Personal demon: So what's new media consultancy for?

Howard Lake | 14 May 2006 | Blogs

When merrily I started this blog, I mentioned I might want to air some personal demons of my own from time to time. Nothing too deep of course. Speaking to you professionally, but from the heart….
I’ve been holding on to a particular topic for some weeks now, waiting for the right time. Seeing that I have a small group of commentators, and a number more readers, I thought the timing was starting to look good.
And then this happened! – https://www.fundraising.co.uk/news/6702. Mind-reading, passion-inflaming and altogether quite by coincidence, Howard has posted up an article on UK Fundraising this very day covering and parrying the negative opinions of one Observer columnist John Hind about the worth of charity consultants. You can and must get the full picture via the new story but it should already be clear that John Hind is definitely no fan!
Although I have worked on solo and joint consultancy projects in the past through CAF Consultants, the past 8 months have been my baptism into mainstream charity new media consultancy. My particular blend is organisation strategy, communications and fundraising, through the prism of new technologies. I consider myself to have been incredibly fortunate both in the nature of the projects and the charitable organisations that I have been able to work with over that short time. I think I have made the most of institutional freedom (unfettered by the claims and querks of belonging to an establishment) and have added up the sum of the parts that previously made me with flexibility, creativity and greater structure and form.
But I have angst about the whole thing too. I have worried about handing off work that won’t or can’t be followed through. I have worried about neutrality and objectivity versus simply throwing yourself into the bias of the cause. I have sat back when the project is ended and missed the (transitory) team. I’ve worried about making recommendations without prescribing tools. I’ve worried about making recommendations without examining internal resources and skills, and yes, I’ve worried about the economics of what I need to charge…I’ve also come up with some ideas of how things could be better, for charity and consultant both. But firstly I’d like to ask what new media consultancy means to you? Is it a last resort, an ill-afforded luxury, a placebo, a lever to get your voice heard, or is it a waste of time, money and space as per John Hind?
I know you’ll have had different experiences, and these depend on a range of factors, not least the quality of at least one or other of consultant or brief. But given that our posts so far seem to agree charities need more from new media than they can currently obtain for themselves, is there a role for getting outside help? And if so, how should that work to yield the best results?
 
 
 

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.