All Posts by Chris

Burngreave New Deal: Project Management

I’m half way through the lessons learned from the January 2012 evaluation of Burngreave New Deal for Communities.  This time: project management!  So far I have covered:

Here’s what the evaluation report says:

‘sound project management is vital in ensuring that objectives are met: this means not only ensuring financial probity but also that business planning is based on solid and legally binding contractual agreements; BNDfC was optimistic in its assumptions around support from government and statutory agencies which was not subsequently forthcoming and this resulted, ultimately, in the early end of the programme’

So, what happened?  This is why you never ever throw £50 million at a community!  Actually you can’t throw £50 million at a community because it is always mediated by other interests.  Why?  Because it is £50 million and responsible people are hardly going to let go of it, are they?

Potential Sources of Continuation Funding

Partnerships (at least in the fevered imagination of government ministers) were supposed to form between statutory, private, voluntary and community sectors.  They would plan together the best ways of spending the money, always with an eye to the end of the programme when funding would continue to be either mainstreamed or funded from assets.

So, this funding was to come from two sources:

  1. local government, including the health authority and police
  2. through capital assets that would guarantee ongoing revenue funding for community projects

Mainstreaming

The NDC money ran out about a year before the end of the 10 year programme and all the partners disappeared apart from the community members of the board and the accountable body who had to stay with it whether they wanted to or not .  As the lesson learned states, there were no binding contractual agreements to continue to mainstream the revenue funded work under New Deal.

We have to face it, the partners were on board out of self-interest.  They needed funding and NDC was a source of funding.  When it dried up, they had to move on in pursuit of other sources of funding.  No-one blames them for this, as the lesson states there were no contractual obligations to continue with mainstream funding.  If mainstream funding was available it could be deployed from the beginning of the programme, enhanced with New Deal money.  Maybe this happened to some degree.  But it was hardly going to miraculously appear at the end!

Assets

Burngreave NDC had assets, oh yes.  There were 3:

  • Forum House became available and New Deal took it on because otherwise it would be demolished.  It was in use for a period but largely surplus to requirements.
  • The Vestry Hall is a landmark building and its refurbishment, from a derelict state, funded by New Deal.  But it could never be viable and it still isn’t.  So New Deal subsidised it with the only asset that had any chance of being viable …
  • … Sorby House.  This was the old DHSS offices and was fully refurbished into office space.  The idea was rental income from these offices would generate revenue for community projects.

So, what happened?  Two things did for Sorby House.

  • with the 2008 recession, demand for office space was much reduced across the city.
  • political control of the council changed.  Under Labour, one floor was to be occupied by a local government department who would act as an anchor tenant.  Guess what!  There was no binding contract.  The Lib Dems decided not to honour what was presumably a gentleman’s agreement.

So, we ended up with 3 white elephants.  The only option at the end of NDC was to hand ownership over to the accountable body.  There were vague promises that they might be handed back to the community should they ever become viable.  Personally, I wouldn’t touch them with a bargepole.

Not one of these buildings offers a viable community space.  There are no unstructured meeting spaces in Burngreave whatsoever.  There are rooms for meetings but nowhere where people meet casually.

What Happened?

And now with the cuts, we’re seeing council departments move into Sorby House.  This was inevitable because if the council sold Sorby House, national government would claw back the proceeds of the sale.  The plans are to close Burngreave Library because the council has to make cuts.  If the campaign to save the library succeeds, it is likely to move to Sorby House because the council can sell the library building and retain the proceeds of sale.  Under the circumstances it makes sense to do this but it is hard to see how exactly Burngreave has benefited from the New Deal investment.

The Community Web Consultant Website

If your third sector organisation needs to develop or review its online presence, the ‘Community Web Consultant‘ website is your first call.  I am an experienced community development worker and this site can help you find the most economic and effective way forward.  What you see on the site today is only the beginning of the story.

