Parents and caregivers need our help.
I’ve led work that supports parents and caregivers for two decades.
I’ve also been a parent for nearly 13 years.
And over time, I’ve noticed a growing trend. Parents and caregivers are overworked, overstressed and overwhelmed – and it’s impacting their health.
As communicators and leaders, there are three easy guidelines you can follow to ensure your messages break through the noise to reach this overwhelmed (but critical!) audience.
Read More“Close your eyes, and imagine an America where we have gotten childcare right.
The Reimagine Childcare Project has spent the last two years co-creating and building a radical new Vision of childcare.
It imagines a future where childcare looks and feels abundant.
One where we make sure every child, parent, guardian, and provider is whole and happy. One where everyone has exactly what they need to become who they are meant to be.”
GAH, doesn’t it just give you goosebumps?
Read MoreAs communicators, it’s our job to deeply understand what came before us. For example, knowing about child care’s roots in chattel slavery can help you communicate effectively about workforce challenges. Knowing the history of de- (and recent re-) segregation can help public school communicators better connect around school closures and redistricting.
Great communicators are history experts and are constantly absorbing news and context. We're sharing tips about when and how to think about history here.
Read MoreWhat happens when your brand (like your name, logo, colors and tagline) no longer fits who your organization is, and the vision of what you’re working towards?
It’s time for a rebrand.
At Forthright, we adore rebrands. They are some of the most fun projects we work on!
Here we break down three key elements to a successful rebrand using a recent project we worked on with Positive Childhood Alliance North Carolina (formerly Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina) as an example so you can see how the steps play out.
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 MoreNothing makes my stationary-loving self happier than getting to exclaim to you: PRINT IS BACK, BABY.
For nearly a decade, foundations and nonprofits have scaled back on their print projects. We saw online annual reports become more and more popular, Paperless Post took over for event invitations and trifold brochures morphed into digital Flipsnacks.
But our collective digital fatigue is showing, and I, personally, could not be more thrilled.
We’re sharing why you should print your annual report, what trends to pay attention to, and bring you some of our recent examples.
Read MoreHave you ever read or updated your organization’s style guide and paused to think, “Wait, why do we do it this way?” You’re not alone.
After countless communications audits and years of helping organizations discover what they need to say to reach their people, we’re convinced — good rules require great reasons.
Here are three tips to help you create a style guide that shows your team how to communicate and helps them remember why it matters.
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 MoreIn the child and family-focused work that we do, it can be hard to get real photographs of real people to use in your materials. But it’s definitely worth it. So with a little intention, a dash of project planning, and a can-do attitude, here are four steps you can take to get great photos for your organization.
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 MoreHave you ever received a draft of a written or designed document – and your heart sank because it isn’t quite right? We’ve all been there. Here are a few tips to get your creative project back on track!
Read MoreKeeping your materials up to date, especially anchor materials like your logo and your core messages, maintains trust with your audiences and helps make sure you're living up to your brand's promise or organization's mission. We understand how busy nonprofit leaders are, and we want to make it easy to take just a few steps to ensure your most important materials are up to date, and to let your newest, most relevant materials shine.
Read MoreWhen we work with a client on a branding and logo project that involves decisions about color choices, we always start with strategy. We ask questions such as: What do we want people to feel when they consider the organization? What emotions do we want people to associate with the brand?
Knowing the answers to those key questions can help us make smart color choices.
Read MoreYour brand identity – from your name to tagline to logo – is your first introduction to your most important stakeholders. By approaching it with strategy and centering your audiences, you can ensure you’re building a strong brand that helps you accomplish your mission. We are including three tips here!
Read MoreEasy-to-read messaging is kind. It helps your audiences understand your work and what you want them to know. On the flip side, when a message uses big words, acronyms and jargon, it is – by definition – exclusionary. Today, we’re sharing more about how we recommend approaching your messaging.
Read MoreIs your team stuck in a rut? Need some skills-building? Looking for a laughter-filled get-together centered around learning? Our marketing and communications workshops are jam-packed with helpful how-tos. You and your team will walk away with confidence and the knowledge you need to take (successful) action. Plus, we’ll have fun while we’re doing it! Here’s a (sampling of) what we’re offering this spring and summer…
Families in your district know their teachers – they communicate with those teachers – they trust teachers. While as a district leader, you play a truly critical role in helping your district succeed (and frankly, we think you’re awesome for it), you're not always the one parents are engaging with weekly, or even daily. And THAT, my friends, means you have a huge communications opportunity in front of you. We’re sharing more here.
Read MoreIf we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times: long, clunky annual reports are a thing of the past. Your audiences want to see your impact in minutes, not hours. So when you’re Marie Kondoing your annual report, how do you cut content – but still show impact? We have two tips.
To us, consent means ensuring that every person we interview feels comfortable, confident and even empowered about sharing throughout the interview process. In other words, consent is so much more than asking for permission to share a story. Gathering consent during interviews is just one of many critical parts of ethical storytelling. We're sharing how we approach the process in this blog.
Read MoreAs a parent who is aware of the schooling options available – one who *wants* to send her kids to public schools – I’m sharing a few steps I wish my local school district had taken over the past few months.
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