How life can turn upside down so quickly. It is a worrying time both personally and professionally at the minute for all of us. All we can keep doing is trying our best to make the most of this terrible situation.

Of course, there are some chinks of light amongst the gloom. People are rising to the challenge - look how quickly community groups have organised across the country to help the most vulnerable.

We chatted about the best ways we could help at the current time. The first thing was to share some of the best free resources and content that we’ve spotted since the crisis began.

Secondly, in this post we’ve shared some thoughts on how you can adapt workshops to make them work virtually across remote teams (using a recent example where we had to adapt our plan).

Remote Working

Eleanor and her colleagues at CRUK ran a hugely successful webinar last week on remote working that is well worth a look . The rest of the collective are now Mural converts and are using it extensively! Now is also a good time to listen to the podcast we shared in our last newsletter on flexible working.

Emergency Appeals and Resources

UK Fundraising have a list of potential funders and links to other useful resources.

Tobin Aldrich and the AAW team have produced some great resources. The Covid-19 Fundraising Impact worksheet that you can download at the bottom of the page may help give you a sense of control and a way forward. The info on emergency appeals is worth a read too.

Mark Phillips of Bluefrog has a special podcast with Giles Pegram that is worth a listen. Mark has also dived into his fabulous archives to pull out some classic crisis fundraising ads and what you can learn from them.

Richard Turner shares some examples from charities that have responded well to the crisis and ponders on whether we’ll look back at this emergency as sparking a new era of altruism.

The team at Open Creates share their tips on fundraising in an emergency.

For any community and event fundraisers wondering how to respond to events being cancelled, then Charity Nikki shares some thoughts and ideas.

The Covid-19 group on Facebook is a great source of practical advice.

Anyone who is planning to run any Facebook ads should check out this advice from Forward Action.

Upcoming Virtual Events

The IoF Supporter Experience SIG held an event earlier this week on the importance of supporter experience at this time. You can listen to a recording of this excellent event here.

Fundraising Everywhere are organising a large virtual event for 2nd April. Find out more and details on how to register for free here.

The M + R Lab have a number of upcoming webinars that may be useful.

Wellbeing Resources

Looking after yourself is so important at this time and Eleanor’s colleague Jess Higgins has put together these links to help.

• Mind have lots of great resources: this one is written by Mind’s Head of Workplace Wellbeing and shares some top tips for working from home and managing a remote team during this time. It also covers Wellness Action Plans, which I (Eleanor) have found transformational in terms of get a better idea of how individuals in how to recognise when members of my team need extra support and what they find most useful.

• The Mental Health Foundation have this brilliant resource which includes tips specifically for how to lead during this time.

• I’ve always been a fan of the Blurt Foundation and their approach to mental health - Here’s an article bursting with tips covering a variety of areas, even meal planning!

Coronavirus Appeals

Lots of charities have appeals out at the minute. Here are a couple that I think have got the tone and ask right.

Asthma UK - provides a lot of really useful information and also clearly state the need for funds.

Freedom from Torture - took what is usually an annual appeal and quickly adapted it into an emergency Coronavirus appeal and gathered relevant stories.

Trussel Trust - clearly show the ways you can help them at this time.