12 Really Good Things
As we start to look forward to 2024, we thought we would share 12 things that have made us happy and proud this year.
In no particular order…
12. The variety of Really Good Things this year
As always, we have worked on some super interesting and vital projects this year - from speaking to communities about antimicrobial resistance (it was brilliant to play a small role as part of The Liminal Space team on this, read more about how the research was used here), to individual giving fundraising strategies for animal welfare, creating a stronger brand proposition and marketing strategy for a special educational needs school to reach more young people with complex needs, creating campaigns to recruit and retain support workers for the social care sector, and delivering strategic communications about green hydrogen engineering projects – and everything in between.
All very different sectors and topics, but all undeniably Really Good Things…
11. Dogs in coffee shops
Just this. Pure happiness and always a welcome distraction from emails.
10. A repeat client, with a 12 year gap…
A very long time ago, we were commissioned by Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to provide consultancy and guidance to the Trust in creating and launching a shiny new hospital charity - creating a robust fundraising proposition, internal grant making strategy, and brand. Ever since, it’s always been great to see the charity’s collection tins in local shops, and we’ve been cheering them on from afar. But in 2023 (thanks to a collaboration with Future Design Consultants) we got to work with the charity again – a lovely coincidence and great to see how far the charity has come. Read about our work in the NHS here.
9. In 2023 we learnt all about community business
This year we worked with Power to Change to design and deliver brand perception research and benchmarking. The aim of the research was to understand current perceptions of the community business sector among funders and policymakers, and to determine how Power to Change could increase its influence in bringing about positive and lasting change for the community business sector. It was interesting to learn all about community businesses, and the huge variety of services they provide - everything from bakeries to swimming pools can be community-owned and bring people together, provide jobs and training, and transform towns and cities. Read the case study here.
8. Weekly volunteer friendship calls with Age UK
Our Director, Sarah Klaveness, is a volunteer phone friend for Age UK, and for the past three and half years has been making weekly phone calls to an amazing lady who is now almost 100. Being a phone friend has been very rewarding and the weekly chats have provided lots of new baking and gardening tips too! If you want to find out about becoming a phone friend for Age UK, you can find out more here.
7. Podcasts and walks
This is clearly just a ploy for good podcast recommendations for 2024! But in the spirit of sharing, this year we have enjoyed discovering lots of podcasts including Dish, Small Spark Theory, and Book Reccos. We’ve also just found out that there is a Keeping up Appearances podcast – so that’s on the list for next year!
6. Two losses but two wins
We tendered for and won some fantastic projects this year. But we also tendered for two very important projects - for high-profile organisations with national significance. We got invited to pitch, and while we didn’t win either project, we did get down to the final three for both and received some great feedback. And we were still absolutely thrilled!
5. Refreshed our cultural evaluation skills
We completed a two-week arts, culture and heritage evaluation course this year with the Centre for Cultural Evaluation and Leeds University. It was a great course, and brilliant to see so many people signed up, all with amazingly interesting cultural jobs. Read about the work we do with brilliant cultural organisations.
4. We worked with, not one but two, small animal charities this year
Despite having worked with countless amazing charities across 20 years, until this year we had never worked with a small animal charity (we’ve previously done some work with Chester Zoo who are AMAZING, but their animals wouldn’t really fit into your lounge). So being a big fan of dogs, this year we were delighted to work with two branch charities of the RSPCA on fundraising audits, messaging development, capital campaigns, and individual giving strategies. Read more about what we did here.
3. We were commissioned to deliver a brand perception project for a global education publisher
This year, we were delighted to be appointed to work with global publisher, Macmillan Education, on a brand perception project – gathering insights about the wider educational publishing sector and developing a survey to understand the perceptions of teachers globally, including the areas they felt were important to support learning in a fast-changing world. It was really interesting to learn about how publishers are using the latest technology and gamification to bring learning to life for young people. Read more about the project here.
2. A year of engineering achievements
We’ve been working with Altrad for a number of years now – they’re a name you may not have heard of, but they are a global leader in industrial services and a leading voice in the energy transition.
We’ve supported Altrad on a range of strategic change communications and employee engagement projects – everything from brand positioning, values, apprentice recruitment, and strategy comms following several major acquisitions and developments.
Every year - alongside our creative partner in this work, Future Design Consultants - we help Altrad create an achievements film as the annual highlight of the company’s internal communications strategy. With a UK team of over 10,000 it’s always an interesting script to write and there are always far too many achievements to include. But while every film has been fantastic, 2023’s might be our favourite yet…
2023 Altrad Achievements Film
1. A new brand, website, and bright plans for 2024
It was a great moment to put the new Really Good Things brand and website live this year – thank you to everyone who has said such nice things about it.
We have some big plans for 2024, but just to say thank you to everyone we have worked with this year – all our clients, agency and freelance partners, collaborators, advisors, and friends. If you’d like to work with us in 2024, in any capacity, please get in touch.
