2014 Report
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 Welcome to the 2014 SpunOut.ie Annual Report 2
Our Team in 2014 (Aren’t they looking well?)
Ian
John
Tricia
Cian
Niamh
Alan
Marie
Jack
Maire
Oisin
Sarah
Cormac
James
Ciaran
Kelsey
Sarah
Garret
Craig
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A small organisation making big waves The need Life happens. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, and sometimes it’s just plain ugly. In order to lead the best lives we can, we all need information and support from time to time. Young people are less likely to use traditional information and support sources than their older counterparts. They still turn to family, friends and teachers when they need advice and help, but research shows they want – and they get – most of their information online. The 16 to 25 year age group is described as being ‘digital by default’. Although the internet can be amazing, it also has masses of unregulated and inaccurate information…
Our response SpunOut.ie was set up to address this gap. We imagine an Ireland where all young people can access the resources and opportunities they need to make the best choices for themselves. We strive to empower them to create positive change in their own lives and in their communities. We want them to be happy, healthy and active. SpunOut.ie is by young people for young people. We offer an online hub of relevant, credible, reliable and independently validated information for the many issues that affect young people, from exams to voting, and from unemployment to relationships – with everything in between. We operate mainly through our website and social media, but we complement that work with a range of offline activities.
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on 2013 AReflections welcome from Ian The story of 2014 is a very good one for SpunOut.ie. Our readership soared and broke all the records previously set. Our team and board of directors both expanded dramatically, bringing new faces and fresh energy to our work and leadership. We also launched a number of really cool projects which have been incredibly successful at communicating the importance of positive well being to our target audience. It hasn’t been all good news. We’re still battling to establish a sustainable funding model for when philanthropic support for our work ends in the middle of 2015. It’s a problem being experienced by many other non-profits in the sector, but it’s a problem for which we have lots of ideas to solve and we’re working hard to make them pay. We’d like to thank the Atlantic Philanthropies, the HSE and the HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention for their ongoing financial support. In 2014 we underwent an organisational review using the McKinsey 7S model to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for SpunOut.ie as we enter our tenth year of operation. Lots of really good recommendations came out of the report (soon to be published) which were used to compose a two-year action plan to address the issues raised. The board of directors was also re-energised with 8 new members and the action panel saw a turnover of members also. Both groups are busy defining new terms of reference and developing and shaping how the organisation will be led and governed into the future. They will enter into a strategic planning process in late 2015. Overall it’s been a really busy year full of exciting projects, campaigns and initiatives to get information out to our young readers who need it to navigate life’s new and perrenial challenges. We’ve loved every minute of it. Mark and Sorcha will begin to tell you more about our story of 2014 overleaf, but thanks for letting me set the scene.
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Reflectionsonon2014 2013by Mark Reflections As we all know the economic climate has been challenging for the NGO sector. For SpunOut, 2014 began with the perennial challenge of long-term sustainability. In the main, our funding was made up of a final grant from Atlantic Philanthropies and HSE funding through the Health & Wellbeing Directorate and the National Office for Suicide Prevention. In a discussion with one of our volunteers I outlined the challenge we face. The volunteer said the impact of SpunOut.ie on her life, and in particular at a time when she was most vulnerable, was beyond measure. While I was encouraged by her feedback, for the first time in my association with SpunOut I genuinely feared for our long-term viability. And if SpunOut.ie were to leave the landscape the loss would be considerable. Yet again the team responded magnificently and made headway in securing new funding, continued to optimise the website design and made key new hires in communications and editorial. Through renewing the board of SpunOut.ie we renewed our commitment to our founding principle of a bottom up, youth-led organisation; a principle that is embodied in our Action Panel. Young people design and help us to deliver SpunOut.ie, which is why the organisation is so effective at reaching the people we serve. Finally, it is with great sadness that I have decided to step down from the board of SpunOut.ie. I first became aware of SpunOut in 2006 while working with Atlantic Philanthropies. What struck me at the time was the principle of ‘for young people, by young people’. And I have come to understand that this is its enduring strength. While I am sad to leave SpunOut.ie, I will always be a friend and I believe the organisation is in the best health since its foundation, which is an extraordinary story when you consider where we have come from. I know our success is down to the staff who have been innovative, hardworking, committed and heroic. And to the young volunteers who are the heart and soul of SpunOut.ie. A heartfelt thanks. - Mark Keane - Chair, SpunOut.ie Board of Directors.
