Communications Working Group

Charter

  • “Grow the Pie,” and move the field beyond the competition of resource-scarcity, by collaboratively directing awareness, influence, and resources to the bridge building field. 

  • Develop and test core message platform for the bridging field to use in external communications and mobilize our field to prioritize and magnify that messaging across our field.  

  • Leverage the messages to build understanding, urgency, a desire to support the bridge building field and marketing-based collaborations among gatekeeper-leaders in the media, corporate, civil society, and government sectors.  

  • Jointly communicate with and make common cause among the communities of bridge-builders, democratic reform advocates and advocates for social and racial justice. 

  • Grow the profile of BMAC members as effective leaders and ambassadors for the field.

2023 Accomplishments

  • Developed & refined short-form, bullet-point and narrative messages to support field positioning.

  • Drafted and began testing responses to messages that dismiss, trivialize, undermine or attack bridgebuilding

  • Built approaches and tools for bridgebuilders to request and conduct Editorial Board meetings.

  • Supported multiple BMAC Working Groups and members to strengthen the strategies and messages used to promote, position and recruit for their initiatives. 

  • Helped build significant awareness and momentum behind the Building Civic Bridges Act – in Congress and within the democracy-renewal field as well as more broadly.

Next Steps

There are significantly more communications needs across BMAC and the bridgebuilding field than the Communications Working Group can effectively address. The elements of the following plan are numbered to indicate the general order in which the Working Group will seek internal capacity to tackle them. We are confident that we can effectively implement element #1; and hopeful to make progress on the other elements as goals for 2024:

  1. Rapid Response: Pilot, refine and broadly deploy our new, collective Rapid Response System to elevate bridging perspectives in local and national responses to high-visibility national controversies; key will be defining the characteristics of the issues and responses that will most effectively mobilize Americans in the frustrated majority as well as democracy-renewal funders to actively support bridging efforts.

  2. Key Messages: Refine and test top-line messages to help align leaders and organizations in the bridgebuilding field to use effective common messaging external communications, building repetition and faster socialization of the most effective messages. (These messages will be distilled from current drafts of topline and longform messages as well as responses to challenging questions)

  3. Secondary support for other Working Groups: The goal of this support should be to maximize the consistency, alignment and effectiveness of strategy and communications across BMAC’s multiple efforts and activities. 

    • National Events & Campaigns: Support creation of a message platform for the Disagree Better campaign and BMAC’s partnership with the NGA, including common and customized messaging for key audiences, especially: media; current and prospective partners & funders; the broader democracy-renewal ecosystem; and prospective participants.

    • Sector Engagement: Support development of key language and positioning of the Sector Engagement strategy in general, as well as customized messaging about and to select specific sectors, including, at least the service and business sectors

    • Goals & Measures: Support development of marketing communications and awareness building for Social Cohesion Impact Measurement, of key language and materials to ensure message alignment across the field on Goals & Measures, and of strategies for broadly socializing the 3-Layer Theory of Change framework. 

    • Place-Based: need to assess WG needs

    • Training and Skills: need to assess WG needs

    • Collective Fundraising: Help the relevant Working Group establish the most compelling arguments to persuade prospective funders to support the initiative seeking funds.

  4. Professional Comms Support: Engage PR/Communications consultant to support each of the above activities as capacity allows.

Opportunities for BMAC Members to Contribute in 2024

  • Help build, test and deploy BMAC’s Rapid Response capability (WG: Communications)

  • Strengthen top-level message & narrative development for the field (WG: Communications)

  • Support development of customized messages and collateral materials for multiple BMAC Working Groups, initiatives, presentations and briefings (WG: Communications)

  • Support BMAC members and/or other bridgebuilding organizations to leverage appropriate messages and communications tools (like rapid response) in support of their own work (WG: Communications)

  • Meet with editors, reporters, producers, columnists and others in the media (WG: Communications)

Co-Chairs

Mike Murphy (FixUs)
Abhishek Raman (AAAS)
David Eisner

Get Engaged

Email Pearce@ListenFirstProject.org to explore supporting this working group and see its workplan plus detailed documentation.

Ready to join the movement?