Category: BRIDGE

Environmental organisations around the world are working hard to tackle climate change, often with limited resources. What’s the role of digital communications in this battle and what support do they need?

We talked to Chakara Wheeler from the Community Foundation of Greater Flint to find out more about her work and her experience being part of the BRIDGE programme.

We talked to the Hope and Dreams Initiative, an organisation with a mission to educate, empower and enable young people from under-served communities in Nigeria to find out more about their work and how they benefit from our BRIDGE programme.

On 28th May individuals, organisations and entire communities came together to celebrate Menstrual Hygiene Day (MH Day) - a global campaign to raise awareness of the importance of menstrual health and hygiene for women, girls, and all people who menstruate around the world - which was initiated by our partner WASH United.

111 diverse nonprofits from 44 countries took part in Lightful’s free Digital Bootcamp to create their first digital strategy - we’re so excited to share with you what they learned and free resources for your charity.

We’re only a few weeks away from Menstrual Hygiene Day (MH Day) on the 28th of May and it’s time to start planning your content for the big day.

We’re excited to launch a new BRIDGE cohort to support organizations working in menstrual health and hygiene (MHH).

We’re just a week away from International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate women’s achievement, raise awareness against bias, and take action for equality.

Millions of people came together last week for GivingTuesday 2021. As the biggest day of giving, it’s the perfect time to celebrate generosity, kindness, and inspiring storytelling.

We’re more than 18 months in the pandemic and we’re still seeing misinformation spreading online. Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Mistrust created by historical racism and health care inequalities has given space to the rise of misinformation and disinformation.

Nonprofits hold some of the world’s most powerful stories. Each individual, community, and environment that they protect and serve, has their own story to tell and it is this rich reserve of narratives that can inspire, motivate and move the wider public.

Despite the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing remains the same, people are still looking for ways to connect and support the causes they care about. Events are a great way to bring people together through shared experiences and interests, creating a sense of community for participants, and virtual events have allowed this to continue despite lockdown restrictions.

The COVID pandemic has created an urgent need for nonprofits to rapidly scale up digital advocacy and digital fundraising. Organisations need to be reaching their supporters where they are, and in 2021… they are online. A rapidly changing world post-pandemic demands new approaches to engaging the public and winning their support.

Last year the COVID-19 pandemic created challenges across many sectors, but especially for nonprofits, many of which were previously reliant upon in-person events and more traditional means of fundraising. At Lightful, we’ve been working with charities to understand how the pandemic has affected the sector and what’s become evident is that digital fundraising skills are vital in adapting to the ‘new normal’ that has emerged following the pandemic.

At the start of 2020, we were set to deliver our second BRIDGE programme in partnership with GlobalGiving funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but as the global pandemic quickly took hold we knew we had to pivot to a COVID-response programme to help nonprofits through this challenging period.

2020 has been challenging and it’s vital to support charities who work towards important causes.

During uncertain times, charities are looking for new ways to survive and provide crucial services to their beneficiaries.

It’s more important than ever to be more digital. We’re also aware though that many organisations do not have the capacity or the resources to improve their digital skills. Small charities may still be at the very beginning of their digital journey and it’s vital to help them as much as possible.

We hosted a fantastic webinar last week including great guests to talk about nonprofit digital capacity building and how it is rapidly evolving during COVID-19.

Earlier this month we’ve hosted the first masterclass for our new BRIDGE cohort. Participating charities all over the world joined us to talk about digital fundraising in crisis and how to launch a successful campaign during COVID-19.

There is a growing need to be more digital to support your organisation. As charities move their services online to survive, it is imperative to build your team’s digital skills.

Last week we’ve hosted the first digital drop-in session for our new BRIDGE cohort. Participating charities all over the world joined us to discuss their internal and external communications during coronavirus and the challenges they are facing.

95% of the nonprofits who applied to our BRIDGE programme have been affected by COVID-19. In a world seemingly in constant crisis, technology has never had a more vital role to play.

As the world moved into lockdown earlier this year, we seemed to experience ten years of digital acceleration across the charity sector in ten days. Engaging (online) with supporters, raising (emergency) funds, delivering services (remotely) – under increasingly difficult circumstances, charities are needed more than ever to help those who need it more than ever.

On Friday 14th Lightful hosted a BRIDGE networking breakfast for charities and social enterprises in Bristol at the coworking space the Engine Shed. We were joined by a number of organisations to discuss the digital trends for charities looking forward to the rest of 2020 and beyond.

This week we chatted to Leif Frymire at PeacePlayers – Northern Ireland about their social media journey. They were part of our pilot programme, in partnership with Comic Relief, building resilience in digital growth and engagement (BRIDGE).

In our first story of the BRIDGE series, we’ve looked at Civilians in Conflict and their social media journey. This week we have been chatting with Emily Johnson at Anawim about their social media journey. They have been part of our pilot BRIDGE programme which we ran in partnership with Comic Relief. Emily is the Fundraising, Partnerships and Engagement Officer at Anawim and they run a women’s centre based in Birmingham that provides a holistic service to women across the city.

Last week we hosted a de-lightful breakfast panel discussion and networking event for some of our participating organisations in the BRIDGE programme. The theme of the discussion was on how to improve your charity’s brand and the panel consisted of Brendan Rogers, Digital Marketing Manager at Lightful, Kirsty Marrins, Communications Consultant and Matt Collins, MD of Platypus Digital and chaired by Lightful’s Emma Moore. There was a lot of great advice from the panellists so we thought we’d write it up in a blog post!

Lightful have been working with a number of organisations on the BRIDGE programme (Building Resilience in Digital Growth and Engagement) for almost a year now. As the pilot phase of the BRIDGE programme comes to an end, we wanted to tell you about a few of the participants’ journeys from our first two cohorts.