The Internet is for two things...

Sharing information and wasting time.

Today, I'm wasting time!

After writing my post for the University of Manchester MLP blog my productiveness has disappeared and images like this creep into IE:

On the notion of dogs - here's my Sister's dog chilling out (no he wasn't supposed to be chewing on my nephew's dummy):

Anyway, the F1's on now so I'll post properly when the MLP post goes out!

< Guest Post > Manchester Leadership Program - Students That Change The World

im·pact           noun                Pronunciation: /ɪmpakt/

• The action of one object coming forcibly into contact with another
• Marked effect or influence

We love shouting about what our students get up to. Mainly because students often get bad press about being lazy, beer-guzzling specimen. However, our team on the Manchester Leadership Programme (MLP) know different to this common misconception.

A bit of basics before we get started….

The Manchester Leadership Programme is an accredited module students can take at The University of Manchester, combining academic study with volunteering. Once they’ve completed both elements of the module, students receive the Manchester Leadership Award – bronze, silver or gold, depending on how many hours they volunteer (20 hours, 40 or 60).

Last academic year, a whopping 1,206 students took the module, and 83% completed their volunteering commitment.

This translates as 48,114 hours of volunteering. If it was turned into working solidly, with no breaks or sleep, it works out as five and a half years volunteering for one person, and divided into working days, would be 26.5 years!

In its six years that the MLP has been running, financial contribution through volunteering totals almost three quarters of a million pounds.

But, enough about us...

We couldn’t have achieved these facts and figures without all the amazing organisations that provide us with so many volunteering opportunities, and of course the dedicated students we work with on a daily basis. We work with over 300 organisations on a regional and national scale, and so the scope of what our students get up to is huge!

To start things off, I’d like to talk about a volunteering initiative we run every February during Student Volunteering Week, dubbed ‘The Great Fundraise’. Students project manage fundraising events for a chosen charity, and then run these events during, or soon after, Student Volunteering Week. This year, we had seven groups of students each supporting a different charity and collectively they raised over £3,000.

One charity selected by students was none other than The Children’s Air Ambulance themselves. Lindsey Milton, Erin Mills and Emily Prieditis chose this charity to focus their fundraising efforts, and enthusiastically began brainstorming ideas from the word go.

We delivered a fundraising training session for participating students, and saw the creative sparks fly, as each group bounced ideas around the room. Granted, we had to tame some of the wilder ideas (one group were keen to host a ‘wet t-shirt’ competition(!)), but it was great to see these ideas blossom into something workable.

The Children’s Air Ambulance Trio straight away knew to tailor their fundraising activities to the nature of the charity. They hosted a pub quiz which had a strong correlation with children, youth and The Children’s Air Ambulance, and have just completed a sponsored walk to Bury. Donations are still coming in strong so we don’t yet know the combined final total for this group, but you can donate to the girls’ JustGiving page here!

The ‘The Children’s Air Ambulance Trio’ were “thrilled” to have been asked to volunteer long term with the charity – a challenge they are “looking forward to”, which demonstrates the sustainable impact this volunteering has had.

The beauty of working with over 1,300 volunteers this academic year is the variety of people we meet. I’d like to think this is reflected in the diverse range of volunteering projects MLP students take part in.

A bit of a break down…

‘Operation Impact’ is something we run bi-annually. It’s a week long, large-scale volunteering project in which 200+ students physically transform a different community space each day. Past beneficiaries have included schools, a scout hut, sheltered accommodation grounds and more. The visual impact that the students have made on these community spaces would put DIY SOS and Ground Force to shame!

We also offer these types of projects on a smaller scale in the way of something called ‘MLP Challenges’ – one day events that aim to challenge students to make a difference with a particular organisation.

The variety of MLP Challenges is immense, which makes the old 9-5 stint very interesting! Take last month, for example, we ran 19 Challenges over a five-day period. These ranged from putting on talent shows for service users in a resource centre for older people, hosting a ‘blind bowling’ fundraising evening in aid of RNIB, decorating rooms and painting a mural for a local resource centre for children and young people, to habitat protection tasks in local parks.

It’s clear to see what a positive impact the students are creating when this level of volunteering occurs in just five days!

