DELIVERING DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT AT SCALE FOR PEACE DIRECT.

If lockdown has taught us anything it’s that perspective is important - taking time out to pause, reflect and refocus. So at Rally, we’ve done just that with our first ever client, Peace Direct.

A partnership to build a new approach

When we set up Rally, we wanted to create a new way of working: one that is focused on collaboration and partnership, so clients are empowered to transform how they mobilise the public at scale. A movement, not a moment. Lasting change, not a one hit wonder.

We share these values with Peace Direct. Their approach to peacebuilding in the field is unique amongst INGOs and they wanted to carry on this non traditional approach to radically change how they engage the public at scale. All of this with a view to ultimately making their income - and with that their work - sustainable.

So we were both really excited to be able to form a partnership back in November 2018 to work together to create a Digital Engagement Strategy. A strategy to build an engaged community of digital supporters, joined by a desire to build long term peace - and so lay the foundation to create sustainability and lasting, impactful change. 

As Gemma Britton, Head of Fundraising and Communications at Peace Direct said, ‘Our work together has felt very much like a partnership because Rally’s values and approach are so well aligned with our own work with peacebuilding partners around the world. Those of collaboration, learning, innovation, being honest about what’s not working, and always holding long-term success and sustainability at the heart of what we do.’

A joined up plan for lasting change

Key to our approach was establishing the levers that would drive us forward to deliver scale, sustainably and for the long term. This meant reviewing Peace Direct’s whole digital ecosystem - from search to social, content to conversion - so we could understand how everything works together and then identify opportunities to take co-ordinated action to transform performance.

From this we created a plan for radical change: a plan where our actions were always led by data and in service of a clear goal shared across fundraising and communications. Namely to deliver, more reach, more action, more money and more impact.

We made it easier for people to find us, overhauling our use of the Google Grant to transform the number and quality of visitors to our website.  

And because there’s no point increasing web traffic if you make it hard for those visitors to take action, we focussed on improving our conversion in our priority areas for engagement - our email sign up and donation pages. 

Alongside that, we updated our opt-in wording to help build Peace Direct’s community of digital supporters so we could have ongoing communication with as many supporters as possible.

And to make that communication more effective and responsive, we overhauled our email programme - its frequency, content and call to action - to make it geared towards inspiring ongoing action from the community we’re building.

And we didn’t just build a digital community through email, we radically improved our performance in social too, using a storytelling approach to transform reach and engagement.

Embedding new ways of working

All of this was underpinned by a focus on fundamentally changing how the Peace Direct team works forever. Firstly they busted through the old silos of fundraising and communications and put in place shared goals and plans to deliver them. And we adopted a long term view - that this was a never ending journey, where we would always be testing and learning from the data to refine our approach and keep moving forward and building success.

Most importantly Rally helped equip the Peace Direct team to be self sufficient to carry on this journey themselves by bringing in the right partners to share their expertise - Jon who helped us shape the strategy, Chris who trained us in how to use our Google grant more effectively, Rachel who helped us learn how to make our email programme more responsive and Jean who worked with us to build scale, response and engagement in Facebook.

Gemma says ‘After many years in the non-profit sector, it’s been a refreshing change to work with an agency partner which isn’t closed off to working with other experts and most importantly does not create a cycle of long-term over-reliance on their support. A core facet of our work together is that we identify the gaps in our knowledge and operations so as we deliver improvements, the team is also upskilled to do this work ourselves moving forward. This makes it much better value for Peace Direct, much more fulfilling for the team, and crucially we will be able to continue delivering really impactful digital engagement work in the long term’. 

Seeing the cumulative impact

A year and a half down the line, with Rally’s help, Peace Direct have not only created the foundations for long term sustainability, but have already made tangible strides forward in their digital engagement approach.

• The email file has grown by over 600% since January 2019 and it continues to grow at an extremely cost effective rate.

• We’ve increased reach and engagement in Facebook by over 400% and successfully converted this engagement into action through more effective paid social strategies.

• The quality of web traffic has significantly increased as we have focussed on our use of the Google Grant. Traffic from this source has increased by over 150%, with an incredible 1,000%+ increase in the conversion of this traffic to our engagement goals.

