COMMUNICATION SUPPORT PROGRAMME
Communications support for non-profit organisations and emerging businesses.
Africa!Ignite offers a unique marketing and communications capacity-building programme to non-profit organisations and emerging businesses.
We designed this programme in partnership with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) to enable organisations and small companies to sustain themselves and advance their work through strategic communications planning and more effective marketing. The programme was offered to 10 organisations over two years in 2008 / 2009 and was tested and refined over this period. The response from participating organisations has been overwhelmingly positive.
Although the programme was initially developed for non-profit organisations, a version with minimal adaptations is equally effective for emerging businesses.
The programme is designed around a series of workshops and consultations and can be tailored according to need and budget. Each topic is introduced through a group workshop followed up by individual consultations with each organisation / SMME as requested. We recommend that the programme is offered over one year, to give organisations / SMMEs time to implement and build on what they have learnt.
Workshop / Consultation 1
Introduction to brand identity and communications planning:
Provides an introduction to brand identity and examines the need for and nature of a strategic communications plan.
Workshop / Consultation 2
Strategic communications and marketing plans:
Now that businesses are clear about their positioning, stakeholders and markets, they start to map out strategic communications and marketing plans and go through the elements and processes involved.
Workshop / Consultation 3
Media relations and presentation skills (including Story-telling):
Looks at which customers and stakeholders companies want to communicate with, what they want to say and how, and what the most effective media and communications pathways would be. the most effective in reaching them.
Workshop / Consultation 4
Using new media tools in marketing and communications:
Provides an overview of the digital media tools available to strengthen sales and marketing and gives concrete suggestions on how to best make use of digital media tools., based on marketing plans, capacity and budgetary constraints.
Workshop / Consultation 5
Communication materials development:
Looks at approaches to communication material formats including print, audio-visual and digital and provides organisations with skills to help think creatively about which formats work best for which communications. |
What the participants said:
Did the workshop meet its stated objectives?
Yes, definitely! ... It far exceeded my expectations.
Very much so! Gave ideas but more importantly forced us to get practical and talk about next steps.
Yes! Great to see the different marketing materials and get an understanding of the different media. Loved the interactive nature of the presentation. Loved the panel discussions: Practical/interactive! Enjoyed the facilitation style.
Yes, the info re the website structure and aims was incredible. I have used the information from each of the workshops on a daily basis. |
