Winning Hearts & Minds: How Change Agents, Funders, and Creative Agencies Can Harness the Power of Strategic Communications
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Winning Hearts & Minds: How Change Agents, Funders, and Creative Agencies Can Harness the Power of Strategic Communications
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April, 2023
The power of storytelling to engage people emotionally and connect them to a cause can create change. With this vision in mind, Botho Emerging Markets Group, in collaboration with Asphalt & Ink, conducted a study commissioned by the Luminate Group to identify the barriers to collaboration between strategic communications firms, donors, and change agents in Kenya.
Our research found that collaboration between these actors can amplify change agents' work and influence policy. This study looked at commonplace practices within the operations of communications firms and change agents to identify opportunities for collaboration and recommend ways both parties can overcome barriers that hinder effective cooperation. Our key findings include:
Collaboration between change agents, funders, and communication firms can amplify change agents' work and influence policy and change behavior - helping communication firms do well by doing good.
Funders can support communication for social change by providing deliberate or flexible resourcing for strategic communications to their grantees, offering various non-monetary support to ensure that impactful work reaches intended audiences- helping communication firms do well by “doing good”.
There is a need to break silos between change agents, funders, and communication firms, as currently, strategic communication firms have limited knowledge of and exposure to change agents; change agents underutilize strategic communication tools, and funders provide limited impetus to adopt communication tools.
Read the full brief here.