LMF Network’S Q1 Impact Report
More than a year since the pandemic started, and we are finally on our way out of lockdown and restrictions. But these positive signs are not enough to forget that Covid-19 worsened gender inequalities and the many challenges faced by minority groups in the workplace.
That is why we wanted to make a stop in the way and evaluate the impact LMF Network is having on its growing community during the first quarter of 2021.
LMF has been working twice as hard to empower women and people from the BAME community. We have delivered workshops and events to help them gain skills for their career development and increase their confidence to be their best selves. We also launched a mentoring programme for those who lost their jobs, are looking to make a career transition, or needed a support system in these uncertain times.
This report reviews LMF’s main activities and initiatives that happened between January and March. It also analyses the statistics from the organisation’s social media, website and communication channels. The report focuses only on LMF Network headquarters in London.
10 highlights from our impact report
· Our mentoring programme supports 600+ mentors and mentees, with 100% recommending it to future participants.
· We published 5 research reports on social mobility, diversity and inclusion.
· National Lottery Community Fund recognised our work with a £9k grant.
· We reached 10K+ followers on LinkedIn and 4K+ on Instagram.
· In Q1 we delivered 5 educational workshops with 353 attendees. Our workshops are recommended by 98% of people!
· We raised £3,377 through our events and crowdfunding efforts to re-invest into LMF’s activities.
· Our global team continues to grow! Our 20+ volunteers had 3 monthly meetings to discuss strategy.
· We reached 81 different countries with our content.
· Our social media pages have 100K+ impressions on average per month.
· Our community grows organically. We have no paid advertising or sponsored promotions.
Who is LMF Network CIC?
We are a global not-for-profit social enterprise with a mission to enable, educate and empower women and underrepresented groups in tech, digital and entrepreneurship.
We believe in creating an inclusive community to bridge the skills gap, improve people’s confidence, and accelerate careers through digital workshops, a mentoring programme, and business coaching.
Our community members come from all over the world.
LMF Network’s website data showed that 70% of our visits in the first quarter of 2021 came from the United Kingdom, 9% from the United States, and 3% from Canada. The remaining 19% are mainly from Asia and mainland Europe, totalling 81 different countries.
First-quarter of 2021 saw a rise in visitors to the website and an all-time high for LMF, jumping 1491% web traffic compared to Q1 2020. During the first quarter, the website had more movement in March (74% of the total traffic) compared to January and February, which experienced 15% and 11%, respectively.
LMF Network’s team is growing.
We are a voluntary-led organisation. Many of our team members balance their contribution to LMF’s work with their full-time jobs.
We have now more than 20 volunteers working for the headquarters in London, LMF Toronto, and the Queen’s University chapter. To better coordinate efforts and increase our collaboration, we had three monthly meetings with the global team.
We are also bringing a Content and Marketing Associate to strengthen our social media strategy and keep growing our community. More to be announced.
We are blogging more than ever.
At the end of last year, we decided to open a new channel to communicate important topics for our members and share our community’s opinions.
Since the beginning of 2021, we have published 18 articles about cognitive bias, diversity and inclusion, mentoring, combatting imposter syndrome, and building confidence.
On average, every 30 days, we see around 520 blog reads and a read ratio of nearly 35%. According to Medium bloggers, it is a good sign since the average read ratio is 20% to 50%.
Moving forward, we aim to release a new blog and topic every 2 weeks. If you want to collaborate on LMF’s blog, get in touch with us!
Our flagship initiative: LMF’s mentoring programme.
In February 2021, we launched the largest digital mentoring programme by a not-for-profit in the UK. More than 600 participants from 14 different countries signed to be part of this initiative. For this second cohort, we partnered with organisations like Stripe, Perlego, Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), Capital Placement and Charity Learning Consortium.
From February until July, the participants have access to monthly digital workshops to find their passion and accelerate their career. They address topics and skills that support their professional development like goal setting, imposter syndrome, personal branding, CV and interview skills.
There are also one-to-one sessions between mentors and mentees where they can support and learn from each other. Also, all of our participants benefit from connecting and creating meaningful relationships with a global network thanks to LMF’s slack channel and LinkedIn groups.
“When I joined this program, I was really confused about my future career prospects. While I have a great job, I’m looking to make a career move and switch industries, which is quite an overwhelming and difficult task to accomplish.” — (Mentee)
“I’ve learned so much about myself in the past few months, largely thanks to my mentor asking the right questions and giving me useful exercises for self-reflection. Being more self-aware enabled me to stop a recent period of burnout before it got too serious. I am incredibly thankful for the tools my mentor has given me to manage my stress and concerns independently; it feels very empowering!” — (Mentee)
“My mentee and I discussed the topic of women in tech, and I challenged her to go and do some further research on the topic and find out about women in the industry. I was really proud of her for coming back to me during the following week and having a whole new perspective on the topic after actively contacting women who work within tech and reading a bunch of articles…We will be working on her research and presentation skills to ensure she will be confident in not only her knowledge but her presentation of it during potential interviews. She is very receptive to comments and observations, so I believe we can achieve a lot of her goals by the end of the programme.” — (Mentor)
Since its launch, 94% of the participants have rated their mentoring partnership as very high quality, and 84% rated the program positively in terms of organization. But, most importantly, 10 out of 10 would recommend the program to future cohorts.
