Don’t Lose the Music volunteer-led campaign
Success achieved
How Action on Hearing Loss recruited and trained 86 volunteers, who gave 810 hours of their time, to raise awareness about the importance of hearing health when listening to music- Website
- https://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk
- Project dates
- June – August 2018
Project team
- Claire Lavery, Campaigns Manager
- Norma Kelly, Volunteer Manager
- Sharon Craig, Fundraising Manager
Tools & Systems
- Facebook page – volunteer recruitment
- Facebook – promotion
- Facebook Messenger – register interest and to send application forms
- Facebook private group – for volunteer interaction
Introduction
We have 161 volunteers in Northern Ireland, which has grown from 125 in 2016. Our volunteers are predominantly older people who often have a hearing loss themselves. Our most common volunteer roles involve providing support to the public in the practical maintenance of hearing aids; attending external events with information stands; and offering companionship to lonely older people with hearing loss in local communities.
We advertise our volunteer opportunities on our website, and through volunteer recruitment organisations. We advertise in libraries, churches and health centres, and on our social media pages and receive 12 volunteer enquiries a month from the public.
The ‘Don’t Lose the Music’ campaign aimed to attract a different profile of volunteer for a unique awareness campaign aimed at young people and music lovers. The volunteer role was to provide hearing health awareness to the approx. 185,000 people attending the 2018 summer pop concerts in Belfast – this has never been done on this scale before by any charity.
The role involved attending the concerts to hand out earplugs to the audience and promote our new Facebook Messenger scan code, distributing rainproof ponchos in exchange for donations, and encouraging people to take photos and share the campaign hashtag.
Discovery
The Don’t Lose the Music initiative grew from a pilot project in 2017, when we developed a partnership with a concert promoter – MCD Productions – who gave us access to the programme of summer concerts in Belfast to provide rainproof ponchos to the audience in exchange for donations, as a way of raising charitable funds.
After a successful pilot, the relationship was expanded to promote hearing health messages to concert-goers in addition to distributing ponchos, in line with our campaign to raise awareness of how to avoid preventable hearing loss.
This development proved timely, in that the issue of prevention has become a priority for the Public Health Agency, and we were successful in securing funding from this Government agency to support our campaign. That funding enabled us to purchase 20,000 reusable earplugs, marketing materials and social media tools. This collateral, combined with the experience our organisation already has in this field, the relationship with the concert promoter, and unrivalled access to so many young people, offered a unique opportunity to recruit new and different volunteers into our organisation.
We knew that this type of volunteering opportunity would be of interest to people from a younger age group than our typical demographic, and that the offer of free access to a concert would be a good hook to bring young people into the organisation.
Objectives
- Recruit, support and train a team of volunteers to attend 16 concerts in Belfast throughout the summer 2018, to promote the ‘Don’t Lose the Music’ campaign and raise funds for the charity
- Raise awareness for the importance of hearing health when listening to music through social media, local press and engaging with the audience at 16 concerts in Belfast throughout the summer 2018
- Distribute earplugs to protect concert-goers’ hearing, reduce stigma around wearing earplugs and encourage discussion on live music causing tinnitus and long term hearing damage
- Raise voluntary income through donations in return for ponchos
Raise profile of the charity through social media, local press and on-site via branded bibs, buckets and Staff/volunteers providing information on the charity if appropriate
Timeline
March:
- proposal to MCD Productions re: partnership project
- first FB post to volunteers from 2017 pilot making them aware of plans for 2018
April:
- meeting with PHA re: partnership project
- proposal to PHA
May:
- meeting with MCD to agree proposal
- first internal project group meeting – to continue weekly for duration of the project
- campaign branding designed for all materials
- all campaign materials ordered
- social media action plan developed with volunteer
- FB post to recruit from the existing group of volunteers
- Summer recruitment event at Queens University Belfast to recruit volunteers
- email to all Action on Hearing Loss volunteers
- August - regular updates on FB to recruit new volunteers
June:
- 7th Volunteer briefing event
- 12th staff briefing event
- 15th -30th Belsonic
- PHA contract agreed and funding released
- guide for staff and volunteers on how to promote campaign on social media completed
- daily posts on social media leading up to Belsonic concerts. Facebook messenger chatbot launched
- 23rd Carl Cox shared our campaign on his Facebook page gaining 15,000 views
- campaign promoted on Belfast Live and interview on BBC Radio Ulster Evening Extra
- project manager appointed
June – August:
- artists contacted to ask for support for campaign on social media pages
July:
- progress report sent to PHA
- progress update meeting with PHA
August:
- promotional video created by volunteer Tasha Henderson and shared on social media
- creation of Instagram account to help reach younger concert goers
- case study printed in Irish News and on Belfast Live. Interview on BBC Radio Ulster
- 10th – 26th - CHSq 2018
- 22nd Travis retweeted the messages and photos of the campaign at their concert at CHSq
- 25 Belfast Vital
September:
- report sent to MCD
October:
- final progress report sent to PHA
Activities
We developed a campaign plan, and a volunteer recruitment plan with associated communication activities. We created a team to take forward this work, to include our volunteering team. We developed a bespoke volunteer application and approval process, and a schedule for recruitment, training and attendance at the concerts.
