As communicators for social change, we know that our work won’t produce instant results, won’t necessarily earn us millions and won’t always be valuable in certain people’s eyes. As a green business pioneer Ray Anderson said, “Well, it’s hard. It’s the work of a lifetime. It takes an awful lot of patience and stick-to-itiveness.”

As communicators for social change, we know that our work won’t produce instant results, won’t necessarily earn us millions and won’t always be valuable in certain people’s eyes. As a green business pioneer Ray Anderson said, “Well, it’s hard. It’s the work of a lifetime. It takes an awful lot of patience and stick-to-itiveness.”

Photo courtesy of whiteafrican on flickr

Anderson passed away Aug. 8 at age 77 from cancer. In 1994, he read Paul Hawken’s book “The Ecology of Commerce,” which explains the environmental havoc that businesses and industries wreak. The book shocked him into reforming his carpet business, Interface. His goal — “Mission Zero” — was to produce zero waste, have zero impact and leave zero carbon footprint by 2020. A self-proclaimed “recovering plunderer,” he wanted to “take from the earth only what can be renewed by the earth naturally and rapidly, not another fresh drop of oil, and to do no harm to the biosphere. Take nothing. Do no harm.”

While some people might think those views would be terrible for big business, Anderson effectively communicated that his reforms had the opposite effect. His costs went down and he attracted more customers because they wanted a company that was doing good by the environment. In addition to speaking about his work, Anderson wrote two books. He said, “Our people are galvanized around this shared higher purpose…[a]nd the goodwill of the marketplace is astonishing.”

This view also stands true in social change communications. PR agencies frequently get a bad rap for having soft drink and apparel clients, caring only about the bottom line and only doing “corporate social responsibility” to make a good impression. I’m proud to work at an agency that is galvanized by this shared purpose. Whether it be environment, education or mental health-related, it’s amazing the quality of work that emerges when employees are motivated by the power of positive social change.

This post is a part of our series of contributions for Social Good Day.

While Americans struggle to heed advice to eat less, move more and stay out of their cars, most pundits have overlooked one of the key approaches to addressing our country’s health and environmental problems–supporting and promoting fresh, non-processed food from family [...]]]>

This post is a part of our series of contributions for Social Good Day.

While Americans struggle to heed advice to eat less, move more and stay out of their cars, most pundits have overlooked one of the key approaches to addressing our country’s health and environmental problems–supporting and promoting fresh, non-processed food from family farms.

The industrial food system is at the core of America’s health and environmental crises. As a nation, we have invested our public and personal food dollars in just a handful of crops from massive agriculture operations. Farm policy encourages overproduction of products like corn and soy, which lowers the price below production costs. While this approach punishes family farmers, it helps line the pockets of factory farm executives and processed food companies who use the cheap overage from these crops to create mass-produced drinks and snacks that are high in sugar and fat and low in essential nutrients. Family farm producers of fresh, whole foods have a tough time competing on price–a situation that most affects America’s working poor, who are forced to choose the cheaper option over the healthy one.

Meanwhile family farmers–and even their methane-producing cows–have been taking it on the chin for our environmental troubles, when the real blame again lies with the industrial agriculture system. Mass-production ag companies have learned that confining thousands of animals in close quarters is extremely profitable. Unfortunately, rural homeowners and American taxpayers are covering those costs, because the stench and pollution from these feedlots reduces property values and causes soil and groundwater contamination.

In these difficult times, lowering the weekly grocery bill generally outweighs supporting long-term improvements to personal and environmental health. Industrial ag executives know that better than anyone. In fact, they’re counting on it.

Tomorrow, InSites bloggers will be celebrating Social Good Day by contributing blog posts about the issues central to our work at Vanguard Communications.  According to Mashable and (RED), Social Good Day is an opportunity to provide solutions to the challenges facing our world:

We’re interested in unleashing fresh thinking about how social media can raise [...]]]>

Tomorrow, InSites bloggers will be celebrating Social Good Day by contributing blog posts about the issues central to our work at Vanguard Communications.  According to Mashable and (RED), Social Good Day is an opportunity to provide solutions to the challenges facing our world:

We’re interested in unleashing fresh thinking about how social media can raise awareness and create solutions for social issues around the world. It starts with each community coming together and contributing ideas and, more importantly, solutions. Whatever community you’ll be participating in we want to know, “What’s your solution?” Let the world hear your ideas through social media!