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Reflectionsonon2014 2013by Sorcha Reflections With each passing year, SpunOut goes from strength to strength and 2014 has been no different. Although there have been challenges in terms of securing funding and making the website more accessible, 2014 saw new faces being added to the SpunOut team, a record-breaking number of visits to the website and more content being created than ever before. This year began with the launch of several projects such as ‘The SpunOut.ie Survival Guide to Life’, the MiYo app and ‘Ditch the Monkey’ animations. Encouraging young people to have healthier, happier lifestyles was a priority for the Action Panel and so before the launch, many of us were kept busy proof-reading the Guide, giving feedback and testing the MiYo app to ensure that there was youth-input every step of the way. Summer at SpunOut saw a voter information campaign around election time, Women’s Academy, Health Hacks, content on dealing with exam results and if this wasn’t enough, there was even a trip to the Sea Sessions festival where SpunOut spread the word on the importance of sexual health! Part of our summer also involved recruiting new members for the Action Panel and now our membership is bigger than ever before with twenty people, which in turn has brought fresh ideas and greater diversity to the Panel. SpunOut finished out the busy year by running a ‘Safer Sex’ campaign, and partnering with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) to encourage as many young people as possible to register to vote in the upcoming civil marriage equality referendum. Many Action Panel members were out and about with clipboards signing people up to vote, however, it has also meant that the Action Panel have been kept busy directing SpunOut as to what role we feel the organisation should have in the lead-up to May. We agreed that providing information about the referendum and the voting process, as a whole was a move, which resonated closest with the core objectives of the organisation, along with encouraging young people to get out and vote. - Sorcha Cusack - SpunOut.ie Action Panel & Board
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Reflections What people on said2013 about us in 2014 Our work receives feedback in many ways, here are some of the nice things people said about our service this year.
“I have to say, well done to @SpunOut. Every morning I look at Facebook and they have a genuinely interesting article posted.” @johndavidoc
Great feedback from young experts attending our focus group on mental health yesterday. Thank you to @SpunOut for your support and feedback - @safety // Twitter 8
“Check out @SpunOut a fantastic website for young people with a lot of info on life’s trials and tribulations.” - @ORBsOfficial
“Just a quick note to say well done & keep up the good work. I found out about SpunOut when I attended one of the table quizzes recently & think this is a really fantastic initiative and an excellent resource for young people.”
ďƒ¤ How we did in 2014 9
Our readers in 2014 For eleven months of 2014 we had positive growth on the website. More young people visited the website than ever before, and a higher percentage of young people read our content on mobile devices. This was achieved by overhauling our Google Adwords account and continuing to improve the website’s SEO performance. We also devised a new social media strategy which places our focus on driving readers to the site above engagement on social platforms.
821,562
512%
website visits
1.9
17,513 hours on site
64.5%
613%
36%
565%
mobile share 57%
63%
63% 639k 37% 32% 12% 9% 7% 2% 1.56m pages per visit
unique users
bounce rate
69%
pages views
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Traffic sources
Google Adwords
Google Search
Direct
Referral
Social media in 2014 This year we invested in a communications officer to help chart the course for our social media strategy for the years to come. We fixed a number of obvious problems which saw our social channels underperform in the past. Our new social strategy places an emphasis on driving readers to the site above engagement on social platforms. We also began investigating how to retain readers acquired through social channels on the site for longer and convert them into regular readers.
19%
5320%
of readers came from social media
62% facebook
37% twitter
1% other
25,578 followers
11,530 followers
59,133 views
97,744 visits to site
57,575 visits to site
118,207 mins viewed
3,395 new likes
11,753 retweets/favs
836 subscribers
139k engagements
3,662 new followers
+29 new videos 11
Editorial in 2014 It was a busy year for the editorial team with the creation and publication of the SpunOut.ie Survival Guide in Quarter 1. We were lucky to have the editorial team grow in size with Jack, Oisín, Sarah and Ciarán. Some highlights of the editorial calendar included political profiles for the European and local elections as well as healthy eating and exercise information for the Health Hack campaign in September. The combination of articles and video content was a great success in encouraging people to get tested for STIs as part of December’s sexual health campaign. We introduced a new quiz feature in this campaign that was very effective in increasing engagement with content around the sexual health campaign.
