Your Communications Need an Impact Strategy

May 16

A communications strategy is more than just the tools used for disseminating information. It is not just your newsletter, social media, or website, but rather the overarching messaging and intention that connects all of these. Integrating impact-driven communications, sometimes called social impact communications, involves both talking about social impact and actually driving impact with communications. For impact finance organizations, this means the intended outcome of your communications should align with the intention of your capital strategy.

By thoughtfully integrating communications into their impact strategy, impact finance organizations can connect outcomes to their purpose and leverage their influence to drive social change.

Despite being a primary driver of social change, communication is an underutilized tool in many organizations. In 2019, The Communications Network found that 56% of foundations, nonprofits, and communicators said that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) was not an explicit component of their organization's communication strategy. Often organizations primarily consider communication as a reporting tool, a one-way sharing of information with their audience. By definition, however, communication is an exchange between 2 or more parties. Regardless of intentionality, what we say and how we say it will have an impact on the receiving audience. By thoughtfully integrating communications into their impact strategy, impact finance organizations can connect outcomes to their purpose and leverage their influence to drive social change.

Talk the Walk

Communication has the power to drive impact by influencing both behavior and attitudes. In impact finance, motivating investors to divest from extractive industries or use their shareholder power can be important outcomes of effective communications. However, what we say can matter as much as what we do.

On an individual level, a speaker’s words convey a lot of information to the listener, like where they are from, what they value, and how they perceive their audience. On an institutional level, the same principles apply. By applying the same values to both their capital and communications, impact finance organizations are signaling the goals and values they share with their audience.

For example, if an institution's goal is to direct capital for economic justice, how do they talk about this work? How is the problem of economic inequity framed? Are communities addressed with dignity? Does the organization mention DEI but fail to use inclusive language? A dissonance between how an organization talks and what it does can not only alienate audiences but also perpetuate narratives that harm their overall goals. The Ad Council recently found that distrust and skepticism are prevalent across audiences, particularly when it comes to social issues, and 67% of people say that consistency is a major characteristic of trustworthiness. Organizations can show consistency by integrating the same principles that guide their capital strategies into their communications.

Communicating Systems Change

Impact finance often relies on influencing larger systems in order to create more broad-reaching impact. Investing in BIPOC-owned small businesses, or using shareholder advocacy to change corporate policies, are tactics that aim to push against systems that perpetuate injustice. While some communicators may find that this approach can be difficult to write about in an engaging way, an impact-driven strategy can use storytelling to bring a systems-change lens. By focusing the impact goal on systems change, organizations can link their goals with larger movements for social justice, increasing points of connection and relatability.

Using a systems change lens also creates room for collaboration with other practitioners. Many organizations fall into a one-dimensional impact narrative, linking the actions of one institution to an individual success story. To actually create impact, organizations can tell a story that uplifts the entire impact finance community and shows the benefits of solidarity in creating real change. The reality is no one is doing this work alone, and taking an impact approach to communications means no one has to claim to be.

To actually create impact, organizations can tell a story that uplifts the entire impact finance community and shows the benefits of solidarity in creating real change

Measuring More Impact

By considering communications as part of their impact strategy, practitioners can also broaden their impact measurement. Impact finance in particular often relies on long-term efforts and patient capital, so it is often difficult to find exact impact metrics to share year to year.

While there is a need for more metrics on effective racial equity communications, organizations can begin by pointing to the impact-aligned strategies they implement. This might include reporting on which tools they employ as part of their impact communications strategy or any changes they have made to their strategy based on community feedback. Opportunity Finance Network has suggested the use of “social capital statements” to quantify audience reception. These metrics can complement traditional communications data like audience reach to create a more nuanced and holistic picture of impact, capturing both quantity and quality.

Getting Started

Determining what an impact-driven communications strategy should look like starts with identifying the larger story of an organization’s purpose, audience, and goals. Storytelling for Good offers an excellent guide to shaping a communications strategy by clearly outlining your goals, problems and solutions, audience, and objectives.

When it’s time to operationalize your communications strategy, there are a number of resources available on language use and inclusive messaging. A few of my favorites are: