By Miriam Bell from CommunityNI.org
Published on 21 Feb 2005
Team up with a media professional to sort out your communication needs - free of charge.
Voluntary organisations and community groups from Northern Ireland are being encouraged to register requests for free communications advice via the Media Trust's online matching service at www.mediatrust.org.
How it works
Media professionals match themselves online with voluntary organisations to offer free help with a specific project in the areas of PR, marketing, web and design.
Online matching breaks down geographical barriers by being open to all. For example a small group from Tyrone could be helped by a communications professional from anywhere in the UK.
Each communications request is immediately made available to the registered advisors. There are currently 500 advisors registered with the service including the BBC and Channel 4 and there have been 110 matches in the last three months. If an advisor is interested in your request, they will contact you directly to offer advice.
To register a request, please go to www.mediatrust.org/ and click on 'Voluntary Organisation?' followed by 'Online Matching Service'. Fill in the form supplying your contact details and brief information about your organisation and your communications request.
The more specific you are about your communications need, the greater your chances of being contacted by the right media professional. This information will then be automatically uploaded to the Media Trust site. If an advisor browsing the site would like to help, he or she will contact you by email. The nature of the help offered is then agreed between your organisation and the media professional.
Case studies
Child Care NI and Redstone Design
Child Care NI is changing its organisation name and sent in a request to the Media Trust website to ask for some help to develop a new logo and letterhead. Redstone Design has been approached them to develop the project further.
Voluntary Action Calderdale and Leeds Irish Health and Homes
Voluntary Action Calderdale registered a request for a PR professional to come and train some of their smaller member groups. Anna Dunne from Leeds Irish Health and Homes spent a couple of hours with the charity to share her expertise with their member organisations.
A representative from Voluntary Action Calderdale said "It was well worth it - the trainer was fab ". Anna Dunne said of the online matching service that it was an "…excellent resource for charities. Easy to use and effective ".
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