Hope and Homes for Children appoints story gatherer to improve supporter communications
Melanie May | 15 March 2017 | News
Hopes and Homes for Children has appointed a dedicated story gatherer to bring its stories to the fore and help it become more audience-focused.
Isobel Eaton, previously a BBC TV and radio producer on current affairs programmes including Newsnight, joined Hope and Homes for Children last year following a rebrand that included a new website and visuals, as well as a focus on high net worth individuals and aspiring high net worth individuals.
Eaton’s remit is to gather case studies from those working in the field on the charity’s projects to find children homes rather than orphanage places, and translate them into easily accessible stories the charity can use to better engage with this audience.
Previously, the charity had found that with its in-country teams busy with their own jobs, getting the right information from them along with the necessary permissions to use in its communications was often protracted and difficult.
As the charity’s story gatherer, Eaton regularly visits the countries it works in to see its projects first hand, and works closely with the charity’s staff, including social workers and psychologists, to find the right stories for use.
The stories are used for a variety of purposes, including by the charity’s grants and major partnerships teams, to prepare people for visits to projects overseas, for communications activities, for use in social media, and for its bi-annual magazine.
Boris Pomroy, Hope and Homes for Children head of brand said:
“When we looked into this area, our processes were on their head: we were using our world-class professional social workers to find stories in their second language. We came up with idea of employing someone specifically skilled in this area to go out, interview people, and tell their stories for them.
“The idea that if we get our stories right, educate and energise people, and inspire them to act by supporting us, we can do the rest.”
Image: Rwandan Marie Claire and her foster mother Olive, found for her by Hope and Homes for Children
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.