Well, it depends, according to communications maven Douglas Spencer.
That surprised me, but, actually, I’d never really thought about it. I just assumed that an organization would want to tout its good work.
But Spencer, founder and president of Spencer Brenneman, a Boston communications firm, writes that under certain circumstances you might not want to broadcast your accomplishments.
He suggests that you first consider whether:
You’re doing the right thing (e.g., offering transgender-inclusive benefits, reducing your carbon footprint, divesting holdings in gun manufacturers, etc.) but you’re late to the party.
It might alienate key constituencies. If so, you might need to do a public education campaign first on how and why you’re doing it.
It’s the pet project of a board member or senior leader that doesn’t exactly align with organizational priorities.
It could let loose a flood of requests for help with similar projects.
It’s a long-term commitment or just a test run.
These questions, this approach, are a perfect illustration of what it means to do strategy.
But I know from experience that when I tell people I do communications strategy, many of them have no idea what I actually do.
So, what is strategy really?
I may be oversimplifying but I sometimes say that it’s as if I’m helping you bake a cake.
We have to start by establishing some basic facts:
Why do you want to bake a cake?
Why now?
Who’s the cake for?
What kind of cake do you want to make? What flavor?
What ingredients do we have on hand? What ingredients do we lack?
What else are you serving?
What do you want your cake consumers (audience) to do after they've eaten?
There are other questions I like to ask, but you get my drift.
I fully admit that this is just my kitchen table definition: you can find many more sophisticated definitions elsewhere.
But the point is, how, what, when and why a nonprofit communicates can have all kinds of ramifications.
That’s why my informal rule is: If it feels good, think before you say it.
As always, thanks for reading!
