Insights
A collection of perspectives, project highlights, and lessons learned from helping organizations build trust, create awareness, navigate complexity, and move important initiatives forward.
The Work I've Always Been Drawn To Has A Name.
Social Impact Communications.
By Cindy Gubler
For much of my career, I've been drawn to work that has the potential to make a meaningful difference. I didn't always call it social impact communications, but increasingly, I've realized that's exactly what much of this work has been.
Social Impact communications uses strategy, messaging and storytelling to help create positive societal change to build awareness, engage communities, inspire action, and help move important ideas forward.
It is often associated with nonprofits and foundations, but its principles apply much more broadly to government agencies, cultural institutions, community organizations, and businesses trying to make something meaningful happen.
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I've seen that throughout my career: helping people understand why conserving water matters; communicating around years of collaborative work that ultimately led to the June sucker being downlisted from the endangered species list; working with communities around necessary infrastructure; and helping launch a new museum that invites people to think differently about Utah art and why it matters.
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On the surface, those assignments have little in common. But they all require some combination of building awareness, creating understanding, earning trust, engaging people, and ultimately inspiring action or change.
They begin with a simple question:
What are we trying to make happen?
Communications is the means.
Impact is the end results.
I've never believed the ultimate measure of strategic communications is a news story, a campaign, an event, a social media post, or even greater awareness.
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Those things matter. But they are tools.
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Awareness is often where social impact communications begins. It isn't where it ends.
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The more important questions come afterward. Did people understand something differently? Did they take action? Did we build trust? Did an important initiative gain support? Did behavior change? Did a community begin to value something it hadn't thought much about before?
The tools look different. So do the outcomes.
I've always called what I do strategic communications.
I still do. But increasingly, I think of the work I love most as social impact communications.
Communications isn't the end result.
Impact is.