Specify your work

It's helpful to craft a functional description of each ongoing communications project. ¶ ❝

Advocacy Week is a weekly email roundup of events in the nation's capitol. Stories are short with links to further information. ❞  ❝

The Advocate is a quarterly journal in print of ideas and trends in advocacy. It serves readers with feature stories and editorial departments while promoting our programs and thought leadership.

For a Cause is a personal blog to explore the craft of advocacy messaging and storytelling. Blog posts are short and seek to explore and reflect on ideas, concepts, and practices. They are published periodically on no fixed schedule.

Mission statements for real projects might have a bit more meat on their bones.

"The Advocate" might include short descriptions of those editorial departments (an interview? letters? campaign profile? staff news?). 

Meat on the bones

These description might seek to detail such things as

• what stylebook to use
• length of a typical story
• who the audience is
  
• expected use of photos and graphical displays of quantitative information
• reading level and other targets
  

It's a functional description, mission statement, charter, with many uses.

• in the development stage, a tool for involving team members, colleagues, and leadership
• after launch, the basic blueprint for everyone to use
  
• a useful yardstick when assessing performance
  
• a way to structure discussions about beneficial improvements

Make it real

The above is a little abstract, so think of your own work. How would you describe your projects to a new team member? To your executive director? To your board?

What are the essential things to know about their purposes, goals, and qualities? For each publication or project, what is its function?

What, exactly, does your social-media work deliver for the cause?

This is the page that everyone can be on together. Taking the time to set these things forth democratizes your process and empowers others to join you for success.

photo: pxhere