For the meaty, juicy volunteering initiatives we have ‘MLP Challenge Projects’. They usually run for about six to eight weeks. Students work with an organisation on developing a project, idea or event. The impact of these projects are immense; they give students a real sense of ownership, in everything from providing IT lessons to ‘Silver Surfers’, to creating ‘sensory story books’ for adults with learning disabilities.   

Projects that wholly make a difference to the local community are student-led projects; these usually run over a whole semester or an entire academic year. Normally there are about ten projects, all of which give students absolute ownership over the planning, creativity and implementation of supporting a diverse range of organisations. This year’s student-led groups have supported Cancer Research UK, Baguely Sure Start Centre, Oxfam, After Adoption, Barnardos, and READ International, to name a few.

‘Impact’ is a funny way to describe how the student volunteers make a difference in their community, given that the common definition of impact is “…one object coming forcibly into contact with another.”

At first, this appears boisterous and unruly. Yet, if you take ‘object’ to be the body of students, and ‘forcibly’ to describe the sheer dedication and energy that students give to each project, I can safely say MLP students definitely do, make an impact.

If you want to find out more about the MLP or volunteering with The University of Manchester then by all means, visit our webpage:

www.mlp.manchester.ac.uk/volunteering/

We also blog quite a bit, too; you can read all about that here.

You can also follow us on TWITTER and FACEBOOK.

< Guest Post > TerryMc Photography - "Taking Pictures for the Press"

Terry McNamara is an excellent photographer who worked on the Children's Air Ambulance "Leap into Action" campaign in the North West. His great photos are being used by the charity in a number of our publicity materials, both online and printed. He very kindly offered to write a post advising us camera novices on how to take a good photo for the press. Please welcome Terry, and take a look at his site - http://www.terrymcphotography.co.uk/ you can also follow him on twitter - @terrymcphoto or email him on terry@terrymcphotography.co.uk

Taking Pictures for the Press

As more and more newspapers are reducing the number of staff photographers they employ, it is becoming more important for event organisers to have their own photographers present. It is, therefore, also important to understand the type of images that the newspapers are likely to use or likely to reject.
Here are some of my tips for taking press images.

Fill the Frame
This is one of the first photography techniques I teach my students. Before you take the image, have a good look all around the view finder. Make sure your main subject fills the frame. Our brain cuts off anything we don’t feel is relevant, but unfortunately our camera doesn’t. Therefore, when we see the image we’ve taken we suddenly find that the main subject is tiny and surrounded by a lot of space.

Get the Eyes
If you are photographing people, make sure the eyes are in focus and are looking at you. If the eyes are sharp other areas of the image that are not quite in focus will be overlooked. Obviously, aim to get the whole image in focus, but you absolutely must have the eyes in focus.
Make sure the eyes are looking at you and are open! When taking a group shot at an event it is highly likely that someone will be distracted by what is going on around them and will look away just at the point you take the picture. Make a lot of noise. Keep telling the group that you need their attention and keep checking through the viewfinder.
Also, people blink. They do it all the time. When you have a group of people posing for a photograph the chances of one of them blinking just when you take the picture are multiplied. A blink only lasts a fraction of a second. Therefore, take several shots in rapid succession and before the group disassembles check the back of your camera to make sure you have all eyes open.

Tell the Story
Once upon a time photographs were used to support the text in a newspaper article. Then, in the 1940’s, that all changed and the picture became the story with the text supporting the picture.
In these current times of instant everything, the average attention span is dramatically reducing. When you think about the shots you take, assume that nobody will read the text unless the image first grabs their attention. Make sure people can look at the image and immediately understand what is going on.

Think About the Background
It does matter what is behind the subject in the image. If the background is too cluttered it will become a distraction. Also, keep an eye out for objects that might look odd in the image – poles growing out of people’s heads etc.
Where possible get some distance between your subject and the background. This will give your image more impact and make your subject more noticeable. If you must use a wall as a background get your subjects to stand at least 2 metres away from it (unless the wall is important to the story). That way the wall is likely to be thrown out of focus. If you are taking your image at an event and there is likely to be a lot of people in the background, pull your subject as far away from the rest of the people as possible. Again, this will give your subject some separation from the surroundings and make them more noticeable rather than being lost in a crowd.