The Blog

I wrote about the blog Community Development Online last Friday.  This will build into a reference for your web presence, written with the community and voluntary sectors in mind.  The best way to follow it is to sign up for the email list.  The form is on the site at the top of the right hand column.  If you do this, you will receive three things:

  • every Tuesday, a summary of the last week’s blog posts.  This means you can review what I’ve written about and read anything that interests you.  You need return to the site only when there is something that interests you!
  • you will receive a free email sequence “Real Community Development”.  This series of emails introduces some key issues in community development; it contains nothing about websites but plenty of ideas and challenges to community development practice.
  • sometimes, I’ll send you an extra email about new developments on the website.  I’ve got lots of ideas for making life easier online  for community and voluntary organisations.  I hope we can share ideas on the website and together we develop online tools to help groups get the best from limited resources.

 Community Web Consultancy

Community and voluntary groups often waste scarce resources paying for websites that don’t work for them.  They can’t afford commercial rates and so their sites are either developed by experienced designers, who don’t understand the sector and because they have a business to run design a low-cost site that is basic, or else they find a volunteer who doesn’t always understand what works.  The upshot is sites that do not work properly and can be a liability.

We need to approach developing a web presence on a shoestring in a different way.  Wasting scarce resources on sites that don’t work is hardly satisfactory.  If you have time to invest, then you can learn the basics, perhaps calling in professional help when you get stuck or want to try something new.

An assessment is a good starting point and you can find out what it involves on my website.  I’m planning a host of tools to help you develop your web presence and maintain it in-house as far as possible.

If after you’ve read about assessments, you’re not sure whether it is right for you, I’d be happy to take a look at your current website.  I can do this in a very short time and offer some ideas about where it is going wrong (and where it is going right!).  A site review might help you work out why your site does not attract support.

One last thing.  I do charge for some services.  If I say something is free, it is free and subject only to the usual constraints in law, eg copyright,  you are welcome to use the free material on the site.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for, tell me.  The site is nowhere near complete and so I will be delighted to add material to help you if I can.  We desperately need to develop online communities that will help us re-build our real life communities.  If we’re going to do this we need to learn how to buy and sell online.  Stay with me and find out what I mean.

It would be brilliant to hear from you.  Let me know what you think and what you would like me to write about.  And don’t forget to sign up to the blog!

Finding Your Site Using Back-Links

This second Thursday post about how to encourage visitors to your site us about using back-links.  The full list of approaches to increasing traffic is in the earlier post “How to Help the Right People Find Your Site” and last time I discussed direct entry.

Back-links can be a powerful way to drive traffic to your site and they are effective locally as well as globally.  So, what is a back-link?

A link on your site, can take your visitor to another page on your site or to a page on another site.  When you link to another site, the site owners can find out about it and to them it is a back-link.  So, back-links are links from other people’s sites to yours.

They are useful for two reasons:

  1. You will get visitors directly through back-links.  They visit the other site and follow the link to yours.
  2. Search engines follow back-links and so the more you have, the more likely you are to be found by search engines.  (I’ll write about search engines in another post in this series).

Things to Consider When Seeking Back-Links

  • They are best if they come from relevant sites.  Some people look for any opportunity for a back-link but if they drive visitors to your site who are not interested in your offer, they have no value.  Some people spam websites and blogs by trying to get comments onto them to increase their back-links.  This is something to watch out for if you have a blog but don’t do it; it has no value whatsoever to your business, as well as being a nuisance.
  • A good back-link would be from a site that shares your market but not your product.  So, if you are a baker, you might have links from other local traders.
  • The anchor text is important.  This is the text highlighted and linked to your site.  Search engines read this text and if it says something like “Fred’s Bakery for Excellent Bread” (where Fred is your business name) then this will increase the value of the link.  It also encourages visitors to follow the link.  Sometimes you may be able to suggest the anchor text to the linking site.
  • Reciprocal links are a vexed question.  This is where they link to you and you link to them.  On the one hand, this could increase visitors to both sites.  Where you have the same market, eg two shops in the same row of shops, it might make sense. However, it seems search engines ignore reciprocal links.  If you’re not dependent on search engines (eg if your trade is mostly local) then reciprocal links may not be a problem.

