The week of the Edinburgh Marathon Festival

My role as an Intern at Oxfam has been to organise Oxfam's presence at the Edinburgh Marathon Festival 2011. The festival has been and gone, my internship has finished and I'm enjoying some down time back home in the North East. I've got a lot of blog posts to write and upload but I am going to start with my last week at Oxfam. Hopefully it will be useful for anyone thinking about doing an internship with Oxfam, as you can see the tasks I completed, the skills I used and how fantastic and supportive the Oxfam Scotland staff were!


Monday


9.30am - Arrive at the Oxfam Scotland Office.

Not feeling great so munch on some Vitamin C tablets as I really don't have time to be ill.

10am - Computer is turned on and both my personal Oxfam Inbox and the Edinburgh Marathon Inbox are open. Lots of emails to get through from runners that have come in over the weekend.

I decide to spend the morning focussing on runner support and the afternoon focussing on race day. I'm trying to split my time so that the most important and urgent jobs are completed first, whilst ensuring that the projects objectives are met.

However, my carefully planned day is thrown out the window when I hear that the Wednesday delivery has come today. I go downstairs to find a lorry with all the things I will need for the weekend... and there is a lot of stuff! I'm not looking forward to unloading (as I thought it was coming on Wednesday I haven't arranged helpers) but then Malcolm appears on his way to lunch. He offers to help and heads out to the lorry with me. I think he thought there would only be a couple of boxes rather than an entire pallet load! Thanks again if you're reading this.


1pm - I have sorted the delivery into items for Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. For the rest of the day I work through my to do list and speak to runners on the phone.

5pm - Catch up with James (Sponsored Events Manager) about volunteer numbers and race day logistics.

Tuesday

I have taken the week off from my bar job, but pop into the beauty salon for a few hours to help on reception. In the afternoon, I work from home and write the post-race survey for our runners.

Wednesday


9.30 am - Arrive in the office.

I write a To Do list that is so long I laugh. It's not that bad though, just lots of small tasks that need to be completed.

I write up FAQ to send over to the Supporter Relations Team who are going to answer email enquiries for me on Friday. In addition, I make a volunteer pack for race day which includes FAQ, troubleshooting advice, my contact details and details of who the Oxfam Staff are.

6pm - I go round the corner and resign from my bar job as I'm moving home next week. Very sad about leaving as I love the people I work with.

Thursday


Work at home for a bit, then drive over to Edinburgh to set up our stand in "The Hub".

"The Hub" is at Holyrood Park and is the start and finish area for the 5k and 10k on Saturday. It has a help desk for runners and an expo with charities, other marathons and running merchandise.

After a while on site and a fight with a pop up stand our area has it's own cheering party!

I email Alicia, the Running Events Manager the pictures.

On my way out I have a look to see what the other charities have done, but they're not here yet.

Friday


Absolutely manic day spent tying up loose ends before race day.

This includes:

• Checking in with Volunteers.
• Going over race-day plan with James.
• Answering runner enquiries over the phone.
• Sending good luck emails to runners. This includes an offer of grand-stand tickets for the finish line, as the events company have given us some. It's first come first serve and responses come in quickly.
• Moving the entire delivery from the office to my flat in two car loads. Thank you to Jen for loading my car with me and my neighbour Adam for helping me carry it up to my flat on the 2nd floor!

I get home and realise I haven't printed the forms for massages tomorrow. Go over to my Uncles to print them and chat to him about the marathon. I'm excited but calm and it's nice to talk about it, as it feels like it is really going to happen.

Pick up my brother Nick from the station who has volunteered to massage runners tomorrow and on Sunday. 

Saturday

6am - Get up, pack up the car and head off to Edinburgh.

10am - I'm cheering on our runners with Sarah and Annie and I'm having a fantastic time. 

1pm - The races are over and the girls head off. Nick has been busy manning the stand and handing out vests to runners for tomorrow. We have ran out of Oxfam foam hands and had a fantastic morning.

4pm - Pick Selina up from the Station who will be a Race Day Coordinator tomorrow. We go over to Musselburgh and set up the Marquee at the reunion area.

