Trees are twinkling under lights and tinsel. Turkey dinners are being planned and prepped. Family and friends are gathering for the holiday festivities.
Unfortunately, Christmas may not be as wonderful if you are one of the estimated 1.3 million women affected by domestic abuse in the last twelve months. Domestic abuse doesn’t stop just because it is Christmas. For those recovering from the trauma of abuse, it can be a dark and difficult time.
Women staying at The Haven often worry about how they will buy gifts for their child, having fled their own homes with nothing, and children can often feel sad that their Christmas looks very different to that of their classmates at school. For many of the families at The Haven, it is the first Christmas they have spent away from their home and family; making it even more difficult.
At The Haven we try to provide an authentic Christmas experience for the women and children we support. At each of our refuges we create a magical grotto, where Mum’s and children can come to choose gifts to take away and wrap for one another. We encourage lots of festive activities too; from Santa visits, to cookie making.
We also like to provide Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. The most important part is that Mum’s and children have the opportunity to spend quality time together, making happy memories over the festive period as they move forward into a life free from abuse.
On most women’s Christmas list are the common things like perfume or pyjamas but for the women we support their list is often very different; they hope for safety and a new start. It’s something that many are looking for as we start a new decade, but it is particularly important for women and children who have been affected by domestic abuse. The Haven every year tries to make Christmas feel special and magical to every woman and child that asks us for help.
This Christmas is even more poignant; as we move into a new decade, we start to think about what we want from the future. Women and children in The Haven want a future free from domestic abuse and the trauma they have experienced. So, this Christmas as you tuck into your dinner and pull crackers laughing at the terrible jokes with your family and friends – please take a moment to think about the women and children settling in for a Christmas in refuge.
The Haven takes over 1000 helpline calls every month. Just £2 cover the cost of each call from a woman and her children in dire need. This Christmas, can you spare £2 to help ensure support is available for those who’s festive period may not look as bright?
Donate here www.havenrefuge.org.uk/donate-to-the-haven
I had always loved getting involved in the charity events. During the last five years, alongside my manager role, I was the “charity champion” – making all thing’s charity 
Nothing of course but social media is a very different skill to previous charity resources. Unlike direct mailing or phone advertising; social media is immediate. As soon as you press enter it is on your follower’s phone, laptop, or iPad. Every sentence, every space, every GIF transmitted to thousands of people in the time it takes to take a breath.
These posts can imply a complete lack of awareness and a lack of understanding of an important issue, which can undermine an organisation’s claim to authority. Supporters can find them awkward, funny or, even worse; tone-deaf. These posts can happen accidentally at any time but once it goes online there is no return. There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. Certainly not when the genie has been screen-shotted and posted on all platforms invented.
Last month a police service decided to ask for help finding a suspect, taking advantage of a wide and engaged community audience – an excellent example of modern policing. The crime in question was a sexual assault. An appalling crime and a truly traumatic event for the victim. Unfortunately, this was overshadowed by the person who posted the tweet using the phrase that the victim was ‘unhurt’.
It’s not just the police who can post a poorly considered social media campaign, NSPCC has recently been criticised by leading professionals in the field, survivors, and by donors for their ‘TalkPANTS’ campaign. What was intended was a fun awareness raiser for children to discuss consent.
Leading professionals like Jessica Eaton responded to the tweet in disgust pointing out that “abuse is prevented by adults” not children. It is not just professionals in shock. One of the tweets was from a long-term supporter who had run sponsored races for the NSPCC – clearly a committed donor. He is also horrified and wanted a public response to the criticism of the tweet. An ill-thought through marketing campaign has potentially lost a loyal donor forever.
The ability to interact with events as they happen helps show a charity’s commitment to a cause and to its mission. It offers a charity to show its ‘natural voice’; granting an authenticity that donors appreciate. It is however essential that speed does not become more important than engagement, wider cultural awareness, and common sense. ”
It’s important to think not only what you want to say and how it is being said but also how a reader will interpret what you are saying before posting. Asking a colleague or even taking the time to get up and make a cuppa will save all sorts of distress and embarrassment. It may even save a donor relationship.
It’s like that school assembly staple, the parable of the blind-folded men and the elephant: if you asked my counterparts in Ethiopia or South Sudan what Amref does, their answers would bear little resemblance to each other’s, or my own. None of us would be wrong – but you’d need them all to see the truth.
We started by creating a taskforce from across Canada, Kenya, the Netherlands, Tanzania, and the UK – all with the shared goal of establishing a global policy on image consent and a set of practical tools for implementation. At each stage we took our drafts back to a bigger working group representing every Amref office. Once we had achieved broad agreement as a group, we took it to senior management at global level.
Like many things, it all comes back to relationships: between NGO and community members, between photographer and subject. At Amref, we’re lucky to have strong relationships with the communities we work with; many of them built and maintained over several decades. Whilst these relationships don’t allow us to ever assume consent, they do enable us to have frank and open conversations.
employees (obvs!) – and more productive ones too, less likely to get stressed into sickness or look for another job (slightly less obvious) – but, and this is crucial, fun helps charities fulfil their mission even more effectively.
important for everyone, but even more so when the issues they may be working with are deeply upsetting or difficult. This doesn’t mean taking those issues lightly. Quite the opposite; by lifting staff spirits, it acts as a refresher, helping them tackle those challenges with renewed vigour and optimism. Staff with a smile are a lot more pleasant for clients and colleagues alike than ones with a frown.
Many people my age are “Accidental Fundraisers”. We fell into this work through our passion and learnt from each other as we went along. I describe my education like twisting a rope as I climb the mountain. Fast forward twenty years, my children are starting their own lives and I am an international speaker, certified fundraising executive and a trusted consultant. For better or worse, I am very much a “professional”.
We need to remember how our sector started. All around the world, groups of passionate people came together to ask how they could address a need in their community. At its very core, that is still what our donors, volunteers and our organizations want. Sometimes that may mean leaving the spreadsheets at home and simply having a meaningful conversation.
Kimberley Mackenzie is an award winning fundraiser, Certified Fundraising Executive and AFP International Master Trainer. She works as a consultant with a variety of organizations to advance a culture of philanthropy and create transformative results that raise more money for their missions. A sought after thought leader, facilitator, speaker and trainer Kimberley has been in the fundraising trenches since 2001 and was a driving force in the early days of SOFII.org. Kimberley has also served as Editor for Hilborn Canada’s eNEWS – a weekly publication send to over 14,000 fundraising professionals every week – was a member of the Advisory Panel for the Rogare Think Tank at Plymouth University and an executive member of the Planned Giving Council of Simcoe County. 
Great Charity Speakers 