In this episode, Ratasha, a journalism major, talks about her journey from interning in the mayor’s office to becoming a communications manager. She talks about how important internal data and impact reports are in the non-profit world.

Introduction

0:40 So the long story short, I actually knew I wanted to be a journalist since I was 12. I was in my middle school newspaper. So, all through high school I kept that kind of going into college. I majored in journalism actually then I got to my senior year and I’m in city hall. They’re arguing about street lights at 11 o’clock at night. I was waiting for them to conclude their story and I decided I don’t want to be a journalist anymore. Right before graduation I think that December before graduation in May I started disappearing lying to jobs.

And right after graduation, literally a month after graduation I got my first real big girl job and that was at a community foundation in my hometown of New Haven Connecticut as a communications officer. Prior to that going backwards rewinding, I had spent some time in the mayor’s office in the city of New Haven for my internship as a communications intern.

So I got a little taste of communications that way. But at that time I was still like, yeah, I’m going to be a journalist. I’m pretty sure I’m going in the political realm on the political beat. I’m going to be a journalist.

But I finally, first that was like my first taste of communications. It’s all in the same realm. Most people, a lot of people go to school for journalism end up in communications and marketing. So, I got my first taste with that. I got to write help right the mayor’s speeches, I manage city calls social media accounts. I was out at all the press conferences. I was getting press releases ready. I got to meet the local media. I got to build a relationship with the local media and things like that. So that’s my really first taste. So then jumping back where I got my first job in college at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. I was a full-blown communications manager. I had already built those relationships at my internship with the press. So, I was able to, you know, do my pitches to the press or you know, know who would be getting my press releases in the hands of. I had already built that relationship through my internship with the mayor. I got to do a lot of social media as well, a lot of newsletters, the email marketing. So, I did all of our newsletters, both internal every day. I had an internal newsletter to staff just to keep them abreast with what’s going on in the community and what work we’re doing to you. You’d be surprised. A lot of people at the office may not actually know what’s going on all around the office.

And then our external communications, which is usually telling our donor stories and things like that were actually data comes into play where we’re telling the donor stories of like why they donated and things like that, telling the stories out in the community with the non-profits and how our money helped them move forward, their missions for it and the impact it’s having on the overall community. So, from there, I was able to really build up as a communications officer. I was there for 4.5 years and then I just moved over to nest and they just moved over.

I’m actually coming up on two years at nest, which is a non-profit NYC when we work with artisans across the globe, connecting them with business opportunities, big brands that we work with. We have a lot of brand partners from Termez to Tory Burch to target brand partner, like incredible brand partners, etc. is a really great brand partner of ours and we’re able to connect them with these big brands to help them really grow their businesses and thrive and that’s actually really fun. So, I’ve been able to take all of this knowledge from my starting at my communications internship, going into communications officer now into communications manager and I also manage our campaigns as well. So that’s, it’s been a journey.

It’s been about six, I want to say 6.5 years doing all the math. Again, I’m a writer, not a mathematician, in this field, but I’m specifically working, I’ve specifically only worked at mission driven organizations and non-profits. Even in my free time, I’ve done a lot of help with communications for campaigns. So, I’m really motivated by organizations that have a mission that are really just doing good in the world. It makes me feel good when I’m doing the work and I’m excited about it and I’m glad I’m able to use my craft to kind of give back.

First Interaction with data

4:55 So in the non-profit world a lot of they either do annual reports impact reports that usually comes in the beginning of the year after the previous year’s concluded that is chock full of data. It shows the impact we’ve had on the community. It shows where the donor dollars have went. So you know, it’s not, we’re putting our money. So my first interaction with the data has really been in going annual reports, impact reports because in the non-profit world at the end of the year, you really have to speak out to the community and show what you have done and you’re really putting say the donor’s money where your mouth is. So you’re able to show what you’ve been up to the whole year.

And then you’re also able to use that data to show, you know this is why you should support our cause. So that’s kind of my first experience in data outside of just communications because there’s internal data we use as well. But I think those big data points are really effective and then getting donations and again just sharing our impact.

