Keeping it in Cornwall

Together with six other charities in the county, Hall for Cornwall is running a campaign called ‘Keep it in Cornwall’. The campaign, which also involves the Eden Project, Kneehigh theatre, the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, the Royal Cornwall Museum and Tate St Ives, aims to raise awareness of major cultural charities in the Cornwall and ways in which local people can support them. It was started after a number of charities, large and small, found that nearly three-quarters of charitable donations were spent out of the county. It was this startling figure that prompted them to do something about it and the Keep it in Cornwall campaign was born last year.

Rachel Barclay, Hall for Cornwall’s Development Manager, explains that it was at a regular informal fundraising forum that the organisations’ representatives round the table started chatting about the fact that the public were generally not aware that their organisations were charities to which they could donate money: awareness of the charities’ outreach work was scant as well. The realisation dawned on Rachel and her counterparts that this was something that they all had in common, despite the fact that they were different types of charities. Furthermore, they share the same audiences: “It’s a close-knit community down here in the south west …Working together we have a lot more clout. Keep it in Cornwall has given us the chance to share ideas, resources and information, helped us to strengthen our key messages and enabled us to raise awareness about our status as charities”.

Another key benefit of collaboration is the potential for drawing on the different skills of each organisation. Rachel comments that for the launch of Keep it in Cornwall, which included a promotional video featuring actress Jenny Agutter, this was key: “Eden were able to provide the design skills, Kneehigh are experts at social media and Facebook, and we could produce the video. Separately we couldn’t have achieved what we did without outsourcing and therefore spending money.”

The first event held last year to attract potential members was a success and attracted a lot of positive press coverage. Instead of six stands there was one, with the organisations splitting the cost of refreshments between them “saving a huge amount”, says Rachel. This event was held at the Eden Project because they had the right equipment and resources. Another event to boost volunteering is planned for June, to tie in with National Volunteers’ Week 2011. The charities also organised a legacies event together. “Doing this has allowed us to pool our resources and contacts, and we’ve seen a good response as a result”.

Evaluation is always a key part of any project and this is something Hall for Cornwall is keen to do. Rachel says: “It is difficult to put a figure on the benefits of collaboration because it is early days but we know friends numbers are up and we have had a lot more enquiries. At the end of the year we’ll do a proper review.”