What our clients say
Simon Blum
Chief Operating Officer, SSAFA
“At SSAFA, we needed to look at our overall Digital, Technology and Data strategy. We were finding it challenging to find an organisational approach to this vital element underpinning our work, resulting in a lack of oversight and fragmented and disconnected platforms and datastores, making meaningful and impactful reporting difficult. We approached Ivan and Zoe to help us prepare for and deliver a new strategy. They reached a deep understanding of the organisation quickly and were able to collaboratively move us towards a much stronger strategic position. We now feel much better equipped to address the above in a realistic timeframe with confidence. Zoe and Ivan were highly knowledgeable, friendly and insightful in the way they worked with us. I’d be happy to recommend them to others.”
Sophie Woodward
Head of Communications, Paul Hamlyn Foundation
“We’ve worked with Zoe and her team for the past year to build our Digital Communications Strategy and develop a website brief with accessibility and inclusion at the heart. The resulting framework has given us a clear roadmap which is practical and scalable for a small team. We’ve shifted our approach to content planning, gained a more confident voice on the issues that matter to us, and jumped ahead with our plans for the website. We built a brilliant relationship and they felt like an extension of our team, providing great advice, support and mentoring throughout the process – I have no hesitation in recommending their work to anyone and everyone!”
Jenny North
Foundation Director, The Clothworkers’ Foundation
“We worked with Zoe during the development of our new Strategy as we considered whether and how to introduce digital funding into our grantmaking. Zoe’s expertise, patience, and professionalism built our understanding of the digital needs of charities, and how we could fund charities in a way that met those needs.”
Seun Akindele
Head of Data and Innovation, CALM
“We worked with the Zoe Amar team to develop our Digital Strategy. They worked collaboratively with our team to fully understand our challenges and aspirations for CALM and our users, and then translate these into actionable tactics. They are a really approachable and friendly team of experts – highly recommended!”
Helen Anderson
Digital Manager, Brook
“We asked Zoe to support us with carrying out an organisation-wide digital skills audit. Zoe quickly got to know Brook and made sure key staff members were involved in the development of our surveys; this gave us valuable insight into areas such as digital confidence, concerns and potential. Once the results were in, she guided us to identify key priorities and actions. These will support the evolution of our Digital and IT strategies, alongside helping our staff in transition to new ways of working. We loved working with Zoe and her positive approach has really helped drive forward our ambitious plans for digital transformation.”
Matt Rigby
Digital Manager, Nordoff Robbins
“It’s been a useful and rewarding piece of work to undertake for us as an organisation and you have both done an excellent job of steering us through that process. Alice – your expertise and insights throughout have been immensely valuable throughout!
For me, the most valuable outcome has been to agree some metrics/KPIs which we can use to guide our activities over the next 6-12 months, which I hope will give us the ability to demonstrate progress against your recommendations (and progress more widely) and also to ensure that we are making better use of the data that we have.”
Léa Verlaguet
Digital Improvement Manager, Nurture UK
“It was a pleasure working with Zoe and Bobi. They have been very flexible with us, adapting to our needs and requirements. Our team was at ease right away as we found Zoe and Bobi to be like-minded, personable and engaging. They asked us the right questions and guided us to find out who we are as an organisation and what were our needs. We are pleased with our decision to work with them and would happily do it again in the future.”
Adam Ognall
CEO, New Israel Fund UK
“We were very impressed by Zoe and her team. The process they took us through, the analysis they undertook and the user research were all very valuable. Their final recommendations were exactly what we wanted. They presented a set of ambitious recommendations with detailed structure, ideas and examples as to how we implement and monitor the recommendations. Our hope when we commissioned this work was that we would be presented with an action-oriented strategy with practical suggestions that would motivate our team. They very much delivered this.
Zoe was very good at ensuring she understood our needs and worked hard to meet agreed deadlines etc.”
