Category: Strategy
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25 Years in Charity Comms: 6 Lessons That Still Hold True
By Vishnee Sauntoo, Founder, VS Comms • 5 min read Twenty-five years is long enough to stop counting the campaigns and start noticing the patterns underneath them. I’ve written a lot over the years about strategy, audience and messaging. This one is different. This is what the work itself has taught me: the lessons that…
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How to Plan Unforgettable Events: Insights from a Wedding
Vishnee Sauntoo reflects on her brother’s wedding, highlighting that successful events, like effective communication strategies, rely on thorough planning and clarity of purpose. Key factors include giving ample time for decisions, focusing on a single message, understanding the audience’s needs, maintaining brand consistency, and ensuring proper documentation for future reference.
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5 Signs Your Charity Communications Need Improvement
It’s not that charity teams aren’t working hard. They are. It’s that they’re often working hard on the wrong things, or in the wrong direction, without a clear picture of why the communications aren’t landing the way they should. Clarifying purpose can inspire confidence in their efforts.
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Essential Questions for Your Charity’s Comms Strategy
Here’s the thing I’ve come to believe after 25 years in communications: in most of those cases, the honest answer and the first answer are the same thing. A brand guidelines document is not a comms strategy. A content calendar is not a comms strategy. Even a beautifully written messaging framework isn’t a comms strategy,…
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Transforming Communications: From Broadcaster to Editor
Twelve years ago, I wrote a town hall script that I’m still not proud of. It was clear. It was on-message. It was signed off by everyone who needed to. And when the CEO read it word for word, the room went silent — not in shock, but in the way that says we don’t…
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Is Your Comms Strategy Working as Hard as You Are?
Most charities I work with are doing extraordinary things. Their teams are passionate, their programmes are making a real difference – and their communications? Stretched thin, reactive, and running on instinct rather than intention. Sound familiar? Here’s the thing: you can have the best communications team in the sector and still have a communications strategy…