Serial Comment

While some people may have an intuitive sense of how they can use a messaging platform, most don’t. Once they’ve been given your organization’s messaging guide—which is intended to serve as their communications toolkit—they will almost assuredly have questions, concerns, or doubts about its use, or perhaps even its utility. Training is the best way to address this.

One of the greatest professional compliments I ever received came at the end of a discussion with a client about a project that had (temporarily) gone off the rails. At the end of our exchange she observed, “You’re a really good person to have a difficult conversation with.” This moment stayed with me because I came to realize that there were a number of important sentiments implicit in her statement: This wasn’t easy. You kept your cool. I think we’ll be able to figure this out. (And we did.)

Most mission-driven organizations periodically engage in some form of strategic planning—and when that process is complete, they typically seek to share the results with their constituents. So what would an effective strategic plan digest deliver?

I’ve written my fair share of appeals, and I’ve read plenty more (as many as I can get my hands on). In our increasingly digital world, the printed appeal letter is still an important strategy for engaging donors and inspiring support—as long as it’s done well.

Much of Libretto’s work is about engaging audiences at pivotal moments. Those audience members may be learning about a transformative new initiative, contemplating a major gift, or evaluating the fit of a school for their child. So, what’s the best way to frame that vital information?

A name for a product, organization, or initiative is like the prow of a ship. As the first thing your audience sees, it sets the stage for how they’ll perceive the rest of your communications. The right name can help ensure your audience is receptive to other elements of your organizational and philanthropic communications.

If your communications are like a fully staged theatrical production with costumes, music, and lighting, then your messaging platform is like the script. Messaging provides the essential building blocks that allow you to articulate your value, key differentiators, and vision.

We’re continuing our annual tradition of sharing the movies, TV shows, books, music, and more that touched and inspired us this year—regardless of when these works were actually released.

Restricting the content of best-of lists to things produced or released during a single year is, in many ways, fairly arbitrary. Books, movies, or TV shows don't cease to be relevant as soon as the calendar changes. So we put together a selection of some of the things we particularly enjoyed in 2022. Here's hoping they bring you joy, make you think, and entertain you in 2023.

Around the start of the new year, we like to post lists of the best books, movies, TV shows, albums, and really anything else that we enjoyed over the previous twelve months—regardless of when they may have actually been released. But as 2020 turned into 2021, none of us were feeling especially keen on looking back over the previous year, so we let this tradition go dormant.