ATSIV take on Digital Marketing

Interview with Denitsa Kozhuharova, Head of Human Rights Department of  Law and Internet Foundation (Bulgaria)

You are an active member of ATSIV, involved in all the stages, since the beginning of the project. How would you characterize the approach on enhancing knowledge and skills adopted during the project for the benefit of the workers and volunteers of NGOs?

ATSIV provides for a virtual learning environment which includes a course on Digital Marketing. It allows the participants to learn and acquire skills in Communication, Social Media and Online Advertising, all tailored to the needs of NGO workers. The course provides a robust set of learner-centric functionalities in a user-friendly way with an uncomplicated interface and easy functionality. As an virtual learning environment, ATSIV is accessible anytime, anywhere. It is also compatible with any browser and any access device, ensuring that all its page elements and functionalities are complete and arranged as the original page design.

When it comes to the Digital Marketing content, the main message of ATSIV compressed into a few words states that marketing is of key importance for any organization that wants to grow and develop. Much of what is required of the modern marketer revolves around a thorough understanding of marketing theory, technical marketing capabilities and an equal measure of strategic thinking and creative thinking capability. Reaching an audience to persuade has never been so simultaneously easy and complicated as it is today.

This being said, I find that ATSIV virtual learning environment is an excellent tool in the hands of any NGO, regardless of its sector, as the content is focused on how the third sector might employ these approaches, rather than providing a sector-specific information.

Share with us your opinion on ATSIV training game.

Nowadays NGOs workers as well as people with whom they cooperate, either employees, members or volunteers, encounter a wide range of difficulties related to the lack of basic knowledge in recent and highly relevant digital spheres. ATSIV – a project with the main purpose to increase the professional competences of NGOs workers – has resulted in the development of a Training Game that provides an open access online platform of training.

The ATSIV Game is an innovative and rather interesting tool to enhance NGOs workers skills. It ensures professional development needed for the nonprofit sector by play and personal study. The content of Game reveals explicit issues of the NGOs workers professional activity, which is comprehensively outlined in the three topics such as: Digital Marketing, Crowd-funding and Networking. The ATSIV Game is made in a manner that keeps the attention of the player, so it is not difficult to concentrate on materials that Game is aimed to convey.

Consequently, by playing the ATSIV Game, NGOs workers can go through the course of lectures and acquire new and extensive knowledge in the extremely relevant spheres. In such way, the ATSIV Game influences a professional growth of the worker and simultaneously stimulates a rapid NGO development.

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The ATSIV game, for professional  development in the field of marketing direct, crowdfunding and networking, can be played online  here.

 

NGO Skills Matrix

The development of training programs is based on the identification of knowledge and abilities which are to be transmitted. These are at the base of the educational objectives. Therefore, a very important stage in the development of the ATSIV training platforms was the identification of the skills needed by the representatives of the NGOs in Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, and Romania.

The relevant skills matrix bellow bundles and classifies a significant part of the skills, identified as needed and important by the participants in the questionnaire, considered together with the discussions, which were held during the focus groups in all partner countries.

Best practices in the field of training in the NGO sector

ATSIV team is developing a research on the best practices in the field of training for the benefit of the nonprofit sector. This study allows understanding the most modern and effective tools, utilized by professionals in the field of adult learning in the case of workers – including volunteers – of NGOs in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe.

The preliminary audit  has revealed the following key aspects leading to effective results:

  • Interactive engagement;
  • Variation;
  • Informal learning;
  • Group dynamics;
  • Logistics & organizations;
  • Intercultural training;
  • Evaluation and reflection.

© Monika Wisniewska ID 2235135 | Dreamstime Stock Photos

 

The list of programs selected is extensive and is updated continuously. We present here only some of them:

  • Summer school for NGOs developed by the Bulgarian Center for Non-for-profit Law;
  • Empowering women: “I’m not afraid of storms for I’m learning to sail my ship” developed by Salto Euromed;
  • TCP 2016 Forum on Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship developed by the Italian Erasmus+ National Agency and the SALTO-YOUTH Participation Resource Centre, in collaboration with the Bulgarian, Danish, Hungarian, Maltese, Spanish and UK Erasmus+ National Agencies;
  • Give Power and Help – Self Identity in Youth Work and Projects developed by Akademickie Centrum Informacji i Edukacji Europejskiej;
  • Usage of competences development measuring for training contents improvement by Social Participation Department Municipality of Wrocław;
  • Usage of innovative technologies for NGOs’ workers in sharing their good practices with others by Fundacja Rozwoju Społeczeństwa Informacyjnego;
  • ERSTE Foundation NGO Academy – regional program;
  • Building digital skills capacities for NGOs in Romania and Moldovia, program developed by TechSoup Association Romania.

All the previous examples prove the necessity  of joining forces from various sectors – business, public, nonprofit, and academic. A complex approach of the members of the Quadriple Helix consortiumQuadruplecilitate the effectiveness of training programs for NGOs.