Blogs

Not-for-profit organisations are required to show public benefit - we take action and raise money in pursuit of our charitable objects and mission. This means that we are accountable to a number of different stakeholder groups for the impact that we have and for our effectiveness and efficiency in achieving that impact. ActionAid’s primary accountability is to “rights holders” - people living in poverty, injustice and discrimination.

There are some essential differences between private and not-for-profit organisations. Although the situation is changing in relation to private businesses, not-for-profits are subject to much greater public scrutiny than the private sector.

As Professor Adrian Sargeant describes in his very excellent book, just as the origins of marketing can be traced back to the earliest forms of trade, non-profit marketing goes back in time.  14th century monks at a Cistercian monastery in Austria wrote a marketing and fundraising handbook that even included 22 model letters explaining how to apply the approach. 
 

Is there a proven formula whereby you can say that if, for example, an organisation receives 10 complaints in a month, then in fact x times that number of customers have actually received poor service?

Yet again I have been busy getting new features added to the SOCAP in Europe website. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of a development site so - although we try to be careful - sometimes this create challenges ....and problems! A few weeks ago, we updated our CRM system that integrates with the website and also provides the online event management system for us. I thought that the upgrade had gone smoothly and booked myself onto a couple of upcoming events without any difficulty. Therefore, I assumed everything was okay...
 

We've continued to press ahead over the last few weeks with developing the SOCAP in Europe presence on the web and social networks. We now have a SOCAP in Europe group on Linked In (group: SOCAP Europe) and are making more use of our Twitter account (socapie). You can use the new Linked In group to engage in discussion and debate and also to find out about upcoming events and other updates. If you are a LinkedIn member, join our group now!

Traditional approaches to cutting costs in public services won’t work.  We need to move to more rational, evidence-based approaches that keep the needs of public at their heart. 

Easier said than done?  It’s do-able given grit and determination…

I've been spending the last few weeks overseeing the implementation of SOCAP in Europe's new website and integrated CRM system. The objective has been to provide online features for some of the more 'admin heavy' tasks such as event and membership sign-up and, of course, to make everything work that much better for our members!

A review of Upside Down Management – a Common Sense Guide to Better Business by John Timpson pub. Wiley £12.99 ISBN 978-0-470-68945-5

Transparency and 21st Century Customer Service

I dropped in to a packed house at the ICS Annual Conference and a question was asked of the panel asking whether the 'old' version of customer service was fit for the 21st century. No and it was not fit for the last century either.