Favourite Campaign

6:04 My actual favourite campaign is a recent campaign and it was for the airing of the quotes festival again for my non-profit mess now it was it was successful. It was the first festival for these quilters. We worked with the filters in Gee’s Band there in a little area in Alabama’s was actually Boykin Alabama formerly known as Gee’s Band and these ladies their quilts are all across the nation from the Met to DC. Their quilts are there and they’re world renowned. Their quilts have been on celebrity that we’ve connected them with fashion brands. And Quest Love was recently at the Grammys with a blazer quilted by these ladies and they are just the most amazing women and you can meet.

So, it was my mission to get people to this festival, me and the communications department is me and my boss and a couple of people that were involved in getting people down to this little remote area in Alabama. So visit these women because the reality of it is outside of the beautiful boats and they’re just being amazingly talented. They come from an area that lacks a lot of resources. They, their income I believe before we intervene like 16,000 annually.

So, to me it was mind boggling And I think as in general that they can have these quotes that are for old famous quotes that are on celebrities. You see at the met at the met gala. But then their average income was $16,000 a year. So, my company was able to connect them with the brand, etc. And they were able to have Etsy shops, individual empty shops where they could sell their quotes online. And that’s been a partnership that’s been awesome.

I’ve been able to tell that story, the storytelling around that, how we got involved, how we’ve been able to help them what they needed support. But overall lately again, this recent festival was to actually get people down to Alabama to see these quotes live and in person. I first finally got to meet these ladies offline and got to have conversations with them.

Got to see what the impact of our work, got to see what they’re faced with every day and how they take it all described. They don’t see it the same way, this is their lifestyle, they’re used to it. But it was really rewarding beyond the festival and getting people they’re using Facebook ads and storytelling and the data I just shared with you like their income as this. And this is why you should help, you know, by the quotes here and why they need your support and things like that. Using data to tell that story and using data to move people to support these women who are basically famous. It was also just rewarding to, I think outside of that, it’s just rewarding to know that you’re finally giving them their flowers. They’ve been around for generations and they’ve been doing this for generations and people own their quilts and have them hanging up in their homes.

But these women should be getting paid what they do. So, I think it was really rewarding to be there and meet that and be able to play a small part through comms, from helping with the website, helping with we have, we use Classy, which is a fundraising platform to get tickets out and donations and things like that to just the storytelling on pamphlet or on all the collateral you’re Actually have at the event and things like that. And then after the event, being able to report back and say, hey, this is what we did. This was successful. Now let’s do it again because we have the data to prove that this was successful.

Now we’re going to move forward and do this year after year after year.

Hopefully I know we’re planning for next year at least I can only speak for 2023, but just to be able to impact them and in short impact American crap, they’re part of American craft something to amplify what they’ve been doing. And I was actually just really rewarding for me.

Challenges in communications

10:09 We face a lot of challenges, as far as in communications in the way of like definitely around fundraising campaigns, especially you never really know how they’re going to go. You can plan, but when launch day comes, you never know if the story you’re telling whether you’re using data. I mean you’re usually using data. There’s some data point within the storytelling that you’re using to move this crowd to raise funds for whatever specific thing you’re doing and on my business.

We have a lot of different fundraisers going, sometimes we’re being responsive to a crisis sometimes where it’s just a general campaign again or something we want to do. Like the airing of the Close festival I just discussed but you never really know if people are going to engage and I think for me that’s always nerve wracking because your hearts in it again.

Working with mission driven organizations, working with non-profits where I don’t want to say we’re impacts, but we’re really, our heart is really in, in this work and we’re in this mission and we’re dedicated to it and committed to it. So, it can really sting if the campaign doesn’t do well despite all the wonderful data you have and all the storytelling you’ve done around the data. There’s also this approach of just being a good marketer and not to say if it fails there, not being a good marketer, but sometimes there’s other things you’re competing with in the world. There’s other definitely say it’s Q four. Everyone’s asking for donations right now giving Tuesday. It’s at the end of the month, everyone’s competing for attention in dollars and things like that in the non-profit world.

So there’s, I mean, I want to say it’s a competitive nature in that way, but you’re competing for the attention of different, I want to say your audience. So it can be a little you can do everything right, and it’s still just not yielded the results you want. And it can be, you know, you can kind of tell that your heart strings. You know, like this is a good mission. You should support this mission, but you can’t take it personally in that way, in the sense of everyone has a good cause. And there’s a lot of good to be done in the world. There’s a lot of places for people to put their dollars and things like that. So that’s I think that’s a complication. You can see it’s just finding your audience. Marketing to the right people and telling your story where it really moves people in that way. I think with social media we’ve been able to do targeted ads that’s been quite successful in that way. So, using our data that we collect throughout the year that you’ll see. We have actually, unless we have an upcoming impact report using utilizing that data and sharing it with the appropriate audience that’s going to engage and overall at the end, support our mission.

