Four Tips for Social Impact Communications in 2025
Following an election, the key to audience engagement isn’t outrage or fear — it’s about inspiration and action. Political uncertainty and global volatility have created significant challenges for social impact communicators over the past year. In light of the recent elections, 82% of nonprofit organizations express the need to adapt their messaging and public engagement strategies. Yet, […]
Hayley Berlent on Rising to the Top: Lessons in Leadership Podcast
We’re proud to share that Hayley is featured on this week’s episode of Rising to the Top: Lessons in Leadership, from Columbia University School of Professional Studies. She discusses what inspired her to found Additive, her leadership philosophy, and three questions that will help you find purpose and meaning in your career and life. You […]
The Answer to Positive Change is Clear
The Challenge of Complexity: Irrespective of sector, whether it’s healthcare, education, financial services or even in marketing communications — a field that should know better — we all speak our own language. It’s often characterized by coined phrases, acronyms and hyphenates. You know what I’m talking about, right? In social impact, we discuss and debate […]
Four Strategies for Achieving Positive Change in a Divided America
As a professional communicator who has spent more than two decades uniting decentralized organizations — from academic medical centers to universities to federated nonprofits — around shared strategies, stories and experiences, one might assume I’d be able to deftly navigate the divisive politics that have shaped America — and the world — over the past […]
10 Election Resources to Ensure Your Voices + Choices Count
Additive was founded on the belief that every one of us has the potential to effect positive change, but together we have the power to do so much more good. It’s this guiding principle that makes us so passionate about voter rights and participation. Now, with one of the most important elections of our time […]
How COVID-19 Did — and Didn’t — Change Higher Ed Social Media
Alongside students, faculty and families, higher education social media managers are also coming to terms with a new reality this fall. Commonly, audiences have used social media platforms to connect and engage with a school’s culture and community. But now, comms teams are also harnessing the medium’s reach and real-time speed to provide crucial updates […]
6 Simple Tips to Amplify Your Social Media Activism Campaigns
From 2011’s #OccupyWallStreet and #Kony2012 to more recent campaigns like, #BlackOutTuesday and #ChallengeAccepted, hashtag-fueled social media activism campaigns take feeds by storm; generate rapid, but short-lived engagement; and then fade away right in time for the next “movement.” Although well-intentioned and designed to amplify awareness and showcase solidarity, these campaigns tend to fall flat when […]
6 Tips to Avoid Zoom Fatigue
It’s ok to admit it: after four months, you’re having trouble staying focused on Zoom meetings. Although you and your coworkers and clients have tried their best, weeks of non-stop video calls have caused energy levels to drop and attention to wander. To a certain extent, it’s only natural: it’s harder to process non-verbal cues […]
Finding Purpose in Place
Reinvesting In + Re-imagining the Role of Community From the strains on our health, social and economic systems to the pains of physical distancing, COVID-19 is re-shaping our relationships to people and places. As the virus sweeps towns and cities across America, our worlds are becoming locally concentrated — challenging us to rethink the role […]
Three Tips for a Successful Virtual Gala
From The Met to the local hospital, the annual gala is often the biggest fundraising event of the year for many nonprofits. Not only can they be glamorous, memorable experiences, they can be lucrative, too — and, with careful planning, can achieve profit margins of around 60 percent. But this year, COVID-19 has made the […]
