BIG presentations

Tell your story: PR on a shoestring

East of England Communications Team26/09/2012

Welcome and agendaSara Betsworth

Head of Region

#BIGlf

BIG Funding OfficersRichard Drape and Michelle Drummond

A Summary of Support

Your regional comms team

Our remit:

To support successful development and delivery of BIG’s funding initiatives locally

To raise awareness and maximise impact our funding locally

You said:

Survey Monkey results:

•100% of respondents use websites

above all other methods to inform people

about your projects

•58% of you tweet

•8% blog

•41% use events

•word of mouth is still a popular method

How we communicate in the region: a snapshot•Being out and about – funding fairs, workshops and briefing events

•Engaging with local media

•Publications and website – case studies, feature articles, and social media

•Public affairs – keeping MPs, Local Authorities and regional stakeholders in the loop

•Engaging with regional stakeholders – project visits, launches and VCS groups.

The power of being social

Listen, learn and share

Twitter: @BIGEofE

Facebook: Big Lottery Fund – East of England

BIG’s blog: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/community-uk?fromsearch=-uk

Supporting you along the journeyIn print: Grant acknowledgement requirements

Online: BIG website - grant holder section:

http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/index/grant-uk

Over the phone:

01223 449027/449034

In person:

Invite us to your events, tweet us, tell us about your successes!



Online support from BIGhttp://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/index/gra

nt-ukAdvice & support:

•Publicity guidelines

•How to order merchandise for events etc (T shirts, Balloons, banners, bunting)

•How to use the BIG logo (and advice on styles)

BIG Branding: use of the logo•Tells the public where lottery money is spent

•Encourages others to apply

•It’s a condition of your grant!

Where should I use the logo?Any form of promotional or publicity materials:

•Press releases

•Leaflets

•Posters

•Brochures/annual reports

•Websites

•Stationery/letterheads

•Job averts/ on vehicles etc

•Twitter/facebook

Logo – hard and fast rules!

•Only recipients may use it

•Do not alter in any way

•Standard logo preferred

•Size at least 12mm

•Available in pink or blue

•Available on website

BIG Logo

Generating local publicity

•All grants awarded are made public (press release, BIG and DCMS website)

•BIG sets embargo date

•National and regional media alerted

•Then it’s up to you! But today should help ...

Telling your story

Where to start:

•Have a Comms plan: key messages, audience, methods you will use

•Know your local media and how they reach audiences: print/broadcast/ TV/online?

•Press releases/leaflets/blogs

•Social Media

#BIGlf

Tell your story: PR on a

shoestring

Generating local publicity...Communications TeamEast of England26th September 2012


•All grants awarded are made public (press release, BIG and DCMS website)

•BIG sets embargo date

•National and regional media alerted

•Then it’s up to you! But today should help ...

Background - generating local publicity

•After the embargo date its up to projects to generate their local publicity

•BIG doesn’t have the resources to promote each project so amount of local media work is limited

•Therefore, we need you to shout about your project and the wider work you do – BIG encourages grant holders to promote themselves and their BIG funded project

Generating local publicity - proactive work

Before you start

•Have a plan

•Three key messages

•Q&A’s

•Research your environment

Generating local publicityproactive work

Know your local media

•Newspapers, magazines, radio, television, internet, including student or community-based stations

•Read the publication, watch or listen to programmes

•Identify key contacts

•Find out their deadlines for news stories (could be different for different sections of the paper)

•Use the internet to find out your local newspapers – eg: www.newspapersoc.org.uk


Journalists are looking for –

•News - a fact or event that hasn’t been made public before

•News comment or feature – putting events into context, letters

•Features – in-depth coverage of events or trends

•Diary pieces – entertainment, possibly a charity event


Journalists are interested in

•Exclusivity

•Clarity

•Examples

•Facts/ideas

•Human interest angles

•Contacts


Always have readily available

•Updated key facts and figures about your project

•Case studies with contact details

•Spokespeople available for interviews

•Contact details for key members of your organisation


Press releases – a key media tool

•Make sure you have something to say

•Answer the question – “Will the readers you are trying to reach be interested in your information?”

•If you cannot say “YES” – rethink


Planning a press release

•Identify your story

•Find a hook – is there something topical you could link your PR to give it a stronger chance of making the news?

•Have a clear message (when planning try to put it in 2 short sentences)

•Consider availability of case studies and images

•Identify and brief your spokespeople

•Obtain quotes from key spokespeople to include

•Alert all relevant team members about your plans


Writing a press release

•Grab attention with a headline and first paragraph – keep it simple

•Concentrate on what your news is and put it in the first paragraph of the release, don’t bury it in the last paragraph!

