From the perspective of a SME how would you want to work with a charity?

A few days ago I posted the following question to a LinkedIn group. I think the replies make interesting reading.

The question: “From the perspective of a SME how would you want to work with a charity? What would your measures of a successful relationship be?”

The comments:

“I would work with a charity for two reasons: number one - I feel good if I know I helped someone and number two - I feel good if other people recognize that I did something good”

“I think that moving forward SME's need to straddle both working with charities for shared strategic goals (geographical location, community, social issue and/or stakeholders), but also maintaining close relationships with charities close to the hearts of people within the SME (due to personal situations/experiences).”

“Making a difference is key here and should be at the forefront of the relationship. But the relationships need a clear measurable ways of how each can and will make a difference together.”

“If SME's are committed to this, a one-off feel good event, whilst laudable may not be enough. So an SME and charity relationship needs measurable strategic and personal targets so that the relationship can begin to share successes and aspirations for 'making a difference'. This should help enhance and support the success of the charity in the future and create a 'deeper' longer lasting feel good factor and more genuine commitment to 'making a difference' across the SME.”

“giving less or giving more? and does it matter? donations are not just about getting more business and generating more business is not just about making more money...there is much more in this world apart from money and fame...giving for free large or small from the bottom of your heart is all that matters”

“…I really do like the idea sustainable difference and shared goals you can measure (in line with D'Arcy's question), without this giving for free is still an amazing thing little or small!”

“Hopefully where possible SME's can make long term relationships with charities. I am certain would be the way forward for both the benefit of the SME's (maybe not for more business/money, maybe good for staff...), but ultimately to the benefit of the charity and their ability to make a difference (and bigger measurable difference) in the future.”

“We would like to embed the social caring into our Brand awareness so that the element of putting something back into society is pre-structured. Part of this process is to engage the charity social media and develop positive perceptions and recognition while another part is to introduce our clients & customers to the automatic positive benefits of the shared goals we and our causes have.”

“Charity work should be connected to what our core business is, because that's where we can help most. For example, If I had a bakery I would cooperate with an NGO that works with young people at risk of social exclusion, training them to be bakers so they can have a perspective in the future. I think this is the best way to embed charity work in our company culture, and also a way to differentiate ourselves from other companies.”

“I agree ( with the statement above ), it must stem from a fundamental belief that the business and consumers share and be demonstrable so that the cause is creating a magnetism between the two who happily become attracted. Then D'Arcy's question gets answered because the measure becomes the volume of co-operation between consumers, customers friends acquaintances and strangers who are attracted to engage with the business for common the focussed "good". Otherwise known as a fan club.”

I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this. Please post a comment on my blog.

Charity Giving

Charities are having a hard time with more than a third of people in the UK giving less to charity than they did before the recession. Which might not be too surprising, however a survey carried out by independent research company markettiers4dc indicated that 35% are giving less because of the economic downturn and 4% have stopped giving completely. A small chink of sunshine in this blackened sky is that 8% said they were giving more.


It is interesting to note that when asked to choice which from a list of suggestions would encourage them to give 75% chose not having to commit to regular donations and 60% chose donating privately without anyone knowing they were doing so.

A different set of research shows that organisations applying for a “Reaching Communities” grant from the Big Lottery Fund have a less that 10% chance of success!

Getting It Done

Over the past few weeks I’ve been having discussion, via LinkedIn, with people from around the world about how they “Get Things Done”. Of course we are all different and so tackle the problem differently. For me the biggest issues have been delegation and follow up. I was surprised and reassured to hear that I’m not alone.

Two great tips have been the use of Outlook and David Allen’s system informally referred to as “GTD”.

Outlook provides some superb task allocation and tracking facilities and I would recommend watching this YouTube clip. "Assigning Tasks & Adding Them To The Calendar".