At Vanguard, our mission is communicating for social change and we incorporate social media strategies into all of our practice areas in some way, shape or form.  We’re excited about this event that merges two important communications areas into one opportunity to raise awareness. We are looking forward to joining this larger conversation and share our ideas for solutions to some of the issues that matter the most to us.

Tomorrow, we’ll release a blog post every hour touching on issues such as agriculture, energy, environment, health and mental health, and youth and families.  Please join us in the comments and on Twitter using the hashtag #socialgood to share your own insights into how to use social media for social good!

Update (9/29): We hope you got a chance to read all of our Social Good Day posts, including:

Reduce Stigma Surrounding Trauma-related Mental Health Issues Using Social Media

Family Farmers Can Help Diminish U.S. Health and Environment Crises

Common Core State Standards Can Help Solve the Nation’s Education Crisis

Taking Care of Mind and Body is Critical to U.S. Health Care Reform

Graduate the Electricity Grid into the 21st Century

Growing a Stronger Economy Through Family Farmers

Mad Men, Troubled Children

On Wednesday, the Associated Press (AP) announced the appointment of former Jerusalem bureau chief Steve Gutkin as their new “Oil Spill Editor.” According to a memo sent to AP staff and released to the Poynter Institute:

The Gulf Oil spill has been an enormous journalistic challenge. A sprawling story, much of it occurring literally out [...]]]>

On Wednesday, the Associated Press (AP) announced the appointment of former Jerusalem bureau chief Steve Gutkin as their new “Oil Spill Editor.” According to a memo sent to AP staff and released to the Poynter Institute:

The Gulf Oil spill has been an enormous journalistic challenge. A sprawling story, much of it occurring literally out of sight beneath the water. Every day AP journalists in every format have risen to the story and kept us well ahead. It is now clear this story will be with us, and with the people of the Gulf Coast, for a good long time to come.

So we are taking steps to set up for this long haul. The first is the appointment today of an Oil Spill Editor to supervise the coverage and to keep us thinking of new and creative ways to cover this continuing and continually important story.

What does this say to communicators about how the news media is approaching the growing disaster in the Gulf?  Well,  if you’re pitching reporters about energy and/or environmental issues, you may need to take a number.

AP’s announcement illustrates that news outlets are expecting the oil spill coverage to continue for a very long time. Creating a dedicated editorial position to oversee content demonstrates their belief that the story will become bigger and more complicated as time goes on. Their decision also indicates that outlets are seeing such interest in the story from readers, viewers and listeners that they will invest in creating new roles and expanding coverage to meet that demand.

Satellite image of the Gulf Coast oil spill taken by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on May 24, 2010, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this false-color, high-resolution view of the very tip of the Mississippi River Delta. Ribbons and patches of oil are silver against the light blue color of the adjacent water. Vegetation is red.

Happy 40th Anniversary Earth Day!

Twenty years ago, Vanguard Communications provided communications support for Earth Day 1990, culminating with the first national Earth Day rally in Washington, D.C.  With 350,000 attendees, it was an overwhelming success, and it began a tradition that continues to this day, with the Climate Rally on the National Mall, scheduled [...]]]>

Happy 40th Anniversary Earth Day!

Twenty years ago, Vanguard Communications provided communications support for Earth Day 1990, culminating with the first national Earth Day rally in Washington, D.C.  With 350,000 attendees, it was an overwhelming success, and it began a tradition that continues to this day, with the Climate Rally on the National Mall, scheduled for Sunday, April 25.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/ / CC BY 2.0

Publications across the country have showcased Earth Day op-eds and editorials today, with articles written by a plethora of authors, including EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. From these examples, we’ve culled three simple tips to make your opinion writing persuasive and memorable.

1. Be personal. Look for the angle within your op-ed that applies to you. In other words, find a way of making a point that connects to your voice and your experiences. Adam Gardner from rock band Guster does precisely this in his post for Care2, focusing on the environmental impacts of touring and how his nonprofit organization, Reverb, has worked to address these challenges.  Focusing on an issue he’s intimately and implicitly familiar with gives him greater credibility and allows his message to connect to readers.
2. Have an opinion. It seems obvious, but making a strong point with a clearly defined point of view helps your message stick.  Take today’s post from Treehugger, which references a Salon op-ed from two years ago.  The original piece – which advocated renaming Earth Day – had an opinion unique enough that Treehugger not only remembered it, but was able to reintroduce it to new readers years after its original publication.
3. Call your supporters to action. The best op-eds ask readers to do something.  Take today’s piece from Grist, which uses Earth Day to discuss how quitting smoking can impact the environment and your health.  While it may be a bit of a leap, it piques reader interest and encourages further review.

