcast concept and the specific episode, it is usually recorded in the podcaster’s voice.
– Outro: A short conclusion for your podcast – thanking your listeners, your guest, perhaps announcing your next episode. Again, this is usually recorded in the podcaster’s voice.
– Soundscapes: These are the background sounds that convey the mood and ambience of a podcast. You could choose forest or ocean sounds for a mindfulness podcast, or an office or pub sounds for one set in a city. Check out Epidemic Sounds (https://www.epidemicsound.com/) or BBC Sound Effects (https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/) to choose from a variety of sounds.
– Bedmusic: This is the background music on your podcast. It can be used as a signature music in your intro and outro or you may choose to use it right through. A good site to create original music from combining existing instrument sounds is Soundtrap. (https://www.soundtrap.com/)
– Editing: I learnt to edit my podcast and combine the different elements (Intro, Outro, Interview, Bedmusic and Soundscape) together on a software called Reaper https://www.reaper.fm/). You may edit the same podcast into a shorter version for promotion or to play it on radio.
– Publishing: There are many podcast hubs. Software like Anchor (https://anchor.fm/) allow you to easily host & distribute your podcast to Spotify, Apple, Google and other popular sites.
– Promoting: Promote your podcasts to friends and family, on your social media, on your website etc. If you have an opportunity, radio is a great medium to publicise your podcast and there are many community radio stations looking for interesting content. You can create a promotion image on Canva (https://www.canva.com/)
Hope you found these tips useful if you are starting to create your own podcasts. As for me, I am hoping to record my second episode soon. I was thrilled to have the 4-minute edit of my pilot podcast episode play on Sonder Radio last week and am working on a 20 minute edit currently.
Singing is great for keeping the brain stimulated, relieves stress, anxiety, reduces isolation and improves wellbeing leaving you feeling uplifted! Do you have a group you support who could benefit from connecting with likeminded people?
The BIG Sing SOUL wants everyone in the community to have a chance to sing together, from stay at home mums, those who are retired, vulnerable groups with learning needs or anyone who just cannot afford or get to an evening choir.
No audition-no charge-booking essential
Lots of singing-building friendships-cake-laughter!
Beckett Frith asks what happens when communications staff face a backlash because of what they share online – and what employers can do about it.
It was a Wednesday afternoon in June when Mind’s social media team tweeted a simple statement. “We’re loving that #TransMenAreMen is trending,” it read. “The fact some people disagree with this is a common reason trans men are more likely to experience mental health problems than the average. A reminder to accept that people know themselves better than you do, and to be kind, always.” They included a little blue heart at the end of their supportive message.
But instantly, the comments started pouring in. Many, of course, were grateful, thanking Mind for sharing a positive sentiment at a time when the LBGTQI+ community is under increasing attack. But some comments were less welcome.
“Someone’s getting fired tomorrow.”
“The social media team have screwed up here.”
“You’ve just lost a supporter.”
In total, the tweet received over 600 comments, a mix of supportive and critical – but far more engagement than Mind’s usual tweets receive.
This kind of comment can be really hard for them to read and respond to in a professional way.
“Even though I was confident we’d done the right thing in standing up for a marginalised group, reading messages like that was still hard,” says Samantha Hopps, Mind’s Digital Content Manager. And it’s not just trans issues that Mind staff have experienced backlash over – the charity is aiming to become an anti-racist organisation, and as a result rasicm is frequently a topic on their social media channels.
“People often disagree that racism exists, or say unhelpful things like ‘everyone has poor mental health, not just Black people’ when what we’re saying is that Black people are disproportionately affected by mental health problems, or are more likely to have force used against them in a mental health setting,” Samantha explains. “We have Black team members moderating our social channels, and this kind of comment can be really hard for them to read and respond to in a professional way – because obviously it’s personal.”
Mind’s social team already deals with difficult messages because of the nature of their social channels – people frequently reach out and mention their suicidal feelings or talk about their poor experiences of the mental health system. “Dealing with abusive messages on top of that can be really tough – especially if you’re having a bad day yourself,” says Samantha.