9pm - Get home. Confirm with runners who have got grandstand tickets and compile a list for Selina tomorrow. Elizabeth (a volunteer who is in charge of the cheering point tomorrow) arrives to pick up flags, foam hands and T-shirts.

12am - Go to bed. My neighbours decide to have a drunken street party. 

Sunday

4am - Get out of bed after 1 hours sleep. V.scared that I am going to crash and burn during the day.

5am - Get petrol and breakfast which consists of granola and a v.large can of Red Bull. Pick up Bryony who is running in the half and needs a lift to Edinburgh.

6.30am - Drop her off as near to the start as I can.

7am - I am lost as road works have sprung up over night, roads are closed for the marathon and I didn't bring a sat nav. I am trying to pick up James so we can all do the final set up together.

8am - In Musselburgh and we are busy setting up as the Half Marathon begins.

11am - Nick & my lovely housemate Cate arrive to help.

1pm - The Oxfam tent is buzzing with runners, spectators and volunteers. Staff from the Oxfam Scotland office are here and helping out, lots of people have given up their time and my family are here to! My Mum is providing our runners with tea, my Dad is taking photos and my brother Nick is busy massaging some very tired legs.  Selina is at our reception table greeting runners, handing out Grandstand Tickets and telling them what's inside the tent.  I can't describe the atmosphere so instead here are some pictures:

10pm - Back in Glasgow and shattered after a very long week. Tired but very happy and a little sad that it's all over. 3 days left of my internship and 5 days till I move home.....

Can Charities Exploit a Different Social Media?

I recently read an article in "Marketing Week" magazine that outlined research into effective charity marketing; with the aim being to highlight efficient ways to attract long term donors. The article states that the majority of donors first donated because they had wanted to help the particular charity for a while with only 2% being influenced by a social media item. For fundraisers this means that  direct marketing works when it highlights the charity's cause but that social media is not necessarily persuading the public to donate. I think that social media, is as yet, still a pretty untapped research. Although a quick google search on social media marketing will throw up endless blogs and articles the subject idea seems to be largely the same. "How can charities improve their social media strategy?" Yet a lot of the answers seem to only focus on Facebook and Twitter and ignore other methods.

There have been some excellent examples of using Facebook for fundraising and campaigns. The most common and well known is last years NSPCC Facebook campaign (although not started by them according to Third Sector), which asked users to change their profile picture to a cartoon character from their childhood. . It was a simple ideas that was fun for adults (especially those in their twenties who seemed the most keen on my wall feed) to take part in. They got to reminisce about their childhoods, see what their friends had put up whilst at the same time digesting a very real campaign message - that not every childhood is happy. The NSPCC received £100,000 in donations and their Facebook fans doubled. Twitter to is a very useful medium for sharing links to followers to highlight a charity's work. It is also readily used by those working in the Voluntary Sector to share news, jobs, ideas and praise. But what about virtual worlds, instant messaging, podcasts and apps?

Virtual Worlds


Although it's growth has slowed SecondLife is still a huge online community, full of technologically aware and innovative people. I did a lot of research on SecondLife and theatre for my degree as plays are now being created and performed within it and some theatre companies use it live within their shows. I found that back in the 1990s a theatre conference was put on virtually. It used very basic commands and a lot of imagination but it was a successful online conference. Surely charity conferences could be put on virtually, if only once to highlight the different ways the internet and social media can be used. Since beginning my internship I've seen lots of conferences and talks on the subject of social media. Conferences can be fantastic sources of information and networking but they are also expensive and include a lot of transport and carbon costs. An online conference would be cheaper and have less of an impact on the environment. I think I might develop my own online interns conference. Watch this space!

SecondLife can also be used for campaigns and fundraising and virtual worlds will become increasingly valuable to those trying to reach a younger audience. Disney have used their virtual world (Club Penguin) to increase children's awareness of charities and causes and to ask them who they should donate to. This article showcases some examples of virtual world fundraising.

