Disability in the workplace: Georgie’s Story

A recent study by healthcare provider Bupa found that two in five (43%) employees with a less visible disability haven’t disclosed it to their employer.

This got us thinking. Half the team at Bamboo has a disability. Have they felt comfortable enough to talk about their disabilities at work?

Let’s find out.

Here’s Georgie’s story.

What disability do you have?

My disability is called Stickler's Syndrome and I was born with it. Basically, my body is lacking in collagen. It affects my ears, eyes, nose, throat, and joints.

I was born with a cleft palate, and I had surgery to repair it three times. This is also part of the Syndrome: I had surgeries at 10 months, 13 and 16 years old. I also had facial reconstruction beginning at age 17 due to a lack of cartilage and bone in my nose.

One of my ribs was removed to build it up.

How does your disability affect you?

My ears and eyes are underdeveloped due to the lack of collagen, which means I have both visual and hearing impairments. It also causes my bones and joints to hurt. On the upside, the lack of collagen means I'm super flexible!

Also, now I'm older, a lot of my joints, such as my wrists, hips, and knees regularly pop out.

How do you manage your conditions?

I don't take medication for any of my ailments.

Have you disclosed your disabilities to employers?

My mother told me to keep quiet about my disabilities once I got into a work environment. However, I did reveal my disabilities to a former employer and regretted doing so.

Why?

I was discriminated against for my hearing impairment. My colleagues were horrible. They purposely spoke quietly around me and told me off when I didn't hear what they'd said. It dented my confidence.

What did you do about the discrimination?

Due to my lack of confidence and the health problems my family was experiencing, I didn’t hold the nursery accountable. I held my tongue, kept my head down, and got on with my job.

However, I had the opposite experience at Bamboo.

Graham (Bamboo Co-Founder) has a disability of his own and disclosed some difficulties he’s experienced, which made me feel comfortable telling him about my own. He inspired me to open up and advocate for myself.

What can employers do to support people with the same condition as you at work?

It doesn’t require a huge amount of adjustment. For me, (due to my sight issues), a games monitor is ideal, (as the screen is larger than a standard laptop screen) and a large font is a must.  

Also, due to my impaired hearing, I need people to speak loudly and clearly.

If someone discloses a disability, the team needs to have a basic understanding of the condition and how it affects the person. They also need to be patient and understanding.

What advice would you give someone with your condition when applying for jobs? Should they be open about the condition to potential employers?

I’d say be honest, and don’t let your disability define you!

Trustee Roles 101

In one of our previous blog posts, we gave you the lowdown on trustees. We looked at what a trustee is, the benefits of taking on a trustee role, and the responsibilities that come with it.

In this post, we’re going to look at:

• the composition of a charity board

• the skills and experience charities look for when recruiting board members

• the various roles you can apply for

Before we dive in, here’s a quick recap on the role of a trustee board.

A trustee is a volunteer who serves on the governing body of a charity, (known as the board of trustees.) The board has overall control of a charity and is responsible for making sure the charity does what it was set up to do.

Taking on a trustee role is a great way to help your community/a cause you care about while meeting new people and developing new skills. An invigorating and dynamic role, it puts you at the very heart of a charity and its work.

Composition of a charity board

Charity boards often comprise of 5-12 trustees. And they thrive on diversity, so charities look to recruit trustees of all ages, and from a range of backgrounds, with a variety of skills, experience, and perspectives.

Every charity is different, but most boards consist of trustees with a mix of:

• Specific professional or business skills such as finance, marketing, IT, or human resources.

• Personal, lived experience of the issues the charity focuses on.

• ‘Soft’ skills such as facilitating, teamwork, problem-solving, or even building the social side of being on a board.

• Experience working at a strategic level.

Honorary Officers

You can either apply to be a general trustee or what is known as a ‘charity’ or ‘honorary officer’. While each trustee has equal legal and financial responsibility, charity officers carry out specific duties to help the board function effectively.

Charity officer roles include a Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary, and they’re usually appointed/elected by the board.

What do honorary officers do?

Every charity is different, but we’ve outlined the key responsibilities for each role to give you an idea of what’s required.

Chair

The primary role of a chair is to provide leadership to the board.

Responsibilities

• taking responsibility for the board’s composition and development

• planning and conducting board meetings

• ensuring the board is effective in setting and implementing the charity’s direction and strategy.

