A new European initiative is helping charities, community groups and social enterprises make a bigger impact online – without needing a marketing department or a big budget.
These days, having a social media presence isn’t really optional. Whether you’re running a small community group, managing a charity or working in a social enterprise, you’re expected to be visible, engaging and constantly communicating.
Videos, photographs, graphics, stories, reels, posts – the demands never seem to stop. For businesses with dedicated marketing teams and substantial budgets, keeping up can be challenging enough. But what if your organisation is run by a handful of staff or volunteers, working with limited resources and even less time? The expectations are the same, but the resources aren’t. That’s where Lunchbox comes in.
Lunchbox was developed through a partnership between EurAV, in Drogheda, Ireland and organisations in Italy and the Netherlands – made possible by EU funding under the Erasmus + initiative. It’s an educational platform, designed to help people working in the social sector to develop their social media skills one small piece of learning at a time. This allows them to gain the knowledge in what is often very limited time that they have available. Across the EU, thousands of charities, community organisations and social enterprises are supporting vulnerable people, building stronger communities, promoting inclusion and making a real difference. But often, that work goes unnoticed because the people doing it simply don’t have the time, resources or specialist knowledge to promote it effectively. Lunchbox hopes to change that.
EurAV in Drogheda has carried out a 10-session training course with representatives of eight organisations in the the social sector. Again, to minimise the impact on busy schedules, the training was by video conference. And, to make best use of their time, the learners worked on real campaigns for their organisations.
“The feedback was great,” revealed Declan Cassidy, who is managing the project for EurAV. “On top of the practical social media skills that our eight participants gained, they also formed a strong network to support each other.”
The training is now available in English, Italian and Dutch languages at lunchboxproject.eu, along with the ‘Lunchbox of Goodies‘ – a toolkit of practical resources, tips and tricks. Also, the training has been converted into a verifiable certified micro-learning course on the international EANE.eu platform (European Academy for Nano Education) where it is available in 14 languages.
So, if you’re an organisation, group or social business trying to promote an event, attract volunteers, raise awareness of an important issue or just get more people interested in what you do, visit lunchboxproject.eu for a helping hand that fits into your schedule.
The partners of the Lunchbox project (Lunch Box: Byte Sized Learning for Social Professionals) are STMCV – Stichting Technologie Mens en Cultuur Verbonden (Netherlands), who are project coordinators, CPA di Giuseppina Bomba (Italy), based in Abruzzo and Drogheda-based EurAV European Audio Visual CLG.
