Latest Ideas

This webinar offers a practical guide for nonprofit leaders, communicators, and strategists to navigate the here-and-now and use what you know about your brand to adjust, adapt, and accelerate.

In the social sector, you don’t have the luxury of just waiting it out. You need to pivot and do so quickly. Here are five things that you can do to ensure your mission and brand stay relevant in these strangest of times.

As nonprofits and philanthropies have redoubled their efforts to communicate effectively about racial equity, some have found themselves struggling with where to begin.

Social advocates often feel compelled to satisfy short-term needs, but those short-term wins can come at the expense of long-term goals.

Research shows that when the facts don’t fit the frame, people reject the facts, not the frame. The only way data is effective in influencing mindsets is to present the data in its own alternative frame.

Who doesn’t love a good hero story? But researchers have identified troublesome effects triggered by stories of heroism.

Almost nothing that works in an in-person setting works the same when done virtually.

Here are five things you can do right now to adapt to this new context of covid-19.

Using action-oriented verbs gives people the opportunity to see themselves in your movement.

As social sector communicators, if we are not putting people front and center in our communications, not only will our audiences struggle to understand the nature of the systems we are seeking to change, they will fail to understand the human implications of the systemic flaws we address as advocates.

Our goal as communicators is to introduce a more compelling alternative frame, not refute the one you are up against.

It is natural and justifiable to double down on the urgency of your issue when messaging for your organization. After all, there’s nothing like a good crisis to get people off the couch, right?

Our job as communicators is not to convince people that their barriers are wrong. Our job is to help people forget their barriers exist.

Resist the urge to lead from what you are against. Instead, articulate the better future you envision.

I hear this a lot from communications leaders in the social impact space: their boss just asked them to produce a communications strategy and they have no idea where to start. If you find yourself in this situation, walk through these steps.

It has become a bit of a trend of late – a positive one, in my view – for advocates and funders alike to acknowledge the significance of public dialogue surrounding a given issue, and understand what the nature of that dialogue can do to our ability to address that issue.

Whether it is relaxing immigration restrictions, defending the Dreamers, or treatment of undocumented workers in the U.S., those of us who advocate for more progressive immigration policy have sounded generally the same for decades.

A city ordinance protecting residents from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity was approved by the Houston City Council – a city which, for three consecutive terms – elected a lesbian mayor without much fanfare.

Let’s start with the assumption that no one thinks mass shootings are a good thing. Starting the conversation from a place of good intention is helpful when grappling with issues weighed down by historical context and ideological divide

The social sector has long focused on the public narrative, but now feels different. Leaders of advocacy groups, foundations, and nonprofits are awakening to the critical need to identify the dominant public narrative around their issue, and assert a more compelling alternative that helps people think differently about solutions.

As I work with clients to develop new organizational message platforms, the idea of messages resonating with audiences seems so obvious, it need not be mentioned. “Meet people where they are,” you’ve undoubtedly heard.

Recently, Martin Shkreli became the latest in a long line of American corporate villains, as news broke across the internet that he had purchased the patent of a drug known to fight infections that are common among AIDS patients, and then jacked the price more than 5,000%.

I hear from clients all the time that have exciting ideas about new communications tools they want to develop to help tell the story of their organization. Websites. Videos. Campaigns. You name it. And it is exciting when I get to help them develop these ideas into real brand assets.

Ask your nearest five-year-old to explain the complex issues of the day, and the answers may surprise you. Lack of worldly context notwithstanding, the language and thought process used by young children can teach us a lot about how we explain social problems and the solutions we advocate for.

It is often well into an organization’s existence when leadership realizes they need someone to “do communications” full-time. When that realization does eventually come, the next steps can be scary and confounding.