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2013Report

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We’re very excited to tell the story of 2013. We’ve spent a lot of time improving the format of our annual report as we know they can sometimes be a snoozefest. We

A welcome from Ian

promised to make our reporting more accessible, and while I hope this hits the spot, this is just the start. We’re making a big effort to be as open and transparent as possible. We’ve published a page dedicated to transparency on our website (SpunOut.ie/open) and we’ll be adding quarterly and annual performance reports as they’re completed.

We’ll also be publishing our external reviews and board and action panel meeting updates as they become available. It’s part of our effort to ‘publish by default’. Similarly, we’re well aware we don’t always get things right, and we’re introducing a ‘what we’ve learned’ section to our reporting, I hope you find it interesting. Mark and Robyn will begin to tell you our story of 2013 overleaf, but thanks for letting me set the scene. Enjoy!

Ian Power Executive Director

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A small organisation, making big waves

The needLife happens. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, and sometimes it’s just plain ugly. In order to lead the best lives we can, we all need information and support from time to time.

Young people are less likely to use traditional information and support sources than their older counterparts. They still turn to family, friends and teachers when they need advice and help, but research shows they want – and they get – most of their information online. The 16 to 25 year age group is described as being ‘digital by default’. Although the internet can be amazing, it also has masses of unregulated and inaccurate information…

Our responseSpunOut.ie was set up to address this gap. We imagine an Ireland where all young people can access the resources and opportunities they need to make the best choices for themselves. We strive to empower them to create positive change in their own lives and in their communities. We want them to be happy, healthy and active.

SpunOut.ie is by young people for young people. We offer an online hub of relevant, credible, reliable and independently validated information for the many issues that affect young people, from exams to voting, and from unemployment to relationships – with everything in between. We operate mainly through our website and social media, but we complement that work with a range of offline activities.

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Reflections on 2013The year 2013 began with a number of major issues threatening the long term viability of SpunOut.Our philanthropic funder was winding down its grant-making, our funding for 2013 was contingent on exploring a merger with another organisation, the website needed a complete redesign, the organisation needed strategic direction and we were also distracted by a media furore over a piece of content on the site.

The team responded magnificently and made headway in securing new funding, launched a new website redesign, appointed a new Executive Director and turned a media controversy into a debate about sex education, all the while strengthening relationships with our funders and service users.

While the merger exercise didn’t go anywhere, we became super clear about what we are and are not. SpunOut.ie is a bottom up, youth-led organisation and this is embodied in our Action Panel. We assume young people are the experts in being young. This sounds obvious, but it’s often overlooked when services are being designed to help young people. Young people design and help us to deliver SpunOut.ie which is why the organisation is so effective at reaching the people we serve.

Over the course of the year we secured €522,000 in funding commitments and entered 2014 fully funded. We hope to do the same for 2015 but it’s going to be tough. On behalf of the board, I’d like to thank everyone who has invested in the young people of Ireland so far and look forward to welcoming many more new funders to our efforts to support them. We’d like to especially thank the Atlantic Philanthropies and the HSE for their support.

Bottom line; the organisation is in the best health since its inception, an amazing story when you consider where we started 2013. I can honestly say our success is all down to the staff who have been smart, incredibly hardworking, committed and heroic, and to the young volunteers who are the heart and soul of SpunOut.ie.

Mark KeaneChair, SpunOut.ie Board of Directors

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Reflections on 2013The beginning of the year consisted of long days and long nights; a team of dedicated professionals working tirelessly to create a new, more accessible website. Young people around the country are reaping the benefits of the upgrade. Articles are now easier to find and have a clearer layout, so information can be obtained in a quicker and easier manner.

The launch of the website in March was a momentous occasion in SpunOut.ie history and was celebrated by musicians such as SOAK, RTÉ presenters, and fantastic speakers from social media websites such as Facebook. It was held in Croke Park and was broadcasted as a live TV show, which proved to be a huge success, spreading awareness of SpunOut.ie and dramatically increasing traffic to our site.

