Words That Win Trust

In this episode, communications strategist Vanessa Wakeman explores the high-stakes reality of modern nonprofit messaging, where public scrutiny and evolving language demand a more responsible approach to communications. Wakeman shares a practical framework for moving past draft-paralysis, building narrative resilience against digital threats, and effectively segmenting audiences to ensure every donor, volunteer, and community partner feels accurately seen. From auditing internal lexicons to establishing proactive crisis guardrails, this conversation provides marketing teams with the strategic tools necessary to confidently protect their organization's narrative.

Transcript

Donor Benchmarks For 2026

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In 2025, donor behavior broke the assumptions most teams still used to plan. FundraiseUp's Pulse of the Donor 2026 gives you benchmark data on what changed and what to do next. Download the free report today at fundraiseup.com.

Welcome And Why Words Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Welcome back to the Nonprofit Hub Radio Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Speer, joined today by Vanessa Wakeman, who's the CEO of the Wakeman Agency. And we're gonna be digging into a topic that I don't think we've covered on the podcast, at least this season or last, looking at the power of language and words and communication. And I am psyched for it because this is right in my oh, right in my wheelhouse. So, Vanessa, welcome in. So glad to have you here.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Thank you for having me. I'm delighted to be with you today in Talk All Things Communications. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

So tell us a little bit about yourself and the work that you do around this that brought us to the conversation today.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Sure. I am the founder and CEO, as you mentioned, of the Wakeman Agency. We are a strategic communications firm working primarily with nonprofits and foundations on using language, using communications overall to advance progress on important social issues. We are celebrating our 23rd anniversary this year, this coming July, and work across all social issues. And I think right now, um, why I'm most excited to have this conversation is I would love to share some of what we are thinking about as far as like the importance of communications today and how organizations can leverage it. And so we've been working really closely with organizations of all sizes and all different issues, trying to understand like how they can use the power of uh communications to really help people understand the mission and like some of the social issues because the environment is so crowded and there's so many competing narratives and people just aren't sure what to believe and and how to engage. And so I'm grateful that we get to play a role in how people understand what I believe are some of the most important social issues of you know our time.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

So good. So I think to your point, we are not that there has ever been a a point in history where words don't matter. But we are at a point where it feels like almost every word uh has to be chosen carefully, right? Gone are the days where you can just kind of off the cuff make a statement and not have some some sort of pushback on that, especially with so many digital channels, right? You can't just have a a tweet, right? You can't just have a an Instagram post. That caption is extremely important and because everybody will take those words. So talk to us about let's start kind of with that that framework. If every word matters, how do we get anything done? Where do we even start? If you know, I used to just be able to throw up an Instagram caption and I didn't even worry about it. And now I'm like going through every word to make sure that, oh, I don't want this to sound too much, I don't want this to be misconstrued, I don't is my tone okay? At some point I just want to stop doing it altogether. So, where do we start for a framework of how to evaluate those things, but also balance it with like, I've got a lot of other things to do. Yes.

Using Words With Responsibility

SPEAKER_00 3:36

And I can't sit around and parse words like that every minute.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

