We take pride in helping exceptional clients do extraordinary things for people, profit and planet and are equally committed to being good corporate citizens ourselves, achieving B Corporation certification in 2017. We take responsibility for our community, employees, suppliers and our planet very seriously. We believe business can, and should be, a force for good.
This is reflected in the way we do business and the initiatives we back. Our objectives include working with new purpose-driven clients and we dedicate £26,000 in time to support our pro-bono clients each year.
Our employees choose the charities that they would like to support through our pro bono work. Refugees and displaced people are close to our hearts and as a result, we have launched the Gong Refugee Press Office so that we can support as many excellent charities in this sector as possible.
Our Refugee Press Office acts as a PR and communications resource for refugee charities without professional communications support, amplifying their voices among action-drivers. We commit to up to ten projects per year, and each project receives two-five hours of consultancy plus ten hours of focused pitching and media interview support. Interested charities can read more in the flyer here and contact us for an initial conversation.
Examples of our previous pro bono work media successes include:
REFUGEE PRESS OFFICE
Since we launched our refugee press office, we’ve been busy supporting several refugee and humanitarian-related charities; here are some highlights of our recent work:
We’ve long been admirers of Refugee Support, backing their mission of Aid with Dignity, so we were delighted when they asked for our help with attracting audiences to their annual Dignify Festival. The event brings together established and upcoming music and comedy acts to raise funds to support the resettlement of Afghan refugees with essential food and hygiene items.
The event included entertainment from Ronnie Scott’s regular Sarah Jane Morris and Hip Hop Blingo. Held at The Bedford in Balham, Gong secured coverage in local titles to raise awareness and support ticket sales, including London News Online, South London Press and Balham Newsie.
The event was a huge success, raising £65,000 to support the opening of Refugee Support’s newest centre in Greece.
INDIGO VOLUNTEERS
A platform which supports grass-roots organisations and connects volunteers with humanitarian projects has also received pro bono support from the team in the shape of a PR and social media strategy to attract experienced volunteers to join Indigo’s volunteer network. We secured interviews for Indigo’s founder Holly Penalver to raise awareness of the non-profit including podcast episodes on Do More Good and Charity Chats.
“We have been so lucky to receive Gong’s support for our charity via their CSR scheme. They listened to our needs and worked hard to help us, which is shown through the results achieved in the timeframe we had. Not only did they share their invaluable knowledge with us, Gong also reached out and made important connections on our behalf, particularly in the podcast space. As a result, we have reached new audiences and been able to improve our PR planning and activities. Thank you so much to the Gong Communications team for your dedication – we really felt like a valued client.”
Holly Penalver, founder of Indigo Volunteers
Elsewhere, we have been busy supporting Alive & Kicking, an African social enterprise that promotes health education through sport, with the announcement of the winners of its second annual Youth with Refugees Art Contest. And we’ve also advised the Refugee Consortium of Kenya on some online tactics to boost visibility.
UGANDA CONSERVATION FOUNDATION
Positive conservation stories in the news are regrettably rare, so when we heard about the Uganda Conservation Foundation’s role in contributing to the recovery of the 1,500 square mile Murchison National Park, it got our attention. @UgandaCF aims to conserve and protect Uganda’s parks and wildlife alongside developing skills and building partnerships with surrounding communities to support sustainable livelihoods. What’s been achieved already by a small, committed team is truly remarkable. We designed a new website for the Foundation, conceived and designed social assets and infographics and we walked, ran and splashed up to 10k in solidarity with African park rangers (running considerably greater distances!) as part of the Wildlife Ranger Challenge.
Thanks to the huge generosity of friends, family and clients, we raised over £1,700 for Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls National Parks which was doubled thanks to the Scheinberg Relief Fund. You can read more here about the amazing work Uganda’s rangers do and the very serious challenges parks are facing.
AFRICAN ENTREPRENEUR COLLECTIVE (AEC), RWANDA
Gong has an ongoing partnership with the AEC, a collection of business accelerators that support local entrepreneurs to drive job growth across Africa. As well as providing pro bono communications support from our UK and Kenya offices, six-week secondment opportunities take Gong team members to Africa to help AEC and their entrepreneurs develop communications strategies to help them accelerate their business’ growth.
Most recently, we worked with AEC to communicate their work in Rwandan and Kenyan refugee camps, where they distribute business grants to entrepreneurs. The Economist featured AEC in an article titled, The world’s toughest business school – the challenges of being an entrepreneur in a refugee camp. Read it here.