Get Some Activity in the Shot
If the event includes lots of activity, capture some in your shot. There’s nothing worse than seeing an image of a group of people standing still when the event had lots of excitement and movement. If it’s a sponsored run get pictures of people running, if it’s a netball match get pictures of people shooting for the net. They don’t have to be live pictures. You can separate a group of people, give them instructions and then shoot away.

Don’t Forget the Cute Factor
Everybody loves cute pictures. OK, not quite everybody, but the newspapers do. A cute picture of a child will almost certainly get in the papers. It adds the ‘aww’ factor – the human interest factor. Local papers love images of local children.

Call in the Professionals
If you are staging an event and want some publicity in the media, now is not the time for someone to pull out a phone-camera and snap away thinking that the Nationals will beat a path to your door wanting to print the images. Neither is it the time for someone with a half-decent camera and good intentions. Make sure that whoever has the responsibility for taking pictures at your event really understands what they are doing, how to create pictures that the press will use and how to use the equipment properly.
The key word in the above sentence is ‘create’. The images from your event should be created and not just snapshots of opportunities that present themselves. Carefully plan and stage each image.
Your organisation’s reputation hangs on the quality of the images submitted to the press. Thousands (if not millions) of people will see them. If in doubt, call in a professional photographer with experience of submitting images to the press. The cost may not be as high as you think and the benefits will be endless.

As a fundraiser, photography is important. We need to be able to capture images from events and people that we meet that are suitable for the press and other media streams. As Terry rightly says above, quality images that capture the essence of your story make a huge impact. If the images are dull, badly framed and not "tight", they won't get published, or they won't reflect your organisation properly.

Thanks Terry, I look forward to working with you again!

My next guest blog is from the University of Manchester Career Development Team, but before then, one of my posts will feature on the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Blog on Friday 13th April (unlucky for some!).

Keywords: event, freelance, manchester, news, newspaper, newspapers, paper, papers, photographer, photographers, photography, pr, press, publicity

Fundraising vs Begging - Controversy in a thousand words...

After a collection yesterday, which featured in the Flintshire Chronicle (check it out), I was posed with a great topic for my next Post... (Thanks... you know who you are Missy!!)


So, what is the difference between begging and fundraising?


OMG Where do I start?! Definitions? Reasoning? Context? Need?!


By the way, before I start, I want your comments on this! Post on here, Facebook (if that's where you got the link) or @TCAADave with #BvF.


So what's begging? A search on Google coughs these up:


1. To ask for as charity
2. To ask earnestly for or of


and fundraising?


"The organized activity or an instance of soliciting money or pledges, as for charitable organizations or political campaigns" (bloomin' American spelling...)


So taken literally on the basis of those definitions, the only distinction between begging and fundraising is that fundraising is organised...?


That's not true. The definitions could do with a little work, because we need to think about the context of the question. 


"begging" was referring to someone who might be in some difficulty, i.e. those of no fixed abode, who might be on the streets asking for money to help them along (yeah, check out the political correctness there!!). Whereas "fundraising" was referring to something that could be considered similar - a charity representative standing on the streets with a collection bucket.


So let's look a little closer. What is the "ask", what is the underlying psychology in the giver, and what governs the actions of the giver and beneficiary.


With the beggar, the ask is for some spare change. The giver is highly unlikely to know what the beggar will do with the money, so the Psychology behind it is that of true altruism - helping someone out for the sake of helping someone out (which doesn't exist but i'll leave that for another time). There is nothing that tells the beggar what to spend their money on, and the giver has no rights in the exchange. For anyone that gives to a beggar, there is an underlying assumption (that's important, don't forget it!) that the money will be used to provide food, water, shelter or warmth for the beggar, however, this isn't always the case. In this situation, the giver is committing an act of altruism  under the trust of the beggar which may be misplaced.Often the decision to give is based on how the giver perceives the beggar - do they look trust worthy, do they look like they will use the money appropriately, and often... have they got a cute little doggy? (I've never understood that...).

Ok take a mental breather...