• We’ve launched Facebook fundraising campaigns that have delivered significant income through the use of virtual events.

A new dynamic for the future

These are the first steps in a long journey to transform how Peace Direct engages the public at scale digitally, but we are all excited by the cumulative impact of our efforts so far. And based on what we’ve learnt to date we’ve set goals for the next 12 months to keep on growing scale and improving engagement.

And this success is sustainable because the Peace Direct team is empowered to keep evolving and refining the approach using the skills, confidence and knowledge they’ve acquired - all with an unrelenting focus on their shared goal and with the tools to measure their progress.

Gemma said, ‘Peace Direct’s work with Rally has been transformational. It’s provided us with knowledge, ambition and a real focus on delivering results which will ultimately allow us to shine more of a spotlight on people building peace around the world and give them the support which works for them. We no longer seek out small wins - in a niche sector which has struggled to cut through with the public, we are now seeing that with the right strategy people do believe in our cause and are willing to support us. Rally has given us the confidence to know we can and should be striving for growth and scale.’ 

So while Rally is still very much part of the next chapter, thanks to how we’ve worked together our dynamic has changed. The Peace Direct team is firmly in the driving seat. And we couldn’t be happier about that. Because that was the initial plan.

Photographs are supplied by Peace Direct and were taken by Greg Funnell.

RALLY APPOINTED BY JCWI TO HELP DEVELOP THEIR DIGITAL MOBILISATION STRATEGY

We are delighted to announce that we’ve been appointed by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI). 

JCWI is an incredible, small but mighty organisation that fights for the rights of immigrants. It’s an organisation that defines its vision of the UK as a country in which the benefits of migration are celebrated and shared, with no community left behind. A place where newcomers are safe and welcome, and communities are strong and open. A country in which the politics of migration do not rely on or fuel fear, division and animosity.

These are values which we wholeheartedly subscribe to.

Over the next few months we are going to be working with their amazing team to define a digital mobilisation strategy, framework and plan that will enable them to radically increase the scale of the public’s engagement with their work. Our overall aim is to deliver more reach, more engagement, more supporters, more donors and ultimately more impact on the lives of the people JCWI exists to support.

Satbir Singh, CEO of JCWI said, “We’re really excited to be working with Rally to improve our in-house digital mobilisation capabilities. Working with Rally will help us determine the strategies and tactics we need to attract, mobilise and retain the public's support at a critical time for migrants’ rights’. 

Paul de Gregorio, founder of Rally said, “It’s a dream to be able to work with such an impressive organisation as JCWI. Migrant rights is an issue that we hold dear and we couldn’t be happier to be able to help JCWI deliver on their mission’.

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Main image by Markus Spiske via Unsplash

APPLY NEWSDESK THINKING TO GROW YOUR MOVEMENT.

Radical collaboration is important to us. And we are very lucky to operate within a fabulous community of talented people. A Barbican coffee and a catch up with the wonderful Kat Sladden of Chorus Campaigns led to us collaborating on the article below for Civil Society magazine. We’ve only just got around to posting it here. Let us know what you think…

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We live in a world when a tweet from the US President sent at 2am resets the entire news agenda and when a powerful photograph can travel the world in minutes and bring more attention to a forgotten global crisis than a meeting of world leaders scheduled months in advance. As the way we consume our news has changed so has the speed people react, share opinions, spread hashtags and plan action. In this new reality, mission driven organisations that want to connect with people and make change, need to adapt to succeed. The era of the ‘five year campaign plan’ or writing emails to supporters three months in advance is over. Charities and campaigning groups need a new approach: we like to call it ‘newsdesk thinking’.

Newsdesk thinking takes lessons from how media outlets set themselves up to be flexible to react to breaking news events and adds that to smart campaign strategy, so that when the moment arises, your team can spot it quickly and has the confidence to be first out with a way supporters can channel their reaction into a constructive response.

