Working in a community organisation can be frustrating …
You know you need to reach out and build alliances but it can be daunting. However,
If you want to …
- Get clarity about your primary outcome
- List prioritised action steps towards your outcome and schedule them
- Build your organisation’s capacity to meet its outcome
- Build partnerships with like-minded organisations and businesses
- Promote your activities locally and online
- Integrate your local with your online presence
… I am here to help.
With over 30 years’ experience supporting community economic development in partnership with businesses and local government I have found the pressures of doing business day-by-day with the need to maintain work life balance, soon crowds out the time needed for thinking strategically. I know from personal experience how easy it is to lose sight of my original vision under the pressures of the day-to-day slog.
So, why not take a step back from the pressures and consider how a period of strategic reflection can lead to more effective action?
Working with me, you will clarify your aims and map a route to integrating your online presence with your local objectives. Whether you are seeking higher outputs and more creative outcomes, supporters for a cause or new ideas, insights into your neighbourhood or a source of income for your group through trading, I will help you increase clarity and set your feet on the right path.
Local Economy and Online Transformation for Community Groups
Are you fed up with the grant-making cycle, where you invest years of action into grant aided schemes to see all your work melt away as the funding ends and your experienced staff move on to pastures new? Are you frustrated to find work with disadvantaged groups never bears fruit because you are unable to involve business people in your area?
I can help community and voluntary organisations, including faith groups, who have a cause they wish to promote in real life (usually a city or a neighbourhood) or online. It can work for larger national or international causes too, although as the scale increases the online element will dominate.
I can help you reflect strategically on your priorities, where you are struggling to be true to your vision and work out how to develop activities beneficial to your neighbourhood and/or in support of local business activity.
This package is for you if you want to Do It Yourself but need help to set off in the right direction.
You will work out how to:
- be clear about your cause and confident promoting it online and in real life
- find the information you need to examine the context in which you operate and how your current plans address it, using an open source marketing method. (As the content for this is open source you will have continuing access to the information you need free of charge.)
- integrate your vision for your locality, your business plan and your work / life balance
- identify assets you may be able to sell to raise funds or work out how to raise donations
- find followers and build community locally and online
- identify possible partners locally and online and find out how to build relationships with them
My offer includes:
- Two 50 minute sessions per month focusing on how you and your organisation can champion economic activity in your neighbourhood, town or city.
- Up to two 10-minute “on-demand” coaching sessions per month to provide extra support when you are feeling stuck or something happens where you need to prepare a quick response
- Email support for issues that arise between meetings, which can be resolved by email or in preparation for the 50 minute sessions.
Optional Bonuses
This package assumes you are confident about building your own website and so need minimal support. If you need significant support, consider using my 6-month project development package. However, with this package I can help with setting up a new site or making significant changes to an existing site, for example by changing themes or plug-ins. We can agree how much of this support to include when we agree the package. For modest projects, a three-month package may be sufficient.
Please note where you need to purchase a domain name, hosting, certain premium applications, themes and plug-ins, these will be between you and third-party suppliers. I can help you find the most cost-effective approach but these purchases are your decision. It is possible to work with your current website if you have one and this can often be the most cost-effective option.
These optional bonuses may apply depending on our agreed strategy. They assume you are creating a new site using WordPress. I can provide
- online instruction in the use of WordPress and associated themes and plug-ins as a part of our consultancy sessions should you need it. (If we work with your current site and it is not WordPress based, I can offer this service if I have access to the site’s content management system.)
- At set up, installation of plug-ins to take care of security, back-up, analytics and search engine optimisation. This list can be adapted to meet your needs. (Most modern content management systems allow these facilities, I can help you check they are up-to-date but there may be additional costs depending on your current supplier.)
- Free access to certain premium themes and plug-ins and guidance for choosing a theme that will work for your business or organisation. Crucial to this is selecting a theme that is mobile responsive. (For non-WordPress sites I can help you select a theme but can not provide free access to premium themes.)
If you are interested, your first step is to book a free consultancy session.