Michele Madden, nfpSynergy, and Gideon Burrows, Editor at ngo.media

1. Measuring and Communicating
Your Impact Conference
29 June 2011
CharityComms is the professional membership body for charity communicators. We believe charity communications
are integral to each charity’s work for a better world.
W: www.charitycomms.org.uk T: 020 7426 8877

2. Use your data to inspire, motivate and engage
June 2011
Tel: 020 7426 8888
michele.madden@nfpsynergy.net
gideon@ngomedia.org.uk

3. Purpose of session
• You’ve done your research. So how do you present it in a way that
excites the press, inspires your supporters and impresses funders -
and all without being sensationalist or inaccurate?
• how to use statistics accurately
• how to choose and present your data to appeal to your audiences
3

4. First things first....
• What IS your research?
• What does it mean for your organisation?
• Do you understand it?
4

5. Talking about statistics
5

6. Talking about statistics
13, 18, 13, 14, 13, 16, 14, 21, 13
• Averages; mean, median and mode
• Base
• Percentages and percent changes
• Sub-groups
• Correlations
• Confidence and significance
• Standard deviation, regression
6

7. What do you need to look for?
• Where did the data come from?
• How was it collected?
• How ‘robust’ is the research?
• Be careful with correlations
7

8. Barriers to volunteering
80%
Lack of time 5%
15%
10%
Lack of skills 65%
25%
No Not sure Yes
12%
No opportunities 74%
14%
34%
Not interested 52%
14%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Q.10. Please state whether or not the following issues are a barrier to you engaging in volunteering?
Base: 25 respondents
Service research, 2002 RubbishResearch Ltd

9. Exercise
• Look at the chart
o What is it saying?
o What is interesting?
o What might you be concerned about?
• 3 headlines
o Dull but correct
o Middle of the road
o Outrageous
9

10. 14
12
Statutory
Income (£ billions)
sources
10
Individuals
8
Internally
generated
6
Private
Sector
4
2
0
2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08
10
Source: The UK Civil Society Almanac 2010 (NCVO)

11. Volunteering habits
Mean times 56.1
volunteered each
year, 55.5
45.2
43.5
39.4 38.5
36.9
24%
21%
19% 20%
19%
18%
16% 16%
Total 16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75+
“Have you given time as a volunteer in the last three months, to a charity or other organisation, or in your local
community?” Yes
Base: 1000 adults 16+, Britain.
11 11Source: Charity Awareness Monitor, 2009, nfpSynergy

12. While government may not grow, individuals could
provide more income for charities
Total increase in disposable income from 1980 in real terms
160%
140% Forecast
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
1981
1983
1985
1987
1989
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
2011
2013
2015
Base: UK
12 Source: National Statistics/nVision

13. Writing it up
• Give your writing passion, enthusiasm and urgency
• But make it convincing and honest
Tireless campaigning by environmental campaign groups
led to World Leaders agreeing a new protocol for cutting
greenhouse gas emissions by 2015.
Really?
13

14. Rolling out the old charity clichés
Our charity...
• Works in some of the poorest countries in the world...
• ... recently completed a project in Poorsville, one of the UK’s most
deprived areas....
• ... where we’re tackling a growing trend for people to be...
• ... this is rapidly turning into one of the most urgent issues facing
the UK/ministers/the world/the climate...
• ... hundreds of thousands are showing their support
14

15. Generalisations and clichés work against impact
..
• The UN ranks countries in terms of poverty.
We work in the bottom five.
• Across the UK, three in 10 people are unemployed.
In Poorsville, it’s the other way around.
Only three in 10 have a job.
• 120,000 have signed our petition.
Twice that have Liked our campaign on Facebook.
Yes, but so what....?
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16. Use your statistics to give your copy verisimilitude
• Last year we worked with more than 3,000 families across the UK
o Last year we worked with 945 dads, 1,564 mums, 865 pupils.
And three pet dogs.
• You helped fund our emergency response to last year’s floods
o Your donation helped pay for 3,253 hot, crispy bacon sandwiches and 6,453
desperately steaming cups of tea for those stranded by the floods last year
• Children in Tanzibon are now going to school
o Tanzibon’s school age pupils used to spend their day struggling
to find safe water to drink for their family.
Now all they struggle with is tough maths problem set by teacher.
Exercise: Try writing a line using verisimilitude, based on your statistics
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17. Make your statistics accessible
• Women in some parts of Tanzania spend eight hours every day
collecting water.
o It takes you eight seconds to fill the kettle. It takes Miranda eight hours.
o From the moment you left home this morning untill the moment you walk
through the door tonight, Miranda will be collecting water in the hot sun.
o Miranda walks the distance you drive to work everyday – with a barrel of water
on her head.
• 60,000 children in north London live in poverty.
o The number of children living in poverty could fill the Emirates stadium
EXERCISE : Use comparisons that work for your issue, and your audience
17

18. Tell a story
“The death of one man is a tragedy,
the death of millions is a statistic.”
Paint a detailed picture of one person or family affected
by your issue.
There are 10,000 like Terry in need of your help.
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19. Use different types of graph....
In total these 3204
organisations spend
£632,391,237
in individual grants.
19

20. Maps
Many Eyes UK regions
map and world map are Percentage
good and quick.
Have to use all the
regions, you just can’t
use the summed regions
- i.e. East Midlands and
West Midlands must stay
separate.
20

21. UK region-specific
number well over
2000
Scotland
91 UK wide
721
Overseas
53 Ireland
46
England
67
Wales
64

22. Spontaneous awareness
22

23. 23

24. Mapping
Income £500m
Specialist Generalist
Income £0m
24

25. Presenting data
• Don’t overuse complex graphs and metrics
o Horses for courses
• Be honest and upfront about any weaknesses in the research
methodology – people more likely to believe you
• Be careful with percentages and quotes, do a data check
• Think about the participants – would they want to be represented like
this?
• Don’t exaggerate, take things out of context, twist the findings – comes
back to bite you!
• When you’ve written it up go back to the data and check you haven’t
moved too far away from the original meaning
25

26. Suggested resources
• BBC News Styleguide
http://www.bbctraining.com/pdfs/newsstyleguide.pdf
• Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers
Howard Evans (Pimlico)
• Many Eyes maps
http://www-
958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Maps.html
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27. QUESTIONS AND
DISCUSSION