13 Apr Groundwork Northamptonshire: PR work helped a local charity secure more funding

Groundwork Northamptonshire

About the Company
This is the Northamptonshire brand of a national federation of charities. They’re passionate about creating a future where every neighbourhood is vibrant and green, every community is strong and able to shape its own destiny, and no one is held back by their background or circumstances.

The Requirements
Groundwork Northamptonshire has always done incredible work to support the local community, but one of their challenges was that they weren’t communicating this well. It was almost as if they were Northamptonshire’s best kept secret. Other similar charities in the area were doing less work, but they had much greater visibility, and Groundwork knew it was time to make a change. Without real visibility, not only were they concerned that they wouldn’t be able to reach all of the people who could benefit from their services, but it also meant they might suffer when it came to bidding for funding. It was time to put Groundwork Northamptonshire on the map.

The Activity
Groundwork had heard about Pilkington Communications through a campaign that we were running at the time, and they were keen to see how we could help. Straight away, we opted for a strategic approach, ensuring that we understood exactly what Groundwork wanted to achieve. This then allowed us to craft the right action plan to ensure that they achieved it.

Amongst the key objectives, Groundwork Northamptonshire wanted to increase engagement with both the local community and more local businesses.

To help attract attention, we worked with Groundwork Northamptonshire to begin sharing the amazing stories they had, shining a spotlight on the work they were doing through PR. We also created a campaign for them, called Seeds of Hope, to help attract attention from both local people and local businesses. In addition to that, we supported the team to ensure they were more confident in using the tools they had, such as email marketing and social media.

Outcomes and Results
The constant stream of PR mixed with the many elements of the campaign has provided fantastic results for the charity. Not only are they far more visible now, and they are far more confident in sharing the stories of how they are working with the local community, but they are also engaging with some big local businesses and have expanded their reach into Northampton, an area of the county they had long aspired offer continued support to.

One of the greatest achievements, however, has been the impact this work has had on the charity’s funding. When they are now completing bid applications, they are able to include a whole raft of PR stories, sharing what they’ve done to date and how they’ve worked. This has added a great deal of weight to their bids – photos, case studies, press coverage and social media messaging – and has helped the charity to secure a lot more funding, including recent National Lottery success. They have some incredible projects in the pipeline.

The Future
Groundwork Northamptonshire is committed to working with Pilkington Communications for the long term, and we are continuing to support them with regular PR and marketing activities that will further boost their main objectives.

Kimberley Lawson, Operations Director at Groundwork Northamptonshire, said: “Jessica and her team are such a pleasure to work with and we have been so impressed by them. They’ve encouraged us to share more of the work we do, and we’ve been able to do so much more thanks to their support. The Seeds of Hope campaign they did for us was so different to anything we’d done before, and it helped to bring together all the different elements of what we do into a more cohesive group. We’re looking forward to what we’re going to be able to achieve next.”