A county in the state where I live is considering laying off several emergency response administration staff, including the communications person, due to a severe funding shortage. The thinking is that another agency can step in and lend some staff for the job when the need arises.
A local nonprofit decided that it didn’t need a dedicated communications person and handed the job off to a staff member with no training in such. The result: social media posts that don’t say the same thing as the web site, incorrect dates announced for events or deadlines, public online complaints going unanswered, an annual financial report where the numbers, literally, did not add up, lack of signage at events, lack of photos of program activities, no notice at all about the traffic pattern in front of its thrift store being significantly altered such as to prevent left turns into the parking lot, and more. But, hey, look at the money saved by not paying someone for this job!
I’m watching a nonprofit now, one that has long had a reputation of inclusion and celebrated its focus on equity, give up on having its web site materials up-to-date in both English and Spanish, and no longer take steps to ensure its web site updates are accessible to people with disabilities. Why? Because they no longer have a communications person who is driving those priorities.
I’m watching a nonprofit post its images for events on social media without putting the most important text in the body of the post or putting in alt text, thereby not only excluding people who use screen readers but also missing out on search engine optimization, which not only affects how many people actually find the event but also will mean if, some time in the future, they need to go back and see how they marketed something, they will have a difficult if not impossible time finding that post, as there’s nothing for a search engine to search for (there’s no text!). Why aren’t they doing this? Because they no longer have a communications person who is driving those priorities.
I’m seeing a disturbing trend among nonprofits and government agencies thinking that communications can be done by just anyone: another person on staff who has other responsibilities and no training can just pick up the work that used to be done by someone in that position, or a volunteer intern, with little or no experience, can do it, or how about an AI tool to write content and post it, respond to clients, etc.?
Communications staff don’t just create and post messaging. Communications staff also are engaging in activities to LISTEN to what is being said. They are reading and analyzing feedback. They are building relationships with others to help amplify messaging and to create listening channels back to the organization. They are building trust with the community, and their work affects everything: fundraising, partnerships, volunteer engagement and more.
It is bizarre and disturbing to see so many organizations and programs decide they don’t need a dedicated, trained communications person – a human – even part-time, in this era of mass misinformation and mass misunderstanding, both of which have led to people being openly hostile to government and nonprofit programs that have enjoyed wide, bipartisan public support for generations.
If management at or funders of your nonprofit or government agency are rethinking having a dedicated communications person, then they don’t understand what a communications staff person does, and everyone who believes that a communications person is fundamentally important to a program needs to get busy now educating them on that.
Does your communications manager ever present to staff or the board about trends they are seeing in customer communications or complaints? Or talk to your staff or board about communications challenges and how they have been handled? Do you do more than just present statistics on visitors to social media or web site; do you also provide examples of feedback, or show how social media posts affect ticket sales or event attendance? Are you asking every new donor, every event attendee and event new volunteer, “How did you hear about our program?” and then reporting that back to senior management?
Also see my other recommendations on nonprofit communications.
Design Checklist: What to Review Before Publishing a Communications Product
How to do a fundraising, volunteer recruitment or other video on the cheap for your nonprofit.
Prepare now to leverage International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development 2026
The Nonprofit & NGO Guide to Using Reddit.
Could your organization be deceived by GOTCHA media?
Social networks continue to lose their influence & that hurts nonprofits. What to do?
Reaching women in socially-conservative areas, even in other countries
UNHCR web sites are NOT focused on helping refugees & that is shameful.
The PR genius of Collie J, Grambling’s Man with the Golden Pen.
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