How can charities and third-sector organisations communicate?
Charities and non-profit organisations have a communications challenge that commercial businesses don’t face in the same form: they need to maintain the confidence of multiple distinct audiences simultaneously. These audiences include trustees, funders, statutory commissioners, beneficiaries, volunteers, the media, and the public. These audiences have different expectations, different concerns, and different thresholds for what constitutes a satisfactory explanation.
ZenithSpark works with charities, community interest companies, and social enterprises across the West Midlands on the corporate communications work that maintains and builds that multi-audience confidence, from press and media relations to funder reporting, stakeholder communications, and public affairs.
Telling the story that gets covered
Third sector organisations are often doing work that’s genuinely newsworthy, tackling social problems, transforming lives, running innovative programmes, but they’re not always telling that story in a way that attracts coverage. The distinction between a press release about what your organisation does and a story about what your organisation has achieved for a specific person or community is the distinction between something that gets filed and something that gets published.
Rich Jarrott has written editorial pieces about third sector organisations’ work that have been published on national platforms, including case studies produced for the UK National Agency for Erasmus+, covering organisations including Legacy West Midlands and South and City College Birmingham. Those pieces attracted readers and stakeholder attention because they were written as editorial stories rather than organisational announcements. We bring the same editorial approach to media relations work for our charity clients.
Public affairs for the third sector
Charities and community organisations have legitimate and important voices in local and national policy debates on housing, social care, mental health, poverty, community cohesion, and many other areas where the third sector has first-hand knowledge that policymakers need to hear. Getting that voice heard effectively requires a public affairs approach rather than just sending a letter to your MP.
We help third sector organisations engage effectively with local authorities, NHS bodies, and national government, identifying the right access points, developing the representations that carry weight, and building the stakeholder relationships that give your organisation influence in the policy conversations that affect your beneficiaries.
Funder and statutory communications
The communications that charities produce for funders – grant reports, impact statements, programme updates are often treated as compliance documents rather than communications opportunities. A well-written impact report does more than satisfy a reporting requirement. It builds the funder relationship, demonstrates the organisation’s capability, and creates the kind of confidence that supports future funding conversations.
We write funder communications for third sector organisations that serve both the compliance function and the relationship-building one, structured clearly, evidenced properly, and written in a way that a programme officer reading their twentieth report of the week will actually engage with.
Public affairs for the third sector
Charities and community organisations have legitimate and important voices in local and national policy debates. For instance, raising concerns on housing, social care, mental health, poverty, community cohesion, and many other areas where the third sector has first-hand knowledge that policymakers need to hear. Getting that voice heard effectively requires a public affairs approach rather than just sending a letter to your MP.
We help third sector organisations engage effectively with local authorities, NHS bodies, and national government. We identify the right access points, developing the representations that carry weight, and building the stakeholder relationships that give your organisation influence in the policy conversations that affect your beneficiaries.
Managing difficult communications
Charities occasionally face communications situations that require careful handling, a safeguarding concern that becomes public, a trustee controversy, a funding decision that affects service users, or a media story that threatens reputational damage. These situations are not unique to the third sector, but they land differently for an organisation whose credibility with its community is its primary asset.
We provide crisis and sensitive communications support for third sector organisations. Our work includes drafting statements, managing media enquiries, advising on the sequencing of stakeholder communications, and helping organisations maintain the trust of their audiences through situations that might otherwise undermine it.
The West Midlands third sector
The West Midlands has a large and active third sector, one of the most significant in the country, with deep roots in the communities it serves. From the established charities serving Birmingham’s diverse population to the community organisations working across the Black Country and smaller non-profits in Worcestershire and Staffordshire, the range of third sector activity here is substantial. We understand the local landscape, the funders, the commissioners, the media, and bring that understanding to every client engagement.
If your charity or third sector organisation needs corporate communications support, for a specific project or ongoing strategic advice, get in touch with ZenithSpark. We understand the environment you work in and the audiences you need to keep onside.