Have 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 MoreWhen we see threats to our public schools – such as continuing declines in student enrollment, and politicians pushing for privatization and school voucher programs – we want to help.
That’s why we created our free downloadable guide: How to (Re)+Build Your District’s Numbers: Your Planning Guide to Personalize Communications.
Read MoreWhoof, it's a busy hiring market for communications and public relations peeps right now.
If you're seeing turnover in your communications department, you're not alone. I'm getting calls left and right asking if we serve as interim communications director.
I'm also getting asked for advice on how to handle departures, including what interview questions to ask candidates for communications roles. We’re sharing our recommended interview questions to help you through the process here!
Read MoreOne of the most common questions I get when a potential client reaches out about a project is: who am I going to work with? So today I’m pulling back the curtain on how we put together a team for a client account.
Too often, an organization’s communications team is buried several levels removed from the leadership team. We’ve seen it all: the comms teams nestled in Development, over in Policy, part of IT, or even reporting to Finance and HR. As someone who has been both a C-suite exec AND a comms director, I get it. Today, I’m using both these experiences to share how to build two-way trust when it comes to communication-centric tasks.
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 MoreA reporter reaches out to request an interview, and it’s…just not the right fit. You have to say no to the reporter’s request, and that could be for a million different reasons, such as: You don’t have the expertise. You don’t have the bandwidth. Your team can’t agree on what to say. The reporter hasn’t been friendly to your work in the past. So…how do you handle this delicate situation without burning bridges? Well, here’s what our team has learned from working with the media for many years.
Read MoreFirst, our NPS score, a universal score of customer satisfaction, remains nearly double that of the average consulting firm. In fact, for the third year in a row, we saw our NPS score go up!
Our NPS is one of our “north star” measurements, so I’m thrilled by this result and excited we’re maintaining our superstar streak year-over-year.
This year, 100 percent of our clients strongly agree that we make them feel important, and 100 percent of our clients strongly agree that we’re fun to work with.
Read MoreSocial media brought many surprises in 2023. Will 2024 be a roller coaster too? Because my Magic 8 Ball told me “Reply hazy, try again,” I checked in with some of the biggest names in social media to see what they predicted for 2024.
Read MoreI have a friend who cares deeply – and I mean deeply – about college football. Despite graduating from a huge football school myself (War Eagle), I…do not. If you only have those facts, you may think we don’t have much in common on fall weekends. However, if you dig a little deeper, you find a shared value: we both love being outdoors. On many a weekend, you can find us sitting *outside* with the games on a big screen, enjoying the sun. Everyone’s happy. The key takeaway? If you try hard enough, you can find something in common with – a shared value – with your most important target audiences.
Read MoreIn 2023, we fought politicians working to dismantle public education. We battled funding cuts that impact kids and families. We’ve had our hearts broken daily from escalating violence in Israel-Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine. We demanded paid family leave for all. We struggled to re-envision child care in America. We supported leaders who are exhausted and overwhelmed. Through it all, we’ve remained dedicated to dismantling structural oppression for children and their families.
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 MoreSmart communicators are moving away from press releases and using pitches — short emails tailored to specific reporters about specific topics. But we know writing the perfect pitch — and building personal relationships with journalists — can be tricky, so we’ve created a pitching checklist just for you! Download this free resource today and pitch with confidence, knowing that you’re following the best media relations practices possible.
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 MoreIt’s just over a year until the next presidential Election Day across the US. Do you have your advocacy communications plan ready? If not, there’s still time! While Election Day may seem far away, the time for advocacy is now. Here’s why.
Read MorePumpkin spice lattes may be taking over our world, but we're already thinking about the spring and making 2024 the best year yet. That's why – by popular demand – we're opening our training opportunities for 2024! Our trainings have been called “an excellent investment." Also: “polished and downright perfect." Here’s a (sampling of) what we’re offering starting in January.
Read MoreEvents are fun, impactful and strategic, but can also be overwhelming and exhausting. That’s why today, we’re sharing how to set goals and target audiences – ones that align with your organization’s mission – as you prepare for that big benefit or conference. Taking this step at the beginning of your planning process will help ensure you’re getting the most out of your event.
Read MoreWe’re headed to Charlotte this weekend for the National Black Child Development Institute’s national conference! Forthright’s own Michael Ramsey is joining our partners with the North Carolina Coalition for Inclusion, Not Expulsions at the conference. Michael is presenting alongside Coalition members Dr. Valerie Jarvis McMillan of North Carolina State A&T University, and Dr. Nina Smith of North Carolina Central University. They’re sharing about a topic that affects all of our communities: eliminating racial inequities in suspensions and expulsions in early care and education settings.
Read MoreWe’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: simple writing is…weirdly hard? That’s why we *just* updated one of our most popular resources – Writing for Your Community: How to Ensure Your Messaging is Easy to Understand – with fresh new data and updated best practices!
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