 Communications News You Can Use! |
Every day we can see more and more how our social, economic and political environments are affected - and in many cases, guided by - powerful communications strategy and engagement. We are pleased to share with you the latest communications news and the most promising best practices that are informing and inspiring the field right now.
We welcome your comments and contributions at
info@hersheycause.com.
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 Hot Topic
Marketing Lessons from the President-Elect
Many things can be said about Barack Obama's presidential
race: it inspired millions and resulted in an historic election.
But it was also a terrific example of how solid and innovative communications is integral to success in any field today. Obama's campaign recognized that powerful and consistent branding, combined with the right marketing tools, could move mountains. As a result, AdAge named Obama Marketer of the Year. Oh, and he also won the election.
The Harvard Business Review's Marketing KnowHow blog summarizes the strategies that guided the campaign to victory, while The Nation examines how its sophisticated Web and mobile tactics may have shifted our political demographics permanently. ReadWriteWeb takes a look at the campaign's social marketing tactics and how they will continue to inform Obama's presidency. |
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 Diversity Across the Board Leading the Field Forward
The Council on Foundations' Diversity in Philanthropy Project (DPP) is the first-ever nationwide effort working to promote and establish voluntary diversity and inclusion practices among foundations and the causes and organizations they fund. DPP has provided support for improved research, data, tools and resources to help individual foundations strengthen diversity-related transparency and performance within their organizations. It has also built momentum for the creation of a field-wide voluntary effort of foundations and philanthropic networks committed to improving inclusivity within their own and the overall sector's staffing, governance, grantmaking, vendor relations and investment practices.
USC's Center for Urban Education (CUE) is working to ensure that two-year and four-year institutions of higher education, as well as higher education systems are welcoming, affirming and responsive environments for groups that have been historically denied access to the benefits of higher education. CUE's focus is on what colleges and universities can do to ensure that the students they admit achieve levels of success that are comparable across racial and ethnic groups. Since 2001, more than 300 college and university faculty and administrators (i.e. practitioners) and by extension their 50,000 students have been impacted by CUE's innovative ideas about education accountability.
Hershey|Cause serves as strategic communications counsel for both projects. We are honored to support such important work and look forward to a day when diversity is celebrated for its many contributions to advancement in all sectors.
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 Evaluate Your
Communications Effectiveness
Now Available Online
A recent Cause Communications survey queried representatives from across the nonprofit sector with detailed questions on their organizations' communications proficiency and levels of awareness. This data enabled us to devise a Communications Effectiveness Indexidentifying the practices and characteristics of organizations that are "highly effective" at communications, as well as those of moderate and less effective organizations.
What distinguishes the "highly effective" organizations from their less effective counterparts? While there is no magic bullet, we see some shared traits that we can all learn from.
So how do you measure up? Visit our online self-assessment tool to compare your practices and capabilities with the more than 500 organizations that completed the full survey.
For more visit www.CommunicationsEffectiveness.org.
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