‘Tis the season of goodwill.

It’s also almost time for Giving Tuesday - a worldwide initiative that has become so important in the charitable calendar.

And as someone who spent much of her career in the Voluntary Sector, it’s no surprise that I take the concept of giving back to the community I work in as seriously now as I ever did when it was “my day job”.

Taking place here in Northern Ireland on 1st December (as it will globally via the hashtag #GivingTuesday) it’s a global day of giving. Poignant, then, that it takes place in the aftermath of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Working for retailers in eCommerce as I do, I like that both initiatives can work side-by-side during the festive period.

The simple idea behind it is to encourage people, charities and businesses to donate time, money or their voice to help a good cause.

I Give You My Time

I have worked as a Communicator for many charities here in the past - Skills for Justice, Victim Support, Action Mental Health - and I’ve worked in a freelance capacity delivering Social and Digital training with charities such as TinyLife and later this month, Clanmil Housing Group.

Nowadays I also work mostly with startups and Social Enterprises like Utility Bear and Titanic Creative Management, so I understand resource and scale issues, promoting human stories, direct marketing to donors/customers, social media for fundraising/sales and crisis management.

I figure in this economic climate, my time and experience could be more valuable to a small or funding-challenged charity than my loose change.

A Day With Me

So I call on all the local charities, small enterprises, community groups, even larger more established organisations without a permanent Comms resource, to tag me in their #GivingTuesdayNI posts online, email me or comment here - however you want to get in touch.

I’d love to hear from you about how you would best use 7 full hours of my time, be it for:

• social media audit/strategy planning
• staff guideline creation
• staff training
• media relations
• help volunteering
• or simply advice and guidance.

I’ll pick the organisation I feel I can do most for (based on my skills and experience) and we’ll start 2016 off with a good deed and a boost for a deserving local cause.

I look forward to working with you, whoever you are!

L