633 pieces of content were created in 2014
194
147
102 health
opinion articles
Top Ten of 2014 12
news articles
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
articles
91
homepage campaigns
Sample Cover Letter Impress with a snazzy CV Student Grants Student Accommodation Work Rights
53
politics articles
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
25
employment articles
21
videos created
Deciding when to have sex Inspiring young Irish people Bressies mental health speech Finding that summer job Common Sex Myths
Youth engagement in 2014 Dublin Cork
Engaging young people is something that happens across all of SpunOut.ie’s activities. From creating content to running campaigns and events. It’s a core aspect to ensure that SpunOut.ie addresses the needs of young people.
45
outreach events
5,092
young people reached
140
young people consulted
Outreach Example
Youth Engagement Example
Consultation Example
Working with UCC as part of our “Get Tested” Campaign in December.
Talking to young people in IT Carlow about making small changes for healthier and fitters lives as part of health hack.
Working with SpunOut.ie action panel members around the upcoming National Youth Participation Strategy.
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ďˆ’ Projects in 2014 14
First fortnight SpunOut.ie partnered with Ireland’s largest mental health music and arts festival to focus on positive mental health for the first two weeks of January 2014. The work involved a social media campaign, #SpunOutSelfie, encouraging people to share what works for them with regard to positive mental health. SpunOut.ie also ran outreach and workshops for young people on positive mental health.
young people attended
people were engaged around the country
20
321
top ten trending topic on Twitter
1,100
views across our three videos
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Ditch the Monkey Ditch The Monkey is a series of five animated shorts, released online and in cinemas on April 2nd. The series was produced by SpunOut.ie in collaboration with Irish animator Eoin Duffy and the National Office for Suicide Prevention. The series is loosely based on the ‘five ways to wellness’, a set of evidence based actions which promote positive mental health. Often, our own negative thoughts hold us back from being happy and healthy. By choosing to get out into the world, to connect, to contribute, to be healthy, to accept ourselves and to be aware - we can stay on the path to wellness.
page views
views of the videos in cinames
18,000 726,000
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#1
trending topic on twitter
mentions of #DitchTheMonkey
video plays on YouTube
1,100 20,922 19,000 minutes viewed
Mentioned on Her.ie, Joe.ie, TheJournal.ie, Spin 1038, Red FM, Irish Examiner, Irish Independent and more!
“Saw one of the deadly #ditchthemonkey shorts in action in a packed Cineworld on Saturday. Got a great reaction.” @IanConnolly
Survival Guide to Life SURVIVAL RVIVAL GUIDE SU
GUIDE
to life
The ‘SpunOut.ie Survival Guide to Life’ is a 160-page book written and produced in-house and was published on April 2nd 2014 at an event in the IFI Dublin. The aim of the book was to help young people navigate the difficult challenges in life, whether at home, in school, at college or in work. The book was written by Marie Duffy and Tricia Purcell, was designed by Cian O’Mahony and was illustrated by Rosa Devine.
4,000 page views
550
orders for copies of the book
books shipped
pdf views online
4,000 9,000
900
ebook downloads
100’s
of retweets and mentions
You can order the book now for free! It’s available in Paperback, and on Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad/Mac and Android.
“This book has a lot of useful information about many different facets of life for someone growing up & leaving secondary school...” K.Biggs on GoodReads.com 17
MiYo App MiYo is a SpunOut.ie wellness app developed by students to help our readers kick-start a healthy routine. The MiYo app is a self-reflective journal where you can log the things you have done each day which are crucial to our physical and mental well-being. Short for “Mind yourself” MiYo suggests tips and content to users if they are struggling with a particular activity.