“Organisations spend so much time and money creating contrived ‘moments’ - when there are real moments happening every single day ripe for hijacking.” Says John Coventry, who runs GoFundMe’s Europe and Australia operation and previously led Change.org’s global comms team. “There are so many News cycles happening all the time it’s hard to make sense of it all sometimes - but if your teams are set up right, empowered to execute quickly and given the space to fail well, the rewards can be huge: the perfect triangle of reputation, donations and real world impact.”

Hope Not Hate are an example of an organisation that does this brilliantly. When President Trump tweeted that the four US congress women should ‘go home’, the global outrage to this racism was instant. Hope Not Hate, who stand against racism and fascism in all its forms, decided that they needed to act, so they wrote an open letter of solidarity to the four women and asked their supporters to sign it. It gave people something to do to channel their anger in a constructive way, it showed that Hope Not Hate would act on its values even if it means taking on a President and it helped them reach out to new supporters who were mobilised in their disgust for the tweet. And this instant reaction to the news cycle resulted in close to 5,000 new people joining the Hope Not Hate email list.

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Matthew McGregor, Campaigns Director at Hope Not Hate said, "This was a quick feel-good piece of campaigning. We did it because we were angry and because we thought our supporters would be too. We wanted to say something, even if it was a small thing, to send a message. And in this case we saw our list grow as a result too. It's important to have a theory of change, but our theory on this one was that sometimes it’s nice to say 'p*ss off, Mr President'.

It was this newsdesk thinking that helped grow Change.org from a small site with a few thousand signers to the world’s largest petition platform. It was a bank holiday Monday when the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Ian Duncan Smith said on Radio 4 that people complaining about welfare cuts were wrong and living on £50 a week was easy. The reaction on Twitter was instant. Outraged people called him out for being out of touch. Change.org’s then Director of Communications John Coventry spotted an opportunity, reaching out on Twitter to suggest that people should start a petition. Within an hour the petition to ‘get IDS to live on £50 a week’ had started and before civil servants had got back to their offices from the long weekend the petition had ten of thousands of signatures. It went on to be the first petition on the site to reach over a quarter of a million signatures and led the news agenda for over a fortnight, opening the space for people experiencing the sharp end of welfare cuts to talk about their impact.

So how can other organisations adopt newsdesk thinking, we’ve broken it down into 6 steps:

Be ready: Every media outlet has a clear editorial position. You need the same. Having a clear vision of the world you are trying to create, the issues you care about and the values you hold are the essential starting point. Newsdesk thinking isn’t about jumping in with your hot take on every Love Island breakup, it’s about knowing what you care about and being confident to act when an opportunity emerges.

Active scanning: What are people talking about today? That’s the question to keep asking. Keep an eye on leading activists on twitter, instagram and blogs. Often this is where issues rise up before they make news. It’s not about everyone in the office listening to the Today Programme, often 5 Live, Victoria Derbyshire and LBC are more helpful to get a sense of what people are talking about outside of Westminster. Consuming the news and talking about the news needs to be a part of day to day life, not just something the comms team do.

Ideas culture: Journalists are expected to turn up with new ideas for stories everyday. Building an ideas culture in your office is vital. Create a safe space for people to share without worrying if it’s a good or bad idea. It could be at daily stand ups, a ‘have you seen this?’ whatsapp group or slack channel - whatever works for your team. Not everything will lead to an action but it’s only with a culture that welcomes ideas that you’ll spot the golden opportunity quickly when it comes.

Rapid response: When a story matches your issues and values and has got people talking, speed matters. Attention spans are short and to capture the energy of the moment you need to be out with an action quickly, we’re talking hours not days. That means having a set up for rapid response campaigning - a faster sign off process, a way to queue jump to get an action email out and a nimble team that has the permission and power to move fast.

Invest in systems: Spend some time making sure that you can produce beautiful customised landing pages at speed that seamlessly integrate with your email platforms. Time after time we see organisations de-prioritise this type of work and then give the absence of these resources as a reason not to act when they should. If you build the things you need to respond quickly, you will be itching to use them and it will drive your speed of response!

Fail fast, fail forward: If you are taking more risks and testing more actions, not all of them will fly. That’s ok! After each take the time to understand what worked and what didn’t. Moving quickly means taking risks and piloting more actions, so it needs to be ok to fail and learn.