• supporting and supervising the chief executive and acting as a channel of communication between the board and staff

• acting as a figurehead for the charity (for example, representing it at functions, meetings, or in the press).

• leading on the development of the board and making sure that its decisions are carried out.

• taking urgent action (but not decision-making unless authorised) between board meetings when it isn’t possible or practical to hold a meeting.

Vice-chair

Some boards recruit a vice chair. In some cases, the vice-chair acts as a deputy for the chair, taking on the chair’s role when the chair is absent. In others, the vice-chair is the ‘chair in waiting’ or ‘chair designate’ and will take over the chair’s role at the end of their tenure.

Treasurer

The treasurer helps trustees carry out their financial responsibilities.

Responsibilities

• presenting financial reports to the board in a format that helps the board understand the charity’s financial position.

• advising the board on how to carry out its financial responsibilities.

• ensuring compliance with financial systems and policies.

• working with professional advisors.

• overseeing the preparation of annual accounts.

• taking on some of the day-to-day financial duties, such as book-keeping, budgeting, and preparation of reports (particularly in small charities)

In case you’re wondering, the Treasurer is not solely responsible for the charity’s finances. All the trustees are jointly responsible and should be able to understand, consider and comment on financial information.

Secretary

The role of the Secretary is to support the Chair in ensuring the smooth functioning of the board.

Responsibilities

• Liaising with the Chair to plan committee meetings.

• Ensuring meetings are effectively organised and minuted.

• Checking that agreed actions from board meetings are carried out.

• Keeping up-to-date contact details of board members.

• Keeping a record of the organisation’s activities.

• Acting as a custodian of the organisation’s governing documents.

• Ensuring elections are in line with stipulated procedures.

• Ensuring organisation’s activities are in line with its objectives.

• Ensuring charity and company law requirements are met.

• Sitting on appraisal, recruitment, and disciplinary panels, as required.

• Ensuring meetings are in person or online in line with the governing document.

• Responding to all committee correspondence.

• Preparing a report of the organisation’s activities for the Annual General Meeting.

 Interested in becoming a trustee and want some help finding the right cause and role? We can help. Give us a call on 020 3750 3111 or email info@bamboofundraising.co.uk to chat to our friendly team.

How to fundraise on TikTok

If you’re a regular reader of the Bamboo blog, you’ll be aware that we’ve been dedicating blog space to helping you up your fundraising game on social media.

In this post, we’re looking at TikTok.

TikTok by numbers

Since launching in 2016, the video-sharing app has been downloaded three billion times. Today, it boasts more than a billion monthly active users and 45 million daily users.

With the average user spending 95 minutes a day on the app, you’ve got ample opportunity to reach donors and level up your fundraising on the platform.

More than just a dance

You may be wondering why a charity would bother with TikTok. After all, it’s just a bunch of kids dancing and lip-syncing to chart hits, right?

Sure, there’s a lot of that on the platform, and you can jump on the trend to raise awareness like British Red Cross did with their handwashing dance routine in March 2020. But there’s a lot more to TikTok than viral dance routines.

Let’s look at some of the ways you can use TikTok to attract the attention of donors and add some much-needed coffers to the fundraising pot.

Storytelling

TikTok videos can be up to ten minutes long. That’s plenty of time to hit people right in the feels.

You can use video (and music) to captivate donors with a compelling story that triggers an emotional response.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• A promotional video highlighting your charity’s mission

• A behind-the-scenes look at the work you do

• Video case studies from service users

• Archive footage

Live video

Going live on TikTok allows you to connect with donors in real time. There’s no time limit on live videos, and you can earn money through LIVE Gifts.

Live content can take many forms. For example:

• Fundraising events (you can include interviews with attendees and beneficiaries for added impact)

• Online charity auction

• Q&A’s

• Thank you messages to donors

• News updates

However, before going live on TikTok, you need to make sure you’re prepared. Here are some things to think about:

Time of day

What time is your live stream planned for? Do some research into when your audience is most active on the platform and schedule the stream around that.

How long?

As we said earlier, there’s no limit on the length of a live stream. TikTok suggests the sweet spot is 30 minutes, but it’s up to you. Go longer. Go shorter. Just make sure you’re ready and able to keep viewers engaged for the duration.

Sound and vision

You don’t need to deliver a BBC-quality broadcast, but you want to optimise it as much as possible. Put some thought into lighting, camera angles, and microphone placement, and test your equipment in advance to ensure you’re getting the best possible quality from it.