David Allen, not to be confused with the wonderfully irreverent Irish comedian Dave Allen, says that when he has to describe his approach in under a minute, he usually says something like “Get everything out of your head. Make decisions about actions required on stuff when it shows up—not when it blows up. Organise reminders of your projects and the next actions on them in appropriate categories. Keep your system current, complete, and reviewed sufficiently to trust your intuitive choices about what you're doing (and not doing) at any time.”

Sounds easy but is mind blowing at the same time. It comes down just four major components;

1. Collect: Capture everything that you need to concern yourself with in what Allen calls "buckets": a physical in-box, an email in-box, a notebook you take with you, a little tape recorder, etc. Don't try and remember everything! You can put the thing you need to act on itself in your in-box (a bill, an assignment) or write a note on a single sheet of paper ("change oil in the car"). When you first start, or when you feel like there are lots of things on your mind, sit down and do a "mind sweep" of everything you are concerned about.
2. Process: Now it's time to empty all those "buckets." Start at the top of the in-box, pick up each item and ask yourself "is there an action I need to take about this item?" If there is no action you need to take, either throw the thing away, file it for reference, or make a note on your "Someday/Maybe" list. If there is an action you need to take, can you do it in two minutes or less? If so, do it now! If not, decide what that next action is, and enter it on your "Next Action" list. If one action won't finish this off, enter the overall goal on your "Project" list.
3. Organise: As you will have gathered the cornerstone of this system is lists. Like with your collection buckets, you want to have enough lists to keep everything straight, but not so many that you are never sure what list to use. Here are the basics:
• Next Action: what is the very next thing you need to do to get your thing done?
• Projects: chances are many of your things will need more than one action to accomplish. Keep track of those multi-action things here.
• Waiting: often we depend on others to help get things done. If you are waiting on something, write it down here, so you don't forget.
• Someday/Maybe: for when you have a great idea or long-term goal that you just can't make time to work on now. You don't want to forget about it, but you don't want it to clutter up your Projects list.
• Context-sensitive lists: e.g., "Phone calls," "Errands," etc.
• Calendar: try and use your calendar just for appointments and other things that have to happen on a particular day/time. This is where the Outlook tasks come in handy.
• Filling: keep a simple, easy to update filling system. Don't just dump it all in one pile because you’re not sure where else to put it. Get comfortable with putting a single piece of paper in a folder, labelling it, and filling it away.
4. Review: If you don't look at those lists, they won't do you much good now, will they? You'll have to review your Next Action list and your calendar every day (and probably several times a day). Set up an appointment with yourself to do a weekly review, where you process all your in-boxes down to empty, and review all lists to be sure you are on top of things.

Oh yes there is a fifth and it the most important DO IT! GTD tends to leave it up to you as to how to decide what needs to be done right now--Allen seems to believe if you have everything laid out in front of you, it will be obvious what needs to be done at any given moment based on your circumstances (deadlines, how much time you have available, what tools are nearby, how much energy you have, etc.)

I’d be interested to hear of your experience and techniques.

Invest Wisely - become a Trustee

Statistics often paint an interesting picture. So here are some key trusteeship related statistics from last year.

• Estimated 1million trustees in the UK supporting,
• 181,000 charities which control around £53 billion of income,
• Around 50% of these charities have an unfilled space on their board,
• 39% of boards report difficulties in recruiting trustees,
• 81% of boards use word of mouth to recruit,
• Only 5% of the population are aware of trusteeship as an opportunity to support a voluntary organisation,
• 66% of trustees are aged over 50, 20% are over 70 and the average age is 57,
• only 0.5% of trustees are aged under 24years (despite 12% of the population being in this age group and apparently only 300 (three hundred) trustees in the UK are known to be under 18).

So what do these stats tell us? Are these issues, problems, challenges or opportunities?

Encouraging individuals to become trustees is an on-going challenge. NCVO have recently released a Prezi presentation outlining some of the reasons to become a charity trustee. Something to refer people to when they ask about trusteeship?

http://prezi.com/r838a2q3bvhk/become-a-charity-trustee/

When you visit the Trustee Bank have a look at the opportunity to lead Wessex Heartbeats' board

http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/vacancies/chair-trustees-wessex-heartbeat

Who is your Valentine; Cupid or a fish?

