Rob Dyson - Charity PR

Rob Dyson began his PR career by asking the marketing chief at The Civil Service Benevolent Fund to give him a shot as a temp in the charity’s press office. Nearly a decade on he is now PR Manager for Whizz-Kidz, a brilliant, young people’s mobility charity (and the beneficiaries of the current Blue Peter Appeal) where he leads all communications activity.

He is also a board member at CharityComms, the professional membership body for charity communicators, and runs the Third Sector PR & Comms Network on Facebook. He tweets at @robmdyson.

We spoke to Rob about his career to date, and to find out what a job in charity PR involves.

By Sarah Stimson

How did you first get into PR?

My first foray was in 2001, when I convinced the then Head Of Marketing at The Civil Service Benevolent Fund to give me a shot as a temp in the press office. I had been earning my keep entering basic information on donors into a database up to that point. I always enjoyed writing, asking questions and learning – and my wish was granted.

Had you studied PR at university?

No. I didn’t even know PR degrees existed (did they?) when I was looking at my options way back in 1995. But what I did study at The University of Birmingham – a mixture of classical and contemporary social theory and what I reluctantly term “media studies” – was a great foundation for working and writing within the third sector.

How has your career progressed?

After The Fund, I detoured into a role as a fundraising researcher at disability charity Scope – and this was where I cut my teeth learning to use the web really effectively and saw its potential as a fantastic collaborative tool. I worked under a great boss, Georgina Lamb, who honed my research skills; essential for a PRO. I then did a switch over to the press office, and carried on learning the PR trade by writing, making mistakes, and doing lots of the dreaded “sell-in” phonecalls. I spent almost six years there, before joining Whizz-Kidz as PR Manager in the new year of 2008.

In the meantime I had won a two week placement through The Media Trust’s ‘Media Connections’ scheme – shadowing teams at BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’, ‘You & Yours’, ‘PM’ and ‘WATO’ programmes. I also started up a group on Facebook called the Third Sector PR & Communications Network. And I was invited to join the board of CharityComms after meeting founder Joe Saxton at the launch of a ‘Clever Communications’ guide to charity PR. I’ve always been good at networking!

How did you get your current job?

I was head-hunted whilst at Scope by independent recruitment consultant John Thompson, of Changing Business, who had seen my name appearing in various bits of press, and who liked what I was beginning to do in terms of joining-up PR people across the sector.

What does your current role involve?

I devise and deliver all of the public relations for young people’s mobility charity Whizz-Kidz, including fundraising activity, young people’s participation, parliamentary lobbying and corporate partnerships. I have also spearheaded the charity’s social media strategy – creating from scratch a strong presence in networks like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Give us an idea of a typical day at work.

It’s pretty varied, which I love. So I’ll grab a cup of tea in the morning and check in on Facebook and Twitter – reply to any messages, questions, and thank any fundraisers talking about their events. I also check the daily media cuttings. I’ll stay logged in, but get on with writing copy for a release on a staff fundraising event or new partnership – and either sell these in, or work with their PR teams to share the workload.

It’s likely that I’ll be chasing a case study or three for testimonials and/or images around one of our work placement schemes or young people’s clubs, and meanwhile I’ll pen quotes for MPs meeting our young ambassadors and steer how the messages are pitched to the press.

I’ll then turn my attention to pushing the major campaign of the moment; speaking to journalists about (for example) our wheelchair reform campaign, or Blue Peter Appeal. I’ll compile ‘hit lists’ of related topics and journalists and decide the best approach.

I’ll meet informally with other teams at their desks or over coffee to check any upcoming activity for PR angles, and scribble some thoughts down as to an approach or strategy.

I’ll skim-read the latest articles by key press contacts for an idea on what they’ve written recently and what the current ‘topics’ are that I could use as media hooks. I’ll again check Twitter to look for any leads on which to hook our work – and also keep an eye on competitor activity. Not on a typical day perhaps, but I will try and meet with new contacts for coffee once in a while.

There’s usually some admin in there too – making sure media coverage is collated, and I use Evernote.com to clip articles and social media mentions as ideas for another day.

