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Your how-to guide on interviewing families for stories

When it comes to storytelling, you’re already sold. You know stories about your work help demonstrate your organization’s impact in a personal, relatable way.

Now, it’s on to actually telling the stories. That starts with interviews. And this – this is the step when even seasoned communications professionals can get a little nervous. From how to ensure you’re getting consent to asking questions in a respectful way, it can be a little tricky!

Here’s Forthright’s true-blue formula for asking for initial consent and asking questions.

How to lead better meetings

You’re not the only one feeling this weary. Our brains are stuffed. Our overwhelm is preventing us from thinking clearly and from making decisions in the way that we used to.

And yet…we’ve got real work to do. Fighting for change for children and families is necessary today. The time is now. Our work, our life’s work, it’s more important than ever before.

As consultants who work with busy brains every day, we have a few tricks up our sleeve that we use to focus and move our work forward. Here are a few of our current favorites.

Three questions to ask before chiming in — or logging out

When Jon Jon served as Forthright’s social media strategist, his wise counsel about how and when to use our voice on national issues was a guiding beacon for us. Today, Jon Jon joins us for special projects like this one – helping you decide if, when and how to chime in on Big Conversations.

3 storytelling tips

Forthright founder Katie recently sat down with Elana Leoni, founder of Leoni Consulting Group, to chat about this exact topic: the power of storytelling.

We’re sharing a few key takeaways from the conversation here. (Or, listen to their podcast convo here!)

Maybe you should quit Instagram.

You have 20 tabs open.

You’ve got your phone in one hand, scrolling through your feeds, while you’re checking your emails on your laptop.

You’re wondering what hashtag you should use.

Put down your phone. Close those tabs. Resist the trending hashtag.

We’re always being told more is better. More social media outlets, more messaging, more fries, more EVERYTHING. But here’s the thing: that’s a lie (with the exception of the fries part.)

Calm the chaos and boost student enrollment

Through her work with district Public Information Officers throughout the pandemic, Forthright senior advisor Lauren knows the challenges districts are facing. Today, she’s sharing a few key tips for how to reach parents amidst the chaos, with the end goal of increasing your enrollment numbers.

School District Marketing, Communications CampaignsKatie Test DavisJanuary 12, 2022education

Are you ready for Giving Tuesday and end of year fundraising?

I get it. Whenever I think about Giving Tuesday and the end of year giving season for our clients, I am hit with a mix of anticipation and excitement, topped with a thin layer of dread. As anyone who has ever worked at a nonprofit knows, while everyone else in the world is settling down with mistletoe and turkey, you’re sprinting full speed into one of the busiest times of year. Never fear— we’ve got your back.

Here are a few tips to make your end of year campaign the best one yet.

There’s still time: 4 steps to help finish your Build Back Better advocacy campaign strong

As we push until the very last moment, now is the time to reuse, repurpose and refresh the things you already know are working—to get even more out of the existing strongest messages, messengers and tactics that can take us across the finish line. Here are four things that you can do in less than 15 minutes to sustain—or build—momentum at the end of an advocacy campaign.

Nonprofit Communications, Communications CampaignsKatie Test DavisOctober 28, 2021nonprofit

Your Fail-Proof Guide to Nonprofit Communication Planning Part Three: Choose effective tactics and track your progress

Since it’s always our goal at Forthright to help make our nonprofit clients’ and partners’ lives easier, we decided to create an actionable guide to nonprofit communication planning. In this three-part series, we’re sharing all of our secrets. We promise you'll walk away eager to plan and ready for success!

How to win your next advocacy campaign

How do you make sure you’re targeting the right people? Friend, let me introduce you to a classic concept called powermapping. Organizations have been successfully using this tested tool for years!

Nonprofit Communications, Communications Campaigns, Most PopularNiki JuhaszAugust 26, 2021nonprofit

Why back to school is the wrong time for your big news

Whenever we’re working on big announcement launches for clients—be it a new advocacy campaign, a report or fresh research—we specifically avoid launching during the last few weeks of August and early September.

Your Fail-Proof Guide to Nonprofit Communication Planning Part Two: Create Powerful Core Messages

Since it’s always our goal at Forthright to help make our nonprofit clients’ and partners’ lives easier, we decided to create an actionable guide to nonprofit communication planning. In this three-part series, we’re sharing all of our secrets. We promise you'll walk away eager to plan and ready for success!

Why your district needs a communications audit…now

Here’s a brief 101 on Communications Audits to get you started…

Your Fail-Proof Guide to Nonprofit Communication Planning Part One: Jumpstart Your Strategy

Since it’s always our goal at Forthright to help make our nonprofit clients’ and partners’ lives easier, we decided to create an actionable guide to nonprofit communication planning. In this three-part series, we’re sharing all of our secrets. We promise you'll walk away eager to plan and ready for success!

What You Need to Know about the Sales Funnel

I find this framework to be helpful in illustrating why the work we do as communicators is SO important! You can see our impact and our deliverables in literally every stage of the funnel.

Your ultimate guide to year-round student enrollment marketing

Plummeting public school enrollment numbers are keeping educators up at night nationwide. That’s why Forthright Senior Advisor Ashley Peterson-DeLuca is sharing strategies for how to build strong relationships with families all year-round.

Need to secure general operating support? Here's how.

Nobody believes in the importance of your work like you do, and with a few smart strategies, your commitment can be beautifully expressed with big time results.

This Mother’s Day, let’s give moms what they really need

Our moms are not okay. As we head toward our second Mother’s Day during COVID-19, America’s mothers are in crisis. They have been for months. While fathers are taking on some of the caregiving responsibilities, study after study has shown that it’s mothers who are bearing the brunt. The challenges we’re facing aren’t new. But they are exacerbated by the pandemic. And it’s time for change.

4 Research-backed Tips to Crafting Motivating Stories

By making storytelling an integral part of your communications, you can build strong relationships with your community, funders and partners. And, you can highlight stories across any channel—sharing them on social media, incorporating story call outs in your annual report or including them when pitching media contacts. Check out our four research-backed tips (and examples) for effective storytelling.

Are you harnessing the power of video?

Even before staying at home became the new normal, video was a top marketing trend. And a recent Nielsen report showed that adults spent at least 35 minutes per day watching video on phones, tablets, or computers.

You can capture some of these eyes by incorporating video into your upcoming communication campaigns.

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Smart communication strategies for organizations that love kids.