I founded We Are MC
in 2011, with the firm belief the third sector was about to experience a major transformation driven by digital. I strongly believed that what the sector needed was experienced, strategic thinkers and doers to help in-house teams deliver major strategic programmes.
That’s one of the ways we are different. We are not a big agency or a global consultancy, but a group of senior experts who have all cut our teeth working within the sector. The specific issues facing charities and digital teams within them are well known to us and we design solutions that will resolve them.
I’ve also worked with far too many agencies where you get to see the A Team at the pitch and then they disappear, leaving you with over-priced juniors. We are a small team of specialists and it will be us in your offices with our sleeves rolled-up.
I am a passionate believer that digital is transforming how we help people and deliver social change and leaving a fitter, stronger, more focussed set of organisations in its wake. I’m very proud that we have worked with some of the leading names in the sector on major digital projects.
Founder of We Are MC
Recently, when I asked someone why an organisation needed to be more digital they said ‘we must be digital or we will be dead’. That’s definitely true in the commercial world that we are all very familiar with but is it as true in the charitable sector?
Those are things we all know and experiences we are all familiar with but how do you apply them back to third sector organisations? There hasn’t been such a clear cut example of a new model totally dominating an existing model. And that is, I think, because many of the larger charities exist to serve a wide range of often complex needs. So is digital transformation as important in the third sector as elsewhere?
Another example would be that when a major humanitarian disaster strikes the route to helping in the UK has been via the main UK international charities and particularly major organisations such as the British Red Cross and the DEC. But in the last few years new ways have begun to emerge that offer different options allowing us a wider choice of ways to fulfill our desire to help.
In 2015 when the terrible earthquake struck Nepal like many people I wanted to help. On social media I could see that a group of people who lived in Nepal had set up an organisation – http://www.wehelpnepal.org -to help them fund their local NGOs. They offered a way ‘disintermediate’ the large organisations and were able to reach global audiences in a way that wouldn’t have been possible just a couple of years before.
The same is true for the user needs you have as a beneficiary. A few years ago, if, like my dad, you were unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease you had a couple of sources of help and information – Parkinson’s UK and the NHS. Now we are able to access information and solutions being generated globally. An example of this is that my dad gets help with his movement both from a physical Parkinson’s UK group but he also uses an app on his iPhone developed by an Irish start-up.
I’m lucky enough to work across the sector with many different organisations and, whilst I don’t think there is one clear path to success, I think there are things which you can do at a board level that will help ensure you are an organisation better able to take advantage of the opportunity digital offers. Here are a few of them:
You don’t have to know the answer, you have to know the question. There are some new and brilliant ways of delivering answers that enable you to cheaply test products in the market and learn as you go.
You don’t need to know a huge amount about technology to play a very significant part in making this succeed. A lot of the time when I chat to senior people they start by telling me that they don’t understand a huge amount about technology and I think that’s ok, that’s my job. You do need to know how to enable the change by putting in place the right culture, people and processes. And that’s really challenging and particularly in our sector where we are structured very differently from new organisations.
You will not reach a point where this will stop – there is no end to ‘transformation’. Google hasn’t stopped evolving its business model or its working practices and so it’s unlikely that we will either.
Alison bought a huge breadth of strategic voluntary sector digital experience. She provided a framework and rigour to ensure we challenged ourselves to deliver a programme that was truly transformational rather than just a step change. She saw connections where we saw discrete projects defined by internal structures.
Alison brought a huge breadth of strategic voluntary sector digital experience. She provided a framework and rigour to ensure we challenged ourselves to deliver a programme that was truly transformational rather than just a step change.
