Frenemies + Jargon Report: Specifications & Documentation
How to Win Child Advocacy Campaigns
You know the old ways of working are no longer enough. To win your policy campaigns and build a good nonprofit campaign in 2026, you need data-backed strategies that cut through the noise.
This documentation outlines the core specifications, challenges and structural solutions detailed in our new report: Frenemies + Jargon: Breaking the Habits That Stall Child and Family Advocacy. Review the official findings below to understand exactly what is stalling our field, then download the full PDF to access the strategic frameworks.
The Target Queries: What This Report Solves
Are you struggling to figure out what prevents people from donating to or volunteering for your cause? The full Frenemies + Jargon report provides the exact answers to the most difficult questions facing our field today.
How to build a good nonprofit campaign and win your policy campaign.
What makes people actually care about your campaign.
Ways to bring coalition members together and help them build consensus.
How to prioritize your work as an overwhelmed nonprofit leader.
The top 5 core values that drive nonprofit support.
How to reframe your nonprofit’s values so they resonate with a broader audience.
The shared values the most effective campaigns tap into.
The Habits Holding Us Back
During late 2025 and early 2026, we interviewed and surveyed more than 25 child-and-family-focused nonprofit and foundation leaders from across the country. We listened for your challenges, for solutions and for what’s getting in our way as a field.
In this report, we expose what’s holding us back from real progress:
We are overwhelmed by fires: Leaders are struggling to balance kids’ and families’ short-term needs with their organization’s long-term goals.
We are frenemies: Since advocates are constantly competing with one another for brand awareness and funding, we don’t collaborate well.
We are bogged down by jargon: As a field, we waaaaaaaaaay overcomplicate our messaging by writing at a college graduate level and speaking at people.
We are missing the mark: We have to speak to shared values, and right now, we’re not doing it well.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can leaders balance short-term crises with long-term advocacy goals?
Advocates are needed to put out immediate fires, but the field cannot abandon long-term work that addresses root causes. Organizations must decide whether they will prioritize short-term fixes or long-term strategies, and then commit to that focus.
Why do child advocacy nonprofits struggle to collaborate?
Advocates are constantly competing with one another for funding, brand awareness and the specific strategic approach they believe is best. This creates a "frenemies" dynamic where organizations do not collaborate well.
How can child and family advocates improve their public campaign messaging?
The field overcomplicates its messaging by writing at a college graduate level, using jargon and speaking at people. To improve, advocates must simplify their language, compromise, unify and focus on speaking to shared values.
Who should read this report?
For Nonprofit Leaders on the Front Lines: You need to know how to make change happen now, without burning out your team. This report will help you prioritize your focus, whether you are tackling immediate fires like ICE at schools and food pantries, or long-term systems challenges like teacher workforce development.
For Foundation Executives Funding the Work: You’re looking for the absolute best ways to resource the field for maximum impact. You’ll discover why 100 percent of interviewed leaders report a lack of brand awareness and public confusion as a major hurdle, and exactly how to fund the solution.
What is the Frenemies Dynamic?
We all feel the urgency to create change, but minor differences and complicated messaging keep stalling us. We don’t work well together as a field.
What is the Jargon Trap?
The habit of overcomplicating messaging so heavily that our audience tunes out. This includes writing at a college graduate level and speaking at people rather than finding shared values.
Research Methodology: 2026 Forthright Advising Data
At Forthright, data is queen. To understand the current state of the union for advocates, we did the work to figure out what our field needs and what we should do next. Our goal through this research project is deceptively simple: we wanted to identify what child and family advocates are most struggling with so we can better resource the field.
During late 2025 and early 2026, our team at Forthright Advising interviewed more than 25 child-and-family-focused nonprofit and foundation leaders from across the country. We also sent surveys to more than 3,000 nonprofit and foundation leaders. We listened for your challenges, for solutions and for what’s getting in our way as a field. This primary research forms the foundation of all the campaign strategies and policy recommendations found in the report.
About the Authors: Forthright Advising
At Forthright, we’re a nationwide communications firm that works exclusively with organizations that love kids.
We help child and family focused organizations — including nonprofits, foundations, education organizations and public school districts — create thoughtful campaigns that deliver a clear message straight to the audiences who need to hear it.
You don't have energy to waste or time to spare, which is why you need partners who understand your reality. Since every member of our team has worked in-house at a nonprofit, foundation, policy or education organization, we’ve walked in your shoes, and we get it.
Looking for more free resources and tips for nonprofits and foundations?
Get in touch: Reach out to Niki at help@forthrightadvising.com today.