Websites can often be hard to identify directly with, because you are being presented with a screen and not a face. However, we were sure to tackle this and we made plenty of public appearances to meet our target audience face-to-face and get to know them on a personal level.

For example, the Young Social Innovators’ convention was one of the events that I attended and it was a fantastic day. We spent our time chatting to young people and got a fantastic reaction. The crowd was clearly passionate about the issues affecting them, but the young people were unsure as to how to express their views. We were able to provide these with a platform from which they could raise their voices.

Robyn GilmourSpunOut.ie Action Panel Representitive

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What people said about us in 2013In December we asked our users to let us know what they thought of SpunOut.ie and the work we do. Here is what they said:

98% Said we were youth friendly 96% Would recommend

us to a friend 8/10 What our readers scored us out of ten

“It’s a great solid factual

website. I think there’s nothing

else like it in Ireland. I

know when I’m reading it it’s by the young people for the young people.”

“The genuineness of it, its just incredibly informative without being biased, it gives

direct facts, shows a little bit of the arguments on both sides of issues as well and lets you

make your own decision on things then … that is incredibly ahead of the pack.”

“It’s an oasis of empowerment in what can be an otherwise

overly serious/negative world.”

“It has all the information a young person in Ireland needs, everything from how to tell if

you’ve an STI to how to deal with over the top housemates!”

“I had been self harming and I was in a deep depression, at risk

of suicide. If it weren’t for SpunOut.ie I wouldn’t have taken the step to get help when I did, which could have ended very

badly indeed. Life-savers!”

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733,117 website visits 17,513

hours on site65% bounce rate 593,613

unique users2.3pages per visit

Traffic sources

Google Adwords & search engine

Direct visits

Social media

All other sources

71%

15%

6%

8%

22%mobile share

This year saw major changes to our online operations. The opening quarter had our old website and separate mobile site in operation. In quarter two we launched our new website. The new design fundamentally changed how people used the website, which changed our analytic profiles. Our readers are now able to find content much quicker and easier than before and we plan to improve this further in 2014. The new design means content is more easily shared by users too. Theupgrade has put us in a great position to achieve our growth projections over the next 2 - 3 years.

1.7mpages views

How people used our website in 2013

Due to issues with analytics, we could not accurately compare 2013 with 2012. We are also unable to provide a breakdown for AdWords and Google search traffic. This has since been rectified and we will be able to report more accurately for 2014.

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Social mediaThis year was a steep learning curve for us in relation to social. We kickstarted our strategy to drive traffic from social to SpunOut.ie early on in the year and saw very good initial gains. We employed our channels to spread the word about our Hello Sunday Morning campaign in February and for the launch of the new website #SpunOutLIVE, which ultimately drove 3,000 people to view our webcast. We also used social to great effect during the media controversy around a piece of our content in March. Throughout the year, Twitter remained the most reliable source of traffic for the main site and we will make significant gains on this channel and Facebook in 2014.

22,837likes

1,930,992reach

52,429engagement

2,611new likes

of readers camefrom social media 6% 62%

twitter38%facebook

81,540views

210,266minutes viewed

8,050followers

4,037new followers

51:49male to female ratio

52%dublin followers

360subscribers

829likes

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Editorial productionIt was a busy year for SpunOut.ie’s editorial team with the reviewing and updating of over 2,700 pieces of content during the move from the old to the new website. The recruitment of hundreds of new contributors also kept the team busy. Some of the highlights of the editorial calendar included campaigns to reduce alcohol and drug related harm, the incidence of gonorrhoea and the promotion of positive mental health.

420 articles were written this year

Top trending articles this year

1st Learn to impress with a snazzy CV

2nd Student grants

3rd Sample cover letter

4th Student accommodation

5th A-Z of drugs

6th Sex worries

7th Common sex myths

8th On the dole

199 opinionarticles

24 healtharticles

65 lifearticles

8 multimediaarticles

113 actionarticles

11 featurearticles

86 homepagecampaigns

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Youth engagementThe year 2013 was a really important one for youth engagement in SpunOut.ie. We saw major growth within our youth participation structures, increased presence within communities around the country, more collaboration requests and a strong youth presence at the core of SpunOut.ie’s work.

