It is January, it is 2012, and we would like to wish all our volunteers, charities, supporters and friends a Happy New Year. Bright One has had a great year in 2011 but we are very excited about 2012 as it’s looking to be even better!

Some of our highlights from last year would be working with over 20 great clients, involving more than 60 fantastic volunteers, launching our microvolunteering platform Bright Works and picking up the Discover E-Volunteering competition prize. And we’ve got lots to look forward to in 2012.

The financial and political climate in the UK has resulted in difficult times for the third sector with the number of people employed in the voluntary sector falling by almost nine percent according to new figures published yesterday. This is a worrying report but the World Giving Index 2011 by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) shows that there is an increase in charitable acts globally – people are more likely to give time and ‘help a stranger’ but the giving of money has fallen. The decrease in monetary donations can probably be blamed on the global economic crisis but the data from CAF presents a positive attitude in regards to the giving of time. According to the report, 28% of Brits volunteered in 2011 and this commitment to giving time rather than money may well be an indication of where we are heading.

With spending cuts and a decreasing work force charities are in need of support and volunteers are a great help. A proposed new tax relief scheme could possibly increase donations and volunteering by businesses and individuals interested in volunteering can find opportunities through several channels – here are a few we’ve listed.

Here at Bright One we will try to help out whenever possible and we will also continue to develop Bright Works – the new version is now live and we’re accepting new projects. So if you’re a charity looking for help or a volunteer looking to help out, get involved!

And if you’d like to attend an exciting new event where you’ll be able to mingle with some great people from the UK communications industry you should come along to the PR Prom taking place on Thursday 23 February in Shoreditch Town Hall in London.

We’re also very much looking forward to new projects in 2012 and we’re hoping to provide training sessions, work with new great clients and have new enthusiastic volunteers joining us.

What are your wishes for 2012? Let us know in the comment section below or drop us a line if you’d like to chat about our plans for the new year – we look forward to hearing from you!

- Tove and the Bright One team

The PR industry continues to grow and many agencies are seeing the value on running a formal grad scheme to attract the brightest and best new talent.

The ever-awesome Ben Cotton over at Social Web Thing has once again done a fantastic job of compiling a post on PR Graduate Schemes from some of the best agencies in the UK.

But with more competition than ever, you may need to differentiate yourself from the pack. Why not find out about volunteering with Bright One and you’ll be able to add that little extra to your CV that really shows you are one of the best!

And if you’re a PR agency looking to promote your grad scheme, just get in touch and we’ll add you to the list.

2012 PR Graduate Schemes

Blue Rubicon
Open
Closes: 22 January 2012

Burson-Marseller
Does not run a PR graduate scheme, but is open for internships all year round, many of which lead to permanent positions.

Chime Comms
Open: November
Closes:

Diffusion 
Open: November
Closes:

Edelman 
Open: 1 December 2011
Closes:

Fishburn Hedges
Open
Closes: The deadline for the April 2012 intake is 12 December 2011 and the deadline for the September 2012 intake is 3 February 2012.

Fleishman-Hillard
Open
Operates a six month training scheme all year round. On completion of the Graduate Scheme the candidates performance will be reviewed and, if satisfactory, graduates will be considered for a permanent position.

Four Comms 
Open
Closed: 31 January 2012

Hill & Knowlton 
Closed: 28 October 2011

Hotwire Group (encompassing Hotwire and Skywrite)
Open: November/December 2011
Closes: 30 January 2012

Ketchum Pleon: James Maxwell Programme
Open
Closes: 30 March 2012

Lexis PR
Open: November 2011
Closes: 20th February

Speed Comms
Open: 30 November 2011
Closes: 19 January 2012

What makes a good PR professional? What skills do you need? How do you go about getting that all important first job? These were some of the questions discussed in yesterday’s live Q&A arranged by Guardian Careers. The panel included Bright One’s Ben Matthews together with: Emma Radcliffe (Beattie Communications), Hew Leith (M&C Saatchi PR), Dillon Mann (Spada), Maggie Taylor (Prima PR & Marketing), Jon Cope (University for the Creative Arts), Agatha Chapman-Poole (Chapman-Poole Communications), Ellie Hernaman (Truffle PR), Vic Miller (Man Bites Dog), and Jackie Bates (Richmond Towers Communications).

