Creating a Foursquare Communications Platform: Easy Steps to Build the Communications Capacity of Your Grantees

"When an organization understands the crucial role of communications, assigns responsibilities well, is confident in its messages, and understands how to measure and evolve its communications efforts, the organization has a strong, foursquare communications platform."

This guide from Spitfire Strategies offers tips, resources and lessons from the field to help foundations articulate their theory of social change and ensure that grantees understand that theory and their role in making it happen.

Step one involves identifying gaps; a chart on page 3 of the resource includes a foursquare list of questions that a foundation should ask while assessing grantees. For example, does the group have a process for regularly updating the organisation's main messages, and is training provided to all board and staff members on new talking points? The idea is that, because any organisation trying to spark social change has to communicate and communicate well, a group needs to know not only its issue, but also its strengths and weakness when it comes to planning for and implementing effective communications with firmness and conviction. The foundation can facilitate this reflection by, for example, asking grantees to complete a brief survey and conduct follow-up interviews with a handful of grantees). The key is to identify specific areas where grantees need help and also note trends among multiple grantees that can be addressed through a single capacity-building programme.

Step two involves getting the right people in the grantee organisation the right kind of help. This might involve:

• Tailored training sessions - in-person trainings that bring a group of grantees together with communications professionals to work on specific aspects of communications strategy or implementation. Amongst the tips: Make sure trainers engage participants in hands-on activities throughout the session that give them a chance to apply the learning to their own projects.
• One-on-One coaching. Amongst the tips: Make sure grantees understand that the purpose of coaching is to build their own capacity.
• Webinars, which can be a cost-effective way to help grantees share aspects of communications planning and work together to develop plans and address their communications needs without travel time and expense. Amongst the tips: Trainers should integrate exercises, opportunities for feedback, and points for group discussion throughout the session.
• Toolkits focused on strategic communications best practices (e.g., how to create a media plan). Amongst the tips: Once a toolkit for a grantee is complete, provide staff with an orientation training that includes an overview of what is included, explains how to use each piece of the toolkit, and offers direction regarding who to go to for help when using this resource.

As part of step three, the foundation creates incentives to increase the chances of the entire organisation adopting new practices. This might involve activities such as training teams of people from the same organisation who are in positions that allow them to implement the lessons of the training and support each other in making organisational changes.

Step four involves creating a system for measuring grantees' progress, such as by auditing participants at the start of the programme and collecting written self-evaluations at the end of each session and at the end of the entire programme period.