Preventing gaming and gambling harms
CLIENT: YGAM
We developed a new impact storytelling approach to enable Ygam to change the conversation about gaming and gambling harms, and to have greater influence with funders and the person on the street.
Ygam is the UK’s leading charity dedicated to preventing gaming and gambling harms in young people.
They exist to safeguard the digital generation.
The context
Ygam bridge the critical knowledge gap between young people’s digital lives, and the adults who guide them. They provide award-winning education services to safeguard today’s digital generation.
Since the charity’s inception in 2014, Ygam has trained over 28,000 professionals working with children and young people, enabling the charity to reach an estimated 4.6 million children and young people across the country.
Why Ygam’s work is so vital:
91% of UK children aged 3 - 15 play video games on some type of digital device.
Parents estimate that their children spend on average 16.9 hours a week playing video games; more than half the amount of time children spend in school each week.
According to the Gambling Commission, 27% of young people aged 11-17 years old have spent their own money on gambling in the past 12 months (research in 2024).
The challenge
Ygam recognised that to increase their influence they needed to challenge how people talk about gaming and gambling harms. The charity wanted to develop a new more human-focused impact storytelling approach to their communications, and put this emotive bolder storytelling at the heart of their fundraising campaigns. They had ten years of impact evidence and stories we needed to incorporate.
What we did
In-depth stakeholder interviews, review of existing materials and gambling/gaming sector-wide messaging, review of legislation, developing a new organisational messaging framework, case study creation.
The difference we made
Charlotte Heap, Head of Fundraising at Ygam, said of the work:
“Our sector is often driven by facts and figures. What we wanted to do was find a new way to talk about Ygam, why our work is vital, and the difference we make in helping to prevent young people from experiencing the harms of gaming and gambling.
We wanted an impactful way to talk about our work, so that it would resonate with everyone from funders and potential partners, to the person on the street. Working with Really Good Things has already been transformational to how we tell our story.”
“Working with Really Good Things has already been transformational to how we tell our story.”
YGAM
Really Good Things is a specialist strategy, communications and fundraising consultancy for charity, public sector, and not-for-profit organisations. Talk to us about how we can help amplify what you do.