DEC members working in NepalDigital technology is revolutionising how we get our news and offering new ways to help in a humanitarian disaster. Understanding those changes and evolving to meet them is vital to ensuring the DEC remains highly-effective in a digital age. We have been working with the DEC to develop a transformational roadmap – covering digital, IT, culture and internal comms – to be delivered across a three year period.

The approach:

We began by understanding the and the evolving context in which the organisation operates. We reviewed:

  • The organisation’s existing model, goals, aims and culture
  • External environment, including:
    • changing technology available within disasters
    • new models of giving aid during a disaster
    • trends within media consumption
    • challenges of delivering aid within a humanitarian disaster
  • UX research delivered insight into what drives people to engage during humanitarian disasters.
  • We interviewed senior strategists in broadcast, international aid charities and major digital providers to understand how their work around humanitarian disaster was evolving.
  • Transformation workshops were held to identify vision, ethos and desired position over a three year time period.
  • Developed prioritisation matrix and a three year, fully-costed roadmap to deliver transformation.

The result:

The fully-costed and resourced roadmap has been approved by trustees and is moving to execution.

What the DEC say:

“We had already done quite a bit of thinking about how digital was fundamentally changing our strategic context.  We had made a substantial commitment to make our communications and fundraising digital first.  What could employing a consultant possibly add?

“Alison brought a huge breadth of strategic voluntary sector digital experience and an outsider’s eye to help us sharpen our understanding of our situation.  She provided a framework and rigour to ensure we challenged ourselves to deliver a programme that was truly transformational rather than just a step change.  She saw connections where we discrete projects defined by internal structures.  She helped us create a real roadmap for digital transformation rather than simply doing more digital work.”

Brendan Paddy, Director of Communications, Disasters Emergency Commission

Want to chat?

We love chatting about our work and how it can be applied, so if you found this interesting and want to talk just get in touch – hello@wearemc2.co.uk.

Skills: Digital StrategyDigital Transformation

What our clients say

  • We Are MC2 helped us understand not only who our key audiences were, but what they wanted from us. Working with the whole MC2 team is a joy. They are professional, understood what we were trying to achieve immediately and worked collaboratively with us to achieve our desired outcome. I hope to work with them again very soon.

    Amy McCullough, Digital Lead, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

  • As usual We Are MC2 ran the workshops really effectively and we got excellent participant engagement and feedback. Perhaps more importantly they have helped us build a methodology which we can now use to tackle future challenges that would benefit from innovative use of technology.

    Said Dajani, Head of Digital, Diabetes UK

  • The team at MC2 have provided exceptional input into our digital transformation journey. They’ve challenged us, encouraged us to really stretch our thinking but also provided common sense and practical solutions. We are delighted to have them as true strategic partners.

    Paul Amadi, Executive Director of Fundraising & Engagement, MS Society

  • I wanted to work collaboratively with a strategist who has the right mix of experience, who has the ability to apply creative thinking to complex challenges and the know how to drive this thinking through to action. My experience of working with Alison and We Are MC2 is that they tick all these boxes and then some.

    Ben Butler, Head of Digital, Drinkaware

  • Not only were they a dream to work with they also produced a truly excellent piece of research which delivered everything we needed to plan ahead with confidence. And the research they produced lives on; we return to it time and time again as our knowledge of the virtual assistant and our users grows and develops.”

    Karina Brisby, Head of Digital, Versus Arthritis