I I think that's a great question and a wonderful starting place. Um, the first thing that we should uh sort of think about is just, as I mentioned earlier, the power of language and what we are attempting to do in the use of language. So when we think about, you know, earlier generations, right? Language has evolved. So we started maybe with like a grunt, right? We go back to cage, right? And then maybe it's like more sounds, and then we're like, oh, we have multiple sounds and syllables. And so it sort of evolved. And I think part of that evolution also requires a level of responsibility in how we think about now that we have this entire like landscape of language available to us, how do we use it wisely, responsibly, and hopefully progressively in ways that can help to create culture, you know, sort of bring communities together, share a particular point of view, you know, bring people together. So I think based on the framing that you mentioned, I think we should start with we were in many ways for many generations pretty irresponsible with how we use language, right? We we borrowed certain, you know, frames from cultures, you know, low man on a totem pole, right? Like, you know, um picnic, like there, there are tons of things where it's like, were we really saying that without recognizing like what that meant for certain cultures? And so while it has been a painful lesson and growing pains for some, um, I think overall it has created a sense of shared responsibility and also respect for like wanting to understand someone's values, where they're come from, their origin story. So all of those things are sort of locked in as like our grounding foundation. When we think about how do we communicate responsibly today, I think for those who are in the nonprofit sector or philanthropy, one of the things to start with is what do I understand about this language? Is this language that will bring people together or will it cause an issue and sort of you know create a divide? If I am trying to introduce people to a new concept or to share more about our work, how can I use the power of story to connect them, right? Like as human beings, we love stories. Like it could be, oh my gosh, I was walking in the garden today and saw the you know the largest tulip ever. Like whatever, the all of those sort of like things where people can see themselves and understand the role that they play, or oh, that happened to me, or oh, I want to do that, or oh, I can give a hundred dollars and like send, you know, uh someone in college a care package, right? So trying to understand what your goal is here, and then also having an awareness of language does evolve and it does change and it loses meaning, or sometimes it can be co-opted and the meaning changes. And am I okay with this new meaning, or do I need to find other words and terms to express who I am today? Um, I think like those sort of initial framings are some things to be thinking about. And to your point about it taking more time, I don't know. I I don't want anyone to feel like they need to be so measured that they're paralyzed, but I do think that there are like lots of resources available to know that like they're just certain words folks, you know, are going to be offended by or like language that doesn't represent who you want to be, you know, seen as, perceived as.

Nonprofit Communications Serve Many Audiences

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Sure. I think and I have said this a few times on the on the podcast here about various topics. But one of the things I think is true for the nonprofit sector is that somebody who's, let's say, in marketing or fundraising for a nonprofit has a very different job and a a way different set of expectations than somebody who is, say, doing marketing for fill-in-the-blank product, right? Coca-Cola, Taco Bell, McDonald's. If I'm if I am a marketer for McDonald's, I am trying to sell a cheeseburger, right? There's a thing, it is universally acceptable that this is my cheeseburger, and here it is. But oftentimes, if I am a nonprofit marketer, I am trying to, and I think the nice part about McDonald's is that it's universal, right? If I'm a nonprofit marketer, I have to not just talk to my donors and market the idea that I want them to give, but I'm also maybe marketing to volunteers, which is a separate set of community. I'm also there's also pieces going out about our services. And so I'm marketing to the folks who receive those services from the nonprofit itself. And oftentimes those are three very different demographics of people, right? And so I'd love your your insight on how we evaluate those messages to make sure, right? Because what's gonna resonate with maybe your high-end donors or your your monthly donors is likely different than and like the way that you talk about it than the actual the person who's receiving the services itself, right? So when we're trying to cover so many different constituencies with maybe one piece or one social media presence, what does that look like to you? Is there how do we balance that when there's so many different audiences?

SPEAKER_01 9:10

So the the first thing is to know your

Segmentation That Respects Each Audience

SPEAKER_01 9:14

audiences, right? Some folks feel that like everyone is my audience, the general public, whoever sees this is my audience. So that that that's the first mistake, right? With within that audience, understanding that you do have volunteers, you do have your high net worth individuals, you do have your people that maybe you're trying to recruit, or also another audience that is sometimes forgotten, the audience that you serve, right? Like keeping it engaged. So I think understanding the differences between those audiences and having separate and distinct conversations. And some people will argue that that's too much work and we don't have the capacity for that. And then my response to that would be well, then you should assume that the majority of your communications will not have the desired impact because sending a, you know, an ask email to your mailing list of 5,000 people where only 50 people are high net worth individuals and the rest are volunteers, right? Like you're just not gonna get a response from that and they're gonna miss your next volunteer opportunity. So segmenting those and finding the language, the commonality, the reason why they are engaging with your organization in the first place and starting there. And when I say that, like there, there's a lot of overlap, right? So who you are as an organization, maybe there are wins. So you all just had your gala and these three things happened as a result. Maybe some of your high net worth individuals um did not go to the gala. So the ask there, you know, in that email can be, you know, if you weren't able to attend, you know, please consider helping us to continue this fundraising. In that same email, we're starting to plan for our next event. That could be something in there for your volunteers. And so thinking very specifically about what is the thing, what is the call to action for each of those audiences? What is the language that helps them to see themselves? And also having getting input from those audiences about what they want to know. Like so often we're thinking about communications, particularly in the nonprofit space, as a one-way channel. But today, particularly, especially with social media and digital communications, we should always be looking about thinking about call and response. I say something, you respond. I want like we want to keep the conversation going. And so I am never going into our engagements when we're working with audiences thinking that we know everything. Uh, my role as the strategist is to offer like insight into you know the landscape and foresight about what I see coming, but also wanting to validate and test that by hearing some of the experiences through the audiences.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