Thanks to its success, we are in the process of organising the next 3-month mentoring programme, starting in Autumn 2021. You can express your interest here!
Our online community keeps growing.
LMF’s LinkedIn page is the most active social media platform in the network. We have 10,041 followers, of which 3,445 acquired between January and March, and we have grown 66% in the last 6 months. Our page impressions were almost 75,000 in January and February and more than 151,000 in March 2021. On average, we achieve more than 100,000 monthly impressions and without any advertisements or sponsored posts!
LMF’s Instagram account has 4,039 followers and counting. Our audience consists mainly of women (90%) between 18 and 44 years old. Our followers are mostly from the UK, USA, Canada, India and Pakistan.
Even online, LMF’s events are still going on.
Due to face-to-face restrictions, LMF’s events are still strictly online. However, we are still actively empowering and educating our community.
Between January to March, we organised five events through Eventbrite, where 353 people attended. Our online events addressed topics like:
· “How to succeed with LinkedIn”, led by LMF’s founder Sonya Barlow;
· “Combating Imposter Syndrome & Building Confidence”, led by LMF’s founder Sonya Barlow;
· “Introduction to Diversity & Inclusion”, led by LMF’s founder Sonya Barlow;
· “How to Build your Self Confidence”, led by Preiti Randhawa.
According to our feedback, over 97% of attendees would recommend the Imposter Syndrome Workshop. Among the event’s insights were that almost 93% felt like an imposter in the last 7 days, and nearly 62% of the participants didn’t know how to combat imposter syndrome.
That is why we will be launching a series of events and workshops in the future to keep supporting people to achieve their full potential.
Please find more information about our events here.
Community Socials
As an active network, we are always looking for new ways to engage with our community. These initiatives are possible thanks to our members, such as:
· Weekly meetings — Led by Naomi Ediru and Georgina Stapley
· End of month Yoga sessions — Led by Abigail Dunstan
· Live event — Hosted by Preiti Randhawa, Natalie Einhoff, and Sonya Barlow
· Monthly Blogs — Thanks to Gaëlle Couberes, Charlotte Allena and Eleonora Papini
We created a space to find and hire diverse talent.
One of our goals is to create inclusive cultures and get more diverse talent into tech and digital industries. For that reason, in March 2021, we launched an online jobs board. Here, employers can post their open roles and hire diverse talent from within the community.
Within the first month, we received 40 job opportunities from 26 employers that led to 96 applications. Every week we share the open roles on our social media platforms and encourage employers to sign up for our job board service. From as little as £49 for 30 days, they can find and hire diverse talent from within LMF’s network.
Do you want to share an opportunity with a diverse community? You can post it here.
We have increased our funding and revenue.
While we are a not-for-profit organisation, funding is necessary to support LMF’s day-to-day operation. That is why from January 2021, we made the business decision to charge a small amount for our events.
Between January and March, LMF’s events allowed us to raise £796.81 from donations and sold tickets. We also received £2,580 through donations on our GoFundMe page.
The revenue generated from events and crowdfunding has allowed us to re-invest in LMF’s initiatives and programmes. It also helped us cover basic costs for technical tools like Gmail and Zoom.
Big thanks to everyone who supported us!
If you want to donate to support LMF, please go to our GoFundMe page.
Help us provide the best experience.
We are always improving the services and experience for our community. That is why we want to hear from you!
We are collecting data from our members to be a better network. Help us fill the following community survey, it will take you a few minutes.
This blog contribution was made by Eleonora Papini and Alejandra Chávez.
Eleonora is a native Italian living in Greece, she is passionate about human psychology, sustainable development and international cooperation.
Eleonora is a multilingual Data & Communication consultant, 1+ years of international experience in the European Union Government sector.
In 2021 became also a Data Analyst for the LMF Network and content creator for their blog.
Alejandra is a Communications and Public Affairs Consultant with 7 years of experience passionate about helping organisations tell their stories and engage with their stakeholders. She has a master’s degree in Public Administration and Management from University College London.
She is also a politics, policy and current affairs nerd, a book lover and an amateur photographer.
Since March 2021, Alejandra is Press and Communications Officer for LMF Network (London).
How can you keep in touch?
Email — Hello@lmfnetwork.com |Linkedin |Instagram | Slack
What is LMFnetwork?
The LMFnetwork is a global social enterprise (not for profit) focused on empowering, enabling & educating womxn and marginalised groups into tech, entrepreneurship & digital. We specialise in designing and delivering accessible programmes and supporting a global community. We’ve gone from a brunch club to a social good brand based on what the community wanted. We are a real community run by real people.