Quality of Copy

One final point.  If your site has good copy, other sites will link to it for that reason.  So, blogs might review your site or your business.  Or some sites may link simply because they think your copy is a good read.  How have you encouraged other sites to carry links to your site?

If you have good copy regularly updated, you may find email lists helpful.  And these will be the topic of my next post.

How have you built back-links to your site?  Use comments to share your tips for good practice.

Donations: What Still Needs to be Done?

If you have followed this sequence of posts, you will know how your copy should cover your charity’s

so now you need to make the case for your readers’ continued support.

This is the core of your message.  Your next step will be a request for a donation, so you need to make this convincing.

Describe your new initiatives.  Be specific.  Link to what has gone before where it is relevant.  You might ask for more support for a specific project or for a spin-off project by the same people or for support for a similar project elsewhere.

So, be

  • clear about what you are going to do;
  • specific about what needs to be done;
  • sure offer a breakdown of costs if you can; if people can see what their £25 or £100 donation will purchase it can help then see the value of their contribution;
  • sure to outline your projected outputs and outcomes and
  • absolutely clear about the outcomes as these show the transformation you’re aiming for.

Outputs are the specific things you are going to do with the money.  If you say you’re going to build a school in a particular place, then your donors will expect to see a school in that place within your timeframe.  They can be difficult to quantify, eg research might not promise a specific output.  There might be a cure for a specific type of cancer one day but you may not be able to guarantee it will happen this time.  With something like this you can be specific about the research you will carry out – a cure would be a possible outcome.

Your outcomes answer the question, why?  So, what will the school do for the people who use it or work in it?  Outcomes are in their nature not entirely predictable.  So, a school is likely to help people find better jobs.  But the ideas the pupils and staff come up with once they start work will not be predictable.  People donate towards outcomes not outputs; they want to see the difference your outputs will make to real people.

If you are not sure what your outcomes will be, this need not be a disadvantage.  It adds intrigue to what you’re doing.  In the next post I’ll show you how you can use this to your advantage.

So, have you some interesting outcomes to share?  How have you demonstrated outcomes on your website?

Introduction to the Awareness Ladder

So far I’ve introduced you to several types of page you might find on a website.  Some are obvious and typically found on most websites, whilst others are often hidden and you find them according to how you enter the site and what you do while you’re there. Last time I wrote about how to assess your website needs and in this and future posts I’ll offer a few more guidelines.

I’m going to use a model for a website structure based on the awareness ladder.  I’m indebted to Ben Hunt for this approach although it is probably not his invention.

To build any website, you need to understand your market and their awareness of what you’re offering, whether it is a product, a service or a cause.  Broadly it works like this:

A frogStep 0 – I do not have a problem

People who are not aware they have a problem may still have it!  If you want to approach them you need to show them they have a problem.  So, the problem is a plague of frogs.  These people haven’t looked out of their window or else they don’t think a plague of frogs is a problem.

Step 1 – I have a problem and have no idea whether there is a solution to it

These people are experiencing a plague of frogs as a problem.  They may have a phobia about frogs, or fear treading on them but whatever it is they know they have a problem.

Step 2 – I know there are many possible solutions

These people have done some research and found a number of possible solutions.  They may arrive at your site as a part of their research.  They may have found frog poisons, frog food, brushes for sweeping them out of harm’s way,  frog recipes, fences to stop them getting onto their property …

Step 3 – I am aware of your solution

These people have read about your solution.  Frogs eat slugs and snails and so your solution is to keep them in a special frog pool with anti-cat and anti-heron devices.  However, this person is not persuaded your solution is the best!

Step 4 – Now I’m convinced this is the best solution

… because you’ve brought together all the evidence you can that your solution is the best.  You’ve shown that when a garden is a haven for frogs, all the slug and snail problems will be a thing of the past.

