The winners of a £100,000 competition to mark the 10th birthday of Nisa’s Making a Difference Locally (MADL) charity have all met up in Leeds to celebrate their success.
MADL held the event as a networking and learning opportunity for the winners of its biggest-ever competition, which offered prizes of packages worth £10,000 to 10 small charities to help them to improve their marketing, reach more funders and beneficiaries, and become more sustainable.
The event comprised PR, digital, fundraising and bid-writing masterclasses from industry experts to help the winning charities get the most out of their increased marketing budgets.
It was attended by representatives from the two winning Scottish charities, Brothers In Arms Scotland and Create Paisley.
Dan Proverbs, founder of Brothers in Arms, said the charity “got a lot out of the day”, especially around the power of small charities coming together. He also found the sessions on fundraising and the use of PR and social media of particular benefit.
“We are going to use the £10k award to help in promoting our suite of apps to support men with their mental health and in our campaign for 2019 based on our #EveryBrotherHasAMother hashtag by producing a documentary film.
“The film allows mothers affected by male suicide to tell their powerful stories as a way of challenging other men on how they would feel in putting their own mums through a similar experience. It will reinforce the point that when men take their own lives, very often families, friends and peers had no idea that they were feeling that way, adding to the sense of shock, hopelessness and anger that they were not able to help.”
Nisa’s Head of Charity, Kate Carroll, said: “We were delighted to meet the people behind our winning charities and add further value through advice and tips to help them to get the most from their marketing funds.
“All of the causes are doing such incredible work, despite the many challenges small charities face and we hope the extra support will be of real benefit to them, both in the short term and for years to come.”