At the end of the day I try and read at least one blog – written by someone who doesn’t work in my discipline or sector. It’s important to refresh your thinking and avoid naval gazing. Some of the best ideas come from outside of your own area of work.

Tell us a bit about Whizz-Kidz

Whizz-Kidz is a young people’s mobility charity; providing wheelchairs and other mobility equipment – as well as training and work placements – to young disabled people. The equipment we provide is largely unavailable on the NHS.

At the heart of what we do are our young people, and that’s what motivates me. We have a ‘Kidz Board’ comprising of 12 young disabled people who guide the charity – and a lot of our campaigns and activity is led by their ideas and innovation.

Tell us about some recent projects.

Working closely with the BBC and a major retailer (Tesco) during the Blue Peter Appeal has been, overall, a great experience. The appeal hopes to raise £80,000 to create new clinics to assess disabled kids for equipment; and also led me to project-manage the sign-off for a viral game which was something really new and exciting.

Still in ‘soft launch’ phase, our Fast Forward campaign is the first time the charity has decided to do an overtly lobbying-based awareness-raiser. We’re collecting experiences of families trying to get equipment on the NHS, and marrying this with a social media based call to action to drive reform of NHS wheelchair services.

But our partnership work with the NHS also continues, so it’s important to PR the collaborative work between us and local Primary Care Trusts to reach more children with the right equipment at the right time.

What are the challenges of PRing a charity?

Fighting to get your voice heard in an ecosystem of other great causes but wavering philanthropy is very tough. It’s also easy to paint your beneficiaries as ‘victims’ or needy in order to get attention; this is a tactic that I largely abhor.

Do you think social media is having an impact on PR as a profession?

Social media has had a huge impact on PR. It affords us a channel with which to build genuine dialogue with our supporters and clients, where we can access direct and immediate feedback, and improve our services as a result. And it allows us a more informal, conversational way of reaching our audiences that bypasses traditional media and the ‘set agenda’.

As PROs we should be adept at relationship-building – so social media reminds us to stop broadcasting, and refresh our ability to be personable, persuasive and, when necessary, humble.

Do you think there is a lack of ethnic diversity in PR, and how should the industry tackle it?

There is a lack of diversity generally, including disabled PROs. The ‘industry’ (and trade press) needs to cover minority interests and organisations more, celebrate and promote inclusivity, and also broaden the talent pool by doing milk rounds at ‘ordinary’ schools and colleges. It starts by giving young people choices, and then finding mentors and opening up internships that promote career development.

What advice would you have for anyone considering a career in PR?

The advice I always give is walk the walk. Volunteer and intern, be prepared to start at the bottom, and showcase your own work – for example through a blog. It is such a competitive profession – even (if not especially) in the voluntary sector. Anything that can give you edge will help. But if you do write a blog, find your niche. And network. Lots.

What’s the best thing about your job?

The best thing is that with every media hit, retweet, or Facebook ‘like’ I know that I’m raising awareness of a charity; not a product. I know that real families’ lives are improved by fundraising and partnerships that come as a result of someone reading, hearing, seeing and learning something new about Whizz-Kidz.

What’s the worst thing about your job?

It can still be a hard slog, and sometimes the stories aren’t quite there or the odds are stacked against you. Some party political attitudes to charity make you feel like you’re climbing a very steep hill. It can also be disheartening to be used by some journalists as a case study machine, instead of treating charities as an equal partner in storytelling.

What’s been the highlight of your career so far?

I work hard inside and outside of the day job, so I am proud to be given platforms such as contributing to The Guardian’s voluntary sector online pages, and writing for Civil Society magazine. Any way that I can support and encourage best practice across the sector makes me immensely proud. In my work, highlights have been securing spots on the ‘Today’ programme, and ghost-writing for The New Statesman.

Tell us something interesting about yourself that we couldn’t find on the internet.

I was an over-keen audience member on a long-forgotten Saturday lunchtime ‘yoof’ show called ‘The Basement’, presented by Sonja Saul. I managed – between a combination of conjunctivitis and youthful naivety – to come across as a bit of a prat.