Here's a Question I Can't Wait To Answer (Or Should You)

A lot of the work we do in the Communications Network often involves talking with other communications professionals at foundations and nonprofits about how to use communications well.

Every once in a while, though, I’m reminded – usually via a question from a foundation colleague – that another important audience for our messages are people who hold program positions.  The question I usually hear is “What can I tell my program colleagues about why they should care about communications?”

Over the years I’ve learned that a good way to answer that question is to start by rephrasing it and to ask, instead, “Why should anyone who works for a foundation care about communications?”

And rather than leave the question hanging – since it’s rhetorical anyway – here are my three answers:

--Communications are important because they help create connections between foundations and the people they need to reach in order to accomplish their jobs, achieve their goals and further their missions.

--Communications help put a human face on foundation work. Showing how lives are being touched – even changed – through the work foundations do directly or support their grantees to do helps people understand that this work isn’t just about grantmaking, but making a difference.

--Communications can help extend the work of a foundation beyond the places where it makes individual grants. For example, when program and communications staff work together to figure out what lessons have been learned and then develop a plan to share those lessons, they can advance overall knowledge about the effectiveness of particular approaches to tackling/solving problems that others are working on as well.

Those are my three answers. They’re not absolute or the only ones.  And while they might answer the question for some, hopefully they raise other questions that lead to even more discussion.

That said, how would you answer the question?

--Bruce Trachtenberg

Photo of two hearts beating as one by by Lydia Honeypot on Flickr.com used with gratitude under a Creative Commons license. Click for terms.

Comments

[Luise]

Couldn't agree more with all of the above. I think another neat way to think about foundation communications is this:

Foundation communications automatically extend grantees' capacity for communications.

The stories don't have to be about the foundation itself (as this is oftentimes a reason for not communicating broadly) or even the specific grant made. Why not simply tell the world about the organizations you support, the work they do in the field, and how they've changed the world with your support?

Anybody who works for a foundation cares about the nonprofits they serve through grantmaking - a great reason to care about communicating on their behalf as well!

[Eric Brown]

Every grantee of any foundation needs to communicate effectively to succeed - it's as simple as that. All our grantees have goals and decision makers who can move the organization closer to achieving those goals. Understanding what motivates those decision makers and how to reach them is coin of the realm. The organizations that do it well succeed, and the ones that don't fail.

At foundations, we need to do whatever we can to help our grantees succeed, and helping them communicate well is surprisingly cheap compared to the large grants we make.

As for foundations communicating directly about what we've learned, and about what our role is in helping to solve society's problems - yep, that's important as well. Our most relevent audiences, as far as I can figure, are grantseekers, grantees, our colleagues in the field (which sometimes includes people who set policy in the fields in which we're funding), and the people who regulate us.

Figuring out how to do all those things really well isn't easy. (pause for shameless plug) That's what the Communications Network does - it helps me bounce my lousy ideas off of smart people, who turn them into good ideas, and then I turn around, help our grantees, and try to take the credit :).

[Liz Wainger]

Excellent post, Bruce.
Communications is the glue that holds everything together. If foundations are investing in work to make change in the world and they don't communicate about the why's and how's of their work, it's hard to make the difference they say they want to make. This isn't about beating one's chest. Rather good communication is creating meaningful dialogue, bringing people into the tent to share their ideas and perspectives and telling the stories of the people and organizations in which foundations invest. A well-known and brilliant venture capitalist once said that the most important skill he has developed was his ability to communicate. All his knowledge was meaningless if he didn't know how to share it and connect with others.