We recruited 86 volunteers for this campaign, They were men and women aged from 16 years old to 50+. Volunteers were profoundly deaf, partially deaf and hearing people.
We promoted the volunteering opportunity on our Facebook page, and at the local University. Each prospective volunteer completed an application form and a photo consent form prior to the concerts.
Once approved, and when the concert dates became available we offered a number of places for each concert, initially to those volunteers who had volunteered the previous year, and asked them for the preferences. We then tried to accommodate everyone’s preferences and ensure that we had all places filled prior to each event.
Volunteers received an induction before taking part. This outlined the importance of raising money for Action on Hearing Loss and how vital their efforts were to continue our service and supporting people across Northern Ireland who are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus. Each volunteer was given clear guidelines on their role and what behaviour was expected during the concerts. We outlined these prior to each concert and amended the guidelines depending on the concert.
Each volunteer received regular information via email. Action on Hearing Loss also created a closed group on Facebook to regularly update volunteers on any announcements or changes leading up to the concerts. Regular communication allowed us to make changes throughout the concerts. We recruited volunteers through our Facebook page, emailed the volunteers who had participating in 2017, and our Volunteer Team attended the Summer Volunteering Opportunities Showcase recruitment fare at Queen’s University in Belfast.
We posted a number of messages on Facebook encouraging people to volunteer for the concerts, to support a good cause, raise funds, develop new skills, make new friends, and get free access to a pop concert of their choice in return for volunteering.
Anyone interested was asked to Private Message our page with their contact details and we then issued them with an application form with a deadline for response.
We created a Private Group on Facebook and added all those who were successful in their application, and used this group to send regular messages to volunteers in the lead up to the concerts and during the concert programme.
The closed group allowed volunteers to interact with each other and build on their friendships from the concerts. It was also useful for sharing pictures for each night and congratulating the teams after their concert’s total was revealed.
Innovation
In addition to our volunteers providing earplugs and encouraging concert-goers to value their hearing by looking after it, we developed a Facebook Messenger scan code which we printed on campaign leaflets for distribution. Our volunteers handed out these leaflets and explained how to use the scan code. By scanning the code using Facebook Messengers concert-goers could access a quiz and further sources of information on hearing health. This is the first time our organisation has utilized such technology.
We were very grateful for the support of a volunteer who has expertise in digital communications and who provided his support for free. He devised the scan code and guided us in the development of the journey that concert-goers would take once they used the scan.
We also had the help of another volunteer who is a blogger, and who created a promotional video for the campaign and to highlight the role of our volunteers for use on social media. This support was also provided for free.
Both of these assets were new to our organisation, using the most up-to-date approaches to reach out to young people, and provided on a voluntary basis.
Marketing
We promoted the volunteering opportunity through a series of posts on our social media sites in the weeks preceding the concert, using engaging images.
These posts encouraged people to volunteer for the concerts, to support a good cause, raise funds, develop new skills, make new friends, and get free access to a pop concert of their choice in return for volunteering.
