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October 3, 2018
Get digital
I’ve lost count of events where delegates are invited to use social media to amplify the key messages – although simultaneously it’s implied that the digital world is assumed to be beyond most of us and only for the ‘young folk’ in the audience. It’s a bit of a cringe but there’s probably more than a grain of truth to it – not so long ago community groups would seriously debate whether or not to have a web presence. Ever conscious that the sector needs to shape up digitally, this free service popped up the other day.
Platypus Digital, the charity digital marketing agency, has created a free email marketing course entitled ‘Why do digital?’ It is designed to show CEOs, trustees and funders why they need to use digital technology, rather than whator how to do it.
Its objective is, by winning that argument, to help release more funding for digital activities, a commonly-reported challenge faced by many fundraisers.
Matt Collins, Managing Director of Platypus Digital, believes that there is too much debate in charities about what to do with digital tools (usually it is ‘more digital’) or how to do it, such as how to use particular digital platforms effectively.
These debates, he argues, don’t usually help to solve the challenge of a lack of commitment to take full advantage of the opportunities digital provides.
The 10-stage email course is designed for charity staff to work their way through on their daily commute. Collins says that it will “arm you with the arguments you need to convince senior management by the time you get to work”.
He added: “It’s also perfect for people who want to understand the opportunities digital creates for their charity themselves.”
What the course covers
The course, available from the Why Do Digital website, covers:
• The trends – and why they mean you need to take digital seriously
• Fundraising – why keeping your eggs out of the digital fundraising basket puts your charity at risk
• Comms – why your communications team is digital first, whether they like it or not
• Service delivery – why you can’t deliver your service without digital
• Culture – why you can’t do anything without the right culture
After you sign up for free, you will receive one email every morning, each of which takes around two minutes to read, for 10 consecutive days.
People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it
Matt Collins explained more about the reason Platypus Digital were offering the course.
He said: “Like 38 million other people, we were inspired by Simon Sinek’s incredible Ted Talk ‘How great leaders inspire action’. We too believe that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
“We looked around the current messages about adoption of digital in charities, and realised the question ‘Why should we do digital?’ simply wasn’t being answered – everything covered what to do and how to do it. So we wanted to take the debate back a step, and try to answer that absolutely fundamental question.
“We strongly believe that lack of funding is the big problem. And a sector that fully understands why it should do digital will soon find that to be less of a problem.”