1,200 app downloads
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300+ pre-orders
page views
on iOS and Android now
5,000
Get it
Made by local developers
Average rating on the Android App Store
“Loving ‘Miyo’ the new app by @SpunOut, what a simple but great idea! #positive” - @dayhlia
Elections and Voting 2014 This year we designed an information hub for the 2014 European and local elections. We explained the registration and voting processes and interviewed young candidates running for office. In October we used the hub again to drive voter registration in advance of the 2015 referendums.
40,200 page views
portal page views
candidate profiles
14,143
47
8,365
views of the register to vote page
70+
pieces of voting content
SpunOut.ie, in conjunction with NYCI and USI held 3 European Election Hustings events in Galway, Cork and Dublin with 131 people in attendance.
“Enjoyed the evening at #youthvote14. Really did give a good insight into the candidates running. Well done @SpunOut, @TheUSI” - @dm_waugh
“High standard of questions from audience at @SpunOut @TheUSI @nycinews #youthvote14 event - all on actual EP-relevant issues” - @colmomongain 19
Health hack Health Hack was a campaign to kick start young people into making small changes to their diet and fitness in order to live happier and healthier. SpunOut.ie used text message interventions and engaging online content to support young people to make those changes in their lives. Lots of original content was created, as well as a new landing page area of the website specially designed to help people find the new content and help start their healthier life. We also visited 5 college campuses to engage people - Carlow IT, IT Sligo, UCC, UCD and University of Limerick.
40,000 page views
20
300 students engaged
3,000+ text messages sent
23
new articles
265 sign-ups for SMS
33%
bounce rate on landing page
Mentioned on Spin 1038, iRadio, 98FM, Beat 102-103, Dublin South FM and Ocean FM.
“Didn’t really see #HealthHack14 until now, it’s such a cool idea to text people! Awesome stuff @SpunOut :-)” - @himynameisaine
Women’s Academy In July, SpunOut.ie held it’s second Women’s Academy, which focused on equipping young women with personal and social change skills to take on the issues that impact everyone in their everyday life, over 2 days.
20
people attended the event
8
different workshops
1,415 video views on YouTube
2,000
page views on related articles
What participants said they learnt… Furthered political knowledge, confidence, public speaking, mindfulness and expelling negative thoughts, how to speak up, listening skills, determination, communication skills, ability to take care of your own wellbeing
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Safer Sex Campaign The SpunOut.ie Safer Sex campaign ran from December 1-7, 2014 and aimed to normalise regular STI testing and encourage young people to book an appointment. It also looked to improve understanding of consent and respect in sexual relationships. This was done through the promotion of sexual health content at SpunOut.ie/GetTested, highlighting the custom built list of all free STI clinics as well as visiting college campuses around the country including UCC, Trinity, DCU and IT Carlow.
22,022 page views
22
109
STI screening sign-ups
7,500 video views
2,144 condoms distributed
43%
traffic from social media
38% page bounce
Mentioned on Joe.ie, Newstalk, Metro Herald, Spin 1038, 2FM & DCU FM
“I got 10 out of 10 on the @SpunOut Sexual Health Quiz - My mam would be proud” - @murphykieran
Safer Sex Quiz Quiz As part of the SpunOut.ie Safer Sex campaign, we developed an interactive quiz. This was the first time that SpunOut.ie has engaged with our readers through this platform and it proved a valuable tool for allowing young people to assess their own knowledge of sexual health and provided them with instant feedback on questions they got wrong. As well as providing invaluable data and highlighting potential gaps in knowledge among 16-25 year olds, it also proved an extremely popular feature.
6,141 page views
2,087
completed the quiz (34% of total views)
Quiz drop off rate
7.29/10 average score of quiz participants
Average score graph
Of the people who started the quiz on question one, 84% of them completed the entire quiz through question ten.
Most incorrectly answered questions
Questions Two and Seven were the only questions that more people answered wrong than right. Question Two, asked readers to pick the odd one out between Thrush, Genital Warts, Chlamydia and Trichomoniasis. Question Seven asked what STI was commonly known as ‘the clap’.