Instant Messaging


IM had had a revival amongst my twenty-something since we discovered BBM (Blackberry Messenger). MSN messenger used to be my IM of choice as a teenager and I still love having free online chats, often about nothing. Lets be honest I would never just send a smily face to a friend by text. As far as I understand for BBM to work you have to have a PIN and give that PIN to another BBM user. Wouldn't it be feasible for a charity to give out a PIN for any BBM user to add and then they could receive short updates from the charity. I could see this being used for particular fundraising events like the Edinburgh Marathon Festival or OxfamDo. For example, I could give out my Blackberry's pin to runners and then BBM them updates of our fundraising total, or send them all a broadcast message on the day to say good luck. Obviously this would not work on a large scale on BBM but surely this is something that could be developed. I think it would be a really good way of engaging with twenty-somethings as Twitter is more popular with those over 30. In addition if a IM message pops up on your phone, you're likely to see it; whereas updates on Facebook can get lost in the endless stream of Farmville and Mafia whatever wall updates.

Apps

Steve Jobs needs to allow donations through apps. In the mean time I think charities should develop virtual magazine apps for the IPad. These could highlight a campaign with links to videos online, could feature interviews with employees, incorporate training manuals (for sport related fundraising) and lots more.


Technology is exciting isn't it!

Off to update my Twitter and Facebook - still the best ways to share a link.

The Giving Green Paper - It's not all about the ATMs

Last week the Cabinet Office published the Giving Green Paper, which is intended to spark a debate and encourage suggestions of how social action can become a social norm. In the paper, the Cabinet Office (or rather Francis Maude MP) outline their and other contributor's ideas as to how this can be achieved and ask for contributions from community groups, charities, businesses and the public as a whole. However, if I had just stuck to reading the headlines and irate tweets I would still think the whole paper was produced to announce ATM giving as a new coalition policy. Instead, I decided to read the paper myself and it definitely isn't just about donating at cash machines.

The 1st paragraph outlines what the Big Society means - local people have greater control of their communities and thus rely on the Government less. Encouraging social action is one of the coalition's core ideas for achieving this - the others are empowering communities and opening up public services. Social action is defined as giving time and/or money to better your community and society as a whole. It could be volunteering at a local school, donating money to worthy cause or (in my case) walking elderly people home from Morrisons. The paper lists various ways to make giving time/money easier including apps, utilising search engines, social networking and yes donating at ATMs. (Although there is no mention of a Robin Hood Tax hmmm...) The problem now for the Cabinet Office, or for anyone who thinks this paper is innovative and has real value, is that the press have largely focussed on donation of money rather than time.

Having read various articles from our national press, I have to wonder if the press release issued by the Cabinet Office started with we want to encroach on social liberty by forcing people to donate at cash machines. Nearly every headline I have read about this paper include the words ATM or Cash Machine.

"Coalition to propose automatic charity donations at cash machines," published in the Guardian gives an overview of the paper's proposals to improve and encourage giving money (with a small mention of volunteering) and is worth a look if you don't want to read the paper. You can read it here

The Daily Mail were openly hostile "Charity cashpoints are blasted as Big Brother." Their view is that the British Public already donate and give enough time. Read it It's true that we are a nation that donate a lot of money to charity but it's also true that we are ranked 29th in the world at donating time according to the 2010 World Giving Index.

The majority of the comments below each article are from those against ATM giving and donating more money in general. Comments that do propose ways to promote giving of money and time are red-flagged, which is a real shame as it is those suggestions that the paper is looking for.

Personally, I think the report has some good and bad suggestions. Overall, having just started in the Voluntary Sector I find it exciting that the Government are looking to encourage social responsibility. Surely it's no bad thing to encourage people to volunteer at homeless shelters, schools and to look out for their neighbours (provided of course that this isn't simply an exercise to ensure they can make further cuts in the public sector).

In terms of donating at ATMs, I don't think it's a good idea. I think people tend to donate to charities that they relate to and charities work hard to promote what they do and what they stand for. If you donate at an ATM how can you be sure about what you are supporting. Realistically, as shown by The Colombian ATM scheme you would only be able to donate to a select number of charities (how would these be decided). Finally, although it would be a convenient way of donating, it won't be convenient for the queue of people who are stood waiting behind you at the cashpoint!

