Get ready to win your campaign.
Blast through the noise, overcome the opposition and secure the future you want for the community you care about.
We’ll show you how.
Who says you can’t win ‘em all? (Not us.)
Whatever your mission—you’ve got a destination in mind.
But between Point A and Point Z?
Navigating campaigns from start to finish can feel like a (confusing, exhausting, static-on-the-line) game of telephone. It’s easy for your message to mutate, lose speed and wind up in the ears of…who knows?
There’s also the changing political landscape to contend with. Noisy policy agendas. Not enough folks championing your issue. Uncommitted allies. Well-intentioned but off-message supporters.
Maybe you’re representing:
a nonprofit advocating to pass a crucial law (like raising the minimum wage for child care workers)
an organization with plans for major change in your community (for example, getting kids to walk to school more)
a school district that needs a “yes” vote on a tax increase to fund your district (always true, right?)
Truth is, losing important campaigns happens to smart people.
It’s easy to get lost. First off, there are so many questions to answer:
How do you stand out in a crowded issue field? How do you make sure your issue matters to legislators versus other, potentially more pressing issues? Do you know who the decision maker is—and exactly what they care about? How can you make sure they care?
Here’s your triple bottom line:
You need to make sure your issue is relevant, urgent and impactful.
It can’t be one or two. It has to be all three.
Imagine you’re building a new playground. You want your community's children to have a safe space to play. It's relevant because developing motor and social skills is a crucial part of early childhood development, but if you can’t say why kids must have a new playground now (urgent)…and you can’t demonstrate the impact of providing this space for kids in your local community? You’ll fail.
Ready to change hearts and minds?
We work with organizations and school districts on select campaigns to make life better for kids and families — wherever they live.
When we work together on your campaign, you’ll get:
Access to our campaign-slaying chops.
Questions? Concerns? We’ve seen it all, and we’ve got you. You’ll get our communications expertise, yes. But more than that, you’ll get the benefit of our team’s extensive school district and nonprofit marketing experience, too.
A straightforward, start to finish line breakdown of how we’ll get from A to Z...
...pivots and reroutes always included—so you can ignore the noise, keep on track and get back to doing your job.
Strategy and tactics that are 100 percent tailored to your specific issue.
We don’t do one-size-fits-all campaign strategies. No templated guides here. Each audience, district, community and issue has different needs, and we’re here to listen and take action based on how things actually are. Not how it would be most convenient for them to be.
The crystal clarity that comes only from…data!
Maybe you’ve noticed? We love data. Love it. Evidence. Hard numbers. We don’t play guessing games. You can count on research-backed decision making.
Our passion for winning.
Which has translated into...a lot of wins. From the Student Fair Access to School Act in DC to securing major funding for special education supports in schools, we’ve scored big during our careers. Let’s get your campaign in our hall of fame.
You’ll win. We’ll win. Kids’ll win.
Win-win-win.
“The Children’s Defense Fund works to give every child what they need to thrive--and that includes shining a light on the shameful child poverty crisis that impacts nearly 12 million children in the United States. When we discovered it had been more than 20 years since a question about child poverty had been asked in a presidential debate, we asked Forthright Advising to help us launch a campaign to change that. Forthright helped us build our campaign plan, refine our messaging, start a Change.org petition, and tailor our media outreach. They were a critical partner in getting the launch of our effort covered in the New York Times. Building off our successful launch, CDF campaigned for months. We were thrilled when, in February 2020, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos finally asked every Democratic candidate about child poverty on the debate stage, citing our efforts in his question. While we still have a long way to go to improve the lives of the millions of children growing up in poverty, it was an important signal that the topic should be a national priority.”
— Emily Gardner,
Communications Director of the Children’s Defense Fund