If viewers are struggling to see or hear you, you’ll struggle to hold their attention.

Quality connection

Before you go live, check your internet connection. A solid connection is a must-have. Wi-Fi is best. If not, at least 4G. You don’t want to go dark in the middle of your stream.

Even a momentary disconnect will have a negative impact on viewership.

Donation stickers

When you post a video to TikTok, add a donation sticker. Viewers that tap the sticker will be taken to an external page that provides information about your charity and the opportunity to donate.

To benefit from this feature, you’ll need to sign up to Tiltify. This is the company that TikTok has partnered with to process charitable donations.

Once signed up, you can add donation stickers to all your videos and direct users to your donation page.

Hashtag challenges

One of TikTok’s unique fundraising features is hashtag challenges.

To give you an idea of how they’re used, for every video posted with #PetBFF during a period in 2019, Tik Tok donated $1 to animal welfare organisations worldwide, including Blue Cross. That’s potential income, for, well nothing!

While we’re talking animals, Caenhill Countryside Centre has accumulated almost 350,000 followers with the help of a hashtag. Not bad for a small, Wiltshire-based animal shelter!

Display a fundraiser on your profile

One of the simplest ways to attract donations through TikTok is to add a fundraiser link to your profile.

Adding a link is straightforward. Click ‘edit profile’, hit ‘add nonprofit to your profile,’ and choose your charity from the list. Visitors will then be able to see a ‘Supporting [your charity name]’ link on your profile, which they can tap to donate to your cause.

Again, to make use of this feature your charity needs to be approved on Tiltify.

Final word

TikTok is a social media fundraising must-have. It offers some neat fundraising features in-app and has the potential to skyrocket awareness of your cause due to its immense popularity.

Download the app, sign up, and kickstart your TikTok fundraising journey today.

Do you need a social media guru to manage your social media fundraising efforts? We can help. Give us a call, on 020 3750 3111 or email info@bamboofundraising.co.uk.

The Bamboo team battles it out at the Blue Cross quiz!

At Bamboo, we love a quiz. And doing one to raise money for a great cause is even better. So, we jumped at the chance to take part in a virtual charity quiz on June 1 …

Here’s the lowdown.

The quiz was raising funds for Blue Cross, a fantastic animal welfare charity that provides a wide range of support and services for pets across the UK.

For the unfamiliar, the charity:

• Provides free and reduced-cost veterinary treatment for sick and injured pets when their owners can’t afford private veterinary fees

• Finds loving new homes for pets

• Offers behavioural and training advice

• Runs a pet bereavement support line

• Manages a network of pet food banks

Right, back to the quiz.

Once we were all logged on, there was a brief introduction from our Blue Cross host, then it was time to test our wits.

The quiz was run through Slido (which, incidentally, is a great option if you’re looking to host your own virtual quiz). It consisted of 30 multiple-choice general knowledge questions, and we had 20 seconds to answer each one (20 seconds goes mighty fast when you’re torn between two answers!)

This question stumped a fair few of us: ‘Alexander the Great died from complications after falling off his elephant. True or false?’
54% of us thought it sounded random enough to be true, but we were wrong. He died ‘mysteriously’ at the age of 32.

How did we do?

Not too badly.

It turns out our very own Tim Barnes (Co-Founder) is a secret egghead. With an impressive score of 26/30, he enjoyed a comfortable win.

His prize? In his words, ‘loads of dog stuff,’ (it’s just as well he has a dog!)

Our Digital Marketer, Georgie, came a respectable 4th, closely followed by Recruitment Consultant, Conan, who ‘officially’ finished in 6th place, but claims it should have been ‘tied 5th’, (he ended up with the same score as the person in 5th place). However, he shared his 6th place spot with fellow Bamboo brainiac, Joanna (our Partnerships & Operations Director(, so he was in good company.

Content Manager Cara was disappointed to finish in 7th place. She was convinced she’d guessed well enough to win …

As for Graham (the other Bamboo Co-Founder), he claims he got kicked off the platform before the quiz finished, so didn’t get placed. Likely story!

Blue Cross is looking for human and canine volunteers!

We asked Blue Cross if they wanted us to flag any campaigns/initiatives in this post.

