Nearly a third of charities have reported a decline in income over the last 12 months, according to research from Blackbaud. But while funds are required to help charities continue delivering their services as demand continues to rise, organisations also must balance this with looking after their donors too, particularly as money worries grow. 

In this podcast, Charity Digital’s host, Laura Stanley, is joined by Emily Martin (Senior Fundraising Manager, Mass Participation, GOSH Charity), James Grant (Head of Individual Giving and Legacies, SSAFA), and Phillip Hunt (Senior Manager, Demand Marketing, Blackbaud) to discuss the current state of fundraising in the UK and what this means for the sector.  

Listen to find out the fundraising trends that matter and how charities are adapting to them moving forwards. 

You can read Blackbaud's full report here: 2022 Status of UK Fundraising Report  | Blackbaud

When it comes to fundraising, data is your biggest asset. It’s the key to unlocking what, when, and how your supporters want to donate. But with great data comes even greater responsibility. Excellent management should be the number one concern for any charity, especially in the age of online giving.   

It is now more important than ever for charities to focus on data management, especially when it comes to their digital fundraising strategies.   

In this podcast, Enthuse and RedFox Research discuss how charities can best harness their donor data for growth and to build trust in their cause. They’ll share tools and techniques you can adopt to better harness the data your charity already collects. The session will cover key topics such as how to communicate with different demographics, the art of donor retention, and the role of third-party fundraising platforms. 

Trust is bread and butter to charities. Without it, they struggle to build meaningful relationships with donors and beneficiaries, raise funds, and deliver much-needed services to the communities they serve.  

Good use of technology only reinforces a charity’s commitment to act in its audiences’ best interests. It can make charities more efficient, easier to reach, and crucially, keep their data and systems secure.  From marketing and IT teams to frontline staff, technology can make a difference in how they are able to work for and interact with those that need them.  

Our host Nick Wyatt (Growth Marketing Executive at Charity Digital) is joined by Rick Wilhelm (Chief Technology Officer at PIR.org), Alice Roche (Head of Operations, Charity Digital), and Chris Hall (Head of Marketing, Charity Digital). Join them as they discuss how digital technology can foster trust between a charity and its audiences.  

As leaders, charity CEOs have been at the forefront of every digital change, but they're not necessarily digital experts. Just like others, digital might have been relatively new until the pandemic hit. Digital change is about involving everyone. It’s about using the strength of your teams, asking for help, and achieving lasting impact. Now, charity CEOs face a new age of digital for which they must prepare.  

In this episode, charity CEOs take centre stage. Each has their own story with digital, but all have managed to make it the heart of their organisation. Our guests will discuss, among other things, what they think the next chapter of digital has in store for charities and where the world of digital is headed. They'll also reflect on the future of the digital landscape from a CEO's perspective. 

Ten years ago, the Giving Tuesday movement began to encourage people to give back to a good cause after taking advantage of the money-saving deals of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Since then, Giving Tuesday has grown exponentially, with £14,000 being raised per minute for participating charities in 2020.  

Giving Tuesday provides charities the chance to expand their supporter base and generate momentum for their cause. It facilitates partnerships with corporate organisations whereby they can donate time and money and offers charities tools and resources for maximising their fundraising efforts.

In this podcast, sponsored by Salesforce.org, Nick Wyatt (Growth Marketing Executive, Charity Digital) is joined by colleagues Lisa Chomette (Business Development Manager), Ioan Marc Jones (Content Writer), and Lisa Rowland (Event Manager) to discuss how charities can make the most of Giving Tuesday and build on the fundraising it brings for the future.

Giving Tuesday is an opportunity charities cannot afford to miss in 2022, particularly amid the UK’s current financial uncertainty. You can find out more tips and tricks for Giving Tuesday here. 

One in five people in the UK are living with a disability, according to disability charity Scope. Yet, despite this number, organisations still fail to cater to people with disabilities online. Confusing layouts, small fonts, and poor colour contrasts all contribute to inaccessible online experiences. 

For charities, making sure their content and design is inclusive and accessible is more important than most. With such a wide range of audiences, with varying needs, improving accessibility ensures they can include as many people as possible in their cause.  

This is a matter that has been a focal point for Ambitious about Autism and is part of a three-year digital transformation project. Our host Ashley Fontaine, Marketing Programme Manager at Charity Digital, is joined by David Spector (Head of Strategy, Trillium) and Marie Ashton (Head of Marketing and Communications, Ambitious about Autism) to discuss ways that charities can remove barriers for their audience online and make their content more inclusive for their audiences.   

The cost-of-living crisis has swept the UK. Everyday essentials like energy and food is rising much faster than average incomes. The cost-of-living will have a huge impact on charity employees, volunteers, service users, potential donors, and day-to-day operations of the charity themselves. 

It is vastly important that charities learn about the crisis, understand some of the potential issues that may arise, arm themselves with knowledge, and protect themselves against the risks. In this podcast, we discuss the cost-of-living crisis and give heaps of advice to help charities weather the storm. 

Our host Lisa Rowland (Events Manager) is joined by Nick Wyatt (Charity Digital Growth Marketing Executive), Laura Stanley (Content Writer), and Lisa Chomette (Business Development Manager) to discuss the crisis, consider the response from the sector, and explore advice that can support charities. 

Emails, emails, emails - they're all we've got to go on. They are, perhaps, the most well-known form of online communication, used for business, replacing meetings that don’t need to be meetings, and, importantly, marketing. 

Emails are a great way of getting your charity’s message out there to different audiences and at low-cost. They are a way of directly communicating with your key audiences, from trustees to donors, beneficiaries to volunteers, and, when done right, can deepen the connection between your charity and the community it serves.

But with an estimated 300 billion emails sent and received every day, how can charities make theirs stand out? Our host Ashley Fontaine, Charity Digital’s Marketing Programme Manager, is joined by colleagues James Corcoran (E-Commerce Manager), Grace Monnery (Communications Executive), and Nick Wyatt (Growth Marketing Executive) to discuss the ins and outs of email marketing –  from how to structure your email to getting people to read it.  

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an organisation in possession of a website must be in want of a blog. Everybody seems to blog. It is possible that too many people blog. And the abundance of blogs, from organisations of all shapes and sizes, means that your blog gets lost amid the noise.

But worry not, bloggers. We are here to help. Today’s podcast is an overload of information on how to create a successful blog. The expert panelists discuss picking the right content, choosing the right medium, using effective imagery, exploiting marketing and SEO, creating a content strategy, adopting a style guide, writing clear and concise prose, perfecting your proofreading, and so much more.

Our host Nick Wyatt (Charity Digital Growth Marketing Executive) is joined by Charity Digital’s Ashley Fontaine (Marketing Programme Manager), Laura Stanley (Content Writer), and Ioan Marc Jones (Content Editor) to discuss the basics of blogging and how charities can create a successful blog. 

Our ‘How did you get there...’ podcasts delve into the lives of inspirational people working in the charity and tech sectors. We are going to talk to CIOs and MPs, life-long volunteers and tech innovators, to learn about their experience and to learn from their experience.

We want to celebrate the people who inspire, energise, and educate us. In our second podcast, our host, Sacha Dhabalia, talks to Kirsty Marrins, winner of the CharityComms Inspiring Communicator Award and the Social CEOs Awards Best Trustee on Social Media. Kirsty is a proud trustee of CharityComms, a former trustee of the Small Charities Coalition, and an influential voice in the UK charity sector.