On Wednesday, I attended the Third Sector Communications conference in London on behalf of Groundwork. Some excellent presentations from some of the country's cutting edge charity communicators - and fascinating to hear about the Woodland Trust's communications strategy which has seen them punch well above their weight in recent years.
Most interesting though, was Breast Cancer Care's Head of New Media, Bertie Bosrédon. Bertie has been transforming the charity's approach to the web by placing a new focus on users rather than the needs of individual silos of the organisation. He's also established new media as a unique discipline within the charity rather than a 'techie' department that simply uploads content. Breast Cancer Care has also begun engaging more with social networks such as MySpace and using tools such as Flickr with supporters.
Clearly the larger charities are leading the way for those of us with smaller budgets (Bertie has a whole team of new media staff) - but there's plenty that charities and community groups can learn from them. Bertie is helping to set up NFP.org.uk - an online community for not-for-profit organisations to share news, knowledge and practical advice on using new media.
