How big should your comms team be?
Written by katie test davis
Here’s a conversation I’ve had many times throughout my career:
🙋Executive director: How big should my communications team be?
🤔Me: Well… that depends. How much of your mission relies on convincing people to take action?
We’ve seen it all: 10+ person communications teams, and one part-time person communications teams. A one-person shop could be perfect for some organizations, while others need the full comms squad. Here are the key points to consider as you decide how to invest in YOUR headcount.
how central is communication to achieving your mission?
Since you’re reading this, my guess is that communication and marketing is pretty central to your mission. But frankly, for some nonprofits, communications probably isn’t that core to accomplishing their goals. Let’s say your nonprofit is fully programmatic, has a single dedicated source of income and a predetermined clientele that is provided for you. In this case, you likely don’t need to do much outreach. (I would argue, though, you need someone thinking about internal communications, but that’s a whole other post.)
But most nonprofits need to:
Attract donors and/or grant funders
Advocate for policies
Serve their community and ensure people know about their programs
Which means that most nonprofits do need to dedicate resources to communications. This tracks with the data. According to the 2024 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, even nonprofits with an organizational budget of $500,000 or less typically have at least the equivalent of one person dedicated full-time to communications.
in what ways do communications support your organization’s goals?
The question then becomes how MANY resources to dedicate. And that’s when doing some soul-searching on how outreach moves your work forward is important.
Ask yourself:
Which goals in our strategic plan have a communications component?
Who needs to know about our work, and why? How well do we currently reach all of our audiences?
What laws or policies need to change for us to work effectively?
How are we doing as an organization telling stories about our impact?
Once you know which of your organizational goals require smart outreach (community, media, speaking engagements, etc.), then you’ll be able to decide how you’d like to staff those efforts, either through employees and/or consultants.
Most nonprofits we work with need communications support to get in front of potential donors, be positioned as thought leaders in their specific area of expertise and influence policymakers. That takes dedicated person-power.
Here are a few sample communications department structures we’ve seen work well:
According to the nonprofit comms trends report, on average, nonprofits employ one full-time communications staff member for every eight employees overall.
Marketing Teams Structure Report says most for-profit companies with a staff size of less than 50 have at least 3 marketing teammates.
What role do pr and marketing consultants play?
Communications teams (of any size) need help moving mountains. Oftentimes internal nonprofit communicators are overloaded (just like so many nonprofit team members across the country) with day-to-day work, and need help with larger projects. That’s where consultants can be really useful.
Here are a few main areas we often see nonprofit leaders outsource to consultants:
Communications planning: Oftentimes communications directors are so busy with running the usual trains on time (Send the newsletter! Fill out the conference application! Post on LinkedIn!) that large-scale strategic thinking can fall to the wayside. It’s helpful to get a third-party perspective who can lead the charge.
Campaigns: Again, when your communications director has a lot on their day-to-day plate, it’s helpful to outsource campaigns or big announcements, such as a policy campaign or a report release. Your internal team can ensure everything is working smoothly internally while your outsourced team can stay laser focused on accomplishing a big one-time goal.
Staffing transitions: Whenever you have a gap in coverage – parental leave or a staff transition – it can be really helpful to call up an expert and have them plug right in straightaway. We often serve as interim communications director while our client works on hiring a new-full time team member.
Special projects: Annual reports, videos, splashy presentations – all of these are great project-based examples of work that you can effectively outsource to a consultant.
Here’s the bottom line: Great communications is the underpinning of successful organizations. However you invest in communications, it’s almost always essential to making real change happen for kids and families.
