This is the second part of a two-part series on communicating with your board members. In part one, we looked at the characteristics of a typical board member, and provided tips on how you can give thorough updates to your board.
This week, we’re diving into when and how to send updates. We make recommendations for cadence, as well as how to root your updates in your nonprofit’s mission.
Read MoreAs a nonprofit leader, you know just how important communicating with your board members is. Board member awareness, buy-in, input and collaboration…well…it all matters.
Boards may play many different roles depending on your organization, but they share one important characteristic: they’re essential partners in your organization’s success.
That’s why we created a series of tips for communicating with your board. For this first installment of our two-part series, let’s start by understanding board member capacity for information, and how to create a great board update.
Read MoreLove them or hate them, we can all agree on one thing – coalitions Get. Things. Done. And all high-impact coalitions have at least one factor in common: they effectively communicate with their audiences at all stages of the coalition lifecycle.
At Forthright, we’ve worked with a number of coalition partners (some that are just starting up, and others that are well established.) We know that bringing the right communications strategy at the right time can help you have even greater impact. That’s why I’m sharing communications tips for every stage of your coalition!
Read MoreReaching families without internet access isn’t a new challenge for communicators. As of last year, one in five households in America were unable to get online at home.
But in April, millions more families across the country are poised to lose their online access as the Affordable Connectivity Program funding runs out.
This could make reaching kids and families in your district or community more challenging. So today, I want to take a moment and share what we’ve learned about reaching and supporting offline families.
Read MoreWhen we see threats to our public schools – such as continuing declines in student enrollment, and politicians pushing for privatization and school voucher programs – we want to help.
That’s why we created our free downloadable guide: How to (Re)+Build Your District’s Numbers: Your Planning Guide to Personalize Communications.
Read MoreToo often, an organization’s communications team is buried several levels removed from the leadership team. We’ve seen it all: the comms teams nestled in Development, over in Policy, part of IT, or even reporting to Finance and HR. As someone who has been both a C-suite exec AND a comms director, I get it. Today, I’m using both these experiences to share how to build two-way trust when it comes to communication-centric tasks.
Read MoreAs leaders in the child and family advocacy space, the words we use matter. How we talk about families and children matter. When we use language based on assumptions – so, for example, in the case of mom and dad – we are unintentionally prescribing relationships that may not exist for all families in our community. Here’s your guide to inclusive family language.
Read MoreFirst, our NPS score, a universal score of customer satisfaction, remains nearly double that of the average consulting firm. In fact, for the third year in a row, we saw our NPS score go up!
Our NPS is one of our “north star” measurements, so I’m thrilled by this result and excited we’re maintaining our superstar streak year-over-year.
This year, 100 percent of our clients strongly agree that we make them feel important, and 100 percent of our clients strongly agree that we’re fun to work with.
Read MoreSocial media brought many surprises in 2023. Will 2024 be a roller coaster too? Because my Magic 8 Ball told me “Reply hazy, try again,” I checked in with some of the biggest names in social media to see what they predicted for 2024.
Read MoreI have a friend who cares deeply – and I mean deeply – about college football. Despite graduating from a huge football school myself (War Eagle), I…do not. If you only have those facts, you may think we don’t have much in common on fall weekends. However, if you dig a little deeper, you find a shared value: we both love being outdoors. On many a weekend, you can find us sitting *outside* with the games on a big screen, enjoying the sun. Everyone’s happy. The key takeaway? If you try hard enough, you can find something in common with – a shared value – with your most important target audiences.
Read MoreIn 2023, we fought politicians working to dismantle public education. We battled funding cuts that impact kids and families. We’ve had our hearts broken daily from escalating violence in Israel-Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine. We demanded paid family leave for all. We struggled to re-envision child care in America. We supported leaders who are exhausted and overwhelmed. Through it all, we’ve remained dedicated to dismantling structural oppression for children and their families.
Read MoreSmart communicators are moving away from press releases and using pitches — short emails tailored to specific reporters about specific topics. But we know writing the perfect pitch — and building personal relationships with journalists — can be tricky, so we’ve created a pitching checklist just for you! Download this free resource today and pitch with confidence, knowing that you’re following the best media relations practices possible.
Read MoreIf you asked me a year ago what came to mind when thinking about early care and education, I would have conjured some pretty traditional images. Toddlers adorned with finger paint. Play-Doh of various colors, sculpted into comically unrecognizable shapes. The joyful sounds of children, with their infectious laughs and with their futures brimming with promise. You can, then, imagine what it felt to learn more about a startling truth in early care and education in America: the widespread suspensions and expulsions of young children, many barely old enough to walk. The desire to upend what has become an unfortunate status quo recently led me to Charlotte, North Carolina for the National Black Child Institute’s (NBCDI) national conference.
Read MoreIt’s just over a year until the next presidential Election Day across the US. Do you have your advocacy communications plan ready? If not, there’s still time! While Election Day may seem far away, the time for advocacy is now. Here’s why.
Read MoreEvents are fun, impactful and strategic, but can also be overwhelming and exhausting. That’s why today, we’re sharing how to set goals and target audiences – ones that align with your organization’s mission – as you prepare for that big benefit or conference. Taking this step at the beginning of your planning process will help ensure you’re getting the most out of your event.
Read MorePeople hate change.
It makes us feel uncertain, uncomfortable and like things are out of our control. And that’s not just coming from me – that’s directly from Dr. Joseph Ciarrochi, author of “What Makes You Stronger: How to Thrive in the Face of Change.”
And this fact is really, really important for our work – because to best serve kids and families, we often have to lead innovation – also known to your families and team as change.
Here at Forthright, we’ve done a lot of research and work around tricky topics. We’ve included a few key takeaways from our most recent research project – school redistricting – below.
Read MoreReaching out to the media can be a solid public relations tactic. But, a little tough love here: this approach is not for everyone. Just because you’re doing amazing, life-changing work doesn’t automatically mean that it will gain you a media hit. Before you hit “send” on your email to a journalist, we have two steps you should take in order to get ready to pitch.
Read MoreWhen we get fellow advocates, board members, families, business leaders, faith leaders, youth themselves involved in a cause, we’re unstoppable. However, to get partners involved, we need to make group advocacy easy. That’s where communications toolkits come into play. I’m including two tips to build a strong toolkit below.
Read MoreMaybe you just joined a new district or organization and want to do a communications audit. Perhaps you’re considering a big change that affects students. Or you simply want to build better communication with the families you serve through your nonprofit or foundation. No matter the reason, there’s one critical piece to all successful communications work: listening. Today, we’re sharing tips for before, during and after your listening sessions.
Read MoreWhen our team kicks off our work on a communications campaign, we focus first on the objective we’re trying to achieve. What’s our goal? But quickly afterwards, we ask the important question: who can make our goal a reality And that’s when we start our search for likely AND unlikely allies. We’re sharing what unlikely allies are — and how you can find them — here.
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