Step 5 – I’m willing to pay for your product, how do I do it?

Home and dry.  You have a customer for your patent frog pool formula!

These 6 stages could be a framework for your website.  So, what do you do next?  Any ideas?  Have a go by commenting if you can’t wait until next time!

Burngreave New Deal: The Accountable Body

Today, the second of six lessons learned according to the evaluation of Burngreave New Deal for Communities.  My purpose is to ask: how is finance deployed in communities?  Last time I looked at Community Based Partnerships and this time it is the Accountable Body.

The government insisted upon an accountable body to make sure Burngreave NDC spent its millions properly.  Local delivery agencies were accountable to NDC, NDC to the accountable body, which in turn was accountable to the Regional Government Office.  Whilst the programme needed to be protected against fraud, does taking precautions insulate the scheme from risk?

 ‘there is a need to establish from the outset the role, remit and boundaries of the accountable body, and expectations of the contribution of the community and partner agencies’

After 10 years someone noted it would have been a good idea to clarify expectations at the beginning!  What on earth did they think they were doing?

A Foregone Conclusion?

The accountable body was a foregone conclusion.  It was the local authority.  I’m not aware that it was any different in any other of the 39 New Deals.  Was there any other serious contender?  What if the health authority had done it?  Or the police?  Or Burngreave Community Action Trust (BCAT)?

I’m sure BCAT at the beginning would not have been able to do it.  Did anyone ever ask, what would BCAT have to do to become the accountable body?  Of course the way most people would have looked at it is this:

“We have £50 million pounds.  Who can be trusted with £50 million?  The local authority; we can always trust politicians and council officers.  BCAT?  They can’t even agree among themselves.  Don’t forget it’s £50 million pounds, a lot of money for a community group.”

You will have gathered I’m sceptical about injecting £50 million into any community.  But if you are going to do it, wouldn’t it be an idea to ask for a moment about what it is for?  Yes, it is a lot of money.  We all know it is a lot of money.

But from where I’m sitting now, it’s all gone.  We have almost nothing to show for it.  Some lives changed for the better, no doubt about that.  But we have no legacy, nothing to show for all that expenditure.

Could It Be Done?

Imagine if someone had said, ‘Look we chose Burngreave because of BCAT.  We know they can’t handle the full programme now, so how do we develop their capacity so that as soon as possible they can be the accountable body?’

If you’re going to chuck money away, you might as well chuck it away magnificently.

Instead, they tied it up in the usual structures.  It was safe even though it didn’t need to be safe.  Oh for politicians with vision, who trust the people.

And yes, I know to make BCAT the accountable body, would tie it up in red tape.  The problem is £50 million does not sharpen vision.  With money like that, you lose vision because the money is all you can see.

Does anyone have examples of community organisations entrusted with huge sums of money with no prior commitments?  How did it go for them?

Next: Project Management  (you’ll love this one) (honest)

A Guide to the Community Development Online Blog

Today I shall explain how I’ve organised this blog and so help you track down the threads you might be interested in.  If there are other threads you would like me to cover, leave a comment.

The blog has 4 main categories, each with several subcategories and these can be seen in the sidebar.  If you click on “Resources” in the main navigation, you will find pages about the subcategories.

Stay with this post and I’ll show you where I’m taking the blog for now.  As I receive feedback comments, I can change direction and focus on what interests its readers.

Many third sector organisations have poor websites and do not use their online presence to support their work.  There are several reasons for this but they mostly relate to lack of financial resources and a shortage of staff or volunteer time.  So, the challenge is how to use the available resources more effectively.  So, my emphasis is how to deploy your resources so that the techniques you use are subject to your overall strategy.

Mutuality

This category is about community development and how it can be supported online.  It is not just for community groups.  Many organisations working in neighbourhoods need to know what works and what doesn’t.  So, if your church wishes to develop work in its neighbourhood or if you are a local business seeking to build community in a neighbourhood or across a city, this category will help you.

