We’ve had a great year working with some fantastic organisations such as Centrepoint, Blind Veterans UK, London Green Fair, Digital Disruption and Spacehive, launching our microvolunteering platform BrightWorks has been brilliant, and we truly enjoyed the PR Prom!

Since Bright One is entirely run by volunteers we would obviously not have managed without our amazing volunteers – so a massive thank you to all of you that have given your time to a Bright One or BrightWorks project in the last year.

Have a look at our Annual Report to find out a bit more about what we’ve been up to…

The annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival took place in London last week with a wide selection of films that show human rights issues and abuse around the world. The festival highlighted issues such as the privatisation of the water supply in Bolivia and trafficking of young women in Eastern Europe.

In the documentary ‘Little Heaven’ we meet the clever and ever so sweet Lydia, who lives in an orphanage in Ethiopia together with other teenagers that have become her family. They all come from difficult backgrounds but they are happy in the orphanage, there’s food on the table and they all go to school. The intense medication routines these kids have to do several times each day is what differs their days to the days of other kids. The reason for this is because they are all living with HIV.

‘Little Heaven’ is a gorgeous piece of film that gives you the opportunity to share the everyday lives of these young teenagers – the pressures of doing well in school, the joy of water surfing when cleaning the floors with loads of water and soap, the admiration of footballers like Drogba whose poster has a prime spot on the wall above the bed.  The film wants to highlight the stigma that surrounds many living with HIV in Africa as well as informing of help that exists in terms of free medication if you’re registered with a hospital.

I went along to the screening of ‘Little Heaven’ at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) and was very moved by Lydia’s story. And so was everyone else in that cinema. We all ignored the beaming London spring sun and the beer gardens we passed on our way there so I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one passionate about the cause wanting to support Lydia and her friends. But there was no call to action and not much further information from Human Rights Watch. The filmmaker, Lieven Corthouts, was there for a Q&A in which he briefly mentioned that the orphanage is being funded by a small NGO in Belgium. But no name, no website details, and no instructions on how we could support their work.

Corthouts has created a beautiful and sensitive film and I wish I had time to watch more films during the festival but the aim of the festival feels a little lost to me. According to the official programme “The film festival brings human rights abuses to life through storytelling in a way that challenges each individual to empathise and demand justice for all”. But what does that mean? What difference does our empathy make? And how do we go about demanding justice for all?

Raising awareness is of course crucial, and a film festival is a brilliant way of doing it for any culture-loving person like me but I do feel slightly superficial when watching a film like this, next door to the Queen, and I’m not asked to do anything about it afterwards. Corthouts mentioned that the organisation probably needs to build/buy another orphanage but financial issues are preventing them. Why not ask us to help out? There could be a straightforward call to action and I’m certain everyone in the ICA that evening would have helped out, at least with some cash before leaving the cinema.

I’ve done some Googling and I think the organisation behind Little Heaven is called Siddartha. Unfortunately the donation page doesn’t make much sense.

A missed fundraising opportunity?

Greenpeace has been campaigning against environmental degradation since 1971. They are looking for some help with their website Javascript.

The Afircan Prison Project works to bring dignity and hope to men, women and children in prisons in Africa, through education, healthcare, access to justice and community reintegration. They are looking for someone with good research skills to write a blog for their website on issues relating to justice and penal reform in prisons in Africa and other related topics.

Over the past 13 years the Communities Empowerment Network (CEN) has transformed thousands of vulnerable and disadvantaged childrens’ lives, They are on Bright Works looking for help with their SEO.

Can you spare some time to help these causes? Visit http://brightworks.me and sign up!

For our current volunteers:

Have you taken the Bright Works online survey yet?

Please take a minute today to check out Bright Works on Cisco BIG Awards. ‘Like’ us and share please.

If you have an experience to share as a microvolunteer, or have any questions about Bright Works, drop us a line at support@brightworks.me

We’re encouraging every communicator working in the charity sector to fill in the CharityComms’ Communications Benchmark survey.

