• Prioritize target audiences
• Identify communication channels to most effectively reach these audiences
• Identify the most important elements of a short-term and long-term communication plan
• Explore a potential communication budget to implement the plan.

When the workshop is over:

• Your staff and board will share a common understanding about upcoming communication priorities.
• You’ll have concrete and measurable objectives to measure progress your communication progress in the next few years.
• And you’ll know what kind of resources your organization must mobilize to achieve these objectives.
• Note: This workshop works well in conjunction with “Connecting with your Audience” (see below)

• Are you making false assumptions about what they know or understand?
• Do the words you choose inadvertently exclude those you most need to persuade?
• Are you speaking to their minds, but ignoring their hearts?

Workshop activities:

• We’ll probe everything about your audience: their core values, aspirations and deepest concerns.
• You’ll role play - put yourself in your audiences’ shoes as they encounter your current messaging.
• We’ll get out our red pens. Given the preoccupations of your audience what wording should you cross out, what wording should you use?
• We’ll develop storylines. What kind of narratives will best deliver your message ? We’ll use filmmaking techniques to explore the most memorable ways your message can unfold in the public eye.

When the workshop is over:

• You’ll take away an at-a-glance reference guide to ensure your messaging always stays on track
• You will have the necessary building blocks for powerful new messages that will trigger public action.
• You’ll have new visual ideas to make your message leap off the page.
• And you’ll have a process you can replicate every time you need new messaging for upcoming initiatives.

• Test alignment: do members of your staff share common visions and values?
• Project into the future. Ten years from now how will you have changed the world and who will benefit most?
• Pin down your personality. Using imagery and iconography, we will explore your organizational “id”.
• Finally, we'll cast a critical eye at your current communications. Do they consistently and accurately reflect the true value and relevance of your work? Is your current logo and tagline as effective as it could be?

When the workshop is over:

• You will have a clear direction about how to improve your image and reputation.
• You will have new visual ideas to tell your organization’s story along compelling ideas about how to develop vision and mission statements, logos and taglines.
• You will be equipped with an action plan to roll out your newly polished brand.
• And you will have built in organizational buy-in so your new brand will really stick.
  
  

• Review latest thinking on how audiences make up their minds about public policy;
• Explore the ideas and values that drive your advocacy effort, then compare them to the ideas and values your opponents are using to direct discussion;
• Explore audience “starting points”: their aspirations, ideas and operating assumptions;
• Study how other campaigns have successfully set or redirected the terms of their debates;
• Develop and test a variety of new messaging approaches for your own campaign;
• Practice techniques to keep you in the driver’s seat when talking about your issue.

When the workshop is over, you will have gained:

• A more detailed understanding of both the similarities, and the differences, between your vision and your audiences’ mindset;
• New ideas about metaphors and messaging to connect with your audience’s mindset;
• Practical experience applied to potential upcoming scenarios in your campaign;
• Check-lists and message planning templates to use in future advocacy efforts.

This workshop is offered as a half day or full day session. It provides an ideal way to kick off a campaign planning session or supply food for thought as your organization evaluates past advocacy efforts. The workshop can also be customized to for coalitions and alliances in which multiple organizations have mobilized around shared advocacy goals and objectives.

• We will explore the key criteria for selecting effective objectives.
• You will build a “power map” – a visual snapshot providing guidance on how to best deploy your limited communication resources.
• You will consider the benefits of public versus behind the scenes activities.

When the workshop is over

• You will have built a complete action plan outline for the best, most cost-effective ways to deliver your message.
• You will have a ready-to-go outline for a potential fundraising proposal.
• You will understand the internal changes your organization must make in order to address upcoming challenges connected with future initiatives.

• We will explore case studies and learn what other organizations have done to weather their storms.
• We will role-play worse case scenarios. Crises come in many forms. We will explore each kind and learn how to shape an appropriate response.

Workshop outcomes:

• You will have a “Be Prepared” checklist for worst-case scenarios.
• You will have an action plan to launch in case of emergency.
• You will know the changes your organization will need to implement in order to avoid potential disasters.

• Role-playing. To understand reporters and editors, we will walk in their shoes.
• Pitching practice. You will learn how to sell your story in a 30-second call.
• Media messaging. Exercises to produce strong sound bites and newsworthy advisories and releases.
• Event planning. We will imagine a dream headline, then create an event to make that headline materialize.
• Practice press conferences. The Do’s and Don’ts for running a seamless show.

Workshop outcomes:

• You will learn to pack your activities with news value so a reporter simply cannot resist.
• You will know exactly how and when to approach reporters.
• You will have a take away template to create strong media messages.
• For your next press conference you will have a foolproof check-list and plenty of ideas for distributing your story.

• For tips and tricks, we will watch examples of effective interviewees.
• We will learn to create an “interview crib sheet", an easy to use tool for planning and preparing.
• We will practice on camera, using scenarios that require both basic and advanced skills.

Workshop outcomes:

• You will feel more confident talking to journalists.
• You will have the skills that will make you more likely to be quoted by the media.
• You will know what to do in when faced with a hostile interviewer.
• You will have a take-away template that can be used again and again when preparing for interviews.