Currently, I’m blogging about New Deal for Communities and the lessons learned in its final evaluation in Burngreave, my community.  I’m going to show you how grants often do not build community.  I’ll show you how the local economy is central to any neighbourhood work and how it can be supported online.

Marketing

Marketing is relevant to your work whether you have something to sell or do not!  If you have a cause and want to bring people together around it you need to understand marketing.  Your web presence is a powerful marketing tool.  If you’re not using it for marketing, for what are you using it?  Too many websites don’t do anything at all!

At the moment I’m writing about the structure of websites and the various types of pages you might find on them.  Each page should have a single clear purpose for your marketing strategy.

Purpose

This category shows how you can work out the purpose of your site.  It explores how you generate conversations online and build relationships.  The internet is a communications tool and if you’re not using it for that purpose, your organisation is missing opportunities.

This sequence explores some general principles for seeking donations online.  Donations are by no means the best way of generating income online but many organisations will recognise this approach and it illustrates important points about building relationships online.

Technique

This category demonstrates how to do things online.  There are plenty of sites that will show you details of how to use applications and techniques.  When I describe an application or a technique, I shall always introduce it from a strategic viewpoint.  How can we use this to be more effective?

These posts at present cover ways you can drive traffic to your site.  This is an important topic for many organisations trying to promote their cause or business online.

Could be Anything

The idea is to respond to your requests on Fridays.  I can write about anything and respond to your ideas without breaking the sequence on other days.  So, do let me know what you would like me to cover!

And don’t forget you can subscribe to the blog for a weekly update so that you can easily review the topics I’m posting about.  If you subscribe you will also receive a free email sequence about community development.

Next week I shall write about how I plan to develop this site to support brilliant online voluntary sector work!

 

Finding Your Site by Direct Entry

Over the next few Thursday posts I shall look in detail at how to you can encourage people to visit your site.  The full list of approaches to increasing traffic is in the earlier post “How to Help the Right People Find Your Site”.

Direct entry is where your visitor types your url into their browser.  To do this  they are likely to copy your url from a document you supply.  This approach may seem to be a bit primitive compared with the others but it is important particularly for local organisations.

Three things you need to consider when you think about direct entry.

  • How local is your market?  Do your customers live or work close to your business?  Local might mean a part of a city or across a city or region.  If your market is national or global, direct entry will be less relevant to your marketing needs, although it may always have some relevance, eg at conferences or if you post out products.
  • How visible is your business?  If you have a shop front business, with people passing the entrance, this opens up extra possibilities for direct entry.  If your business is a service, perhaps from your own home, then your opportunities will be more restricted.
  • The value your site adds to your business.  If you are not visible, your site might be your main shop window.  If you have a real shop window, you will need to think about how your site enhances opportunities for customers who already use your shop.

You need to develop a marketing strategy dependent upon whether you want to find new visitors or to increase sales to existing customers.

Let’s say you have a bakery with a single outlet with plenty of footfall.  You may want to:

  • encourage visitors to come to your shop from other parts of the city.  Can you persuade them to take a detour to your shop?  For example, you might (1) collaborate with neighbouring shops to develop a portal website to promote the local area, (2) run market stalls elsewhere in the city and encourage customers to go to your website.
  • increase sales to existing customers, by increasing customer loyalty.  They might spread your news by word of mouth and buy bread from you regularly.  So, on your website you might include recipes for your bread and sell the ingredients in your shop.  Whilst some people might try to make your bread at home, whatever the results, buying bread from you is always going to be easier.  The recipes will show people what your product is really like and help them understand what goes into your baking.

You will want to build long-term relationships with your customers, so that you can tell them of future promotions and developments.

So, how might you make your url better known?