It can be hard to, you know, find the right, it can be hard to kind of find the right. I don’t know if equation or the right way to market yourself to kind of get people to move.

Data to measure

13:09 So for a lot of the data we have at my current job at next, we have a team that does that they pull the data and then we do the storytelling, we could let the testimonials from our artists and business and things like that. And then we presented in our impact report. So thank God I don’t actually do the surveying in that way, but I’m the one that’s going to tell the story moving forward, especially with my role. I do a lot of our social media and I was just talking with our marketing committee recently. Okay, this impact report is coming. How am I going to use this data and share it out to the world to want increase.

Not just brand awareness for ourselves but the artisans that are within our guilt and that interact with us, we want for them to be able to get more selves, we want them to see business growth, we want them to sell out of everything they have and we want them to be successful. We want them to drive not only using our resources, our program, I mean going through our programming, things like that, but by exposure on our social media channel through our email marketing channels and things like that as well. So it’s really again taking, I didn’t have to pull the data, but again, my job is the storyteller around and use it and put it back out into the world and show our impact. And actually I get excited. I minored in that way. I get excited to kind of read through everything because it really makes your work built.

It makes you feel like, okay, I’m doing something and I always see data as a number, but there’s also, I spoke on earlier testimonials, I think there’s something rewarding to, to actually hear from the businesses themselves that nest came in my life and help me be better in some way or help me make a change and now I’m better off and I think that is definitely hearing it live and in first and I got a chance to do that my recent trip for the airing of the quote, we got to also meet with some artisans in Birmingham and they had a panel and they all expressed how they started their business and how it’s been driving after next and got involved and it really feels good, you know what you’re doing because when you’re in the day to day of the work, there’s 20,000 projects we’re always working on where your head is spinning.

You play a little part, especially in communications, to play a little part, you do a Facebook post Instagram post, you might send out an email, you might write some copy for the website and then that’s it and then maybe a couple of weeks later you see this news article about this great thing that you played a part in like saying the airing of the quote, these ladies were just in British vogue and I was like, this was like when I was on the ground in Alabama, I was like, you guys are celebrities.

They really are though, they’re in British vogue and you’re hearing about the history behind the quote and we’re really amplifying these women, they do the work and there’s a talented artist and we’re just helping get the story out, but it feels good to be a part of that and know that ultimately this brand, this awareness now they’re getting is going to be able to increase the consumers, they have that go by from their Etsy shops and increases their income and that increasing that income that allows them to do amazing things like pay for their Children’s college, get healthcare, get like healthcare, The bear thing discusses that we take for granted they don’t always have the best access to.

So, you know, them getting this income are generating income through, you know, just getting their message out and showing their talent is able to really increase their well-being and for me that is just the best feeling overall. So data helps do that. Absolutely, because it starts with the data, we can get the numbers again, we get the numbers were able to talk with them through surveys were able to yes, landscape mapping and sit and talk and things like that.

And without that data we couldn’t show our impact to just have put out a call-to-action people without the data. It backs up, it backs up what we’re saying it back. It just really proves that we’re out here doing the work and we’re doing good and it shows why you should support not just us but the artists that we’re representing.

And I think to me it just it just feels amazing.

Role of PR and comms in covid times

17:17 Well, I think going to Covid and when we’re all locked going back to Covid, when we were all locked down in our house is a lot of these small businesses at speaking for Next and the next perspective, a lot of these small businesses had to halt their business, A lot of we heard it all across the world, we all were locked down in the house. People weren’t going out shopping anymore. So, it was really up to us to get people online and going back to the Gee’s bend Quilters.

That was a way for income for a lot of people that they had to take their brick-and-mortar shops and figure out a way to transform it and go online. And as a part of that process of going online, you need marketing around that. There’s a lot of stores online. There’s a lot of things you can buy online. There’s a lot of competition online. So there has to be some storytelling around that which includes data, includes testimony, include speaking of testimonials, it’s not even just testimonials I know for everyone who uses amazon, I don’t know about you. But the first thing I go do before I buy a product is go through reviews and things like that. That’s all data. In a way of just being able to learn about the product before you buy it, you can’t physically touch it.

