Strategic Communications for Nonprofits

This is a new edition of Strategic Communications for Nonprofits, which was first published in 1999. It is an up-dated, nuts-and-bolts guide to helping nonprofits design and implement successful communications strategies. The book offers a unique combination of step-by-step guidance on effective media relations and assistance in constructing and developing an overall communications strategy aimed at creating social or policy change. It first explains the basic principles of a strategic communications strategy that will define the target audiences you need to reach and tells how to develop the messages and messengers you use to reach them. The book then goes on to address specific issues like earning good media coverage, building partnerships to increase available resources, handling a crisis, and more. This second edition builds on the earlier work and includes new case studies, new trends in media and branding, ethnic media issues, and trends in technology.

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xiii

About the Authors xvii

About CCMC xix

Introduction xxi

1 The Basics of Strategic Communications 1

2 Elements of a Strategic Communications Plan 14

3 Conducting Research and Targeting Audiences 35

4 Framing and Developing Messages 44

5 Navigating a Changing Industry 57

6 Making the Most of Your Resources 69

7 Earning Good Media Coverage 76

8 Responding to a Media Crisis and Managing Backlash 113

9 Selecting and Training Spokespeople 128

10 Capitalizing on the Power of Partnerships 139

11 Chapters Online: Graphics, Advertising, and Evaluation 150

Resources 153

Index 167

Kathy Bonk established the Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC) in 1988 and is its executive director. Over the past thirty years, she has been at the forefront of media campaigns that marked a sea change in domestic and global policies affecting women, children, and families with the support of major foundations and large donors. Prior to her work in the nonprofi t sector, Kathy worked in government as a public information offi cer in the U.S. Department of State and in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. She directed the Media Project for the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. She has a degree in communications from the University of Pittsburgh, and in 1988 was awarded a fellowship with the Kellogg Foundation’s National Leadership Program.

Emily Tynes is a founder of CCMC who has been involved in the fi eld of communications for three decades. She has worked as a journalist, a public relations executive, and an activist. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a period of unprecedented assault on civil liberties, Emily became the ommunications director for the national offi ce of the American Civil Liberties Union. Emily’s work as a communications strategist encompassed a range of issues, including women’s rights, racial equity, energy and the environment, and the health concerns of women of color. She has a degree in English from Howard University.

Henry Griggs is a writer and media relations consultant and a founder of CCMC. Henry worked with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington DC for twelve years, four of them as communications director. The group is noted for its highly active media relations program, and was named one of the “most effective nonprofi ts founded in recent U.S. history.” Henry was later communications director of Human Rights First in New York. A graduate of Harvard College, he worked in the election and survey unit of CBS News in New York, and conducted media events in thirty-fi ve states for a national union of public employees.

Phil Sparks has twenty-fi ve years of experience working in public interest communications. He specializes in family projects at CCMC. Phil was previously associate director for communications of the U.S. Census Bureau, director of public affairs for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); associate director of the President’s Commission on Pension Policy; and chief of staff to former U.S. Representative Thomas J. Downey (NY). He is a founder of CCMC.