Maya Bhose
Director of Communications and Engagement, Locality
“Our brief to Zoe and James was to help us evaluate several potential business models for a website aimed at community groups looking for free resources to help them have a greater impact in their neighbourhoods. In a concentrated period the agency worked with multiple external stakeholders to clarify the proposition for the site, identify which features would be most appropriate to implement based on their monetisation value and appeal to the audience, as well as highlighting where to focus resource for future development. Their guidance was very clearly articulated and they fully involved us in the strategic development and outcomes. They are a delight to work with, really smart and patient and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them for any digital problem solving.”
Michael Laffan
Deputy Director of Engagement, Sense
“What really stands out about Zoe and her team is their collaborative approach. This really helped get buy in and strong focus for our digital strategy. We’re now building on that and ready to go the next level with digital thanks to Zoe.”
Ruth Patterson
Digital Engagement Manager, Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund
“We enjoyed working with Zoe, Lisa and the rest of the Zoe Amar Digital team on our digital strategy project. It was an ambitious project which built on our digital progress to date. Zoe and Lisa helped us benchmark where we were with digital and the insights they offered were very helpful. They then worked closely with us to develop and evaluate the options for how we could achieve our aspirations. The resulting strategy will help us take the next steps on our digital journey and I’m excited about where it will lead us. “
Jonny Keyworth
Digital Communications Manager, Homeless Link
“Working with Marc and Zoe at Zoe Amar Digital was a really enriching experience. When I brought them on board for our web project, I had really clear aims and things I wanted to achieve: build a business case, secure a budget for a new website, and find a new web agency. Without a doubt, we achieved all of those things in a confident, assured and timely fashion. But the journey of working with them both, surpassed all my expectations. The diligence and level of insight they both were able to contribute at every stage of the process, meant that the final products of our work together were of a really high quality and the impression relayed to our board and SMT, was of a really assured and confident approach and vision, and has set the whole project on the firmest of foundations.
Marc was fantastic in interrogating our assumptions and our ingrained ways of working and the assumptions we made about what we wanted from the new website and how we might get there. His ability to condense complex technical information and insight into really clear threads, were integral into the shaping of the whole proposal and I can confidently say that the success of our future website and the excellent relationship with have with our new web agency, is due to Marc’s guidance and foresight. Working with Zoe has been similarly enriching and invaluable. Zoe was able to stand back from the whole process and identify those crunch moments of sign-off or potentially difficult conversations, and think clearly about the human resources we needed at those moments, and I went into every interaction with key stakeholders, feeling more confident for having those discussions with Zoe. Zoe was able to help us really understand what we wanted from our future digital partner and her contributions have really shaped the relationship I have forged with our new agency, feeling confident in challenging ourselves as well as our agency.
The words I’ve used frequently here are ‘confident’, ‘enriching’, ‘shaping’ – and this really captures what the experience of working with Marc and Zoe was like. I’m really proud of the work we did together and I would have no reservations in recommending them to any organisation who is looking to shape their vision and digital aspirations, and create a clear path forward to how they achieve those goals.”
Amy Gibbs
Chief Executive, Birthrights
“We brought in Zoe following a high-profile communications crisis and transphobic social media trolling in Summer 2021, which was extremely challenging and distressing for our small staff team. She led an in-depth retrospective wash-up with the senior team to identify strengths and gaps in our response, helped us develop more robust plans, policies and governance, and led a series of workshops to stress-test the new processes and build skills and confidence across the team.
Zoe was a joy to work with and quickly won the confidence of the whole team. She is flexible, brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the field, and takes a proportionate approach to the needs and capacity of a small charity. She also offered great ‘aftercare’ and ongoing direct engagement with me as CEO, which was highly valuable and provided a confidential space to process trauma, share leadership challenges and move forward positively from the crisis comms incident. Overall, thanks to Zoe we feel well placed to weather any future storms!”