Dublin

Cork

Organisations collaborated with across Ireland

Young people consulted about various issues

Different locations around Ireland where outreach was conducted

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The Action Panel met 4 times, built 4 campaigns, engaged in training and

represented SpunOut.ie at events and on staff interview panels

Engaged face-to-face with 1,760 people through workshops, events

and outreach

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Hello Sunday MorningSpunOut.ie launched Hello Sunday Morning (HSM) in February 2013. HSM is a campaign where participants sign up to take a break from alcohol in order to reflect on their intake. The aim of the programme is to reduce harmful alcohol consumption. During its first year in Ireland, the programme had some great results.

P R O J E C T

32,074visits to HSM site 1,200

took a break from alcohol 1,000+twitter followers

tv mentionspart of Des Bishop’s new RTE series

Ambassadors included 2FM DJ Rick O’Shea & Senator

Kathryn Reilly.

Tricia Pucell speaks to Des Bishop John Buckley appears on TV 3 for HSM

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Women’s AcademyIn 2013, with the support of the Community Foundation for Ireland, SpunOut.ie hosted its first ever Women’s Academy. The weekend focused on equiping participants with the skills to create personal and social change.

P R O J E C T

20participants workshops

focused on 8 areas 10 speakersshared their experiences

All participants stayed involved with SpunOut.ie as volunteers or contributors.

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Hack For HelpIn October, we collaborated with Facebook and Coder Dojo to hack (improve) how our readers access help and support on our website. We held the Hack for Help event in Facebook’s HQ where we assembled a group of computer science students from around Ireland. The students devised solutions which could be implemented on the site. The winning idea ultimately became our wellness mobile application MiYo. The event was opened by the then Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald T.D.

P R O J E C T

Young hackers and developers were recruited

Youth proofers working with new developers to ensure

youth proofing

Lots of content generated with live blog, articles

and videos.

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Projects were pitched back to experts from Facebook, Coder Dojo and SpunOut.ie

The event ultimately produced our wellness app ‘MiYo’, launched on May 1st 2014.

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New website

The new SpunOut.ie website finally launched on March 20th 2013. The redesign saw many new features, including improved search, navigation, page design and mobile responsiveness. The

P R O J E C T

2,000articles transferred 8 months

in development

Old New

project was inspired by our own readers who suggested that they wanted a more visual website, with colour coding, more vibrant images and a neater design. The work was completed by Jason Coomey, supported by the editorial team.”

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#SpunOutLive E V E N T

120attendees 50

volunteers

On March 20th we held the ‘#SpunOutLive’ event in Croke Park to launch our new site. The launch was hosted by Stephen Byrne and Emily Phelan and explored important issues affecting young people, with young experts and a musical performance by SOAK. The event was streamed live online.

3,000streams online

500watched live trending

topic on twitter

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Our staff

Ian PowerExecutive Director

Niamh FarrellOffice Manager

Marie DuffyWebsite Editor

Tricia PurcellStaff Writer

John BuckleyYouth Engagement Officer

Cian O’MahonyWeb Dev & Graphic Designer(Joined in November)

Jason CoomeyWeb Developer(Left in August)

Here was the main staff of SpunOut.ie for 2013.

Aileen DoneganSub-Editor Intern(Left in April)

We had many interns and helpers this year, including: James Mulhall, Julianna Law, Anna Wilhite, Sean Curry, Robyn Gilmour, Eleanor Younge, Joanna Siewierska, Freda Cusker, Gavin Fagan, Ken O’Rourke, Ross Kilbride,

Jennifer Akandu, Clara Barry, Mark Holland & Edel Hynes. We would like to thank them all for their contribution to SpunOut.ie.

