During the four years I served as a head of a 10-year, $30 million grantmaking initiative at the Chicago Community Trust, I attended my fair share of both local and national meetings with program officers. Contrasting that experience with the past two Communications Network conferences in New York and Chicago, I have found that communication professionals tend to be even more friendly and more passionate about harnessing innovation for social impact than program staff.
Maybe it hasn’t always been that way. Maybe our members were selected for their positions precisely because of they demonstrated an openness to change — since change is the one constant in today’s communication landscape. Or maybe the rate of change has given more of us permission to admit what we don’t know, to seek guidance from brethren who might, to celebrate each small victory we see our peers achieve.
Changes in the larger media landscape are clearly beyond our control. What is within our control — and what Teresa Detrich of The Lumina Foundation reminded me in a recent diavlog — is our commitment to advancing communications innovation over the long haul. Senior execs may not grasp the imperative to align communications and program strategy as quickly as we would like, but they will. And as they do, philanthropy’s impact will grow.
We need gatherings like the upcoming Communications Network conference in Los Angeles in order to help one another keep this faith. We just produced a short video that makes our collective appeal more than apparent because it features video interviews captured by our Gorilla Engagement Team at last year’s Network conference as well as clips from diavlogs with several of our members.
I come from a Southern Baptist tradition where everyone is encouraged to bring at least one person with them to Vacation Bible School. If you feel moved, forward this video to someone you know who might need a little encouragement. Lord knows we are all in this together…
Originally published on The Communications Network blog.
