YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING DOING GOOD
By: Zac Schwarz
Tags: Creativity, Pr, Charity, Ngo, Positivity

Happy first birthday to us. Glimpse is officially one today.

We’ve been going a while longer, but today is exactly 365 days since we got incorporated as a non profit company, limited by guarantee. What started as an experiment to try and bring commercial creative flair and positivity to social issues with CATS, has grown into a proper grown up organisation. We are now a living, breathing, evolving, activating company.

C.A.T.S our first ever campaign

We work with NGOs like Help Refugees, The RSPB, The Fairtrade Foundation, Cool Earth and Greenpeace, we run our own campaigns with our collective and we offer creativity training. As we mark our first birthday I thought I’d take this chance to celebrate where we’ve got to, share some insights and answer a few questions everyone always asks me.

Firstly a little bit about me and why I’m so happy and grateful to be marking this milestone.

I’m co-founder of Glimpse, along with James who used to be comms director at Greenpeace - he came up with this idea called Glimpse. I put my hand up way back when James asked who wanted to try and make this thing work — an organisation that brought the positivity and creativity of brand comms to charities and causes. My background isn’t in charities but in commercial publicity as a creative director. If you can buy it, I probably PR’ed it.

I was always inspired by my Dad and how at an early age he knew what he wanted to do. When he was 13 he wrote in a school essay that he wanted to become a foreign correspondent “a life of travel, excitement, freedom: in short a journalist”.

Dad in Nigeria in 1968

That was in 1943 and he went on to do it — writing for The Guardian, The Observer and the BBC in countries as diverse as Nigeria, India, Israel and France. About 60 years later I had started my career in consumer PR. I was a super keen, super wasted publicist (the early noughties were very boozy) working for the likes of Danone, Playstation, Vodafone and Heinz. Big brands and a cool job. But not something I’d ever dreamed of doing when I was a teenager. Calling people consumers didn’t sit right with me- however glossy the brand is. Late one night at a party, I said that one day I wanted to use my comms skills for good. I wanted to set up an organisation that worked on environmental and social campaigns.

Fast forward 15 years — and having worked with some fantastic people and organisations — we’ve done it! Happy Birthday Glimpse! We now have a catalogue of great work, an amazing group of colleagues, an office space, a website and a wonderful inspiring collective of nearly 2000 people who have joined us on the Glimpse journey.

Choose Love pop up shop with Help Refugees 2018

As is customary in these reflective / anniversary pieces I thought I’d answer some questions I get asked a lot. There isn’t any particular theme- just their frequency

#1 The biggy…do you make any money? Everyone wants to ask this. The short answer is yes. We pay our bills and have money for snacks. But we don’t make as much money/ profit as we used to. And that’s totally cool. I’m learning to see profit in a different way. Profit can mean buying more shoes (I used to love buying shoes on payday) and posh brunch. But profit can also mean having a 4 day week; working with great people who share your passions and actively caring about the impact of the work you do. If you work with us or you work in our sector you may well earn less but it’s worth it.

#2 Do you only work with charities? No, but we only want to work with organisations that have a mission that’s not just about money. Charities and NGOs have a captivating and inspiring vision that draws you in a way that brands just don’t. There’s nothing wrong with selling stuff but buying it shouldn’t define us. We believe that valuing people, places and our environment is more important than profit.

#3 Brainstorming doesn’t work does it? Not true. Brainstorming is a fantastic part of the creative process and has been crucial in all our campaigns and work with our partners. The problem is people see a ‘brainstorm’ in isolation as if it’s one moment that’s going to smash it. When it doesn’t, they see it as a failure. Collective thinking about something is one super tool in the box but not the only one. It’s rewarding for so many reasons- building insight, forging relationships and launching ideas.

#4…. is one we ask ourselves a lot.

What’s the next 12 months look like? Well, we want to grow at a manageable rate- that’s to say we want to make sure that everyone at Glimpse feels secure and motivated but not stretched with unrealistic expansion. Along with our existing work with partners, we want to do more work with the collective on interesting subjects such as speciesism and ageism.

And continue to craft and improve our training programmes by going on more ourselves - all recommendations greatly appreciated.

Since our coffee and cake days last year (where you do a lot of talking rather than work), we’ve been joined by the fantastic Anella and Ruth. Anella joins from being a brand director at ActionAid whilst Ruth was Head of Production at Action films. We want to get our own office (as I write this we’re waiting to hear back on our dream space) and we want to keep showing that it’s possible to align your values with the work you do.

Want to celebrate our birthday with us? — buy Let Nature Sing from The RSPB and help us get Nature to #1

Want to join the collective? sign up here