What is the message? To whom is it directed? Why does it need to be sent? How will we get the word out and measure the results?

When discussing communications with our colleagues, we often share a definition prepared several years ago at a Communications Network conference. The panel featured foundation presidents and was titled “Strategic Communications From the Top Down.” It’s a plain definition, but we like it because it keeps us thinking clearly about our work:

“Strategic communications is identifying specific messages and information, deciding to whom you will convey them, thinking about why you want to disseminate them to your chosen audiences, selecting how you will get that word out, then measuring the results of the effort."

For our Foundation, this communications approach goes beyond publicity generated through media relations. It’s about being clear for whom that publicity is generated and why. It’s also about integrating into our program the best from time-honored social marketing approaches that embrace such tactics as paid advertising, direct mail, polling, publications, special collateral material, event sponsorships and underwriting, and media partnerships.

Strategic communications is also about having the sense not to use precious resources to communicate with the media when the target audience can be reached in more effective ways. It’s about acknowledging the need for multilingual communications in a state like California that hosts the number-one markets for Spanish-language media and several influential Asian-focused newspaper chains. Comunicando en español at The California Wellness Foundation is the rule, not the exception. We keep our target audiences in mind so that if information needs to be appropriately created — not simply translated — we do it. And we do this not just in Spanish, but in various languages, depending on our audiences, for specific outreach efforts.

We also push ourselves to explore new ways of communicating, thanks to fast-paced advancements in technology and the World Wide Web. At the same time, we remain sensitive to the digital divide so that we don’t inadvertently leave out audiences with no Internet access or give the information edge to organizations that have Internet access.

Strategic communications is also about being candid when it comes to the use of tactics that sound good but are not effective, and having the courage to stay away from those approaches. An example of one of our “tactics to avoid” is unpaid broadcast public service announcements, which we view as expensive communications to produce that rarely move policy but are often masked institutional branding campaigns primarily designed to generate publicity.

Most important, it comes down to knowing ourselves and taking the initiative to define what our institution does and doesn’t do, as well as taking time for constant reflection on how and why we communicate.