Charities Welcome Business Help! Businesses around Hampshire have so much to offer to local charities and not for profit organisations. Community First works with many local businesses who regularly give up their time to upskill organisations that can benefit from their expertise. IBM spent a day with local organisations in January, at its Portsmouth location sharing their extensive knowledge on how to effectively market your organisation. For local charities, spending time with employees from IBM is a welcome and unique opportunity; participants learnt the Basics of Marketing, with topics such as branding, the importance of logos and telling your own story to get your message across in an effective way. Each Participant had their very own mentor from IBM with them for the day who ensured they had the tools and information to formulate their very own marketing plan. IBM takes part in a rolling programme of support for charities throughout the year facilitated by Community First, the focus of the workshops are for staff from IBM to give something back to the community by passing on their skills to community groups. For participants these days are invaluable. Anna O’Brien from Winchester Radio took part in the Marketing workshop and said “Thank you to Community First for organising an incredibly informative training day with IBM. It was really timely and beneficial for our charity Winchester Radio as we get closer to launching our community radio for older people in Winchester and the surrounding villages.”