Corporates back project to support charity digital skills
The Clear Lesson Foundation has teamed up with River Island, Aviva, Costa Coffee and Good Things Foundation to produce video resources to help charities tackle their digital skills.
According to the Charity Digital Skills Report, 45% of charities don’t have a digital strategy, yet most charities know that digital skills can help them work more effectively and retain staff. For those charities that do have a strategy, they may not have the budget or resources to help them implement it.
The Clear Lessons Foundation has therefore teamed up with Gemma Critchley from Aviva, Mike Collins from River Island, Anthony Williams from Costa Coffee and Kevin Maye from Good Things Foundation to produce free video resources to help charities tackle their digital skills.
Gemma Critchley, Head of Technology & Innovation for Learning at Aviva, said she was thrilled to be working on the project: “I’m super passionate about collaboration and sharing learning, and it’s a real pleasure to work with some of the brightest minds in L&D to work out how we can support charities in developing their own digital skills.”
Mike Collins, Snr People Experience Specialist, added: “River Island is really proud to be supporting this great initiative. Digital sits at the heart of 21st century organisations, providing great experiences and changing the way in which we work. By sharing our expertise and experience we hope to help others on their digital journeys.”
The project started with a brainstorming session in London, to answer some key questions, such as: What does digital mean? How can ‘digital’ help charity staff work more effectively? What resources do they need to help them? Three main areas emerged as the most important ones to tackle first, namely:
Planning: The importance of putting a business case together, and how to do so
Strategy: Looking holistically at what digital means - it’s way more than just having a website, or using social media but where to start and how?
Transformation: To cover all aspects of digital transformation.
Filming to create new video lessons in these key areas starts at River Island this week.
The topics covered will include:
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What is digital? What does digital mean?
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Why you need to go digital
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Benefits & ROI
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How will we get there - roadmap, what’s achievable?
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Risks & how they are overcome
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Buy, build & partner
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Resource and how to keep it going
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How to experiment - fail fast and move on, keeping agile
Martin Baker, founder and CEO of the Clear Lessons Foundation said he was excited to kick start the Digital Series, with invaluable help from a wide range of partners: “A digital approach to supporting the skills of staff and volunteers is just common sense: it saves time and money, and it works. Charities that are not embracing this new digital reality are not just getting left behind, they face a talent drain, with a third of respondents to the Charity Digital Skills survey saying they may leave unless their organisation’s approach to digital improves. Our aim with this new series of videos is to help charities shift towards digital adoption. The proven benefits, such as increased productivity, effectiveness and engagement, are there for the taking.”
Kevin Maye, Learning Development Manager at Good Things Foundation added: “We’ve been working to help develop digital skills for many years, as they’re so vital for charities, businesses and individuals. So we’re delighted to support the Clear Lessons Foundation’s Digital Series.”