Supporting Grant Partners’ Work Through Strategic Communications

In August 2023, Exponent Philanthropy wrote a blog post titled, “What Grantees Want: Publicizing Your Partners and Their Work“, that featured several communications strategies that the Rx Foundation has been experimenting with in the past year.

“Our communications strategy aims to create connections among folks who may have familiarity with each other but haven’t connected yet, and those who have never heard of nor met each other before. For instance, two partners in a grant program knew each other through our quarterly learning community gatherings. However, they connected one-on-one after they attended a webinar and read a follow-up newsletter interview featuring one partner’s work. It was such a fruitful and synergistic point of connection for both organizations, that a team member from one actually joined the other’s advisory committee“

– Programs and Operations Manager, Rx Foundation

Throughout 2023, we’ve intentionally focused our communications efforts on spotlighting the work and impact of our grant partner network through:

• Monthly newsletters | Through a mix of interviews or written features, we shine light on partners and their work to an audience of fellow funders, peer organizations, and those in the health equity space.
• Webinar series | In our Power is a Social Determinant of Health series, we bring together people leading and implementing advocacy, organizing, civic engagement, and grassroots health justice work across the United States to share more about their work and impact with a diverse array of funders, leaders in healthcare delivery, researchers and other allies who care about these issues.
• News & Resources webpage | This repository of articles written by the Rx Foundation and hosted on our site is full of Partner Updates, detailing the latest news and developments from our partners.
• Impact Narratives | These one-page written features share specific stories of ripple effects and impact from Rx Foundation grant partners.
• Grant Partner Spotlight Videos | Our latest webpage features video storytelling, uplifting the voices of a few grant partners in our Building Capacity for Health Advocacy network, In Their Own Words.
• Featured blog posts on external sites | For entities like Grantmakers in Health, we often co-write pieces with partners to directly amplify their efforts to a new audience of potential funders.
• LinkedIn | We frequently boost communications and news directly from our partners in our feed, in addition to promoting their News & Resources features to a larger audience.

We are always iterating on our communications strategies, attuning them to be more impactful for our partners.

You can read Exponent Philanthropy’s full piece on “What Grantees Want: Publicizing Your Partners and Their Work” to learn more about our strategies, and that of other Foundations. We also welcome you to reach out to us if you’d like to learn more, or if you have a strategy you didn’t see mentioned that you’d like to share with us.