Your comms role keeps everyone else in check
5.27.26
Happy Wednesday, nonprofit communications leaders.
Every week, I answer a question from a reader. This week's question aligns (yes, pun intended as you'll see when you keep scrolling) so incredibly well with a recent podcast guest I interviewed.
"It seems like my coworkers continue to forget about the strategic plan we've built as a leadership team. I'm just baffled. I'm in those meetings where we map out the next 6 months and so are my coworkers. I'm confused as to how my co-workers can get so off focus because I'm looking at the strategic plan on a regular basis since my comms plan is dependent on it. So when a coworker brings me something that they want me to produce for them by next week, and that thing is completely out of left field, I'm having a hard time understanding why they think their idea is strategic and how it will support the organizational goals. What can I do??"
I could just FEEL the exacerbation oozing from this one. Goodness. This person is frustrated, and rightly so. Keep reading to see how I answer her question.
It's always amazing to me how much comms leaders naturally get strategy. Well, the best comms leaders get this. The rest usually aren't in comms leadership roles for long. So if you want to become a leader at your nonprofit, or grow into one another nonprofit will hire, get good at strategy. But I digress...
Comms leaders naturally see strategy because we're always thinking of the end goal and how we're going to get there. We're thinking in timelines. "If we want to reach X number of people for our donor event, then we're going to need X months and need to be present on X channels..." you get the picture. We're also always thinking about the audience and what they understand or don't. A strategic thinker sees things through a variety of lenses, people, and timelines.
Which is why once your org has made a decision on where you're going and how you're going to get there, you're ON IT.
You're mapping out your own strategy, the channels you need to create content for, the reporters you need to reach out to before a press release goes live, the videographer you need to book for an EOY donor campaign, and all the things. So when a coworker comes to you a few months later with a request to build a PDF for something not at all tied to a strategic plan, your eye may start twitching.
This is why I want to encourage you, dear nonprofit comms leader, to be the person that keeps your team aligned.
Most of you know I cohost a podcast called CultivatED Marketer where my cohosts Matt, Brent, and I interview marketing and comms professionals from across the business world. They brought me on last fall to add a nonprofit lens, which means we've added some comms pros working at nonprofits to the guest lineup. Our most recent nonprofit guest, Lacey Graverson from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, was a perfect example of how and why a comms leader should keep their team aligned.
When Lacey talked about her team's 2035 vision, she said, "It's the same message over all channels... if we just tell people, tell people, tell people, that's what makes it stick internally, and that's what makes it stick externally."
She also described what comms leaders provide: "As communications professionals, we provide the tools. But I'm not the one out in the community talking to grantees. We have impact officers who are on the front lines... I need to make sure that they have the tools to make sure they're communicating about the foundation like I would." (Listen to the full episode here.)
That's alignment in action, y'all. And it's exactly what this week's reader is wrestling with.
My pro-tips for keeping your team aligned:
Keep your team abreast of what your comms goals are on a weekly basis. I used to send a weekly Slack message to the full team with a rundown of what we had coming out that week and what our messaging emphasis was.
In team meetings, leadership or otherwise, be the person who brings the strategic plan into the room. Have it pulled up on your screen if you're virtual, or printed and in front of you if you're in person. Just having that doc visible reminds you and everyone else that there is already a plan you're working toward as a team.
Celebrate wins tied to the plan. When I was a Director of Comms, I'd post in Slack on Fridays about team wins, and when I was a CCO, I'd include them in my weekly email to the team. I always framed wins as a reminder of why we set that goal in the first place.
I've found that most of the time, misalignment happens because people just don't know what others are working on. When you as the comms leader are the one keeping people aware of what's going on across the org, and reminding them of the plan, you become the linchpin for the strategy. And that's the kind of leader you want to be.
Happy communicating,
Julie
CCO for Nonprofits
P.S. Want a question answered in a future issue? Drop it here.