•Subsequent paragraphs should be in order of priority

•Include what, when, where, why, who, how

•Be concise



•Keep sentences short

•Make it relevant and timely – use present/future tense

•Keep adjectives to the minimum (you can use more in quotes)

•Keep it to 2/3 pages maximum

•Don’t use unproven facts (be ready to back your statistics)



•Use headed paper

•Clearly mark ‘News Release’ at the top of the page

•Add date and embargo date, or ‘For immediate release’

•Include your name, telephone (including an out-of-hours number), email address at the bottom of release

•Include Notes To Editors at the end - gives background info on the organisation and any useful additional info

•Don’t forget to credit Big Lottery Fund if appropriate


Sending out your release

•Check how journalist would like to receive it – fax, post, email

•Follow up your release with a phone call

•If you are holding an event, ask if they will send a photographer (remember to provide them with photo opportunities if you want a photographer to attend)

•Make sure someone is available to answer questions on the day. This should ideally be your media spokesperson

Generating local publicity - Reactive work

•When approached by the media consider the possible reasons for the enquiry

•Is it a cold call or is it a follow up to your publicity work?


When approached find out:

•Context of the enquiry

•Nature of the enquiry – is the journalist contacting anyone else for comment? If so, what are they saying?

•Name of the publication

•Name and contact details for the journalist

•Deadline for information


Action plan

Exercise judgement – don’t open up too much

Alert all relevant members of your organisation

Agree and disseminate lines to take to all your spokespeople

Offer to supply statement in writing – it’s harder to take words out of context

Exercise you right of reply, if the information printed/broadcast by the journalist is factually incorrect

Generating local publicityreactive work

•If an enquiry relates more to Big Lottery Fund than your grant

•Make sure that you pass the details to the Big Lottery Fund Officer asap!!

•020 7211 1888 or out of hours 07867 500 572


Press release exercise

Grant Management Support

Reaching Communities25 September 2012Richard Drape & Michelle DrummondFunding Officers

Grant Management Support

Purpose of presentation

• To take you through the grant management lifecycle

• Identify key monitoring requirements of our terms and conditions of grant

• Provide support on how to measure and evaluate the impact of your project to enable longer-term sustainability

Grant Management LifecycleGrant set-up stage

Telephone introduction

•Grant offer letter

• Setting up your grant form

• Bank or Building society account details form

• Starting your grant form

• Bank details verification

• Agree a formal start date

• Arrange Induction call

Grant Management LifecycleInduction Call

Duration – 15 to 60 minutes

• Additional funding

• Awards pack – Terms and conditions, additional, grant offer pack CD and URN.

• Review targets – activities, indicators and outcomes

• Monitoring – Risk level, grant management process – telephone monitoring, end of year/grant reports and accounts, recruitment requirements.

• Payments – Lead in, start date, payment schedule, revenue/capital

• Publicity – Embargo, logo and materials

Activities/indicators/outcomes

Targets based on need and demand from initial consultation at application stage.

• Current success rate – 96%

Measuring targets:

•Simple but effectively linked to targets

•See example

Variations:

•Reporting changes and approval

Continuation funding

Introduced last year and has a success rate approximately 10%

•Timelines – Application process takes 11 months.

Mandatory evaluation report:

•Evidence how the existing project is making a difference

•Demonstrate that there is still a need for it to provide evidence of changing needs

•Show what worked well and what could be done better with further funding

Benefits of Evaluation

•Evaluation can:

-help you to make strong relationships with your beneficiaries

-ensure you know where improvements to your service or activities can be made

- provide evidence about the effectiveness of your work for current funders and future funding applications

- provide you with information that my help you to promote your service

- let you know if you have reached your goals

- help you to develop new partnerships

How will you MEASURE and EVALUATE your activities?Decide on the data you will collect and how you will collect it

Example

• The number of people taking part using sign-up sheets

• The feedback from beneficiaries on their experience of the session, after they have participated

• Feedback from people who didn’t take part to find out why

• Feedback from partners/external agencies on how the activity was delivered, what worked well and any issues that arose.

Monitoring Methods

Advantages Disadvantages

Informal chats Allows people to open up

Can be difficult to capture information

Questionnaires Easy way to collect lots of data

Response rate may be poor

Comments cards Quick and easy to organise

May only get a low level of response

Interviews Can reveal honest feedback

Very time consuming to organise

Discussion groups

Good for insight, especially at the beginning of a project

One person may dominate/lead the discussion

Evaluation Checklist

Checklist

What is your goal? Outcomes

How will you measure your success?

Monitoring methods

What were the outcomes? Results

Were the aims and objectives achieved?

Analysis

Were there any unexpected outcomes?

Evolution of project to meet changing needs

Making a difference

Longer-lasting Impact

Any questions?

Who? What? Why? Where? When?

Business

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