Ceri Wild
Hospital Digital Lead, The Great Ormond Street Hospital Digital Team
“In 2019 we engaged Zoe and Lisa to do some strategic consultancy work to help us develop our recently launched hospital Twitter feed. Zoe and Lisa hosted and facilitated a workshop so we understood clearly our users’ requirements. We were able to identify the key audience groups and the content tactics, which we felt would maximise engagement. Zoe and Lisa distilled these learnings in an engaging reference document. Some months later Zoe and Lisa returned to complete a further workshop. This workshop has really assisted us in harnessing our collective energies around driving the channel forward and we produced three great social media campaign ideas which we can use in 2020.
It’s been a real pleasure to work with both Zoe and Lisa – they have provided helpful, thoughtful and expert guidance at all times. Their stewardship and facilitation of the workshops was excellent. Their approach is warm and collaborative. I would not hesitate in working with Zoe and Lisa again, and would strongly recommend them.”
Annie Viswanathan
CEO, Bail For Immigration Detainees
“We asked Zoe to help us put together a robust social media policy following a rise in complaints to the Charity Commission from a group of ‘anti woke’ politicians, the Common Sense Group, about the public position vis a vis racial justice taken in the media by charities such as Barnardo’s, The National Trust and Runnymede Foundation. As a legal charity representing one of most vilified groups of people in the country we wanted to make sure that in our social media we trod the fine line between raising awareness of the issues affecting our clients without being party political so that if complaints are made about our claims we can be confident that we are operating within our charitable objectives. Zoe was fantastic – she worked closely with the team to really understand us as an organisation and then helped to create a social media policy that allows us to speak truth to power without breaching Charity Commission guidance.”
Danielle Doyle
Communications and Engagement Lead, The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute
“Zoe helped us develop a strategy for our new platform through a workshop process. It was a challenge as we needed to reach consensus on critical decisions in a short timeframe. Zoe ran the workshop as a sprint, expertly steering us through all the key areas and unearthing useful issues along the way. Zoe made sure that everyone was listened to and helped broker agreement on each area of our strategy. We were delighted by the progress we made and found the whole process energising and a refreshing challenge to our thinking.”
Paul Marriott
Chief Executive, St Cuthbert’s Hospice
“Zoe delivered two days training for our Board and senior managers. The training was well prepared and very participative. We now have a much clearer appreciation of how we can weave digital into our new Strategic Plan and the Board is now much clearer about both opportunities and risks associated with embracing the role of technology in governance and service delivery.”
Hugh Thornbery
CEO, Adoption UK
“Zoe and her colleague Madeleine helped us take our first steps in the digital transformation process. They covered a huge amount of ground during the project, helping us develop a digital vision and roadmap, auditing the digital skills of staff and volunteers and advising on digital service delivery and how it is changing our business model. We were very happy with their work and the way in which they encouraged us to be bold and ambitious yet pragmatic. They were extremely thorough in their approach, and we really liked their enthusiasm and energy. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them for their expertise and the value they add.”
Dave Evans
Product Marketing Manager, Skills Platform
“I worked with Zoe Amar Communications to produce the Charity Social Media Toolkit, Charity Digital Skills Report and Charity Digital Toolkit. Working with Zoe and the team has been a real pleasure. They really live and breathe what they do; as a client, you never feel they are just delivering a project. Rather, they are 100% behind you as well as constantly looking for opportunities to keep raising their game. They are incredibly well connected and opened so many doors for me. We worked together to deliver the projects on time and within budget, thanks to Zoe’s proactive approach. More than anything I really appreciated the strong communication from Zoe. I knew where we were at every step of the process, meaning that the only surprises were positive ones.”
Sally Horrox
Director of Corporate Communications and Marketing, NCT
“I worked with Zoe recently at NCT and found her professional, collaborative and personally inspiring to work with. She has a very structured approach, which worked well for the different levels of experience within our team, and helped us develop a digital strategy focusing on social media and online engagement.”
Claire Douglas
Social Media Manager, Commonwealth War Graves Commission
“Zoe and her team provided us with fantastic levels of support throughout the process and remained approachable and available at all stages.