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Youth Information System
In collaboration with Youth Work Ireland (YWI) we developed a new system which was completed this quarter. The system aims to connect young people on SpunOut.ie to the face-to-face services offered by YWI. From January 2015, all article pages on SpunOut.ie will contain a small form if readers need to request more information about a topic from their local youth information centre.
It is hoped this will increase engagement with local centres across Ireland and give young people access to quality information provided by a youth information worker either over the phone, by email or face-to-face. It will also allow both organisations to better report the issues affecting young people to Government and to track the impact both organisations are having in delivering the five national outcomes of the new Better Outcomes Brighter Futures framework. The project involved building a case tracker from scratch, which will be used by over 20 different youth information centre teams around the country. The case system includes secure log-ins, detailed case panels, analytics pages and manual case creation. The project was started in July 2014 and development continuted through November 2014.
4 months development on the project
24
20+
centres signed up nationwide
7.29/10
log-in secure & sensitive data encrypted
SpunOut.ie Table Quizzes Throughout 2014 we held many table quizzes in the D|two nightclub on Harcourt street. These quizzes were a huge success and helped raise thousands of euro to help us run our services. The themes of the table quizzes ranged from ‘The Simpsons’ to ‘Harry Potter’ and much more.
5
table quizes
€4,000 raised for SpunOut.ie
people in attendence
teams participating
700+
176
13,259
page views for table quiz articles
“Just got 3 teams together from work but the more the merrier! @SpunOut Disney Movie Table Quiz on September 30th!” @HelenaMurph
“Great craic at the @SpunOut quiz tonight, great to see so much money raised for the work they do!” - @OrlaithFoley
“Came properly middle of the field in @SpunOut Harry potter quiz. Pity... But we apparently haven’t reached appropriate potter geekdom yet.” - @pluincee 25
 All about our team 26
Our staff
Ian Power
Executive Director
Alan O’Mara
John Buckley
Tricia Purcell Staff Writer
Web Development & Graphic Design
Cian O’Mahony
Niamh Farrell
Marie Duffy
Jack Deacon
Maire Rowland
Oisin McKenna
Sarah Doran
Ciaran D’Arcy
Youth Engagement
Communications and Fundraising (Joined in May)
Multimedia Producer (Joined in September)
Staff Writer (Joined in December)
James Mulhall
Kelsey Cassetta
Sarah Snyder
Staff Writer (February - June)
Staff Writer (June - July)
Staff Writer (June - July)
Staff Writer (Joined in September)
Garret Kiernan
Administration Intern (June - August)
Office Manager
Editor
Staff Writer (Joined in September)
Staff Writer (September - November)
Craig Bell
Cormack O’Malley
Web & Media (January - April)
Editorial Intern (July)
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Board and Action Panel Our people Our Interns SpunOut.ie’s achievements in 2014 wouldn’t have been possible with out our diverse team of interns. James worked with us around the Local and European elections. His writing and interviewing brought young candidates face to face with young voters. Sarah joined as part of the EUSA intern programme Sarah worked to support our social communications. Kelsey came to us from the EUSA programme and supported the work of the editorial team around a number of topics. Garret’s placement focused on accounts and systems and his input really helped to streamline the office’s work. Craig supported SpunOut.ie’s web development and database management Action Panel 2014 was a really active year for the SpunOut.ie Action Panel. Their presence was felt through all of the campaigns, in particular MiYo, Ditch the Monkey and the SpunOut.ie survival guide, ensure SpunOut.ie stayed “for young people by young people”. In 2014 27 young people were involved with the action panel - many volunteers at key events, like our sexual health campaign, distributing condoms and educating peers. The panel was extremely well represented at board level with outgoing members Lisa Marie and Greg replaced with Owen and Sorcha. Driving deacon making and looking at new ways of coming decisions based on real youth leadership. Staff We were lucky to be able to add to our all star team in 2014. SpunOut.ie got itself a new comms and fundraising officer in early 2014 in the shape of Alan O’Mara, helping to grow SpunOut.ie audiences and the reach of its content. We also got to bring on board a host of new editorial and media team faces. Jack, Ciaran, Oisin, Marie and Sarah joined us thanks for funding from Pobal. 2014 also saw a few of our staff leave us. Our editorial team members Ciaran, Sarah and Marie, having brought so much to the editorial campaigns moved onto The Irish Times, Radio Times and other opportunities. We wish them luck in the future!