The results will let you compare your organisation to others and help build a picture of how the sector communicates. The survey contains questions about resources, your senior management’s attitude to comms, and where comms functions fit into your organisation.

The benchmark is free to take part in and results will be fed back by May, so will end up being a valuable resource for your organisation.

To take part and find out how other charities are communicating, fill in the survey here.

Bright One will and we look forward to seeing how we do things compared to others :)

Before we get started it should be pointed out that the answer to what the lobbyist register might mean for charities is potentially nothing. It may mean nothing because there’s a question in the consultation asking whether or not charities should be included in the register at all. If the Cabinet Office decides that charities are best left out of the register then this blog will lose all of its little value and I’ll swiftly disown it.

If we are included (and that’s a big if) then our inclusion will be fairly limited. The consultation itself points out the Australian register for lobbyists has a range of exclusions for charities but still includes them. The big ‘if’ around charity inclusion is getting bigger as the consolation continues, with NCVO changing their position this week at a the Hansard Society. NCVO had originally welcomed charity inclusion  saying that they think charities ‘should be subject to the same rules as…multi-client lobbying agencies’. On Wednesday night Sir Stuart Etherington, NCVO’s chief executive, said that, because the Government’s final proposal had been watered down in the face of feedback from the private-sector, “there is no rationale for charities to be part of it.”

But what might inclusion, even limited, mean for those of us working in public affairs? After all a consultation’s proposals aren’t written in stone. Well, at the most basic level we’ll have to put out name and job title on a list somewhere. While agencies might be forced to declare their clients, as a charity that engages in lobbying your organisation might be made to declare your sources of funding.

Importantly, the register will not force people to register meetings between individual ministers and lobbyists as the government feel ‘details of meetings between ministers and third parties are already published regularly’ enough. There will not be a statutory code of conduct and the reporting/monitoring responsibilities this would bring, not that this would give us any cause for concern in the charity sector!

We’ll have to wait and see what comes out of the consultation and what responsibilities they might bring with them. But the sector shouldn’t be too worried about the register, especially with inclusion looking less likely by the day, and in any case it will be up to the, very capable, larger charities to help the smaller ones understand what they’ll have to do (if anything).

For more on NCVO’s position and to hear the range of other views, then you can listen to a recording of Wednesday’s great Hansard Society event here: vimeo.com/HansardLobbyingEvent

Bright Works is one way that Bright One helps charities. Found at www.brightworks.me, the website lets third sector organisations connect with a pool of communications volunteers for small, one-off projects through microvolunteering. A few weeks a go I posted a testimonial from a volunteer using the platform. Today I thought I’d share some of the feedback that the charities themselves have said about Bright Works:

The experience has been a very positive one and I will definitely be recommending Bright Works to colleagues and contacts, as a very useful resource for small charities in particular.

The service is really useful and I would recommend it to colleagues

I have been happy with the work people have done so far.

A really great site and pool of helpful people.

So far feedback has been great, and we are busy looking for ways to improve the service still.

For any third sector organisations interested in posting a task, check out our blog post on what makes a good microvolunteering task for Bright Works, then visit Bright Works to submit.

At the moment, there aren’t nearly enough younger people going into charity trusteeship in this country. I’m going to try to convince you that it is something that you should consider.

Firstly, anyone can be a Trustee. You don’t ever have to have worked for a charity in any capacity, in fact in some ways you might be even more in demand if you haven’t because it is likely that you will bring a different set of skills for the role. Trustees are needed who have skills in such areas as finance, fundraising, PR, law and much more.

Secondly, you will be making a real difference. Trustees help to make sure that charities fulfil their charitable objectives- ie. what they were founded for. They keep charities fresh and full of new ideas and help them to reach out to the people who most need them.

Thirdly, it will teach you so much. Via my own experiences as a Trustee I have been involved with things as diverse as poring over architectural plans, representing the charity at the live screening of Children in Need and helping to set the pay levels of senior staff. You will have the opportunity to understand an organisation from top to bottom. Being a Trustee will be a great addition to your CV and will show employers that you are prepared to show real commitment to a cause that you believe in.

