Nana is Social Media Manager at the British Red Cross, one of the first charities to successfully jump on board TikTok. Having initially used it to share first aid advice, they became particularly active on TikTok during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, first by sharing public health messaging, then to raise money for their Covid-19 campaign.

Nana explained that you don’t need loads of time or even a budget to get started on TikTok, and shared five actionable ideas, many of which apply to other social media platforms too. We discussed how to:

1. Start familiarising yourself with TikTok so that you feel comfortable using it
2. Grab attention by jumping on existing TikTok trends, and identify the best trends for your organisation
3. Easily create engaging videos within TikTok (we also discussed the types of video that work particularly well on TikTok)
4. Begin introducing fundraising messaging and campaigns to your followers
5. Involve everyone in your organisation in producing authentic and relaxed content

Thanks so much to Nana for sharing her tips and being such a lively and energetic guest!

This is the final episode of our first series of The Taming of the Shrewd. If you’ve enjoyed it, give us some encouragement for the next series by leaving a five-star review via the Acast app or here on Google. Also, get in touch with any suggestions for future topics and guests for the podcast. Thanks and see you in 2021!

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For Episode 6, I interviewed career fundraiser Caroline Danks, who recently published a report gathering return on investment data across the charity sector. Caroline and I discussed what exactly ROI means, and why some people resist measuring it, but why it's so important for good fundraising, budgeting and strategic planning.

Caroline explains to listeners how to:

1. Put in place a system for measuring ROI (including how to categorise income and measure time spent in different areas)
2. Benchmark your performance against others in the sector, and use this as a point of comparison for evaluating performance and predicting future income
3. Use the information in Caroline's report to look for 'missed opportunities', for example legacy fundraising

You can download Caroline's report on fundraising ROI, called The Calm Before The Storm, from LarkOwl's website: https://larkowl.uk/fundraising-benchmarking-2019/

See also this blog where I shared some previous thoughts on fundraising ROI: https://www.limegreenconsulting.co.uk/blog/building-a-business-case-for-investing-in-fundraising

Enjoying our podcast? Please leave us a five-star review (other numbers of stars available at your discretion) via the Acast app or here on Google. We'd also love to hear your suggestions for future topics and guests for the podcast. We have one more episode coming up in November 2020, then we'll be taking a short break before returning with a new series in January/February 2021.

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Gemma gave us a whistle-stop tour of her approach to crisis comms, including:

1. The different types of crises that typically hit organisations, and how you can work together as a team to create a list of scenarios to prepare for
2. Planning in advance for a crisis - who to communicate with, what to say, how to use social media and the press, and practising your key messages
3. Assessing a live situation - how do you decide when to respond and what to say? how do you avoid making the situation worse? how can you turn some crises into an opportunity?
4. Looking after your people - how to support staff who are on the 'front line' of a crisis, and how to follow up after a crisis passes

We discussed how good crisis comms is crucial for building and maintaining trust with supporters, why organisations are often put off planning in advance, how social media has changed the nature of crisis comms, and how many organisations have successfully turned a crisis into a fundraising opportunity.

If you're interested in learning more, Gemma kindly recommended a few follow-up resources for listeners:

• A best practice guide to crisis communications for charities by Charity Comms: https://www.charitycomms.org.uk/crisis-communications-for-charities
• Madeleine Sugden's blog about how you can deal with a positive ‘crisis’: https://madlinblog.wordpress.com/2020/01/21/crisis-comms-responding-to-a-fundraising-boost/
• Further examples of successful fundraising in response to a crisis: the RNLI after Tory MPs' criticism of its overseas work and the National Trust in response to a fire at its historic Clandon Park site

Thanks to Gemma for her typically cheerful and expert insight. You can find out more about her PR work here: http://www.gemmapettmanpr.co.uk/

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While he's passionate about his work, Ed is the first to admit that risk management can be boring! Too often it's seen and done as an unbearable tickbox exercise which squashes and dilutes the most exciting fundraising ideas. But there is another way to tackle risk management, which can enhance and protect your charity's reputation, and empower you to confidently create new fundraising products and engage new supporter groups.

Ed and I talked about the importance of defining your organisation's "risk appetite" - in order words, how much risk your organisation is willing to stomach. This must align with your organisation's mission, rather than the personal opinions of individuals. We wandered slightly off topic to talk about the complicated world of creating a gift acceptance policy, something that has since become very topical in the wake of the toppling of Edward Colston's statue in Bristol.

Ed also talks us through how to identify risks that you are willing to live with, and put in place sensible and manageable controls to reduce those risks. I shared my own experience from 10 years ago of running one of the UK's largest student fundraising events, and the risks and rewards that came with it.

Finally, Ed shared some practical tips about how you can keep learning and improving your approach to risk management over time, without making it too complicated or unwieldy.