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Our wonderful volunteers Without volunteers, SpunOut.ie would not serve it’s mission of being “for young people, by young people”. Volunteers ensure that SpunOut.ie remains relevant and reaches more young people archers the country. Volunteers undertook a number of roles
139
37
27
editorial volunteers
campaign volunteers
action panel members
Editorial volunteers have been involved in writing 194 articles for SpunOut.ie as well as youth proofing articles
Campaign volunteers support SpunOut. ie on outreach and events ensure that more young people know about our work
The SpunOut.ie Action panel is a core part of the SpunOut.ie and ensures that young people are at the core of decision making in the organisation
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Awards and prizes Webby Award Honoree - (Charitable / Non-Profit)
Digital Media Award Silver - (Best Public Life - Government, Charity & Non-Profit)
Irish Internet Assosication Awards Winner - (You Did Good Award - Best Use of the Internet for Social Good)
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ďƒ– Our finances 31
Our finances for 2014 In 2014, the company was principally funded by grants received from the Atlantic Philanthropies, Pobal and the HSE (Health Promotion & Improvement Directorate & the National Office for Suicide Prevention). The Atlantic Philanthropies intends to end grant-giving in Ireland in 2016 and funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies was secured for 2014 and 2015 on a diminishing basis. There is no commitment for further funding beyond 2015. In 2013 we launched our community fundraising activities resulting in individual supporters making donations and organising and taking part in fundraising events. In addition to the promotion of community fundraising efforts the Staff also ran some successful fundraising events which has resulted in our regular themed tables quizzes which have proved very popular. This was continued to great effect in 2014. The exit of The Atlantic Philanthropies as one of our major funders will put the organisation under some strain in order to resource the activities and future plans of Community Creations Ltd. However we are committed to finding other resources through statutory, philanthropic and fundraising sources. In 2014, we continued the process of diversifying our income streams. We are really grateful for the support of our donors, fundraisers and those who attended our fundraising events, whose efforts and kindness help us to deliver our service to young people in Ireland (16-25). 32
Statement of financial activities Total 2014 €
Total 2013 €
Incoming resources from generated funds - Voluntary Income
341,453
510,613
TOTAL INCOMING RESOURCES
341,453
510,613
INCOMING RESOURCES
RESOURCES EXPLAINED Costs of generating funds
-
-
- Costs of generating voluntary income
(28,860)
(19,990)
- Various activities in support of the Policies and Principles of the Charity
(548,346)
(379,807)
TOTAL RESOURCES EXPENDED
(577,206)
(399,797)
Net incoming resources / Net movement in funds for the year
(235,753)
110,816
235,681
124,865
(72)
235,681
NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS FOR THE YEAR Reconcilliation of Funds Total Funds brought forward TOTAL FUNDS AT THE YEAR END
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Balancing sheet 2014 €
Balance sheet
2013 €
Fixed Assets
Tangiable assets
6,639
5,413
Current Assets Debtors
6,299
5,775
Cash at bank and in hand
107,662
243,464
113,961
249,239
Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year
(120,672)
(18,971)
Net Current (liabilities)/assets
(6,711)
230,268
Total Assets less current liabilities
(72)
235,861
Net (liabilities)/assets
(72)
235,861
Regular reserves account
(72)
235,861
Members’ funds
(72)
235,861
Reserves
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ďƒŤ What we learned 35
Some of the things we learned in 2014
1. We’re stronger when we communicate and collaborate We’ve always known it, but in the last year we’ve come to understand just how important full and effective communication is for everyone involved in the running of SpunOut.ie.