When it comes to fundraising, the relationship between the giver and the beneficiary is different, however, the same principles apply. The giver needs to not only trust the person they give the money to, they also have to trust the charity. There are some fundamental differences here though. Firstly, the charity has to be properly governed and regulated, meaning they have clearly defined goals, policies and purposes. They are also automatically granted a certain level of trust - in order to collect on the street, the charity must hold a street collection licence from the local authority, which means they have been through a process to ensure they are genuine. 


Already, the giver has knowledge of clearly communicated use of their donation as well as the inherent trust from the local authority (remember the assumption from before?). The giver also has some rights. You may remember recent press coverage on "chuggers" which highlighted the unregulated practice of hard selling on the streets. With collections, it is illegal to ASK for money (unlike beggars who freely ask), even down to the fact you can't shake your bucket - despite the commonly referred to phrase "shaking a bucket". Also... you can get a refund on your donation - it doesn't happen often, but it does happen.


So in this scenario, the giver not only has the right to not be hassled, but they also have the opportunity to make an informed and safe decision regarding their desire to donate. 


In both cases we can say the act of giving is charitable, however, the differences lie in the interaction between the giver and beneficiary, the trust in the appropriate use of the donation, and context of the donation.


Are they different? It can be argued either way - I for one am more likely to give to a reputable charity who I have knowledge or experience of. Having said that, giving to a person of no fixed abode (PC again, go me!) is still worthwhile - that donation could well save that persons life, or at least, improve their quality of life, it's just that there is an inherent risk involved...


Amazingly, the UK public donated £11,000,000,000 in 2011 (UK Giving Report - read it, it's interesting). Yes, BILLION. This money went to the 161,000+ registered charities in the UK, working hard to solve some of the big social, health and political issues in and around the UK. The likelihood is, if you are reading this, you are part of that life saving, crime preventing and shelter providing staggering sum of money. For this, I tip my hat to you and say keep it up. £11bn might sound like a lot, but it's a drop in the ocean. And you'd be surprised how much of it comes from spare change - Mr Tesco was right all along.


Oh, and Ladies - once again you have tipped the balance as not only the most likely to donate to charity, but also with the higher donations. Come on guys, what are you playing at?!!


So what do you think? Which of the two would you give money too and why? Do you think there is a difference between begging and fundraising? Comment, Facebook, or tweet - @TCAADave with #BvF


Thanks for reading!


Dave


P.S if you're a fundraiser and you've got 10 minutes to spare - watch this light hearted video on fundraising advice (ish) - No Longer Broke

No means no...no?

No!

It doesn't. Most of the time "no" isn't a straight no. Don't believe me?

Think about the last time someone said "no" to you. What did you ask them? What was their reply? Was it conditional or did it have an explanation? If you'd have rephrased the question and asked it in a different way, would you have gotten a yes?

The likelihood is... Yes, you would have gotten a yes. Yes?

Behind every no, there's a reason. Most of the time that reason can be removed before you even ask the question.

Think about how you might ask something... let's say as a representative of a charity asking a local company to support you. A novice fundraiser might go along with something like (amongst explaining the charity):

"Would you make a donation to support The Children's Air Ambulance?"

or

"Would you be able to donate a raffle prize for the Children's Air Ambulance?"

If you simply wanted a cash or prize donation there and then, the question is perfectly legit, but the results are likely to be something a long these lines:

"No sorry, we already support xxxxx"

"No, sorry, we can't afford to make any donations, we are struggling as it is"

"Sorry I don't know, I will have to speak to the manager, can you leave a card?"

"Sorry you'll have to contact head office"

The list is endlist... and I've heard them all!

The great thing is, none of these actually mean "no, i won't support you now, or ever, in anyway at all"

All it takes is a little careful thought and consideration as to what you're asking and how you're asking it, and positive outcomes come flowing in.

So what do you need to consider? Well here's a few (of the many!!):

The size of the business - Independent, Small, Medium, Large, National, International, Global. The way you approach each of these will differ

They type of business - does your charity align with the culture of the company and it's customers?

The person you're talking to - are they the right person? Most no's come from you talking to the wrong person who thinks they might be the right person

The success of the business - is it well run and making profit? If not, don't ask for money

The time of the year - is the end of the tax year approaching? the chances are they company have already committed to a charity. Generally speaking November and early March are good times to approach companies.

