Make hiring your easiest task in 2026
Written by katie test davis
It’s officially mid-January. You have your 2026 strategic plan ready. You have big goals for the children and families you serve. You can see the path forward.
But a vision is only as good as the people who execute it.
As a founder, I know the specific dread of looking at an ambitious plan and realizing you don't have the person-power to make it all happen. You want to launch that new campaign, or maybe you want to deepen relationships with donors. But when a critical communications role is empty, those big ideas stay on the shelf.
The reality is you don't have time to pause your mission. And you definitely don't have time to sort through hundreds of resumes to find the right person to help.
You need a partner who just gets it.
introducing the easy button for nonprofit hiring
We’re thrilled to officially launch Forthright’s Hiring Service.
We decided to build the solution we wished we had when we were in your shoes.
💫We’re communicators hiring communicators.
We combine our deep expertise in the child and family sector with a rigorous search process. This allows us to identify professionals who are truly mission-aligned… saving you critical time and capacity so you can focus on what matters most.
how we work with you
We act as an extension of your team. We manage the entire search using our G.U.I.D.E. Method:
Groundwork & Discovery: We listen deeply to you in order to create the profile of your ideal candidate and the outcomes they need to achieve.
Uncover & Attract: We write inclusive job descriptions, bias-busting application forms and manage all candidate communications.
Interview & Review: We facilitate fair, equitable interviews using the STAR system to spot true mission alignment.
Deliver & Support: We handle the scheduling, reference checks and administrative details so you don't have to.
Ensure Success: We can even walk alongside you during onboarding to ensure your new hire thrives from day one.
a true partner
We made our service accessible with a predictable project fee. No surprise costs. No hourly billing that runs away from you.
We’re here to make your job easier. We want to empower you to focus on your top priorities while we take care of the hardest parts of hiring.
You deserve a complete team with the right people in the right roles doing what they love to do.
If you have an open seat on your team (or know you will soon), let’s talk.
We’re ready to help you build the team you need to meet your 2026 goals.
P.S. You can get even more details here.
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Our average coaching client is a communications director. For the sake of this blog, let’s call her Chloe.
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Here’s a behind-the-scenes peek at what we normally help out with.
So, you need to tell your board of directors or your school board some bad news.
First, blerg. Sorry about that!
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Here is a key approach that I’ve seen work well over the years.
We know that right now, the families you serve, the partners you need, the funders you want to attract and the policymakers who need to know your work have completely changed how they use the internet.
The way they use conversational search on platforms like ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, and Gemini means we simply need to make sure your organization is the trusted AI citation your audiences find.
My cats have me trained.
Yeah, you read that right.
THEY trained ME.
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We’re so used to chasing perfect. Perfection in our work, presenting the perfect image online.
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I’m the first to admit it: I’m a nerd for data.
If something is going wrong – I want to know why, so I can fix it.
If something is going well – I want to know why, so I can keep doing it.
That’s why I love a good communications audit. Here’s why you should join me in my nerd-dom and hop on the communications audit train.
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A couple of weeks ago, I put on my voting shirt (yes, I have one) and headed to vote in Virginia’s special election.
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Your team is working really hard. You know what? I’ll say it. Too hard. They’re surrounded by uncertainty, harm and crises. You’re facing staffing changes. (And we’re seeing an unprecedented spike in leadership turnover, too.) The landscape you’re working in is constantly evolving. It’s so easy for your team morale to take a hit when just one of these things occur.
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Today, it isn’t good enough to just throw your information up on the web and make sure it has the keywords you know your audience searches for.
Instead, you need to intentionally lay out information so that it appears in AI search summaries (like Google's AI overviews) and comes up in the right AI search answers. Recent research from UPCEA shows generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews shape how people gather information, verify details and form opinions.
You pour massive energy into creating beautiful, data-rich resources for your campaigns. It’s heartbreaking when those tools do not reach the families and policymakers who need them most.
So… let’s fix that, shall we?
Thinking about speaking at a conference? It’s one of the best ways to build your organization’s brand and share your expertise.
But getting your session idea accepted can feel like a total mystery.
That’s what we’re here for.
This is your simple, four-step guide to help you find the right conference and write a proposal that gets a big, enthusiastic YES.