As the team gets bigger and workloads heavier and more varied, it’s vital everyone in the team be on the same page and be able to have the necessary conversations with colleagues to get stuff done. Planning and delivering campaigns, providing constructive feedback, and developing team understanding all require excellent communication skills. The team has spent a lot of time improving the way we work together by focusing on team communications in our group workshops with our team coach Marian Byrne and we are definitely seeing exceptional results in the output of our collective work. It’s really hard to be good at effective communication but if you put the effort in, it will pay dividends. We’re only just starting out on the road to effective communication but we’ve learned it’s not going to happen by itself and we need to make the time to work on our collective communication skills together. Similarly, our Board of Directors and SpunOut.ie Action Panel both identified they didn’t have a lot of opportunity to communicate with one another so we started a Facebook group for them to share ideas and penciled three joint meetings into our annual calendar, in addition to the AGM and Christmas Party of course...
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2. The importance of having a good plan
This learning follows on from last year’s changes to our staffing structure. We moved from a shared leadership system to a single leader system which retains much of the flat decision-making of old. There have been lots of challenges in adapting style, but one of the biggest benefits is everyone moving in the same direction and focused on the same goals. It’s a simple, age old theorum, but it’s relevatory in practice. Making one person responsible for any plan ensures it gets done, on time and in full - this can be anyone in your organisation and we’ve had fun and learned a great deal working under the different leaders on our existing team. In 2014 we asked a very brilliant consultant to review how we operated as an organisation, her conclusions and recommendations were astute and agreed with by everyone in the organisation. Once we got them, we went about putting together an action plan to implement the ideas put forward and we’re about to begin a strategic planning process with our new Board and action panel.
3. Fundraising is an art and a science
Fundraising has proven to be another area in which we’re constantly learning. We’ve learned fundraising is both an art and a science. There’s a lot of predicability involved, but mostly it’s about asking, how you ask and being good at it. Needless to say we’ve been asking a lot, but if we’re honest - probably not enough. SpunOut.ie is a compelling business case, it has a huge youth readership, a vast library of top class content and has creativity and innovation surging through the organisation’s veins. We’re making this case to potential funders and coming up with ways to diversify the mix of funds we receive to support our readers by providing them with the information they’re demanding. If you can help - please get in touch ian@spunout.ie.
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4. Innovation is listening
We’ve always known Content is King, but it’s nice to have the numbers to back it up too. This year every member of the team has gotten to grips with our analytics and we’re proud to say we now live, breath and obsess over our numbers (a few unnamed SpunOutters have been known to SnapChat real time visitor stats late at night - yeah, we know!). Understanding your readers, their needs and the types of content they respond to is obvious to most, but few services in the not-for-profit sector are constantly listening to the people who use their services. In 2014, we tried to do this much more. We’ve tracked which content performs best, and applied this learning to future content creation. The results have been astonishing; we’ve increased our monthly readership by 40% in just six months. There’s loads more to do, but by listening intently, we’ll know what exactly it is our readers want from us.
5. The importance of fun
As the team gets bigger, old colleagues leave, and as our workload increases - it’s become a challenge to remember to maintain our culture of fun and friendship. We’ve remembered some of the old traditions we’ve left slip (e.g. Friday morning coffee/scone/cake catch-ups and pay day drinks) and we’ve resolved to reinstate them, amongst other new traditions, back into our culture. Might sound silly to some, but they’re actually a really important part of who we are.
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Transparency and Governance At SpunOut.ie we are very open about our performance, spending, income, governance and leadership. Our vision is to empower young people in Ireland to live happy and healthy lives and our mission is to provide an Irish online information hub written by young people to support other young people. We believe we should be 100% transparent and accountable to our readers, donors, funders and the public as to how SpunOut.ie is governed. Our board is made of up of passionate people who either work with young people or are experts in necessary fields to ensure the good governance of the organisation. The one thing they all have in common is a desire to see the young people of Ireland prosper. Similarly, our Action Panel ( a group of 20 young people from around Ireland ) play a pivotal role in our governance structure to ensure our service and messages stay relevant to the people we serve. In 2014, our service www.SpunOut.ie had just under 639,000 unique users and over 1.56 million page views. Last year, we spent €577,206 of an income of €341,453 and €235,681 of funds brought forward from 2013. In simple terms, it cost approximately 90c per user to run the SpunOut.ie service in 2014. Around 70% of this was spent on staff related costs. As an information hub, our main cost is employing the eight people to keep it full of content, to run the campaigns to inform and build awareness, and to advertise our service to new readers.
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See you in 2015! 40
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