Welcome to the Communications Network
 

 Want Your Ideas to Get Noticed? Be Audacious!

 
 

Most foundations believe that the best way to showcase their work and the causes they support is to highlight their grantees, and often by telling stories about who they are and what they do. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) believes so firmly in that idea that it has made grantee stories a centerpiece of its website.

Read the full story.

 Here's how you can help stop the spread of Foundation Jargon


                                   

Have you ever been presented with a draft of a publication from one of your esteemed colleagues so littered with jargon and other obscure words and phrases that its meaning was completely obliterated? Did it read like an electronics manual translated from a foreign language? And despite the hours -- even days -- you spent explaining the virtue of clear and plain writing, did they insist that not even a word could be altered for fear it would undermine the importance of what they had to say?

If you've been in that position before, you are not alone. Jargon unfortunately is a fact of life at foundations and nonprofits.

But it can – and should — be stopped.

During a recent Communications Network webinar, Tony Proscio, the author of three volumes dedicated to exposing (and eradicating) jargon, talked with host, Andy Goodman, about why some people in foundations and nonprofits love jargon and resist efforts to stop using it.

Click here to view a replay of the webinar.

The ABC's of Successfully Disseminating Research Findings

The Irvine Foundation recently completed a major dissemination effort to share results from a two-year evaluation of CORAL, an eight-year, $58 million initiative intended to boost the educational performance of low-achieving students in five California cities. The evaluation was conducted by Public/Private Ventures (P/PV).

According to Daniel Silverman, communications director, the way Irvine disseminated the evaluation stands as a good example of how to use research findings to advance a foundation's mission.

Click to read.
 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of philanthropy’s great achievements, as well as the thoughtful work that   foundations do every day on behalf of society, were understood and appreciated by leaders of other key sectors – government and business, for example?

Unfortunately, as the evidence from recent surveys show, more than half of leaders on the front lines of social and community action can’t name a foundation on a first try. Most feel uninformed about foundations, and more than 80 percent can’t cite an example of how foundations have helped their communities.

According to a new report from the Philanthropy Awareness Initiative (PAI), this lack of knowledge of philanthropy’s impact “represents a serious threat to the freedom and effectiveness of the foundation enterprise.”

The remedy, according to interviews PAI conducted with a dozen philanthropy leaders, is for foundations “to find better ways to calculate and communicate their value in American society.” As the report notes, “This is no easy feat…far more of the sector’s assets have been invested in making an impact than in demonstrating it.”

Click here to download a copy of the report.
Separately, PAI Director Mark Sedway is eager to hear from others on the front lines about your efforts to demonstrate impact. He’s also interested in hearing your suggestions about how foundations can better highlight philanthropy’s collective contributions to American society. Email him your examples, thoughts and suggestions.

We’ve all heard the complaint – and even see the data to back it up – that the public and policymakers really don’t know all the good that foundations do (or are trying to).  To communications consultant Susan Parker, the reason foundations (and nonprofits) aren’t better known can be traced to seven mistakes.

Parker, who is the founder of Clear Thinking Communications, says among the mistakes foundations make are: being afraid to “toot" their horn, failing to talk more about what’s working as well as what didn’t, and being reluctant to stand out in the crowd. For each mistake that Parker identifies, she offers a correction.

Click Here for a copy of “Is Your Good Work Going Unnoticed?”