Since recording this podcast, I've written some more detailed thoughts about "hypocritical philanthropy" and deciding which grants to accept: https://www.limegreenconsulting.co.uk/blog/edward-colston-the-beginning-not-the-end-of-the-spotlight-on-hypocritical-philanthropy

Ed and I previously shared some more thoughts about risk management in this blog, which we refer to during the podcast: https://www.limegreenconsulting.co.uk/blog/eaten-by-a-bear-the-art-of-balancing-risk-and-reward

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I was joined by Lottie Donovan - a freelance fundraising consultant and former Head of Development at Watershed - to discuss how to embed a fundraising culture in an organisation, so that everyone understands their role in fundraising and feels a responsibility to make it successful. Lottie draws on her experience working at Watershed, a well-known arts organisation and cinema on the Harbourside in Bristol, just a stone's throw from where the statue of Edward Colston was recently pushed into the water.

Lottie shared three key areas to focus on if you want to build a fundraising culture in your organisation:

1. Crafting your story and case for support, so that supporters want to "walk alongside you" and be part of your journey

2. Building your supporter base by working with staff to map their networks and encourage good donor stewardship

3. Challenging perceptions and avoiding assumptions - what does a wealthy donor really look like, and who in your organisation actually has valuable contacts?

This is our first episode actually recorded once lockdown started, so you'll hear us muse on why some of these issues are now more important than ever, and how you can use time away from the office now to get started.

During the podcast, we discussed two of our recent blogs:

What fundraising and dating etiquette have in common: https://www.limegreenconsulting.co.uk/blog/six-dating-lessons-for-every-fundraiser

The importance of thanking your donors: https://www.limegreenconsulting.co.uk/blog/10-donations-in-10-weeks-heres-what-i-learned-about-thank-yous-conversation-starters-payment-platforms

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Jo is Postdoctoral Researcher in the Social Decision Neuroscience Lab at the University of Oxford. Her research uses techniques from neuroscience and physiology to understand people’s ‘prosocial’ behaviour and charitable giving. You can find out more about Jo’s work on her website www.jocutler.com, or contact her on Twitter @DrJoCutler.

Despite so much negative media coverage in recent years about charity fundraising, Jo explained how her research shows that donating has a positive impact on the donor as well as the organisation. It stimulates ‘reward regions’ of the brain and results in a measurable ‘warm glow’ that tends to last longer than the satisfaction we feel when we buy material items.

Jo shared four key actionable ideas with listeners:

1. How to make your appeals more engaging and relatable to donors by focusing on one identifiable person
2. How ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ stories or imagery have very different effects on donors, and why they each work in different circumstances
3. How saying thank you quickly makes donors more inclined to associate their donation with that ‘warm glow’ and therefore more likely to give again
4. Why science can’t give you a magic formula for writing the perfect appeal, but how you can begin testing some ideas in the context of your organisation

For further reading, check out Jo’s recent blog on how donors ‘learn to give’ and the power of an immediate thank you: https://thecharitablebrain.wordpress.com/2017/11/17/learning-to-give/

This also overlaps with my own recent blog on thanking donors, which we discussed in the episode: https://www.limegreenconsulting.co.uk/blog/10-donations-in-10-weeks-heres-what-i-learned-about-thank-yous-conversation-starters-payment-platforms

These days we all need to measure the impact of our work, and it’s the same for Jo. We'd therefore be very grateful if you could fill in Jo’s super quick, four-question survey about the episode: https://tinyurl.com/podcastscience

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Fran is the CEO of Nomad Opening Doors, a housing charity in Sheffield (though she's leaving in a few months and joining the Lime Green Consulting team). A few years ago, Nomad faced a funding crisis that threatened the charity's existence. Fran explains how she worked with their trustees and staff to build support for developing a trading arm, and how this has transformed Nomad - not just their financial position, but staff morale, relationships with supporters and the charity's entire culture.

We discussed how lots of people may perceive trading as 'too risky' and worry that they don't have the necessary skills, when in reality they're probably better equipped to succeed than they think.

Fran shared her three key actionable steps with listeners:

1. Getting colleagues and trustees on Board with the idea when they may initially be reluctant
2. Finding your trading idea or specialism 'close to home' to give you the best possible chance of success
3. Sourcing support with the practicalities and legalities of setting things up

If you're interested in exploring this further, here are a few helpful resources, several of which Fran mentions in the episode:

• NCVO's useful guide to tax and legalities: https://knowhow.ncvo.org.uk/organisation/financial-management/tax-and-trading/trading-and-charities
• The rules around trading in charities: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/charities-and-trading
• Courses, funding, mentoring and resources from our friends at the School for Social Entrepreneurs: https://www.the-sse.org/
• Resources and guides from Social Enterprise UK: https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/
• Pro bono consultancy from the Cranfield Trust: https://www.cranfieldtrust.org/
• Your local CVS might have someone who can offer advice: https://navca.org.uk/find-a-member-1
• Government Business Support Helpline: call them on 0300 456 3565
• Find your local Growth Hub: http://www.lepnetwork.net/

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