Work experience and social media were popular topics, as well as the discussion regarding suitable degrees. Everyone on the panel agreed that hands-on experience gained through work placements, internships or volunteering is key. You need to be able to show that you’ve got suitable experience for the job you’re applying for and Ben mentioned that a well-presented portfolio could do the trick. And with the increasing use of social media Vic Miller argued for the importance of being able to demonstrate a sound knowledge and to take an active interest in keeping up to date with opportunities it presents for PR. However, Dillon Mann stressed that people shouldn’t get too hung up on social media since it is only one channel amongst many – it is important to know when to use it, but also when not to.

The comments were mixed in regards to University degrees but the overall opinion was that the subject doesn’t really matter. The theoretical communication knowledge you can get with a PR degree together with contacts in the industry is great but academic disciplines could give you useful specialist knowledge. Maggie Taylor gave the example of how a science degree could benefit someone wanting to go into healthcare PR. Hew Leith added to the degree discussion by saying that even if you don’t have any degree, this shouldn’t stop you – the passion for PR is what matters!

There were many more useful comments and if you’d like to read all questions and answers, you can find them here and if you’ve got any further tips or suggestions on how to make it in PR, feel free to comment below.

We’re looking for a PR student/graduate to work on a project with Carbon Leapfrog, a new and unique business-led charity that galvanises and channels free professional advice from leading service providers across a range on disciplines into UK and international carbon reduction project.

Intern Objectives:

• To help identify and extract the PR opportunities for Carbon Leapfrog’s various projects
• Increase the awareness and reach of Carbon Leapfrog’s projects among their various stakeholders
• Provide a solid foundation of PR support for future campaigns and activity

How?

• Work closely with the Carbon Leapfrog team to identify PR opportunities and create campaigns around their projects
• Maximise coverage opportunities in the press through media relations, creation and distribution of press releases, feature opportunities and case studies
• Increase Carbon Leapfrog’s online reach through the use of social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and blog

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Help to create and implement a PR and Communications schedule
• Assist in implementing a marketing plan for Carbon Leapfrog and key projects
• Identify appropriate media publications to target
• Drafting and distribution of press releases
• Contacting key media publications
• Drafting and publishing updates about Carbon Leapfrog projects on appropriate blogs
• Create and update social media channels around appropriate projects
• Identify awards opportunities for key projects
• Assist in implementing a marketing plan for Carbon Leapfrog and key projects

How Long?

The internship lasts for 3 months, but this could be adjusted according to candidates’ needs

How Much?

Expenses will be paid of £30 per week, which covers daily travel in Central London

Next Steps:

If you feel that this role is for you, please send a CV and covering letter to ben@brightone.org.uk

 
Founders Note
 
If Bright One’s first year was all about testing the concept of an organisation that used PR professionals and students to help charities meet their own PR and communications needs, then our second year has been about making this concrete: firming up our processes, building up our volunteer community, and embedding ourselves into the very fabric of the PR industry. We’ve helped more charities, had more volunteers working with us, and completed more successful campaigns for organisations that really need our help.

Charities such as The Pixel Project, our longest running client of nearly two years. Volunteers such as Alisha, who came all the way from Harvard University in the US to undertake an internship with us. Campaigns such as Refugee Week, which we were delighted to work on for a second consecutive year.

It truly is humbling when we look back at some of the more familiar charities we have helped over the past year: Amnesty International, Centrepoint and the Social Enterprise Coalition to name a few. That’s not to mention some of the younger but equally as exciting charities that we’ve worked with: The Choir With No Name and Seeducation have bright futures ahead of them.

We’ve also made some strong partnerships in the sector, working with fantastic organisations such as the PRCA and CharityComms to achieve our aims. PRCA director general, Francis Ingham said about the partnership: “Bright One is an initiative we’re keen to support, as not only does it help charities with their communications needs, but also helps develop the next generation of PR professionals – the future of our industry.”

Helping future professionals get their career going was the focus at Impress London, an event for the next generation of PR professionals, which Bright One ran in November 2010. It truly was a fantastic event (or so the feedback from attendees went). Thanks go to Edelman and Unicorn Jobs for making the event possible.

