She points out that social change communicators should see themselves not as storytellers, but story sharers—with a responsibility to present not only the problems that people face, but also the dreams these people hold.
Her organization decided to spent $15,000 on marketing tools such as paid digital advertising and social media outreach during the pandemic—resulting in a 500 percent increase in visits to their website, which allowed hundreds of people to successfully connect to essential health services.
What you may not realize is that a lack of fulfillment at work often stems from a communications problem. Many employers don’t maintain an adequate dialogue with employees to ensure they feel they have an individual purpose.
Many companies have asked themselves: are we doing enough to address social justice issues that affect our customers and employees?
So instead of using language that focuses on perceived deficiencies in people, or the challenges they face—poverty, lack of education, incarceration, etc.—nonprofit organizations, philanthropies, and others have a responsibility to lead with language that centers people’s humanity and their aspirations.
“This is one of those pivot points where the world is going to be really different and if there’s a window of opportunity that has opened up, we need to take advantage of it.”
As temperatures drop and Covid-19 cases rise, we face a very difficult winter ahead. Thankfully, the end of this pandemic is in sight: research indicates that several vaccines are highly effective and have the potential to curtail the disease’s deadly spread. Yet a significant minority—as many as 40 percent of Americans—don’t want to take a vaccine. So how can we change their minds?
When Ginsburg authored a dissenting opinion, she knew that, to have an impact, it needed to be widely accessible. Her goal when writing was one to which we all can aspire: she wanted to write plainly, “so that no one has to read a sentence twice to get what it means.”
A look at how language adapts to reflect social change, the key to bridging perceived divides, the grassroots campaign that raised $1 million in less than a month, and a new, more ethical way to do business.
Last fall, we discussed why it is important to use stock images that truly reflect the diversity in our communities. We’re returning to that topic in greater depth with this guest post from Maria Guerriero, founder of design studio Germinate Creative.