I think The Pennies Foundation approach is better. They propose that at selected retailers you could round up your bill to the nearest pound and the extra pennies will be donated to a charity nominated by the retailer. So if your food shopping came up to £27.68 you could pay £28 and donate the 32p to charity. I can see this catching on. Retailers have space to display information about their chosen charity, different retailers would choose different charities (for example I imagine a womenswear store would choose a charity that benefits women), its a small amount and its already being utilised by charities such as the NSPCC and Cancer Research UK.

It makes many suggestions for improving volunteering and it seems to me that giving time is the focus of the paper rather than money. The Cabinet Office argue that volunteering is not a one way street and that volunteers should gain something in return. It points to Orange Rock Corps as and example of this. I agree, at the moment I am volunteering for Oxfam but in return I am gaining valuable experience. It goes on to say that volunteering doesn't have to be rewarded in gig tickets but can be rewarded by publicly acknowledging volunteers. There is a specific focus on finding ways to encourage young people to volunteer through social networking and National Citizen Service. They also want to help eliminate barriers to volunteering such as multiple CRB checks, over the top Health and Safety and lack of transparency from charities over where monetary donations go. I think these are all brilliant ideas.

So why the hostility from the media?

It's partly down to timing. We're in a recession, the VAT is going up 2.5% and massive cuts have been announced. I think a lot of people will feel that they can't give money and that by encouraging volunteering in the Public Sector the Government are making up for the cuts. It also worded badly. They consistently say "giving" without outlining what they mean. Often they appear to mean volunteering but by saying "giving" instead it promotes donations.

I don't agree with everything in the Giving Green Paper (and these are my views not Oxfam GB's) but that's the point - they wanted to start a debate and they have. It's just a shame that the media seem to have focussed on only one aspect of the report.

If you want to read it yourself click here

For anyone interested in Corporate Fundraising there is a good section in it for you.

Or if you want to make a suggestion email giving@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk

Run around the Shops/Run for Oxfam

Did you know that the average woman will walk more than a marathon when Xmas shopping?

And that she will burn more calories?

I didn't know that either until I started thinking about ways I can show potential runners that a marathon isn't out of reach. You just sometimes have to think about it in a different way.

So that's why I was in Marks and Spencer on Princes Street last Saturday promoting running for Oxfam in the Edinburgh Marathon Festival 2011 with my 4 gorgeous volunteers. (Nick, Andy, Cate & Elizabeth thank you so much) We were there to offer weary shoppers the same support we show our runners on race day. We cheered them on, made them smile and gave them free massages from two very hunky masseuses.

The week before had been filled with stress. Will the snow stop us getting there? Are the army really being deployed in Edinburgh? Will febreze stop the santa suit smelling?

That's why despite having to get up at 4.30am, it being absolutely baltic and having to use my eye rescue cream to look remotely human I was v.excited to arrive at Central Station and the trains be running. We got to Edinburgh by 7.30am, headed straight for the store and were ready to go at 8am.

In the morning we were placed in both the cafes. We went round and spoke to shoppers about what we were doing while they were grabbing a quick coffee. A lot of people were really interested in Oxfam and surprised that we are now involved in running events. I spent the morning running between the two cafes making sure Andy wasn't being taken advantage of by the many women getting massages and Nick hadn't passed out from heat exhaustion whilst wearing the Santa suit. I needn't have worried, he seemed to be enjoying it!

In the afternoon with the cafes rammed we switched tactics and cheered on the shoppers at various points in store. We gave out stickers, balloons and flyers and told as many shoppers as possible that they were actually doing a marathon. Not many thought they could actually run a full marathon and instead requested info about the 5K, 10K and 1/2 marathon which, are also taking place during the Edinburgh Marathon Festival. By 3pm the store was full and shoppers were frantic so we called it quits and caught the train home.

Upon arriving back in Glasgow I collapsed into my bed to mull over the day and get a well deserved nap! (How I have missed them since graduating) Whilst enjoying how comfy my bed is and thinking about what would happen on X Factor I realised something that made my tired legs worth it.  There are children that walk 26 miles a day to get water and they don't come home to a comfy bed like me. Women across Scotland will sit down on Xmas Eve with an alcoholic beverage, promising themselves that they will start earlier next year and rubbing their sore feet. They've walked 27 miles during December; there are children that do this everyday.

So when you think about it a marathon or 1/2 marathon is achievable - it just takes determination.

Determination is Everything.