Newsdesk thinking is more than a process, it’s state of mind backed up by practical steps so when you have an idea you have the tools and processes already established to make it happen. It’s an approach that can bring real energy to how your organisation engages with the public and connect your organisation more closely to the conversations people are having everyday.

It’s fun, it’s fast and without the right attitude can deliver big results. We urge you to try it out!

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Written by Kat Sladden & Paul de Gregorio: Originally posted here: Why charities should apply ‘newsdesk thinking’ to grow their movement http://bit.ly/37PcjHH

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Header photo by Brad Neathery on Unsplash

POSTAVME SA SPOLOČNE : LET’S STAND TOGETHER.

When we blogged about this film to mark Holocaust Memorial Day a few weeks ago we had no idea what would happen next.

You will need to view this film on YouTube.

A friend of ours from Slovakia, Zuzana Suchová, saw our post and got in touch.

Zuzana is a phenomenal human being. We met her when we spoke together at an event in Slovakia when she shared her digital fundraising story from the winning 2019 presidential campaign that saw the election of Slovakia’s first woman president. 

Zuzana knew that the film would be a great way to combat the rise of a vile far right, Neo-Nazi party who were polling high in the Slovakian elections. And she asked if we could help connect her to the film’s makers, because she wanted to make a Slovakian version with Slovakian sporting celebrities. Time was of the essence because when she asked us there were only 35 days until polling day.

We decided we wanted to do everything we could to make this happen. Because, we really don’t like Nazis.

A friend of ours Juliet, connected us to Malcolm, the film director who made the original film for the Holocaust Memorial Centre here in the UK.

Malcolm is amazing. He provided all the support and guidance the team in Slovakia could ever ask for. And more.

Malcolm connected us to Marc. Marc is the Interim CEO at the Holocaust Memorial Centre. Marc was also amazing, saw exactly what we were trying to do and made it very easy for us to do it.

And then Zuzana and a group of Slovak activists, filmmakers, production professionals and sports celebrities made it happen. Lots of late nights, lots of video calls and a few wobbles later they launched this. 

And they did it in less than 20 days from getting approval to launching the film.

We couldn’t be more proud of them, everyone else who collaborated to make this happen and our small role in making it happen.

And that Neo Nazi party in Slovakia? They did much worse in the elections than the polls said they would. Which is great, because we f*cking hate Nazis.

MAKE NEW CONNECTIONS. SPARK NEW ANSWERS.

Last night around 70 do-gooders and troublemakers from charities, campaign groups and the world of politics descended on Newspeak House in London for our free community screening of ‘Knock Down The House’.

If you don’t know it, ‘Knock Down The House’ is a brilliant documentary that takes you behind the scenes as four determined women, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC to her friends), challenge big money politics in the 2018 race for Congress in the USA.

It was such an inspiring and moving film. And as we watched these four incredible women run their campaigns, there were moments of real emotion and plenty of tears in the room.

The very best thing was sharing the experience with so many talented people and hearing a diverse set of views, opinions and perspectives from the room when the film was over (expertly facilitated by Jo Kerr).

When we set up Rally we promised ourselves we’d do more to bring groups of people together. It’s too easy to go to the same events, see the same speakers and hear the same messages. We passionately believe that if we all meet people from outside of our fields, we learn new stuff, we make new connections that can spark new answers to old problems and it’s more fun. Last night was our first step towards keeping our promise and, from the buzz in social, we can already see that new connections have been made and interesting conversations have started - which has made us so very happy.

Watch this space and Twitter for details of future events.

And thanks again to all the amazing people who showed up on a Monday night and made it such a great evening.

And if you want to put on a screening, all the details on how to do it are here and here. Do it. It’s fun.

Paul

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2019

For International Women’s Day we’ve collated these amazing quotes from four incredible women. They are quotes that inspire us and we hope inspire you.

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And while we’ve got your attention, go and check out Level Up. They are amazing people doing incredible work. This week they are running a campaign aimed at Facebook, calling on them to take seriously the online harassment of women. You can get involved in that campaign here. Or you can give them a couple of quid towards their new office here.