So good. I'm curious when you guys are working with organizations, are there common mistakes that you see a lot of folks make, or is it pretty specific to each organization?

Silence And Disinformation Pitfalls

SPEAKER_01 12:04

So I will say right now, the two mistakes that I am seeing, and yes, I'm calling all of you out who are guilty. Don't put your head down, just fix it. Um the first one is being so fearful in this political climate where organizations are like, we're not doing communications, right? Like we've just we've just shut it down, right? Like uh thinking that silence is the answer, which is not like silence can be incredibly harmful because if an organization has uh positioned itself as one who was progressive or advancing a particular issue or really focused on certain communities, and then they they're silent, people begin to question the validity of those initial claims, and particularly the people who've entrusted you. So the communities that you're representing, that silence can mean that, hey, you're leaving us hanging or you're no longer representing our interests. Maybe you've shifted, you know, your values. And so I think that there are absolutely times to be silent, but it should be intentional and there should be a plan behind that silence. So I think being silent and not or sort of like shuddering communications overall, I think there are many ways to communicate without sort of um being vulnerable to some of the risks that I think all nonprofits are currently navigating. There are absolutely ways that you don't have to be leading with language that would cause, you know, threat or harm. And then the other thing is not thinking about narrative in our current climate, there's so much disinformation out there that is eroding public understanding of social issues that if organizations are not constantly um examining and interrogating their narrative within the landscape, is highly likely that it will be dwarfed by just false information and lies. And so one of the things that we highly recommend to organizations is a practice that we have created called narrative resilience, which is really an organization checking to make sure that they have the ability to withstand, adapt, and respond to harmful narratives and dynamics while still being able to promote the truth and values that align with their mission. And so that narrative piece in today's world, we just can't take narrative for granted.

Pulse Of The Donor Sponsor Break

SPEAKER_00 14:40

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Handling Pushback Without Losing Facts

SPEAKER_00 15:30

They said the thing is getting the pushback, right? They're getting called out whether rightfully or not, they're getting called out on the the thing that they made the statement on. Because I think that's the fear, right? It's like I don't want to make a statement because I don't want to sound, I don't want to get the pushback. We're so afraid of the recourse anymore, right? So if someone's in that position and they've they've spoken, they've made the statement and they are getting that pushback. What's your advice and counsel in that regard? Do we keep trying to explain ourselves? Is that when we back off? What do we how do we handle the firestorm, so to say, that those things can cause nowadays?