What you're asking for - it's not all about hard cash donations and big cheques, it should be about mutually beneficial relationships that consists of a working partnership that engages all aspects of the company.

What you're offering - "you can use our logo on your website" - great, thanks. Some companies love logos, others feel patronised at the shallow attempt at a sales pitch. You need to engage and immerse them in everything you do, tell them about campaigns, events, branding, other activities in the area, opportunities to add value to their organisation, and most importantly, NETWORKING (see my earlier post).

That's just a selection to get you started... but you get the idea? No?

If you've ever had a no, from anyone at any point in your life... could you have turned it into a yes by considering the context and the question? Perhaps 50% of the time, you could.

With the economy as it is, very rarely will you get something for nothing, so you need to give something to get something.

And this doesn't just apply to businesses... it applies to the amazing supporter that you deal with every day. These are people that dedicate their spare time to ensure the success of your charity, and often they do it for nothing. Even so, you should always try and offer something in return.

My passion at the moment is mentoring. I have the pleasure of working with groups of students at MMU, Salford University and various MLP students at the University of Manchester. I am also mentoring a future fundraising superstar soon to be out in the big bad world. This is one of the many ways I, and The Air Ambulance Service, return the favour to our supporters, our lifeblood, and our reason to exist.

Thanks for reading!

Do get in touch, I don't bite ;-)

Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul

So this post isn't what I promised...and for that I apologise. But the whole point about blogging is to share insight, share experience and inform others of opinion, is it not? I intend to share some funny stories with you, but this weekend saw me confide in music...


...So this post is about music.


The quote above from Plato sums it all up, music can reach thoughts and emotions deep in the soul. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a preachy post, but a post to make you think differently about music and how our culture surrounds it.


As Timothy Sieber once famously (yes that's sarcastic, and you'll understand what I mean when you read on...) said:



"Popular music is a powerful medium for
representing, contesting, and negotiating
changing cultural identities within shifting global
diasporas"


He adds:



"Music indexes continuity and change,
sustains and renegotiates connection across
transnational space, and reshapes generational
relation"



Erm... cheers for that Tim...



In English, it means that people identify themselves by the music they listen to, and it's a tool to bring groups of people together. 


That's exactly why "what music do you listen to?" is a great way of finding out more about a person in a quick and simple way. Music preferences identify things like where they like to go out, artists they identify with, music they relate to and even down to things like how they dress (take Emos and Chavs for example). Each of these leads to further assumptions about their personality and attitude.


Now imagine if you saw an artist that conflicted with this ideal? Someone that looks like this:

Is highly unlikely to be famous for singing songs like this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-8ez6dGao8


Although its not irrefutable proof, it does go to show that music is deeply embedded in our culture and the way we identify ourselves.

Music can also be an escape for people. 

Escapsim is the avoidance of reality by absorption of the mind - basically, you can escape from your troubles and worries by distracting your mind. People do this in different ways - some people might go for a walk, immerse themselves in a good book, have a long hot bath or go for a drive. 

For me, my escapism comes from music. 

Music offers a huge variety of ways to escape - the instruments, the melodies, the rhythm, the vocals, the lyrics, the beat, the tempo, the meaning, it's context and a memory. Each song is unique in it's combination of these, so each song can offer a different route to escapism. 

I had a particularly bad day the other day - half way through the working day I felt crap. It was effecting my work, so I had to do something about it. I turned my phone off and concentrated on working offline for half an hour and put some music on loud. My worries drifted away and my focus on work was at it's best. 

For me, music is a tool to control my mood, motivation and attitude. The music I listen to reflects my mood at that time.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. I would like you to share what music means to you. So please do comment, or tweet @TCAADave with #MusicIsMy 

For me, #MusicIsMy Escape. 

Who knows what next week will bring!

Ciao for now.

Perk Post - Inspired by a bottle of wine

Some touching and truthful advice taken straight from the label off a bottle of wine (now empty...Hic...)




Be passionate, love, dream big, be spontaneous, celebrate, change the world...




...or go home.