As unbelievable as it may seem, this year’s Glastonbury was drenched in sunshine, with no mud-fights to be seen at all! The fact that it was the 40^th anniversary was another reason to celebrate. But it’s not just the partygoers that benefit from the atmosphere and musical extravaganzas, for many charities it is one of the most important events of the summer calendar.  

Charities have long been associated with the Glastonbury festival. With its eco-friendly vibe it’s only natural that organisations such as Greenpeace, WaterAid, and Oxfam have a strong presence there. In fact some may not realise exactly how much of this festival is run for and by charities. Many have their own areas, and some run their own stages independently. Many of the thousands of volunteers are provided by Oxfam, who in return get a large donation from the festival organisers. Each year, most of the profits that are made at Glastonbury are donated back to various charities. A ‘virtuous circle’ you may say!  

Our own charity radar report, which tracks almost 90 UK charities, also proves what a big impact this event has on the sector. Our June report shows that as an organisation itself, Glastonbury was far and away the most prolific mentioned over the month. Around 45 different charities were mentioned within coverage that featured Glastonbury, and WaterAid was the most prominent charity, benefiting from a lot of press coverage when Prince Charles, who is also President of WaterAid, stopped by to meet volunteers.  

The National Trust also featured heavily, as they lit up St Michael’s Tower on Glastonbury Tor to celebrate the festival’s 40^th anniversary. This helped to boost their coverage, and this month they reached 44% of charity donors, the highest reach within the arts/culture sector in our Radar report.  

Looking back to 2009’s report from June, this year saw almost three times as many pieces mentioning Glastonbury in 2010. It will be interesting see how many turn up in next year’s report!

Here at Metrica, we love any excuse for some baked goods, and so yesterday we held a Blooming Great Tea Party in the office, to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. After worrying that we wouldn’t have enough to feed everyone, we found ourselves surrounded by a plethora of cakes, muffins, cupcakes, and homemade sweets!  

Work paused for elevenses, and while everyone tucked into the goodies, we collected over £180 for a very worthwhile charity. Marie Curie Cancer Care provides free care, at home, to those that are terminally ill, and their dedicated nurses are seen as a godsend by many families with sick relatives. Their hospices also provide support to those in need.  

As you can see, we had a great spread and everyone couldn’t wait to dig in. We may all be detoxing this weekend though!

Has it really been a whole year since we launched our re-vamped charity benchmarking report, the Metrica Charity Radar? We have seen so many events shape the charity sector over the last twelve months, whether they are global crises, such as the Haiti Earthquake, or UK fundraising events which have captured the imagination, such as Eddie Izzard running an obscene amount in aid of Sport Relief.   

Here at Metrica, we’ve put together an annual version of our Radar report, to be able to see what has driven the news agenda across all the different charity sectors this financial year, and it makes for very interesting reading! 

To begin with, the Haiti earthquake was by far the biggest single event driving coverage, affecting over 20 charities, including Oxfam, the Red Cross and the DEC. This generated sustained coverage throughout January and February, as various organisations offered to help.  

Some stories were slightly smaller, but came back into the public eye throughout the year, such as the case of a policeman who left two police dogs to die in a hot car. The RSPCA were involved in this case when it was first reported, when the trial began and when sentencing occurred, proving that some stories can keep running over a long period of time.  

Political issues often made an appearance in our Radar report, illustrated by the fact that Gordon Brown is far and away the most prolific public figure to feature in charity coverage, being mentioned in over 15,000 articles this year, followed by the ever charitable Gary Barlow with almost 5,000! 

So who emerged top in the annual report? Get in touch to find out! Email the team on charity@metrica.net or give us a call on 020 7922 1670. The Radar report could be a great planning tool for next year’s PR activities, or just a great way to get an overview of all that has happened in your sector over the past 12 months.

In between screaming at the X factor final this weekend (hangs head in shame), I saw a TV advert for The Sun Newspaper. It takes a lot these days for an advert to grab my attention, but this one was particularly cunning. My personal favourite ‘app’ is the pen-touch interface for the games section.

The basic premise is that a ‘handheld’ printed newspaper is just as good as an online version.  Those clever folks at The Sun use a parody of the iPhone app adverts to make their point. It does beg the question though that if the UK’s best selling daily newspaper is having to persuade the public to pick up a copy instead of heading online, what does that say about the state of the industry? Or are they trying to pre-empt the threat of digital media? A bit like closing the stable door after Mr Ned / Black Beauty / horse of choice has bolted.  It is certainly an interesting tactic.

We have just finished compiling Metrica’s latest Charity Radar benchmarking report for May 2009, and it makes for very interesting reading. As usual, various news stories shaped this month’s coverage from hugely popular events such as the Chelsea Flower Show to the more niche, but just as enjoyable, cheese rolling contest in Gloucestershire, where the St John Ambulance were on hand to aid any casualties.

A special mention should also go to Major Phil Packer, who completed the London Marathon and reached his target of raising £1 million for Help for Heroes. His next challenge will be to pull himself 1,800ft up the sheer rock face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in the US in June - the equivalent of 4,254 pull-ups. I’m sure he will be making another appearance in next month’s report!

In terms of companies, Marks & Spencer overtook Tesco to become the most featured company/organisation this month, boosted by their work with Oxfam and their Clothes Exchange campaign.

For a corporate organisation a partnership with a charity is expected to bring about many benefits, the main one being more favourable coverage. Looking at some of our own clients this is definitely the case, with charitable partnerships having a very significant impact, and really boosting strongly favourable coverage, and therefore, reputation. Job done!

But what is in it for the charities themselves? Apart from the huge financial rewards of course…. According to nfpSynergy 61% percent of charities they asked said that raising income is the main reason for corporate partnerships.  In the same nfpSynergy survey, 55% said that they use these partnerships to raise their profile. Here on the Govt/Nfp team we have many charity clients who are lucky enough to have a corporate partner, some even have quite a few. After a bit of good old ‘data interrogation’ it seems that these charities benefit just as much as the ‘corporates’ in terms of positive media coverage. But why I hear you ask?

For many smaller charities it can get them high-profile pieces in national publications, which they may never reach on their own. These partnerships can also be a great medium to communicate the key aims and messages of the charity, and be endorsed by a big name. Message delivery is often boosted by stronger spokesperson presence, with representatives from both the charity and its partner widely quoted in coverage. PR-led partnership events provide a great opportunity for a partner to explain their choice of charity, another useful means of driving favourability and message delivery. News of a partnership launch can generate attention-grabbing headlines that mention both company and charity.   

So how do you measure this impact? Metrica was lucky enough to evaluate coverage generated by Tesco’s Charity of the Year Partnership with the British Red Cross, which raised £4,428,000 over 2007, the largest amount generated through a corporate partnership in just one year. An examination of volume and tone of event coverage, rates of message delivery, spokesperson presence, prominence and impact revealed a well directed media campaign. Tracking spikes of coverage over time against hits to the partnership website further demonstrated public engagement with a campaign that reached a good proportion of the UK adult population.   

But choose your partner carefully! The charity's reputation may risk being tarnished by association with particular corporate organisations. A charity promoting labour rights would easily be compromised by a relationship with a company whose manufacturing ethics were subject to investigation. Anti-sweatshop activists criticized the Product Red’s links with Gap, despite Product Red's assurance that its products are not manufactured in sweatshops.   

So the moral of the story is gaining a corporate partner can be a fantastic opportunity for a charity, just make sure it’s the right one!