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Uh the the first question would be like, where is the the threat coming from, right? Is it, you know, another maybe it's another organization that has a you know different point of view on the other side of things. Maybe you're a political organization, they're progress uh, excuse me, conservative, and there's that, versus you're getting, you know, lots of attacks from you know many different sources. I I think that determines how you react. But one thing before going into any battle, right? I want to know like who is going to stand with me. And so my first call, if if I'm a nonprofit CEO and I'm speaking to my board and saying, you know, this is not a time for us to retreat. We don't want to start a fight, but we like if we've been saying for the past 50 years that this is what we stand for, if we can't continue to say that now when people sort of need that, you know, that post to lean on, then what did it all mean? So assuming, you know, everyone is in a line there, my next conversation would be with my funders. Hey, do you have our back, right? Like these are the things that we want to do, and here is why, and what it means to the organizations, excuse me, to the uh individuals or uh groups that we serve, which is a direct sort of return on investment on your funding, right? Like I need to know are you walking with me in this next phase of our evolution as an organization, right? Because if your funders are saying you're on your own, then I mean that that tells a story that we can get into it another time. That's a whole other episode. But that is important because now you're you're making the decision or determination between if I speak up and these things happen, it may impact the people that I want to serve, right? Versus, oh, I am fully supported. And so like we can go 10 rounds, you know, for TKO if necessary. Like that, that's a different conversation. So I would ideally get aligned with my funders, and then I would say the thing I want to say and be prepared. I think some of what we have offered for a lot of organizations, particularly in the last 18 months, is risk registers and understanding if this thing happens in this scenario, we're gonna do this. If this thing happens, oh, here's some places of vulnerability where people may want to try a sneak attack, we're gonna be ready. And so I think thinking about communications as organizational governance in a way that it is built into the way your organization is thinking. So you think about legal, you think about finance, you think about programs, communication should be right there with that as well. I think playing out all of the scenarios and being prepared for the worst case scenario. We don't want that to happen, but an organization should be prepared for that. And then also be aware that things shift, right? So someone could be, you know, on your heels for 15 days and on the 16th day, they're like, oh, this organization is tired, you know, tiring me out. They're gonna may go bother someone else, right? And so know that this uh sort of these attacks are often cyclical. Um, people are looking for like where are the the weaker or most vulnerable holes. Ideally, there are partners in your space who stand with you. And so I think that there are ways to um withstand those kinds of attacks and emerge stronger. And the most important thing during that is to not move from your factual narrative, right? So much of these things are like rooted in like inconceivable, like who came up with this story, right? So, like I think sort of using it as an opportunity to educate people, like what are the facts? What is the emotion that I can offer within those facts? And how can I continue to repeat this and so that people understand it in a way that works for their level of knowledge where they're situated in the world? And ideally, how can they join me, right? And so I think also when you're fighting those fights, thinking about these are the people who already know you and are loyal, these are the people who are on the extreme opposite, and we don't we're we really don't typically have the ammunition to fight that fight, but they're the people in the middle who are like unknown and like unsure of where to go. There's an opportunity to engage those folks as well.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Oh, that's so good. That's so

Cross Generational Language Reality Check

SPEAKER_00 20:36

good. I'm curious your thoughts, and this will kind of wrap us up a little bit on this conversation, which we could have like seven other conversations off of already. Um I'm curious your thoughts, though. Is this a a generational piece to this? Right? Because what we're I what I am least am seeing, I I work with a bunch of middle school and high school students here in Pittsburgh, um, and I they have a lot of words that I don't know what they mean. And I'm sure that that has been true multiple times, right? Like I'm sure there are words that m that when I was growing up we used and my parents were like, what? I don't even know what that is, right? But when we're juggling, especially these new kind of communication trends or new words that are coming out all the time, or specifically to your point, words are dramatically changing meaning. And so something I think it means is no longer what it means. Is talk to us about or is there a way to I know a lot of teams have people that are pretty similar demographic, right? Where maybe there's not a lot of age diversity, there's not maybe a lot of ethnic diversity because words do have different meanings in different communities. If we are look sitting here in the position and saying, you know what, my whole team looks like me, we're all roughly within a five to seven.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