On a personal note, I was delighted to be awarded the Young PR Professional of the Year 2010, a large part due to what we have achieved with Bright One so far over the past two years. I truly appreciate each and every single person who has contributed to Bright One’s success and thank you all for your efforts . This award is for all of us who believe in Bright One’s aim: to give charitable organisations access to valuable and affordable communications resources.

So what’s coming up in year 3? Well, there’s lots in store so stick around and I’m sure you’ll find out.

Ben Matthews
Founder

2010 Clients

• Amnesty International
• Centrepoint
• LearnAsOne
• WYSE International
• Grassroot Soccer
• The Pixel Project
• Computer Aid International
• Refugee Week
• Lasa
• Social Enterprise Coalition
• Bold Creative
• Pants To Poverty
• Choir With No Name
• Sreepur Village Cards
• Seeducation

2010 Volunteers

As we frequently remind ourselves, Bright One would not exist without its volunteers, and we are grateful for the dedication of the 90 volunteers who gave up their time to support us in 2010:

Zubair Ahmed, Luke Alexander, Sarah Allison, Zoe Amar, Tom Antoniw, Helen Beckett, Jeremy Bennett, Tim Bond, Melanie Bradley, Paul Brandenburg, Deborah Burrage, Sally Chambers, Selena Chan, Ross Chater, Tracey Chatters, Hayley Chow, Cecilia Clarke, Kate Clarkson, Abigail Colley, Alvaro Colon, Emma Conway, Hannah Cornford, Jaz Cummins, Agnes Daloisi, Andrea Davids, Sophie De Alberquerque, Jasdeep Deol, Gemma Dudley, Chris Elliott, Sarah Espiner, Lindsay Freeman, Anna Funnell, Katy Galasinski, Jenna Gifford, Joe Hall, Emma Hanson, Katie Harris, Rick Hawkins, Becky Heath, Oscar Holland, Tanya Holloway, Dan Howe, Keri Hudson, Elaina Ifill, Linda Jim, Nicola Jones, Olivia Jones, Alexander Judd, Agnes Jumar, Gerry Kiernan, Sophie Lam, Annette Leach, Anna Magee, Luica Mak, Luke Malcher, Emily Mathewson, Ben Matthews, Cassandra Miners, Sarah Moffat, Devi Mohan, Helen Munro, Isabel Napier, Jennifer Nevill, Eva Novillo, Ada Nworgu, Alison Paul, Jon Penny, Ines Quina, Alisha Ramos, Katy Robinson, Amanda Rose, Ghislain Rubio De Teran, Corinne Scotland, Tania Smith, Rachel Steed, Emily Swanson, Vicky Taylor, Katy Thompson, Laura Vergani, Faizel Vohra, Tazeem Weljie, Louise Wheble, Becky Whitehead, Stuart Wragg, Helen Wurae, Lucy Yeatman, Gem Young.

As the guys at Made By Many pointed out, these events aren’t easy to keep track of. There’s always Twitter, Plancast and Lanyrd, but with multiple locations moving in real-time there’s frequent opportunities to miss hearing about events.

So, inspired by Made By Many, we present to you Bright One’s list of meet ups, conferences and events for our volunteers, our charity clients, PRs and anyone else interested in communications.

If you know of events that should be on the calendar and aren’t, send us an email or notify @brightonecomms on Twitter and we’ll add it in. You can also come back at any time and view the PR Events Calendar here.
 

The Celebrity Male Role Model Pixel Reveal campaign is our flagship fundraiser that will raise US$1 million for the Women’s Aid Organisation of Malaysia & the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence in the US.

How? By unveiling, pixel by pixel, an exclusive mystery collage of celebrity male role model portraits. As each pixel is removed, more of the picture will be unveiled. With pixels costing only US$1 each and the smallest donation amount set at US$5, everyone can take part!

Between November 25 and December 9, you can get a head start on the campaign through Pledge for Pixels. Simply log in to the Pledge for Pixelspage and enter the number of pixels you pledge to buy once the campaign launches.

Your name and country will appear on the Honour Roll of Pixel Pledges and then on our list of donors once you fulfill your pledge!

The full campaign launches December 10, so this is your chance to get in there and make a difference now!

It would be wonderful if you could forward this email request to your family members, friends and relevant mailing lists to help us drum up even more support!

