The Bamboo team battles it out at the Blue Cross quiz!

At Bamboo, we love a quiz. And doing one to raise money for a great cause is even better. So, we jumped at the chance to take part in a virtual charity quiz on June 1 …

Here’s the lowdown.

The quiz was raising funds for Blue Cross, a fantastic animal welfare charity that provides a wide range of support and services for pets across the UK.

For the unfamiliar, the charity:

• Provides free and reduced-cost veterinary treatment for sick and injured pets when their owners can’t afford private veterinary fees

• Finds loving new homes for pets

• Offers behavioural and training advice

• Runs a pet bereavement support line

• Manages a network of pet food banks

Right, back to the quiz.

Once we were all logged on, there was a brief introduction from our Blue Cross host, then it was time to test our wits.

The quiz was run through Slido (which, incidentally, is a great option if you’re looking to host your own virtual quiz). It consisted of 30 multiple-choice general knowledge questions, and we had 20 seconds to answer each one (20 seconds goes mighty fast when you’re torn between two answers!)

This question stumped a fair few of us: ‘Alexander the Great died from complications after falling off his elephant. True or false?’
54% of us thought it sounded random enough to be true, but we were wrong. He died ‘mysteriously’ at the age of 32.

How did we do?

Not too badly.

It turns out our very own Tim Barnes (Co-Founder) is a secret egghead. With an impressive score of 26/30, he enjoyed a comfortable win.

His prize? In his words, ‘loads of dog stuff,’ (it’s just as well he has a dog!)

Our Digital Marketer, Georgie, came a respectable 4th, closely followed by Recruitment Consultant, Conan, who ‘officially’ finished in 6th place, but claims it should have been ‘tied 5th’, (he ended up with the same score as the person in 5th place). However, he shared his 6th place spot with fellow Bamboo brainiac, Joanna (our Partnerships & Operations Director(, so he was in good company.

Content Manager Cara was disappointed to finish in 7th place. She was convinced she’d guessed well enough to win …

As for Graham (the other Bamboo Co-Founder), he claims he got kicked off the platform before the quiz finished, so didn’t get placed. Likely story!

Blue Cross is looking for human and canine volunteers!

We asked Blue Cross if they wanted us to flag any campaigns/initiatives in this post.

Alyson Jones, Director of Rehoming at Blue Cross said: “Our Hertfordshire branch (the nearest branch to London) is looking for foster cat volunteers.” (find out more here). She added, “we’re also looking for ‘canine’ volunteers to be ambassador dogs in Manchester” (if you’ve got a brilliantly behaved pooch, check out how to apply here).

The charity has also launched a campaign to ban greyhound racing. If you want to support it, sign their petition here. 

Final Word

We thoroughly enjoyed exercising our collective grey matter for such a great cause.

Congratulations to Blue Cross for organising such a fun event, and to Tim for being such a boffin!

Blogging 101: Part one

Thinking about starting a blog? There’s never been a better time to do it.

The latest research shows that blogs are read by a whopping 77% of internet users. That equates to just under 4 billion people who actively seek out blog content on a regular basis.

This puts organisations that blog at a competitive advantage.

How? For starters, they receive 55% more website visitors and 97% more links to their website. That’s an impressive amount of traffic for a tactic that costs 62% less than traditional marketing formats but generates 3x the leads.

If you consider that 70% of people would rather learn about an organisation through blog posts than ads, you’ll see why a blog is a no-brainer.

In short, if you’re not blogging, you’re missing out.

What is a blog?

For the unfamiliar, let’s kick off with a definition.

A blog (short for weblog) is a regularly updated website or web page that provides business content.

It’s a powerful marketing channel (just like social media, direct mail, email marketing, etc.,) that can be used (among other things) to publish insights, thoughts, stories, and educational content.

Why blog?

The primary purpose of blogging is to boost traffic to your website. But it also provides you with an opportunity to provide an expert voice and engage supporters.

Let’s look at these in a little more detail.

1.   Boost website traffic

When you want to research something, be it a product, service, or company, where do you look? The internet.

Search engines (i.e., Google, Bing, Microsoft Edge) are our first port of call to find information. This includes donors looking for charities to support.

If you want your website to be the first one donors see, you need to be at the top of the search pages (just as RSPCA is when you type in ‘animal charities UK’).

SEO, or ‘search engine optimization’ is the process of improving your website to push it further up the search pages on the search engines.

Here are three ways blogging helps with SEO.

New Content

Search engines love fresh, high-quality content. By regularly publishing blog posts on your website, you’re signalling to search engines that your site is active, relevant, and authoritative.

The more blog content you create, the more opportunities you’ll have to show up in search engines and drive traffic to your website.

Keyword Optimisation

Blogging provides a valuable opportunity to incorporate keywords and phrases into your content. This improves your website's visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Backlinks

One of the most important factors in SEO is the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to your site. A backlink is when one website links to another with an anchor text. An example of a backlink is any article you find that links to another source or website.

Blogging can help you attract backlinks by creating valuable, shareable content that other websites will want to link to.