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Board and Action PanelBoard members (volunteers)

We were very fortunate to have a group dedicated people working on our Board of Directors in 2013.

Paul Anders ( joined in June) Paddy Duffy (left in October) Catherine Falvey Company Secretary ( joined October) Olive Fogarty Finance and Fundraising Committee member ( joined in June) Janet Gaynor Andrew Gibbons (left in October) Mark Keane Celia Keenaghan Chairperson Gregg Kelly ( joined in June) Damien Mulley Finance and Fundraising Committee member (left in June) Anne Sheridan Aonghus Sammin Finance and Fundraising Committee member Lisa Marie Sheehy ( joined in June)

Action Panel members (volunteers)Our dedicated action panel helped us immensely in 2013. The team included:

Clara Barry Sarah Bermingham Owen Brennan Conor Burke Sorcha Cusack Eoin Dillon

Pauline Farrelly (left in December)Laura GaynorRobyn GilmourDomhnaill HarkinAdam HarrisGreg Kelly

Elizabeth MacBride ( joined in July) Freda McCluskerCarmel SayersLisa Marie Sheehy

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Our wonderful volunteers

We would also like to take the opportunity to thank the hundred of volunteers who worked passionately with us through out the year, from helping with major projects and to assisting with the day-to-day operations of SpunOut.ie

Volunteers worked with us as youth proofers, writers, bloggers, media creators, #SpunOutLive assistants, academy participants, campaigners, consultees and helpers at special events. A special mention for our summer students Andy Bradshaw, Devon Edgerton and Stephen Murphy.

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Awards and prizes

Net Visionary AwardsWe were thrilled to win two accolades at the Irish Internet Net Visionary awards: Best Web Developer and Best Social Good Website.

European Youth Award 2013John was sent to Graz in Austria to collect our European Youth Award. We received the award for High Impact Digital Project.

We received awards from two notable organisations this year in recogonition of our team’s hard work.

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FinanceThe organisation continued to be funded by the HSE Health Promotion and the National Office for Suicide Prevention in 2013. In addition a once-off grant was awarded by the National Office for Suicide Prevention to run a positive mental health campaign in early 2014 (this explains the surplus in our financial statements). We are also grateful to The Atlantic Philanthropies for the funding received in 2013 which was contingent on the organisation exploring mergers within the sector. A merger did not result from these activities.The Atlantic Philanthropies intends to end grant-giving in Ireland in 2016 and funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies was secured for 2014 and 2015 on a diminishing basis. In 2013 we began the process of diversifying our income streams. We launched a community fundraising drive which resulted in individual supporters making donations, and organising and taking part in fundraising events. The exit of The Atlantic Philanthropies as one of our major funders will challenge the organisation to resource the activities and future plans of Community Creations Ltd (trading as SpunOut.ie). However, we are committed to finding other resources through statutory, philanthropic and fundraising sources. We are really grateful for the support of our donors, fundraisers and those who attended our fundraising events in 2013. Your efforts and generosity ensure our service is available to young people in Ireland when they need it most.

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Statement of financial activitiesFor the year ended 31st December 2013

Restricted Funds €

Unrestricted Funds €

Total 2013 €

Total 2012 €

INCOMING RESOURCES

Incoming resources from generated funds - Voluntary Income

- 510,613 510,613 368,175

TOTAL INCOMING RESOURCES - 510,613 510,613 368,175

RESOURCES EXPLAINED

Costs of generating funds - - - -

- Costs of generating voluntary income - (19,849) (19,849) (17,225)

- Various activities in support of the Policies and Principles of the Charity - (377,125) (377,125) (327,284)

- Governance costs - (2,823) (2,823) (3,648)

TOTAL RESOURCES EXPENDED - (399,797) (399,797) (348,157)

Net incoming resources / Net movement in funds for the year - 110,816 110,816 20,018

NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS FOR THE YEAR

Reconcilliation of Funds

Total Funds brought forward - 124,865 124,865 104,847

TOTAL FUNDS AT THE YEAR END - 235,681 235,681 124,865

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Balance sheetAs at 31st December 2013