Thanks a lot for your support. It’s time to end violence against women. Together.

When you arrive, everyone’s equal. You’re all in an unfamiliar place and eager to make new friends and, while blasting your way through fresher’s week and surviving the notorious fresher’s flu, you soon learn that those home comforts are now a thing of the past. There’s only so many pizzas and super noodles any one person can have before this becomes apparent.

And when it comes to lectures and work, there’s no-one there to pester you into doing it. So over the long weeks and months everyone finds their own rhythm: the best way for them to study and the ideal balance between partying and working.

What you make of it and what you achieve is entirely down to you, which means you learn a lot about yourself. That’s what makes it an unforgettable experience that ultimately helps build the person you will become.

When this time comes to an end, you have to make another big step: moving from a lifetime of education to becoming a ‘young professional’.

University is a massive help in this transition.

All those crazy made-up campaigns you were devising while studying PR, the pages of writing and all of the knowledge you’ve acquired over the years means that you can walk in and hold your own as a young, well-rounded, PR professional.

Prior PR experience also eases this transition into full-time work. For instance, my time at Bright One gave me great confidence in my own work. When you know that what you’re doing matters to others and not just yourself, you can feel more pressure to make sure it’s spot on.

Whilst I was volunteering with Bright One I progressively felt more confident in submitting my work, which is a valuable attribute to have in the workplace.

However, there is one aspect that seems alien to a student; you will never finish your to-do list.

As a fresh starter, you want to show that you’re willing to take on whatever comes your way and nail it, but you’ve got to manage your own expectations. Prioritising your work is the biggest learning curve that you face.

You have to know how long things are going to take you and find out how important each of your tasks are; that is the key to success.

And while you may lose all that time you spent at university watching repeats of Friends or playing on your Xbox, there’s always the weekends!

Image courtesy of gapingvoid.com

Bright One, the volunteer-run communications agency for the third sector, celebrates its second year anniversary through a partnership with the PRCA, the professional body that represents UK PR consultancies and in-house communications teams, and marks it with two remarkable results.

Firstly, Bright One is delighted to announce its partnership with the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA), the UK PR consultants’ trade body. As well as joining the PRCA, Bright One will be given a voice by becoming closely involved with the PRCA’s not-for-profit working sectoral group.

The two organisations will work closely together to help raise awareness of the opportunities and need for PROs to volunteer their skills to the third sector and have its volunteering opportunities promoted to other PRCA’s members. This partnership is another step in making Bright One the pre-eminent volunteering organisation for the PR industry.

“We’re delighted to have Bright One on board as a member of the PRCA and look forward to working in partnership. Bright One is an initiative we’re keen to support, as not only does it help charities with their communications needs, but also helps develop the next generation of PR professionals – the future of our industry. They couldn’t get off to a better start than by volunteering with Bright One.”

Francis Ingham, chief executive of the PRCA

Secondly, following its successful first year, Bright One has measured the social impact of the work carried out by its volunteers during its second year. The impact has been quantified by calculating the amount of resource that charities have been able to access as a result of Bright One’s services. Its volunteers have collectively dedicated a whopping 2,700 hours of PR and communications support to helping small charities with their PR and communications efforts. This equals over £300,000 worth of consultancy services. Year on year, Bright One has donated an extra 1,200 hours of work organised through the agency, and generated a 54% increase in economic value.* Bright One’s volunteer’s have created this impact for clients such as Amnesty International, Centrepoint and the Social Enterprise Coalition.

“We are thrilled with how our second year of life has gone.” Ben Matthews, Founder of Bright One, said. “We’ve turned in a fantastic contribution to the third sector’s communications needs, thanks to a growing number of committed and competent volunteers. Charities often cannot afford to invest much in PR, and we are proud to have provided a huge amount of consultancy services, at the same time giving professionals in our industry the chance to volunteer and broaden their skills.”

“It seems fitting that our growth should be marked by the partnership with the PRCA; we are delighted and proud to become members of our professional trade body and to be recognised for our role in both the PR and the volunteering sectors.”

“We are stepping into our third year with continued enthusiasm, and we already have a number of high profile initiatives underway for the near future. We are hoping to continue to attract high-calibre of the volunteers who put themselves forward, and who deserve respect and recognition for their hard work. Without them we could not be where we are today.”