Alyson Jones, Director of Rehoming at Blue Cross said: “Our Hertfordshire branch (the nearest branch to London) is looking for foster cat volunteers.” (find out more here). She added, “we’re also looking for ‘canine’ volunteers to be ambassador dogs in Manchester” (if you’ve got a brilliantly behaved pooch, check out how to apply here).

The charity has also launched a campaign to ban greyhound racing. If you want to support it, sign their petition here. 

Final Word

We thoroughly enjoyed exercising our collective grey matter for such a great cause.

Congratulations to Blue Cross for organising such a fun event, and to Tim for being such a boffin!

Blogging 101: Part one

Thinking about starting a blog? There’s never been a better time to do it.

The latest research shows that blogs are read by a whopping 77% of internet users. That equates to just under 4 billion people who actively seek out blog content on a regular basis.

This puts organisations that blog at a competitive advantage.

How? For starters, they receive 55% more website visitors and 97% more links to their website. That’s an impressive amount of traffic for a tactic that costs 62% less than traditional marketing formats but generates 3x the leads.

If you consider that 70% of people would rather learn about an organisation through blog posts than ads, you’ll see why a blog is a no-brainer.

In short, if you’re not blogging, you’re missing out.

What is a blog?

For the unfamiliar, let’s kick off with a definition.

A blog (short for weblog) is a regularly updated website or web page that provides business content.

It’s a powerful marketing channel (just like social media, direct mail, email marketing, etc.,) that can be used (among other things) to publish insights, thoughts, stories, and educational content.

Why blog?

The primary purpose of blogging is to boost traffic to your website. But it also provides you with an opportunity to provide an expert voice and engage supporters.

Let’s look at these in a little more detail.

1.   Boost website traffic

When you want to research something, be it a product, service, or company, where do you look? The internet.

Search engines (i.e., Google, Bing, Microsoft Edge) are our first port of call to find information. This includes donors looking for charities to support.

If you want your website to be the first one donors see, you need to be at the top of the search pages (just as RSPCA is when you type in ‘animal charities UK’).

SEO, or ‘search engine optimization’ is the process of improving your website to push it further up the search pages on the search engines.

Here are three ways blogging helps with SEO.

New Content

Search engines love fresh, high-quality content. By regularly publishing blog posts on your website, you’re signalling to search engines that your site is active, relevant, and authoritative.

The more blog content you create, the more opportunities you’ll have to show up in search engines and drive traffic to your website.

Keyword Optimisation

Blogging provides a valuable opportunity to incorporate keywords and phrases into your content. This improves your website's visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Backlinks

One of the most important factors in SEO is the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to your site. A backlink is when one website links to another with an anchor text. An example of a backlink is any article you find that links to another source or website.

Blogging can help you attract backlinks by creating valuable, shareable content that other websites will want to link to.

2.   Provide an expert voice

Want people to see you as the go-to charity in your niche? A blog can help you achieve it. If you publish high-quality, original content that educates and informs your audience on a regular basis, they’ll keep coming back for more.

You can educate your audience by:

• Offering practical tips and advice
  Example: Supporting a partner with depression

• Sharing useful insights from events/research
  Example: 6 take-home messages from the world’s largest haematology conference

• Including interviews/opinions/thought pieces from experts in your niche
  Example: International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2022: Meet professor Melissa Westwood

• Promoting other organisations that offer support in your niche
  Example: Guest blog: Disability Law Service

• How-to posts
  Example: Testicular cancer: symptoms, tests, and treatment, and how to check your balls

3.   Engage supporters

In a recent blog post, we explained that humans are hardwired to respond to stories. They activate emotional centres in our brains, evoking strong, visceral reactions such as empathy and anger. When emotions are triggered, it inspires us to act (i.e., make a donation). This makes story telling an incredibly powerful tool for fundraisers.

Okay, but what sort of stories trigger emotion? Stories about:

• The issues you’re tackling
  Example: Violence against women: the statistics around the world

• The people you help
  Example: Sarah’s story

• Your supporters
  Example: Starlight Champion and Cyclist: Richard Betteridge

• The impact you have
  Example: Ukraine one year on: the Red Cross Red Crescent's response

Final Word

In this post, we’ve told you why you should be blogging. In the next couple of posts, we’ll tell you how to blog, share some best practice tips in terms of format, design, content, and promotion, and look at some real-life examples for inspiration.

In the meantime, if you’re looking to launch a blog but don’t have the time or resources to get it off the ground, we can help. Give us a call on 020 3750 3111 to find out how.