  • Business cards are essential for any business.  There will be little room to publicise your promotions but hopefully people who receive your card will check out your site and join your email list.
  • Flyers can give people a reason to visit your site.
  • Posters are possibly less successful because people need to copy your url from the poster.  However, they are permanent and may still be around when the flyers have gone.
  • Things like paper bags.  A baker might sell produce on a market stall and include their postal address and url on the bags.  Perhaps add a reason to visit the url.
  • And don’t forget to add a signature at the end of your emails with your url and line of business.  This will come up every time you create an email and it can of course be deleted if it doesn’t seem appropriate.

Getting some traction between your website and your business is important if you are a local trader.  However, if your market is further afield, you will need other methods to increase visitors to your site.  They’re up next, starting next time with back-links.

Have you any examples of brilliant online promotions for local businesses?  How did they publicise their website locally?

Donations: What Have You achieved?

This is part of a sequence about website design to support a campaign for donations.  So far, you have

The next step is to show what your charity has achieved so far.

You will need to think about whether you put these headings on the same page or on a series of linked pages.  There is no final answer to this question.  If you have a lot of material you may find:

  • each step in your argument makes sense on a new page.
  • each step invites links from several parts of your site and so a page per point works
  • you want to present the material from different arguments in different ways.  So, you might have used stories for situation and approach, but now want to use statistics.

On the other hand if your copy is short, it may make sense if it appears on a single page.

If you are a new charity and have little evidence of your track record; say you are a new charity and then seek other evidence of your ability to deliver.  This might be the track record of people on your board or support from partner organisations.

So, what can you present at this stage in the argument?

  1. With statistics there are two issues.  Do you have convincing evidence of your performance?  How are you going to present it?  People tend to scan websites and so your stats need to be easy to pick up at a glance.  A prominent heading summarises the main findings expressed through bold graphics should be easy to pick up.  You can link to detailed information about the stats.  Also ask someone who understands stats to check your figures, to make sure they stand up and say what you claim they are saying.
  2. Social proof.  Stats present quantifiable information whilst social proof presents qualitative.  Are there people who have received help and are willing to provide a testimonial?  Or others who have observed and can verify your work?  Use testimonials with permission and if you use photos or illustrations with text, it’s best to check they’re happy with the pictures as well as the text.

It’s best to mix stats and social proof.  Keep it light and lively, offering a link to more information for those who want it.

Keep your information up to date and date your evidence!  If it is possible to see the evidence is fresh, it will encourage readers to take you seriously.

What evidence would you consider valid for a new charity that can’t present evidence of its work?  What sort of evidence is likely to make you enthusiastic for a cause?

How to Assess Your Website Needs

In my last two Tuesday posts, I described both the typical website as perceived by the casual visitor and something of their hidden life.  To make a start, you need to assess your website needs.

You need to understand website structure if you’re responsible for your own site.  Even if you pay a designer to create and look after your site, the more you understand site structure, the more productive your relationship with your designer will be.  The amount of help you use will depend on your budget and your aims for the site.

Four Things You Need to Consider

  1. What do you want your site to do? How will the site save you time and further your aims?
  2. You need to decide how you’re going to carry out your plans.  Use a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress, because then all the functionality you need is available to you.  You really don’t need someone to reinvent the wheel on your behalf.
  3. You might need (1) an email list, (2) some means for customers to pay you or make purchases, eg a ticketing service, (3) you will need to monitor your site, back it up and be sure it is secure.  There are many WordPress plug-ins and on-line services (paid and unpaid) that do all this and more.  I’ll cover these in the technical section of this blog.
  4. You need to decide how much you can do yourself and the support you need.  No-one has all the skills they need to do everything.  There are online forums that might help (this blog is one of them) but you will almost certainly need to purchase some services.  You need to manage these relationships and  I shall cover this in the Purpose category of this blog.

I can help you assess your current website or your plans for a new website.  An assessment will show you what you can do within your budget, how much you can do in-house and what you will need to pay for.  Details of this service are on my website, Web Consultancy Offers.

How did you decide how to implement your website?  What platform did you choose?  Did you seek advice or explore online?  Do the results satisfy you?  I’d be interested to read your reasons and so would many others.

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