* This number is obtained by multiplying the number of volunteers by the number of hours they donate per week by number of weeks the account has been active with Bright One. This is then multiplied GBP 115, an average flat hourly fee a commercial agency would charge a client for a PR executive’s work. This is a conservative estimate as it uses an indicative fee for a volunteer’s contribution.

This is a guest post from Zoe Amar

Lasa has just celebrated its 25th anniversary with a campaign that generated a return of investment (ROI) of 94:1; this means that for every £1 we spent on the campaign we earned £94. I’m going to talk about how we did it and the lessons I learnt along the way.

You can also use many of these tips to help create a successful relaunch or repositioning.

1. Be clear about why your organisation needs this campaign

Make sure that your reasons to celebrate your anniversary pass the ‘so what?’ test. Unless you are celebrating at least a centenary or more, there’s a risk that you could launch an expensive campaign for its own sake. You need to ask yourself: what’s in it for your audience?

For example, the ultimate aim of Lasa’s 25th anniversary campaign was to tell our stakeholders how our services could help them. To get to the stage where they were receptive to this message, we needed to use the initial phases of the 25th anniversary to:

• rebuild our reputation after a recent restructure
• demonstrate the business case for our services (in our case, increased need for advice about welfare benefits)
• reach influential stakeholders in our market (e.g. Chief Executives and Directors in the charity and public sector organisations who use our services)
• reposition ourselves as a leader in the fields we work in

2. Get buy-in

So, you’ve had a great idea for your anniversary/ relaunch/ repositioning. Now what? You’ll need to get buy-in and support from your board and directors. Make sure that you involve them early on in the planning stages. I found that even when budgets were tight, the board and directors were still supportive if I could show the business case for what I was trying to do.

3. Plan, plan, plan

Who are your target audiences? We invested time in thinking about who we were trying to reach with our 25th anniversary campaign: what kind of people were we targeting? You need to consider what their job titles are, what kinds of organisations they work in and what processes they go through when deciding whether or not to use your services. You also need to think about creating simple but effective key messages that will cut through the ‘clutter’ to reach your audience. What do you want them to do after they’ve experienced your campaign?

In my view, charities should be careful about how they use nostalgia in anniversary campaigns. Sure, what your charity has achieved is important and it’s made a big difference. Celebrating that will reward the loyalty of long term supporters. But keep the focus on what you’d like your audience to do now- e.g. donate or, in our case, fund or use our services. And build into the planning stage how you are going to track the success of your campaign. For example, you can suggest that a donations target should be hit.

4. Choose the best tools for the job

Once you’ve got a business case, buy-in and a broad plan for your campaign, you need to think about how you can find the best tools to reach your target audience. In Lasa’s case, we needed a low cost tool that our stakeholders trusted. We focused on PR, using a mix of press work, sponsorship and two carefully targeted events with speakers that we knew would attract our target audience. We planned the events so that they were as interactive as possible; for example, we launched a survey on the theme of the events a few weeks beforehand, and announced the results a few days before the final ‘flagship’ event.

5. Build the right team for the campaign

Whether you are using staff from your own marketing and communications teams, external suppliers or pro bono help, take the time to choose people who know the tools you want to use, and who can use them well. I was fortunate enough to work with Luica Mak of Bright One and Jo O’ Rourke of Keynote Consulting, both of whom have many years of experience in PR and events.

6. Keep a close eye on costs

With a big campaign, like an anniversary or a relaunch, costs – especially design – can spiral beyond your original estimates. It’s also easy to overlook VAT or other ‘hidden’ costs.

The main lesson I learnt from our 25th anniversary campaign was not to spend a penny of our budget without thinking about what the return on investment would be. As a result, our final campaign costs were less than 40% of our original estimate.

We also were fortunate to have some very good sponsorship opportunities, including from one of our funders, City Bridge Trust.

7. Measure your results

Looking at your original key performance indicators of success for your campaign, how did it perform? At Lasa we achieved some significant press coverage and, as direct result of some networking opportunities from our 25th anniversary event, also won a new contract with a government department.

Keeping these tips in mind, you should be able to generate successful return on investment from your anniversary campaign.