We emailed the volunteers who had taken part in 2017 to see if they would be interested in participating again.
Our volunteer team attended the Summer Volunteering Opportunities Showcase recruitment fare at Queen’s University Belfast with promotional materials to encourage students to sign up to volunteer.
Challenges
We promoted the volunteering opportunity through a series of posts on our social media sites in the weeks preceding the concert, using engaging images.
These posts encouraged people to volunteer for the concerts, to support a good cause, raise funds, develop new skills, make new friends, and get free access to a pop concert of their choice in return for volunteering.
We emailed the volunteers who had taken part in 2017 to see if they would be interested in participating again.
Our volunteer team attended the Summer Volunteering Opportunities Showcase recruitment fare at Queen’s University Belfast with promotional materials to encourage students to sign up to volunteer.
However, given the unusual weather, we briefed our volunteers to focus their efforts instead on distributing earplugs and promotional activities for the #dontlosethemusic hearing health element of the project.
The other challenges we faced were in terms of logistics at the events – ensuring that all volunteers had access and egress from the venues, had a central point to work from, had health and safety risks managed, had a system for managing large amounts of coinage.
A challenge was also about how to promote a difficult message to a largely uninformed audience – we overcame this by creating innovative approaches for a youth audience – a Facebook Messenger Bot for immediate access, photoframes and social media frames and hashtag, and support from the artists performing at the events.
Achievements
The objectives were:
- Raise awareness of the importance of hearing health when listening to music, by engaging with the audience at 16 concerts in Belfast. We attended all 16 concerts, supported by 86 volunteers who gave 810 hours of their time
- Distribute earplugs to protect concert goers hearing, reduce stigma around wearing earplugs and encourage discussion on the dangers of overexposure to loud music. We distributed 9075 earplugs and 2465 information leaflets
- Raise voluntary income through donations. We raised £16,326 in donations
- Raise profile of the charity:
- Facebook reach 32,170
- Instagram reach 1605
- Twitter reach 37,903
Targets & Statistics
In 2017 the team recruited 40 new, one-off volunteers to help with the ‘Don’t Lose the Music’ campaign and in 2018 68 new volunteers were recruited.
Many of the 40 people from 2017 volunteered again in 2018.
A total of 86 volunteers then attended the 16 concerts, giving 810 hours of their time.
Since the concerts have completed a number of volunteers have now applied for other volunteer positions in the organisation – around 10% of the total.
Financials
Action on Hearing Loss applied for and received funding from the Public Health Agency which covered the costs of all materials, volunteer expenses and staff costs. Therefore, the financial investment made by Action on Hearing Loss was zero.
We raised £16,326 in donations.
What would we do differently?
We would be sure to have a gazebo at every event to provide shelter, a storage facility and a meeting point for volunteers. We would also work much more in advance to secure the support of the artists performing at the events.
Advice
Get all teams involved – a collegiate effort ensured the success of our project – we involved staff with expertise in PR, volunteer management, finance, event management, risk management.
Regularly communicate – we had weekly meetings to keep progress on track.
Have fun – our team WhatsApp group engendered friendly competition and improved teamwork
Feedback & Testimonials
Get all teams involved – a collegiate effort ensured the success of our project – we involved staff with expertise in PR, volunteer management, finance, event management, risk management.
Regularly communicate – we had weekly meetings to keep progress on track.
Have fun – our team WhatsApp group engendered friendly competition and improved teamwork
Wider impact
We now have 9 new volunteers who have committed to a longer term role – which will bring our total number of volunteers to 170. The ‘Don’t Lose the Music’ campaign was a successful and unique way for us to increase our volunteer numbers. The more volunteers we have the more people with hearing loss, deafness and tinnitus we can reach. We cannot do the work we do without the support of our volunteers.
Attracting volunteers from a younger age group will also help ensure the sustainability of our volunteer-led approach to service delivery.
The Don’t Lose the Music campaign has also increased public awareness of our organisation and of the dangers of overexposure to loud music.
The reach we have achieved on our social media pages has far outstripped the reach we recorded in the months prior to the campaign beginning.