It shouldn’t be too hard to find a cause you do care about as there are thousands upon thousands of charities covering every area of interest imaginable. The chance of you finding something that you are attracted to is high and even if you have to travel a little the charity should be able to help you with expenses. It’s worth bearing in mind that some charities are very small and don’t have the time or resources to be very proactive in their recruitment. If there is a charity that you would like to be a Trustee for, just ask them. If they don’t have any positions they will at least have you in mind for the future.

Have a look around on the web and please think about applying to be a Trustee. Good Luck!

This guest post was written by Alex Swallow, founder of Young Charity Trustees. You can connect with them on Twitter @YoungTrustees or via their LinkedIn group where they post news, discussions and interesting trustee opportunities. If you think trusteeship could be something for you and would like to give it a try, we’ve got some roles going here at Bright One.

The High Tea Cast is an irreverent, savvy, monthly podcast combines music and popular culture chat, and great interviews with cool young leaders in fashion, food and third sector projects.

This month, Co-creators Sam Sparrow and Leanne Rice take a look at some worthy community ventures in 2012, finding ways their skills can help others and do some good.

We’re delighted that they picked out Bright Works and had some lovely things to say about the platform. Listen for yourself:

Thanks for the great feedback, ladies!

You can listen to the podcast at The High Tea Cast here or  subscribe via iTunes.

Oh, and you can find out more about Bright Works here.

This is why ChairtyComms, the membership body for charity communicators, yesterday began a campaign to exempt charities from copyright licensing fees. This campaign is backed by NSPCC, Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation and us here at Bright One.

We’re supporting this campaign because times are tight for all charities and. I know of at least one large charity press office which was having to cut back on weekend newspapers and some of the more expensive broadsheets at the same time as having to pay their NLA fees.

This makes little sense for the NLA which is owned by eight publishers of national newspapers, including News International and the Guardian Media Group. In the example above the charity’s NLA license was not huge so by cutting back on the broadsheets published by the NLA’s owners they were seeing the amount of money from this customer fall.

The NLA pricing structure for charities, which was agreed in 2003 with the NCVO, does give charities a discount and personally when I’ve dealt with the NLA they’ve been very helpful and understanding. The problem is what was mentioned above: 90% of the coverage charities monitor is of themselves, they’re not using it for commercial gain and have often played a big part in writing any piece. The current system misunderstands the way charity communicators work and treats them like their commercial (and profit-making) colleagues.

For those interested in the campaign see charitycomms.org.uk/charity_media_licensing and Vicky Browning, CharityComms Director, explains their position very well in this Guardian Voluntary Sector blog guardian.co.uk/media-licensing-charities-exempt. For anyone worried about your own licensing CharityComms has put together a great guide charitycomms.org.uk/guidelines/charity_media_licensing.

We started the year off with a slew of updates to Bright Works, our microvolunteering platform that lets causes connect with skilled volunteers in a now even simpler, effective and easy way. Now that the site is working better than ever, new projects have been added. If your New Year’s resolution was to give more back, here’s some great opportunities to start:

Small Charities Coalition and Charities Trustee Network’s ambition is to provide practical and applicable help to both the operations and governance of small charities. On Bright Works, they are looking for help revamping their website by adding photos, case studies and quotes from attendees. Do you have experience with CMS Typo3 and a few hours spare? Get in touch.

A1 Positive Recycling is an Exeter-based not-for-profit social enterprise that aims to establish an alternative technology education centre for the South West to train adults with learning difficulties. They are looking to build up a positive management team to help lead the organisation through the next stage in its development. Find out if you have what it takes.

Young Professionals in Human Rights is a network to share resources and experiences and promote innovation within the field of human rights. The group is looking for talented and innovative volunteer communications and web managers to help take their online presence to the next level. Could this be you?

The Lord’s Taverners is one of the UK’s leading youth cricket and disability sports charities. They are looking for help with several facets of a direct mail campaign. Do you have expertise you can share in this area?

These, and a dozen other projects, are currently active on Bright Works. If you haven’t already, sign up and see if there are any tasks you can help out with.