So outside of just you know, the online marketplace, there’s this marketing that has to go into it. There’s storytelling. Again, there’s data about and there’s the descriptions and telling of like what this is because again we can’t touch it and we can’t see it and things like that. All this that goes into play before we buy an item online. And for a lot of our artisans in that way we had to help them do that. It’s also photography. We had to get them photographers and things like that. So in short, I guess I think the future we’re already online, but I think a lot of the brick-and-mortar shops are closing anyway. That was already going that road.

I think code grid just exacerbated that, going online to the future has digital. Obviously, we’re also going into the metaverse. I don’t know what that’s going, it looks like. So I think we’re leaving the physical world and now we’re going into this digital world. That’s a whole new thing that I’m actually excited about. Some people are still jumping on board. I’m trying to figure out how to get in there even on the non-profit side. And then also in regards to social media where I spend a lot of time, influencer marketing is becoming a thing. We’re still trying to grasp it if you look around my kitchen, my living room, Everything I have in there is because TikTok, I scrolled across it on TikTok and I thought it was a great, so especially in the non-profit ground, we’re learning how to use social media differently.

We’re learning how to catch up and use influencer marketing and have people be able to pursue. I mean influence people to do good though right now. I’m influenced to spend a whole bunch of money and have aesthetic looking apartment and things like that. But I would love to get a hold of the social media realm to really motivate people to act and to do good and really drive our mission online.

So I’m trying to figure that out, but I guess I think the future is online and I think the future is just digital and we’re all competing for everyone’s attention. Everyone’s attention span is just so short with in this digital space. And I think us as non-profits, we all have to try to figure out how we’re gonna carve our space in this world. And I don’t know if we’ve figured that out yet. I think we’re trying we’re able on Instagram to show great imagery, especially at nest.

We have great imagery from across the globe that helps to kind of engage people in and then going down that journey. Then we have our captions and we’re going to put our data point and say, well we were able to go here and we were able to increase their income and then we’re gonna do some storytelling around that with their increased income.

They were able to send their kids to school, bring more food into the house, support their families.So that’s kind of the journey on social media for us. I think in the non-profit where we’re all trying to figure out how to utilize that as much as the B2B companies are using it and B2C companies are using it. I don’t think we have a grasp of it like they do, but I also think we have a different kind of, we have different challenges and then they do usually, if you have a product, they know they want to buy it for asking people to give up their money, give up their time and things like that. And that’s a little harder, harder Bush.

So, I think we’re just trying to figure out how to carve out that space, but of course the future is digital. We’re already leaning there is just trying to make space for everyone and again, yes, for us to carve out our space and find the people that want to do good in in the digital world and figure out how we can amplify our message to increase brand awareness and really just, be able to support our artists or support if you’re in any non-profit, support all the people that are looking for help from you

My two cents

22:17 Be flexible, it’s ever changing. I think that part can be exciting. We can also be equally stressful communications since fast communications is fast paced. There’s a lot of definitely the non-profit realm, there’s just so much you want to do. There’s just so much, you know, you need to do from in any mission driven organizations, whether it’s political organ at nest where, you know, we’re in the non-profit from in that way. There’s just so much happening in the world at all times.

And it can be really hard to figure out what impact you can make wear and if you can do everything you want to do sometimes the reality is that we spread ourselves way too thin and I think that’s just for not speaking for non-profits across the board. There’s a lot of people that need help, even if you have a niche that you’ve narrowed it down Two, we’ve narrowed it down to artisans, there’s still so much work and still so much need in that realm and we’re one company, one organization of maybe 25 or 30 people. And the reality is sometimes we’re not going to be able to get to it all. But I think, we do our best to make impact where we can and when we can, get to, we do our best to kind of make impact where we can, but with that our head can spin in some ways, especially as communications, people or people who work communications to just for me, there’s always so many projects going on. They’re all very rewarding though. So, I think that’s what makes us feel again, going back to that good feeling and being able to do good, it’s a privilege to do this work.

It really is, but it’s really stressful. You always want to do more than you actually have the capacity to do but I think it’s easier just to focus on what you are able to do. Be content with that and take your time with that, finish that and then move on to the next thing. You’re not gonna be able to do it, but what we are doing is really good too.