Date published: 18 April 2016 by Digital Team
I came to Rainbow Trust having studied Fashion Marketing at Northampton University. Graduating in 2014, I worked in Customer Service for around 18 months. Following this, I was driven to pursue a career in marketing and had also developed an interest in the third sector after previously volunteering with Mary Frances Trust, supporting them with design and promotion. Deciding it was time to pursue marketing full time, I started applying for internships.
Digital Marketing appealed to me as I believe digital to be the future. We are increasingly living our lives online, and as such digital is becoming a greater part of marketing and communications. Living locally to the charity I was aware of the work Rainbow Trust does and thought it seemed like a great organisation to be involved with. I was right!
On my first day, I met the team, everyone was very welcoming and friendly and I instantly knew this would be a great place to gain experience. I felt settled very quickly and soon became aware of how many projects the digital team were involved with and got stuck in assisting however I could.
My role has involved creating posts for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn as well as creating the volunteer e-newsletter, building new webpages and creating Facebook ads, while also reporting on the outcome of these, collating the stats that can improve future communications. I loved the many different projects I was able to work on. I’m also extremely thrilled to have improved my Excel skills and to have learnt how to use new platforms such as Mailchimp and Sprout social.
Another highlight for me was assisting the team with Rainbow Trust’s largest fundraising event, Trust in Fashion. It was my responsibility to share social media live from the day. This involved taking behind the scenes images of boutiques, models and live shots from the catwalk. It was a great event and definitely a learning curve, rushing around trying to capture the action, next time I’ll wear flat shoes…
My main task was project managing a social media campaign celebrating the charity’s 30th Anniversary. I came up with the idea ‘30 Days of Rainbow Trust’, promoting something different every day for 30 days. This certainly was challenging, but it was great when the final figures came in and I could see the impact the campaign had made. Particularly a Facebook post about Rainbow House, the house where seriously ill children and their families would go and stay for some respite. The post provoked a lovely conversation where people expressed their gratitude and shared experiences of visiting. It was very moving, and I am especially proud of this post, as well as the whole campaign.
Leaving Rainbow Trust, I now feel much better equipped to take my career to the next stage. I have gained so many skills and I’m very glad to be progressing to a Digital Marketing position with non-profit organisation Can Mezzanine. I couldn’t be more grateful to Rainbow Trust for giving me this experience and will continue to support this amazing charity in the future.
