Enlightful
Make it easy to understand your organisation's impact + audiences so you can deliver better outcomes. Workshops, Research, Narratives, Innovation.
Hello, I’m Mel, a charity consultant (but I prefer the term co-worker). And I founded Enlightful to help teams find their clarity of thought. Because when you're on the inside, fielding requests and looking at a world chock-full of possibilities, the way ahead looks cloudy. And finding distraction-free time for deep discovery is hard.
MY SPECIALIST AREAS
Theory of Change Consultant? Social value marketer? Strategist? Impact reporting? Audience insights? Digital? People development? I’ve worn multiple hats, so I never know what to call myself! But after 20+ years in the sector, I was clear that whatever skills people bring, real outcomes ONLY happen when the team is crystal clear on:
⭐their audience's thoughts and behaviours
⭐ how to connect to purpose.
So in 2019, I left my job, to help organisations nurture these foundations for strategy, using modern techniques and digital tools.
PROGRAMMES & SERVICES
?Understanding the audience and users
?Theory of Change development & impact reporting
?Developing a data roadmap & fostering a data culture
HOW I WORK
Mostly, I hold the space for reflective thinking in workshops through games. But I do the research, analysis and write engaging narratives too. I can be there for the whole journey or dip in where I’m needed most.
ABOUT ME
??Mum to 2 teenage girls, wife and a Springador owner
?♀️ I dabble with yoga and dance to keep myself balanced.
⛰️I walk in the hills every day… even when it hails and rains.
?♀️Give me a problem and I’ll keep asking questions until I solve it.
More at https://www.enlightful.co.uk/about-mel-mallinson
Here is a sample of my recent projects:
MAKING SENSE OF DATA WORKSHOP PROGRAMME, (on behalf of Outlandish,) for a cohort from National Governing Bodies of Sport:
• Exploring how to make data collection and analysis more meaningful and ethical, to inform strategies for growing sports participation and improving the experience especially, among minority groups.
• Telling data-driven stories.
AUDIENCE-FIRST THINKING PROGRAMME – tailored workshops and learning to support the team at a national youth charity to gather insights to inform messaging and the strategy for engaging a new audience.
THEORY OF CHANGE DEVELOPMENT – supporting The Good Things Collective, a community arts business, to explore and communicate its social value to bring more people and funders on the journey.
ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY - Analysing interviews to identify patterns. Designing a visual journey to help the Beacon Collective, an alliance for philanthropy, communicate ways to grow social investment.
“Mel was super organised and driven and understood our complex world enough to simplify it. It’s been brilliant. I would definitely recommend Mel to any organisation wanting to make the purpose of what they do front and central.” - Lucy Supperstone, Director of Innovation & Standards at SLQ.
“I was connected to Mel, a charity consultant, through Power to Change. Mel was extremely patient and understanding. The business being a busy low-capacity CIC meant we hoped for big outcomes with limited input and Mel delivered.'' - The Good Things Collective
I'm nearly 50 but I still love learning and these days, I devote my learning time to books, blogs and podcasts. Topics that fascinate me include behaviour change and neuroscience because they inspire my thinking for strategy.
Here's some of the more formal learning I’ve completed over the years.
MARKETING & DATA
• Marketing with the CIM
• Being responsible with data with the DMA
• CRM and data-driven marketing with the then IDM.
• Data modelling with BI
• Writing is a continuous learning journey.
DIGITAL
• eCommerce, email marketing and user research with Econsultancy
• Journey mapping and user experience
• Analytics with Google
• SEO through online learning
LEARNING AND PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT
• Learning design with Cathy Moore
• Leadership & coaching skills with in-house training
DEGREE
• BSc French, Italian & Accounting 2.1
Before freelancing … I led digital, data & comms teams & functions for 15 years - in publishing and then, learning - in a social enterprise and then as a director of a national charity. Projects included:
1) developing the learning and membership platform, ukcoaching.org.
2) transforming a publishing unit into an online learning operation
3) establishing a cross-sport coaching, online community.
4) developing behaviour change campaigns for coaches.
5) group data strategy and ethics