Welcome to Amanda Chambers Consulting

I am here to help you build engaging and successful communications with your supporters.

I will help you create a compelling case for support, ongoing relationship communications and tools for specialist groups.

I help my clients understand the potential of their supporters – getting closer to the people behind the donations.

I will help you understand the motivations of your supporters and turn this into the basis for a life time relationship of involvement and giving.

Whether you need an hour to bounce ideas around, help with a specific communication or support with a longer term strategy, get in touch today for an informal chat.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Amanda Chambers

Design your voice

We often put a lot of thought into what we want to say.

But it’s how we say it that often creates the impact and the desired outcome from your supporters.

Simple use of clear headlines, succinct body text with a clear ‘call to action’ (ways to take the next step) can be used to great effect.

But it can get tricky when we have a number of messages to impart at one time.

This is a common challenge when you want to take supporters on the next stage of the supporter journey or to notify them about the variety of ways to ‘get involved’.

When dealing with choice, keep things simple.

You may have a strategic need to highlight a lead area of support, so give that prominence. But you may want to give equal weight to other areas of involvement.

Design is critical to the invitation you make to supporters as it will help to navigate them through your offer (as well as inspire them).

Be sparing with design. Don’t over complicate text with bold and multiple colours; stick to your lead corporate brand colour for headings throughout and if you need to place emphasis on an area, think about creating a new paragraph with a sub-heading.

As a general rule – short, punchy paragraphs with a supporting (good quality) image will help bring your voice to life … ending with a clear ‘call to action’.

The Supporter Bottom Line

Why do we involve supporters in our work?

It’s almost too simple a question … but without asking ‘why’ we may end up choosing communications that don’t quite further our cause or fit the needs of our audiences.

A similar question needs to be put to audiences – why are they motivated to get involved?

By looking at the answers to both, we can get closer to measuring the impact supporters play in developing our cause, and by understanding their motivations communicate in relevant ways to maintain their support.

By thinking about a ‘supporter bottom line’ we can see how a cause can be understood across a range of supporter activity – a very simplistic expression of this could be:

Cause = Petitions               Income = Donations              Advocates = Volunteers

In this example, a supporter may opt for one method of support or (ideally) all three. Integrated communications should offer entry to all these options.

With increasing pressure on charities to justify return on investment and work within restricted budgets it will be important to qualify the role supporters play – and perhaps it will be those who best understand the ‘person behind the donations’ who will succeed.

Facebook page vs group

Useful tips on social media integration from NCVO – take a look.

http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/sites/default/files/In_focus_social_media.pdf

Sector research into digital comms – add your view here

nfp Synergy are putting out a final call for data on the use of digital communications in the charity sector. Add your experiences by following the link below and help the sector improve knowledge in this area:

http://research.nfpsynergy.net/s/OZy-rAQWfUR4ixc

Useful digital case studies

Examples from UK charity sector from Third Sector last month http://bit.ly/eEy2Ll.

Case study document here: http://bit.ly/gJ7CAP

Website of the Week

Jorvik Viking Centre in York

http://www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/

Check out the interactive map!