Public Relations

The Coca-Cola Foundation and The Coca-Cola Company together donated more than $106 million to more than 230 organizations in 2016. These contributions will directly benefit communities across more than 200 countries and territories, with approximately 97 percent of the grants focused on The Coca-Cola Company’s core sustainability priorities of women, water and community well-being. The…

Many of us, especially in business settings, are afraid to admit we don’t know something. We worry that it is a sign of incompetence or weakness. I disagree. Actually, I believe that when you don’t know the answer, owning up to it is important to establishing trust with your coworkers and clients, the media and your donors...

Every fundraiser dreams of being the most loved and well supported nonprofit in town. The charity that everyone gives to and talks about. Sounds good, right? But how do you get there? You need a big, loyal donor-base of people who love your nonprofit’s mission. How do you grow a big, loyal donor-base? You start…

In a recent blog, I erroneously described Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who have been described as “psychology’s Lennon and McCartney,” as “two Princeton University psychologists.” Actually, only one of the pair worked at Princeton—Kahneman, who has been there since 1993. Tversky was at Stanford University at the time of his death in 1996. This is all background for an interesting email I got last week from Adam Dickter, a public relations guy...

The presidential election has become—quite unfortunately—a daily case study in crisis communications. Nearly every day this fall—and sometimes more than once a day—one or both of the major candidates has been forced to respond to a crisis, whether it’s negative news about his or her past with the release of damning audio or leaked emails,…

I recently had the pleasure of working with a homeless services nonprofit (not named to protect the innocent). Its challenge was engaging donors beyond the first gift—and its donor retention rates were in the basement. During our first meeting, I asked: "Tell me what you do and why your organization matters?" The director of communications looked…

Wounded Warrior Project, the embattled veterans charity, last month announced it expected staff cuts as part of its restructuring process following its very public spending controversy. At the time, CEO Michael Linnington was unsure of the extent of the cuts. Now, we have a better idea. Linnington told Stars and Stripes the charity cut 50 percent of its executives and laid off 15 percent of its 600-person staff...

It was a new vice president for development, and expectations were high. I was serving on a campaign steering committee and enjoying a day full of high energy. The new staff leader entered the room quietly, sat in a row of chairs against the wall and proceeded to either text or read emails until he was asked to speak...

The American Red Cross is having a rough go of things lately—a mounting deficit, layoffs, more questions over its responses to recent disasters. And now, a "super racist" pool safety poster. The poster, part of the organization's swim safety efforts, features a diverse group of swimmers frolicking about in a public pool, with arrows pointing to certain swimmers indicating "cool" or "not cool" behavior...

Nonprofits rarely have the luxury of big advertising budgets, and it's not often they get chances to analyze whether their ads are working. But a new study may help shed some light on the kinds of ads that actually help drive donations. Market research firm Millward Brown and the Ad Council recently set out to…