If you’re not a fan of slightly gushing and mildly self-congratulatory blog posts, please look away now.

Yesterday, Open’s thirty two talented individuals sat down and spoke about which charities they were giving their thousand pounds to – and why.

So we heard about waiting for a brother to come home from war. A suicidal friend. A mum with breast cancer. Brain tumours. Thwarted ambitions. Strokes. Lost children. More cancer. And how Corby is a bit of a shithole.

It was electric.

At this point I’m meant to say something clever, insightful and ideally funny. But that would be my head talking – which really wasn’t the point.

So I’ll just say thank you to our amazing team and to everyone who said nice things about us on Twitter for making me feel so proud.

James

The Mobile Team is growing. We’re recruiting for an Account Executive to join Paul, Jenny and myself.

We work with lots of brilliant clients on some really exciting mobile campaigns. No day is the same. We recruit new supporters, convert existing ones, develop mobile based retention programmes and create new ways for supporters to give.

We’re looking for someone who is happy to get stuck into anything that needs doing and is happy to cover tasks that sit outside the classic AE job description, but principally the role is to provide account management support to our clients.

You’ll need to tick most of the boxes in the following areas:

• Understand the fundamentals of fundraising.
• Be passionate about new technology, the web and mobile.
• Be able to manage multiple projects whilst remaining calm.
• Have experience of project managing marketing/fundraising projects in a creative environment as well as with external partners.
• Have some experience of client-servicing – don’t worry we will teach you.
• Have some experience working on digital projects (experience with mobile would be brilliant but isn’t essential).
• Thrive when working in a fast paced environment.
• Happy to turn their hand to anything in order to make sure that the project gets done.
• Have an opinion and be comfortable expressing it on how mobile can be used to help the charities we work with, recruit, keep, engage and inspire their supporters.

This really is a fantastic opportunity for someone who wants to be part of something exciting from the beginning. As the mobile team develops, so will you and your career.

If this sounds like you, send an email introducing yourself, explaining why you are perfect for the job, with your CV and current salary details.

CLOSING DATE: Please send us your application by 10am Monday 8 April.

Fiona

It’s that time of year again when the Design Museum opens its doors to the Designs of the Year Awards. The exhibition showcases exciting and inspiring designs across seven categories: Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics, Transport and Product. The inventions that stand out for me are those that actually change peoples lives. In other words, design for good.

This year’s Designs of the Year Awards offer an array of brilliant humanitarian designs, too many to mention in one blog post, so here are my top 3:

Child Vision Glasses

The Centre for Vision in the Developing World has created self-adustable glasses to help children in the developing world see clearly. The glasses are based on a fluid-filled lens technology that allows the wearer to adjust the lens themselves and then simply lock the liquid in place. The glasses are mass manufactured to keep costs low and have been designed to be durable and withstand challenging environments. When you consider that at least 100 million young people worldwide have poor vision, you can see the design’s significance and its potential to change lives.

Colalife aid pods

Coke is widely available in developing countries, including places where 1 in 9 children die before their 5th birthday from simple preventable causes like diarrhoea. Recognising the difficulties in distributing medication,

Colalife came up with a clever solution. They created an anti-diarrhoea kit that could be packed in the space between coca-cola bottles. The packs contain medication, soap and hydration sachets, the packaging itself acts as a cup.

Little Sun

Little sun is a solar powered light created by Olafur Eliasson and Frederik Ottesen. Their aim was to make light available to everyone in the world. The light is designed so that it can be worn as a pendant, carried as a lantern, hung on a wall or fixed, wall or bike. Five hours of sunlight equals one evening of Little Sunlight.

The company has a ‘trade not aid’ approach and has created a business model allowing the product to be sold locally insuring that the community profits.

A full list of entries is here. The winners are announced to the public on the 17th April and the exhibition is open until the 7th July.

Lydia