“I think creativity is incredibly powerful... It’s fundamental to how we communicate and how we get people onboard...” - Jeremy Forshew
In this episode, we speak with Jeremy Forshew, Founder of Createxplore, an online community where people with creative hobbies can utilise their skills to support and meet charities, community groups, and small businesses. This podcast explores several themes including why Jeremy founded Createxplore, the value of working creatively and the need and benefit of connecting people with creative skills to help others.
1. The founding of Createxplore
Jeremy Foreshew shares that he wanted to do something useful with his creative hobbies and noticed that there was a gap in the market for people with amateur creative skills and hobbies. Jeremy also noted that searching online and via community Facebook groups was time-consuming. He wanted to create a space, where both charities and small businesses could access free and low-cost creative services.
2. The value of working creatively
Jeremy believes that creativity is key to emotionally engaging supporters. As charities, we’re competing for individuals’ attention, so it’s important to create a strong brand identity and messaging. During the pandemic, Jeremy has utilised tech such as message automation to increase online Createxplore’s reach, although there is very little staff capacity.
3. The need and benefit of connecting people with creative skills to help others
During the pandemic, there has been a rise in ‘creative hobbyists’, many of whom would like to ‘do something useful’ with these skills. Through research, Jeremy has found that creative hobbyists don’t want to be categorised as highly-skilled creative professionals, as they may still be developing their craft. Therefore, working with a charity matched via the platform also allows creatives to develop their skills.
Createxplore provides charities the opportunity to connect with freelancers in a safe space, which allows charities to try working with creatives with low commitment and at low or no cost.
We hope you enjoy this week’s episode.
This episode is brought to you by our platinum sponsor Charity People.
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