In 2024, we've seen some incredible campaigns and
comms outputs from nonprofits that have captured audiences and media headlines. What will 2025 look like for those looking to cut through the noise with
for-purpose messaging?
At the risk of starting on a negative note, 2024 (and many, many other previous years) saw charities hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons as misuse of finances, abuses of power and lack of accountability were brought under the microscope.
Historically, nonprofits have often gone on the defensive. The approach has often been to say nothing, cover up mistakes or aim to defend the brand at any cost.
That is no longer an option.
In a world of citizen journalism and demand for corporate transparency, nonprofits must move from a posture of protecting the brand to one of building trust.
It will mean some short term discomfort. It may mean owning up to long term cultural inadequacies or injustice - but being on the front foot, being victim-centric and being humble will engender trust and build solid foundations with audiences, internally and externally.
Two years ago, 20 per cent of our clients were asking for influencer engagement as part of their comms strategy. Today it is closer to 80 per cent.
Influencers are no longer the new kids on the communications block. They are a trusted, established and effective channel through which to reach new audiences and communicate brand values and campaign messaging.
But they also require a strategy.
Categorising influencers to reflect the level of engagement you expect and the depth of relationship with the organisation is key. Clarity on outputs and measures of success, as well as how their activity aligns with the broader comms plan, will elevate the brand and campaigns and help communicate with consistency.
The key to any effective communications strategy is founded on how well you know your audience.
You may have a solid donor base. They may have been supporting the cause for a long time. But how well do you really know them? Are you getting the most out of those relationships?
The thing is, even well-established donor bases have changed in the past five years. A pandemic, political change, economic uncertainty and various wars have had an impact on individuals. Beliefs, perceptions, attitudes and behaviours have changed.
We must avoid complacency.
Employing a robust insights strategy to deepen our understanding of existing audiences and provide actionable understanding for new audiences will give us a sharpened approach and help lift the campaign messaging in a competed space.
The latest statistics on mental health, individuals' search for meaning and purpose and the detrimental impact of social media on young people, suggest the world is looking for a different story.
People are twice as likely as they were 10 years ago to be open to spirituality. Teenagers have positive perceptions of Jesus and the Bible. Bible sales in the US are up 22 per cent year-on-year (compared with one per cent more generally for the publishing industry). In Australia, more Gen Z men are identifying as Christian than their female peers for the first time since research began nearly 30 years ago.
Faith provides a counter-narrative to post modernism, materialism and individualism - which have failed.
Audiences are looking for positive, hope-filled and meaningful narratives. No longer do those messages need to be covert - they simply need to be communicated in a way that speaks the language of those you are looking to reach.
You may think I have missed a significant element. What about AI?
The truth is, AI now influences each one of the trends identified in this article. It will improve efficiencies, sharpen strategy and provide more measurable outputs.
However, it will also mean audiences will want more authentic communications - not just the output of a large language model.
AI is a seismic and transformative tool in producing effective communications, but it is only a tool. It is still artificial in its intelligence, and the comms strategies that engage most effectively will be those who use AI for what it is good at, but provide real, authentic and human engagement telling stories of hope.
By Gareth Russell, CEO at Jersey Road
With decades of experience in journalism, advocacy and communications, our team knows what it takes to craft campaigns that can have a lasting impact.
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