Some creatures have almost magical abilities to recover from trauma. For example starfish can regenerate their legs, and worms can survive being cut in two, although only the part with the heart! However, these feats pale when compared to the zebra fish, which can fix a broken heart. These common little black and white striped fish have nothing to do with soothing jilted lovers, but amazingly zebra fish can regenerate heart tissue. They also have the ability to regenerate fins and eye parts.

Harvard scientists surgically removed 20% of the heart tissue of ten adult zebra fish, then put them back in the water to see what would happen. At first the fish swam weakly near the bottom of the tank; a microscope revealed that in the early stages of recovery, scar tissue partially clotted the wounded organ.

However, after about ten days the fish were back to their normal routines, swimming vigorously. Of the ten fish with broken hearts, eight fully recovered. Another microscope inspection revealed that the recovered fish had regenerated their heart tissue with virtually no scarring.

How, exactly, zebra fish mend their broken hearts is of great interest to scientists. When people recover from a heart attack their hearts are never quite the same. A healing heart normally accumulates scar tissue instead of muscle growth. The scarred, weakened heart cannot contract and pump blood as efficiently as an undamaged heart.

Since zebra fish and humans share many of the genes responsible for cell regeneration, further study may lead to techniques for scar-free human heart repair.

Finding Your Perfect Customer

Nearly every book on marketing will remind you that you need to identify your target market and offer something that meets their needs. But what if when you do this you identify a group of people or a product or service which leaves you cold?

Working with your perfect customer and the services and products you offer should really excite you. If it doesn't, it's bound to have a knock-on effect on the perception of customer service and certainly impact your bottom line. But if it doesn't excite you why would you want to be doing it anyway?

So in an ideal world you want to be dealing with people with whom you share interests, values or enthusiasm. So how do we find the ideal customers?

Start by listing what you enjoy, what's important to you. Can these be incorporated into your business? If your business reflects your interests the likelihood is you’ll attract other people who share them. You're more likely to be able to build rapport with them, and you can be more targeted (and successful) with your marketing, both externally and on-site.

Create your values around what is important to you. If it's important to you to use sustainable resources, or care for the environment create your values around these principles.

Your core beliefs should really influence what you offer; whether you focus on just one of those beliefs or a number, it's a combination of these that add up to make business different.

One way of really capitalising on your interests and capture the interest of your customers is to become an expert in something that they and you are interested in. In addition to attracting the type of customers with whom you can build a good rapport and a better prospect of repeat business, it also gives you a great opportunity to get noticed. By writing articles, blog posts, guidebooks or maybe even organising clubs or seminars around your interests or topic, you'll be on the radar of people who share your interests, which in turn enables you to build your prospect list. It also provides a great opportunity for PR.

Any of these ways of tying in your interests into your business not only enables you to enjoy what you do and who you work with, but is a great way of being unique and really standing out from your competition. If you have a very niche interest it will translate into a very niche target market!

Jeff Bucchino, "The Wizard of Draws" 

Competitive Advantage

There are more opportunities than ever before for SMEs to embrace CSR to improve profits, whilst playing a more productive role in their communities. Take social media for example, with an innovative and strategic approach to CSR combined with the audience exposure of platforms such as Facebook & Twitter the potential is incredible. This is further fuelled by the Generation Y demographic and rise (even through the economic crisis) of ethical consumerism.
Regulation is coming, slowly, but it is coming in one shape or another. The key is better regulation rather than more regulation as CSR should be integrated into core business anyway. We already have CSR legislation as part of UK Company Law, it’s not burdensome by any means but it already exists.
Progress at the global level is accelerating toward an even deeper embedding of the CSR / sustainability agenda for a multitude of unavoidable reasons such as climate change, resource depletion, energy security, biodiversity, population growth and water scarcity.
CSR is beginning to demand to be seen as a competitive advantage rather than a burden. It is like any other commercial pressure, you can ignore it, comply or embrace and excel.