2013 € 2012 €

ASSETS

FIXED ASSETS

Tangiable assets 5,413 8,823

CURRENT ASSETS

Debtors 5,775 742

Cash at bank and in hand 250,722 138,293

256,497 139,035

LIABILITIES

CREDITORS: amounts falling due within one year (26,229) (22,993)

NET CURRENT ASSETS 230,268 116,042

TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES 235,681 124,865

FUNDED BY

Restricted Funds 0 0

Unrestricted funds 235,681 124,865

TOTAL ACCUMULATED FUNDS 235,681 124,865

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TransparencyOverviewAt SpunOut.ie we are very open about our performance, spending, income, governance and leadership. Our mission is to deliver a website written by young people for other young people. Our goal is to enable young people in Ireland to live happy and healthy lives through the provision of information which will empower them to make the best decisions for themselves.

In order to fulfil this mission and achieve these goals we have to be 100% transparent and accountable to our service users and funders. Our board is made of up of passionate people who work with young people or have a desire to see the young people of Ireland prosper. Similarly, our Action Panel (a group of 20 young people from around Ireland) play a pivotal role in our governance structure to ensure our service and messages stay relevant to the people we serve.

FinancesIn 2013, our service www.SpunOut.ie had just under 595,000 unique users and over 1.7 million page views. In 2013, we spent roughly €390,000 of an income of roughly €487,500 (the surplus recorded for 2013 is monies granted for activity in 2014). In simple terms, it cost approximately 65c per user to run the SpunOut.ie service in 2013.

Around two-thirds of this was spent on staff costs. As a website, our main cost is employing the seven people to keep it full of content, to run the campaigns that we do so successfully, to represent young people in the media and to advertise our service to new users. Administration often gets dismissed as a valid cost in the running of an NGO or charity, but our service would crumble without the support of our admin staff. We’re proud to say there isn’t anything they do which isn’t directly related to providing the vital service we provide. Our programme costs consist of the resources required to run the many campaigns and events we run each year.

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Some of the things we learnt

Staffing structureWe truly believe that leadership should be shared and at the beginning of the year, we made valiant attempts at organising ourselves according to this ideal. However, this did not work out, and by the end of the year we had changed our staffing structure to a more traditional hierarchy, headed by an Executive Director. This model appears to be working much better. A shared leadership model has potential but we did not have the time or resources to perfect the performance management aspect of the model, which is crucial.

Social impactWe know we have a positive social impact. However, we increasingly came to recognise how difficult it is for us to articulate precisely what that impact is and how big it is. Although we have fancily-named ‘key performance indicators’, we were not necessarily measuring the correct things (and sometimes, for one reason or another, we were unable to get complete sets of data). We are now getting better at tracking our performance, but this process is by no means complete. Future quarterly reports will reflect this improvement.

Despite our best intentions, things do not always go according to plan. We thought we would share some of the lessons that we learnt over the past year.

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Some of the things we learnt

Financial sustainabilityWe have been fortunate to benefit from generous philanthropic support in recent years. However, our One Foundation funding ceased in 2010 and our Atlantic Philanthropies funding is ending in 2015. The reality of this truly began to sink in during 2013. We drew up an ambitious sustainability plan that contains everything from making it easier for the general public to donate to us to considering mergers with like-minded organisations.

Action PanelWe mean it when we say that we are youth-led. But our Action Panel does not govern the organisation in a legal sense (that is the responsibility of the Board of Directors). This sometimes led to confusion. We made various changes to our Board and Action Panel to ensure that everyone’s voices were heard and that the appropriate people were making the right decisions. We also undertook an evaluation with the Action Panel, with interesting results. Highs included being part of something that builds skills and pushes boundaries and that is youth-centred, safe and supportive. Lows included attendance problems, inadequate meeting space and the panel not being as diverse as it could be; issues which we will address during 2014.

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See you in quarter 3

S U P P O R T E D B Y