2.   Provide an expert voice

Want people to see you as the go-to charity in your niche? A blog can help you achieve it. If you publish high-quality, original content that educates and informs your audience on a regular basis, they’ll keep coming back for more.

You can educate your audience by:

• Offering practical tips and advice
  Example: Supporting a partner with depression

• Sharing useful insights from events/research
  Example: 6 take-home messages from the world’s largest haematology conference

• Including interviews/opinions/thought pieces from experts in your niche
  Example: International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2022: Meet professor Melissa Westwood

• Promoting other organisations that offer support in your niche
  Example: Guest blog: Disability Law Service

• How-to posts
  Example: Testicular cancer: symptoms, tests, and treatment, and how to check your balls

3.   Engage supporters

In a recent blog post, we explained that humans are hardwired to respond to stories. They activate emotional centres in our brains, evoking strong, visceral reactions such as empathy and anger. When emotions are triggered, it inspires us to act (i.e., make a donation). This makes story telling an incredibly powerful tool for fundraisers.

Okay, but what sort of stories trigger emotion? Stories about:

• The issues you’re tackling
  Example: Violence against women: the statistics around the world

• The people you help
  Example: Sarah’s story

• Your supporters
  Example: Starlight Champion and Cyclist: Richard Betteridge

• The impact you have
  Example: Ukraine one year on: the Red Cross Red Crescent's response

Final Word

In this post, we’ve told you why you should be blogging. In the next couple of posts, we’ll tell you how to blog, share some best practice tips in terms of format, design, content, and promotion, and look at some real-life examples for inspiration.

In the meantime, if you’re looking to launch a blog but don’t have the time or resources to get it off the ground, we can help. Give us a call on 020 3750 3111 to find out how.

Register for the Big Give Christmas Challenge and double your donations this winter!

Want to add some much-needed coffers to the fundraising pot this Christmas? Sign your charity up for ‘The Big Give Christmas Challenge’.

What is the Christmas Challenge?

For the unfamiliar, The Christmas Challenge is the UK’s biggest, annual match-funded campaign. Run by The Big Give (a match-funding platform), it offers supporters of participating charities the opportunity to double their donations over a seven-day period.

How does it work?

During challenge week (this year it’s taking place from November 28 – December 5), every donation made by a member of the public to a Big Give charity partner is matched by a Big Give ‘Champion’ (high-net-worth individuals, foundations, corporates, philanthropists, statutory bodies, corporates, etc.) This year’s Champions include The Reed Foundation, The Childhood Trust, Candis, Coles Medlock Foundation, and the Julia & Hans Rausing Trust.

Essentially, a £50 donation from a supporter becomes £100 for you (minus a small processing fee).

Sounds good, right? All you have to do is sign up to take part and promote the Challenge to your supporters. (Big Give has a suite of resources to help with this).

Campaign Impact

Last year, 79,000 members of the public donated to the campaign, raising £28.6m for 1,021 charities. £82.3m of this went to small charities (with an income of £1m or less).

The Big Give released some figures on the campaign’s impact in their recent ‘Celebrating 15 years of impact’ report:

• 76% of participating charities say the Christmas Challenge’s match-funding results in more donations being made compared to a non-match-funded campaign

• 65% of charities say the Christmas Challenge’s match-funding results in bigger donations being made compared to a non-match-funded campaign.

• 56% of charities say their existing supporters give more through the Big Give Christmas Challenge than they would normally donate.

• 94% of the charities received online donations from new donors who had not previously given to their charity.

• 74% of the charities believe that the Christmas Challenge has helped to raise their profile.

Key things to note

If you want to sign up and double your Christmas donations, be sure to do so before July 7.

Eligibility criteria

Charities of all sizes are invited to apply. To be eligible, you:

• must be a UK-registered charity with a Charity Commission number or tax-exempt status and an annual income of at least £25,000.

• need to register your charity on BigGive.org

The Application process

When applying, you’ll need to outline a specific project you’re looking to raise funds for and set a monetary target. Funds received during the campaign will be restricted to that project until you hit your target. If you receive donations after hitting it, they’ll be unrestricted Champion pledges make up part of the match funding pot. You’ll need to secure a minimum of £1k to be eligible for Champion funding.

Further information on eligibility and the application process can be found here.

Need a fundraiser to manage your funding applications? We can help. Give us a call on 020 3750 3111 to get started!

Celebrating small charity week

When most people are asked to name a charity, they’ll mention the big, household names whose adverts they see on TV or in their favourite weekly magazines.

While these charities do amazing work - fighting cancer, heart disease or dementia - they only make up 3% of the charity sector. The other 97% is made up of small charities (with an income of under £ 1 million); and micro charities (those with an income of under £10,000 per annum).

Despite the prevalence of small charities, they receive just 20% of the UK’s charitable giving.

But what they’re able to achieve on a shoestring budget is nothing short of incredible.

In honour of Small Charity Week, we’re going to shine a spotlight on three small charities that are making a mighty difference.

Stem4

Stem4 is an award-winning organisation that promotes positive mental health in teenagers. They do this through the provision of mental health education, resilience strategies and early intervention.

Despite its modest budget, the charity provides mental health support to 100,000 young people each year. It also provides mental health education to 60,000 young people, their parents and carers, teachers, GPs and school nurses.