We are a very small team – but with big plans – and Zoe’s support really gave us the confidence we needed to take our social media to the next level.
The strategy and goals we produced together were ambitious, yet realistic, and have provided a solid base to work from over the next 12 months.”
Judith Davey
Director of People, Performance and Accountability at ActionAid
“Zoe’s report on the different approaches to transparency in not-for-profit, public and regulated private sectors is insightful and thought-provoking. We loved the creative and challenging discussions we had with Zoe about improving the way in which we present our transparency information and the ambitious, but very practical recommendations. I have no hesitation in recommending Zoe as an expert in charity comms and marketing.”
Heather Broughton
Head of Communciations, Crimestoppers
“Zoe worked with Crimestoppers to evaluate and audit our social media strategy which we developed in-house. After a few email exchanges and phone calls plus a face to face meeting, Zoe embraced our brief and provided a comprehensive report from which we can take many lessons to enhance our social media presence at Crimestoppers. Zoe was very easy to work with and provided a host of practical knowledge, expertise and advice of which has already been of huge benefit.”
James Higgott
Head of Digital, The King’s Fund
“Zoe Amar did a fantastic job reviewing our social media channels and suggesting ways to develop/improve our social presence. She ran effective workshops that engaged staff, her analysis and benchmarking work was thorough and insightful, and her recommendations were thoughtful and sensible.”
Jack Garfinkel
Web Production Manager, NCVO
“It was an absolute treat to work with Zoe on our communications content on Knowhow Nonprofit. She showed us how to map content and audit our vast website in a way that would really help users. She also helped us to be the best version of ourselves, both by being very efficient and by being an extremely calming influence. Really hoping our paths cross again soon.”
Mandy Johnson
UK Director of Partnerships at Change.org
“I attended Zoe’s course whilst I was on maternity leave as I was worried that my personal brand would be forgotten whilst I was away from work. Without trying to be melodramatic, it changed my life. Zoe’s skills as a teacher and her expertise in her field gave me the confidence, knowledge and direction to start blogging, tweeting more confidently and generally putting myself out there in the online space. A year later, I have increased my Twitter following by over 1,000 people, been selected as the 14th most influential fundraiser in the UK and I still go back to my notes from Zoe’s course almost every day.”
Rachel Purkett
Head of Digital and Member Engagement, The Royal College of Nursing
“Zoe prepared and delivered a useful and inspiring session for my team. She really listened to and understood what we needed and was a joy to work with.”
Lizzie Carter
New Business Manager at CLIC Sargent
“Zoe ran a fantastic training session for the team at CLIC Sargent. She was a pleasure to work with from start to finish, creating a session which responded directly to the specific brief we provided and using practical examples throughout to bring it to life. The team found Zoe’s friendly and considerate style really engaging and we’ve all gone away feeling inspired and motivated to put what we learnt into practice. Thank you, Zoe!”
Harvey Gallagher
CEO, The National Association of Fostering Providers
“After her initial work to support my organisation’s stakeholders with their own social media strategies, I have engaged with Zoe to develop our own presence and mine as a CEO. In my one-to-one meetings with Zoe, I come away each time feeling my approach has been further crafted and given momentum – her sound advice and pragmatic approach is much appreciated.”
Andrew Brady
Head of Charities and Social Enterprise, Anglia Ruskin University
“I was delighted when Zoe agreed to work with Anglia Ruskin University, as lead tutor on our Social Media module. She is a knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and professional, and our students (social enterprise and charity managers) have given her great feedback. Zoe has also presented workshops at our annual conference and these have been similarly well received. If you want the social media/third sector job done then I recommend you talk to her, right now!”
Liz Sewell
Director, Belina Consulting
“It was so useful and inspiring to work with Zoe. She helped us to clarify both our brand and our message. We now understand exactly how to promote our services and who we need to get to. I would recommend her as both very good at her job and value for money.”