John Denver: Conservation Crooner

April 2010 John Denver Conservation Crooner

“I’m a global citizen. I’ve created that for myself, and I don’t want to step away from it. I want to work in whatever I do…towards a world in balance, a world that creates a better quality of life for all people.” ― John Denver

Born Henry [...]]]>

John Denver: Conservation Crooner

April 2010
John Denver
Conservation Crooner

“I’m a global citizen. I’ve created that for myself, and I don’t want to step away from it. I want to work in whatever I do…towards a world in balance, a world that creates a better quality of life for all people.” ― John Denver

Born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., John Denver’s devotion to songwriting was matched only by his love for his fellow man and the planet. In addition to imbuing hit songs like “Rocky Mountain High” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads” with images of environmental beauty, Denver became an outspoken advocate for progressive causes such as homelessness, poverty, global hunger and the African AIDS crisis. Following his musical successes in the 1970s, Denver founded his own environmental group, the Windstar Foundation, in 1976. He’d go on to help establish the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; serve as on-camera narrator for “In Partnership with Earth” alongside then-EPA Administrator William Reilly for Earth Day 1990; and film an episode for the Nature television series focusing on the environmental inspiration for his songs. Denver devoted equal efforts to his fellow man. He served as a member of the Presidential Commission on World and Domestic Hunger and helped found the Hunger Project, a group dedicated to ending hunger around the world. Denver also used his fame as a songwriter to serve as a cultural ambassador to the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, hoping to open cultural ties with the United States and promote peace. He remained a passionate progressive advocate until his death in 1997. Denver’s final song, “Yellowstone, I’m Coming Home,” was inspired by the beauty of rafting on the Colorado River.

Personally, one of my least favorite school activities as a student was report card day. While I often knew in advance what the report card would say, I was always anxious about my parents’ reaction. Knowledge may be power, but I think we can all admit that sometimes there are things we wish our [...]]]>

Personally, one of my least favorite school activities as a student was report card day. While I often knew in advance what the report card would say, I was always anxious about my parents’ reaction. Knowledge may be power, but I think we can all admit that sometimes there are things we wish our parents didn’t know about our academic achievements – or lack thereof.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amboo213/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Like our younger selves, policymakers don’t like report cards, but the tactic can definitely get an organization noticed in the media and the public. More advocacy organizations are using report cards — or scorecards — to draw attention to the performance (i.e. voting record) of Congressional and state legislators on a variety of policy issues.

Recently Environment America — a nonprofit, nonpartisan environmental advocacy organization — issued their annual Congressional scorecard. It identified members of Congress who are “Washington’s environmental champs” – policymakers who voted for the environment 100% of the time in the past 18 months on major environmental issues. The scorecard also called out policymakers who are “natural disasters” and did not support environmental legislation and/or issues. State affiliates of Environment America also replicate this approach and release scorecards focusing on their state’s representatives, as Environment Washington did in December.

Outside of the environmental movement, other advocacy groups also use the scorecard as a tool to bring awareness to and action on their issue. For example, the Human Rights Campaign issues a Congressional Scorecard each year to show how members of Congress have voted on equality issues. The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law has an interactive Web site dedicated to their annual scorecards on how Representatives and Senators voted  on anti-poverty legislation. The Web site even allows visitors to compare legislators’ grades.

Federal and state policymakers don’t like their voting records publicized and publicly evaluated. Their constituents (policymakers’ “parents” in this metaphor) are often unaware of the voting behavior and legislative actions of their representatives, and a scorecard can provide them a new, easy to understand viewpoint to evaluate their representative’s performance.

Issuing scorecards can also open doors for organizations looking to build relationships and alliances with key policymakers. Media coverage resulting from a scorecard release draws attention from Capitol Hill and state legislative staffers to your organization and may inspire — or force in an election year like this one — legislators to change their viewpoint and voting record on an issue.  In addition, scorecards provide valuable, concise information and data to reporters covering that policy issue and will help position your organization as an expert and resource for future insights.

In spite of the discomfort it causes lawmakers, the scorecard/report card approach is an effective tool in the policy communications arsenal to expand an organization’s message exposure. Hopefully, it will reinforce supportive policymakers to continue championing the issue or pressure failing legislators to improve their grade and make the honor roll on their next report card.