The charity has also developed four, award-winning, evidence-based mental health mobile apps:

• Calm Harm focuses on managing the urge to self-harm

• Clear Fear provides teens with a range of tools to manage anxiety

• Move Mood helps teenagers manage depression

• Combined Minds helps families and friends provide support to teenagers

The apps have been downloaded three million times, across 227 countries and territories.

Stephens and George Charitable Trust

In 2012, 40% of children in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, were found to be functionally illiterate upon leaving primary school. In response, the Welsh education inspectorate placed the borough council under “special measures”.

That same year, Stephens and George Print Group set up a charitable trust to help tackle the area’s education and literacy challenges.

Following consultation with schools, social services and other community providers, the trust put together a three-year strategy incorporating a range of initiatives.

As a result, the Stephens and George Charitable Trust enrolled 120 reading support volunteers to go into schools and read to children with complex needs. They also put in place the infrastructure to distribute 10,000 donated books to children who need them each year.

The charity also runs Charity Baby Bookworm sessions (an initiative that encourages parents to read to their children before they reach school age).

The charity secured funding from several grantmakers for these projects, but it’s also taken steps to increase its earned income. Notably, it used a community asset transfer to take over the Dowlais Community Centre. This now acts as a community hub and revenue source with a gym, cafe and hall hire. The charity also opened and runs Merthyr Tydfil’s only bookshop.

Kumon Y’all

Divisions in local communities can be deep-seated, particularly when it comes to race and religion.

For one predominantly Muslim community in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, two events shone a harsh spotlight on how the Saville Town area was divided: the neighbourhood was home of the UK’s youngest-ever suicide bomber; and the scene of a violent stabbing of a young person by members of a far-right group.

These events spurred local charity Kumon Y’all to take action to tackle the rise of extremism among young people, and challenge misunderstandings between Muslim and non-Muslim communities. They asked young members of the Dewsbury community to come up with an event to bring everyone together. The most popular idea was a football tournament.

The charity proceeded to contact various religious groups, and, in 2013, the community enjoyed its first ‘Let’s Unite’ tournament.

The annual event has grown significantly over the years. In 2022, 40 youth teams and 12 adult teams took part, and the action was watched by 5,000 spectators.

Since the event was introduced, incidents of hate crime in the area have fallen significantly. As a result, the charity has been approached by neighbouring cities to roll out the model in their communities.

Be a part of small charity week!

Want your events/webinars listed on the small charity week website? You can register them here. The page will be open until 18th June.

Free and discounted resources for charities

Been scouring the internet for a budget-friendly CRM system or impacting reporting tool? In need of urgent legal advice or IT support but can’t make the numbers work?

Did you know that, as a charity, you can get all these things (and more) for free/at a reduced rate?

In the current climate, every penny counts, so we’ve put together a handy list of free/low-cost resources you can draw on to make your budget stretch further.

Office furniture

Need some office furniture to accommodate your expanding fundraising team?

Contact Collecteco. They partner with companies to donate unwanted/surplus office furniture, equipment, and materials to good causes across the UK, enabling you to furnish your office for free.

All you need to do is send them a wish list of the items you need via this form and they’ll let you know when a match becomes available. When it does, they can also arrange low-cost delivery.

IT support & software

Want to upgrade your website but lacking in internal IT resources? Check out the Charity IT Association (CITA).

CITA is an easy-to-use platform that matches charities to IT professionals looking to donate their time and expertise to the third sector.

Typical projects include migrating to a new software system, e-mail setup and management, and IT software or hardware selection and deployment.

The service is free for charities with an income of £50k or less. There’s a small charge for larger charities.

You can find out more and register your charity here.

Legal advice

Legal advice costs a fortune … unless you know where to look.

Enter LawWorks: a charity that connects volunteer solicitors with people in need of legal advice, who are not eligible for legal aid and cannot afford to pay, and with the charities that support them.

Their Not-for-Profits Programme provides free legal advice to small charities on a wide range of legal issues, to support the continuation and expansion of their services.

They can help with one-off legal issues (like drafting a contract, reviewing a lease, updating a constitution, or clarifying rights in a commercial dispute); or on a longer-term basis, for example, to carry out a review of your organisation's documents, identify potential legal issues, and/or be a first port of call for legal queries).

They also have a range of legal resources on their website that answer some of the frequently asked questions they receive from charities.

Find out more on their website.

Management consultancy

Need a hand with your charity strategy, business plan, financial management, governance, or impact reporting? The Cranfield Trust can help.

The charity provides pro bono consultancy and management support to charities, through their network of skilled volunteer consultants and advisers.

They help to build resilient and sustainable charities using their Journey to Excellence framework, offering free support in four key management areas: Leadership and Strategic Direction, People Management, Financial Management and Sustainability, and Performance and Impact.

They also have a library of free webinars that cover topics such as charity business planning and strategy, bid writing, and financial forecasting.

Check you’re eligible for support and drop them an email here.

Looking to expand your fundraising team? We can help. Give us a call on 020 3750 3111 or email info@bamboofundraising.co.uk to get started.