Talk To Me: Tools to Support Communication and Outreach

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For all of us in the ATE community some portion of our time is spent figuring out how to tell our project or center story – connecting with audiences and stakeholders about our work and the impact it’s having on students, faculty, institutions, and industry.  Let's face it, most of us already have a pretty full plate. Between activities related to the work outlined in our grants and responsibilities at our home institutions as well, (and little or no background in marketing) it can be difficult to add outreach into the mix.  It’s a situation most of us in the ATE community are familiar with – we are tasked with broadening the impact of our work by NSF through outreach and dissemination to appropriate audiences, but we don’t always have a concrete plan in place for how to go about it. That’s when it’s great to have access to best practice from a group like Hershey Cause Communications who have created an array of wonderful toolkits, guides, and other materials specifically designed with non-profits in mind.

What’s interesting about Hershey is that they are one organization with two components – a B Corporation and a non-profit.  Both share an underlying mission “to communicate for good and elevate the nonprofit sector through best practices, tools and training.”  They’ve won a variety of awards for their work and have been supported by a diverse range of philanthropic entities.

So now that you know a little more about Hershey - let’s get to the good stuff – their array of valuable materials!  You can visit and explore the whole list (you’ll need to provide your email for downloading) but there are a few resources I’d like to highlight as especially useful:

  • The Communications Toolkit
    This 134-page guide offers a huge amount of practical advice and information to those looking to navigate communications and outreach in the nonprofit sector.  The beauty of this toolkit is that its advice is evidence based; relying on qualitative and quantitative surveys of the communication needs of nonprofits.  Subject matter covered includes –  how to better understand your audience and environment through research, how to tie your communication plan to your mission, how to specifically target your audience(s), branding issues, and much more.
  • Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes
    This book pulls together information and advice on how to create and deliver top-notch presentations but much of it is very useful in thinking about grant writing and report writing too.  Developed with input from 20 public-speaking experts, it was apparently the basis for Al Gore’s training program as he worked with 1,000 volunteers to make climate control presentations.  Very readable, and eminently practical, this book is something I suspect most of us could use to refresh and upgrade our presentation style.
  • Online Outreach Tools Guide
    While only about a dozen pages long this cheat-sheet style guide provides a roadmap for those considering how to effectively use web based tools as part of their outreach and communications strategies.  Comparing and contrasting a variety of web-based and social networking tools to highlight their strengths and limitations, this short guide is a useful document to keep on hand when planning for outreach for your center or project.

Of course, don’t forget to check out ATE Central’s own Outreach Kit and Social Media Directory – both of which were designed to help support ATE communications and outreach efforts.  Communication with your stakeholders is an ongoing process and sometimes a bit of a moving target as you respond to the changing conditions of the environment, the needs of students and educators, along with the needs of funders, industry partners and your home institution.  Hopefully the tools highlighted in this post will support your efforts and help strengthen the impact of your ATE initiative!

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  • technology
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