Welcome to the Recovery Hub — a place where you can submit literally any question you might have about the charity landscape post-COVID-19.
How it works?
👩🏾💻 Submit any questions you have about the post-COVID charity landscape
🌏 We’ll then go as far and wide as needed to find the answers
✊🏽 Once we’ve got them we’ll add them to this page, share them across our social media channels, as well as personally get in touch with you to give you the answer to your question
The first theme we’re adding resources to is arguably the most important because you cannot pour from an empty cup.
Wellness
Our wonderful friends at The Blurt Foundation have a range of free resources, from COVID-19-specific to mental health at work.
Right now our social media feeds can feel overwhelmingly negative and stressful. Whilst staying up to date and engaging with our online communities is important, this is an official announcement that you can take a break. And when you jump back online follow The Happy Newspaper, a platform on a mission to share positive news and wonderful people.
Digital Transformation
We read somewhere that COVID-19 made 3 years’ worth of digital adoption occur in the charity sector in less than a fortnight. Digital transformation is on everyone’s minds right now, and whilst we all know it’s vital to the charity sector’s sustained recovery, how do we actually get there?
Whilst we find the answers to your submitted questions, we suggest taking a gander at these blogs:
- Digital transformation by pandemic, by Lara Burns, Chief Digital Officer, The Scouts
- COVID-19: How charity leaders can grow digital service delivery, by Zoe Amar, Zoe Amar Digital
- Rhodri Davies: Despite uncertainty, charities must start considering key questions for the future, for Third SectorFree
- Digital tools for charities (+video), from our friends at Lightful
Have you heard of Digital Candle? It’s a service that provides one free hour of expert digital advice for charities. Book your call here!
Strategy
Is your current fundraising strategy ready for the new normal? Or have your trustees asked you to start afresh? We’ll answer your strategy-related questions here.
Get started now by reading NPC’s brilliant strategy triangle to support the recovery and build resilience in their post, A shift in strategy: How can charities recover and build a better post-covid world?
Questions submitted
- Will people who’ve supported during covid-19 consider themselves as having ‘done their bit’?
- What can small charities do to get a piece of the reduced funding pie?
Events
Events were one of the first, and hardest hit, income streams due to COVID-19, and so we know the Recovery Hub wouldn’t be complete without it. Our go-to experts on virtual events are Fundraising Everywhere, founded by the brilliant Nikki Bell and Simon Scriver.
Questions submitted
- Are virtual events here to stay?
- How do you start small with virtual events if events are already your weakest income stream?
Other resources we 😍
- 7 Common Mistakes Organisers Make When Creating a Virtual Conference – And How You Can Avoid Them by Nikki Bell
- How to Run an Online Virtual Conference – by Fundraising Everywhere
Regular Giving
With the road to economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic looking very long, having a stable source of income from regular donations would be really helpful to many charities.
Questions submitted
Social Media
Using social media to connect with your supporters, beneficiaries and everyone in between is more important than ever. Whilst many of us feel comfortable engaging in conversation via social platforms it’s often the actual fundraising part that can sometimes leave us flustered. To kick off this section which will grow as time goes on, here the first question we’ll be tackling is…
How do we boost the monetization of videos and posts?
If your charity is brand new to social media, or you’d simply like a bit more guidance around how to create campaigns that tell compelling stories we couldn’t recommend Lightful enough! Their platform allows you to “plan, create and schedule your social media posts all in one place.” It also has a really handy awareness day calendar which we also use from time to time to get a gauge on what the trending topics of conversation are most likely to be on a given day.
Legacy Giving
At a time when we’re all so aware of death, we’re championing Chris Millward’s sentiment that legacy giving is life driven. If you’re pondering how (or if) your legacy giving strategy should change post-COVID why not start with this blog post by Chris.
New norm, or the same old taboos? A post Covid-19 legacy roadmap
The ‘new norm’ isn’t something that we should sit passively awaiting the arrival of. It’s a process we should actively engage with, seizing the opportunity, taking the learning and playing our part to help shape the ‘new norm’ which emerges.
Running an Appeal
In many ways, the pandemic has showcased how integral and essential charities are to society. Donors understand the challenges charities are facing and are keen to help, so a fundraising appeal could be a good way to bring much needed income into your charity.
We’ve written a blog series to guide you through the process of running a successful appeal.
WFH
Whilst working from home has many advantages, there are challenges too. Regardless of your role in a charity, we’d highly recommend filling in Mind’s Wellness Action Plan for working from home!
There is still time to apply for Switch Aid’s COVID-19 Technology Funding, which focuses on support with remote working as week as a safe return to work.
Whether working from home or adapting your workplace to be safe, there are likely to be costs associated…
What costs can charities expect to be associated with covid?