an age your you know your age gap are there how do we go about making sure right or how what's the best way to make sure are there resources available to make sure that the words we are using are okay across the generational spectrum across the cultural spectrum especially when we have pretty homogeneous looking teams yes so I think some of the uh the worst examples of oh the times when you know when you have the same types of people in the room it seems to be like large brands like yeah who signed off on that right like we we see that uh uh pretty regularly so I think even if you don't have people on the team like from a department perspective in the organization hopefully there are others that can be pulled in we had a uh we worked with a large corporation a couple of years ago and they had a very homogeneous team which was very alarming for us given the decisions that this team was responsible for um but the one wise thing that they did right like one they were working diligently to bring in you know other resources um age and ethnicity but they also worked with different ESG groups and asked them would you know these are some of the initiatives that we're working on would anyone be interested in partnering with us because we want to make sure that we get this right and I thought I thought that was a great way to fill the gap while they were doing the hiring and surprisingly they got a lot of interest and really put out some uh good work I think that it is important to always be thinking about who is in the room and if everyone looks like me then I should not be making certain decisions. And so I think people who are older than me, younger than me, you know, different ethnicities um you know different backgrounds all of those things matter and it it shows right if you're trying to connect with a multi-generational uh audience and you're speaking from one perspective of a you know uh Gen Xer that that it will be notable right and so I think it is in someone an organization's advantage to think about who is reviewing this information who are we getting feedback from like even speaking with some of your audience like hey help us like we you know like are are these communications you know do you feel like we understand you do you feel like you understand us like I I think that two-way sort of feedback is important and I think always be paying attention because communications is evolving and it's evolving at a quicker pace. Even sometimes I see things popping up on social media where like a new term comes up that wasn't there yesterday. And I was like I like I didn't I didn't know that one right it's impossible for one person to be the keeper but so having like a team of ambassadors who are excited about contributing to how an organization is positioned and framed, I think is like a a wonderful and important responsibility for an organ for people

Building A Lexicon And Getting Help

SPEAKER_01 25:14

to have.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

That's so great. We I have a a background in design and did a lot of design work in marketing pieces and we had what we used to call the middle school boy test. Because if there's anyone who's gonna look at your because there's so many there are to your point there are so many elements out there where I look at a design piece and I'm like all you needed was one middle school boy to look at this and tell you that the way you've done this is not okay. Because if there is a way to find something inappropriate that middle school boy will find it. And so we would we always made sure whether it was like within the team somebody's son or you know could we how do we find one we would I'm not getting you every design we put out we ran past this test if if someone's gonna find a way to make this gross here it's gonna be a middle schooler how do we do it so yes there should be an equal way to do that for Vanessa this has been so good and I I do think there's so much more to dig into in the nuance of this but if if someone listening and their kind of interest has been piqued in you and the work that you guys do and they're like yeah this is something we need help with some more tell us a little bit about the Wakeman agency and kind of the work that you guys do and how folks can connect with you.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Sure. So first um you can connect with us at infothewakemanAgency.com. We work across all social issues and I'd say some of the things to be thinking about now for listeners is the midterm election cycle is uh upon coming upon us and I think it's a wonderful uh opportunity for organizations to interject their insights into what I know will be an ongoing and very loud and uh you know uh interesting uh dialogue happening about issues. So things like affordability, um, you know the economy education immigration health equity like aging all of those things are going to be in so I think if you are if you've been silent or you haven't been thinking about communications or trying to find like what could be an entry point where I'm not sort of like totally out there, I think the midterm election cycle will be a good time and we can certainly help with that. I think organizations who are struggling with narrative or finding that their narrative is being as I mentioned dwarfed by others and want to figure out like how do we build that resiliency or how do we strengthen our narrative we are we're the folks for that. And then also lexicon um one of the things that we do a lot of is helping organizations create lexicons. So like language for the organization how do we want to speak about these things what ex what are the specific words and terms that we as an organization or coalition or a movement or a sector social issue like what do we want to own what do we want people to understand how are we using it for field building how are we using it to advance the the work around a particular issue and and also where we started which was public relations. So I would say anything within the ecosystem of communications we related to social change we can certainly offer support on and things that are priorities right now I would say is the narrative resilience and the lexicon. Yes I I think that's us. That's who we are and um we'd love to talk to you folks. Great and give us that email address one more time info at the wakemanagency.com and check out our website we have great articles and case studies and information that could be helpful for people who are hearing about some of these things for the first time.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

Perfect.

One Book And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_00 28:47

All right as we close out Vanessa the the question of the season this year closing question is uh as we look at maybe 2026 is the year of learning what's one book that you would recommend everybody put on their to read list one book that like has really impacted you or inspired you or changed you? What would be on your you have to read this book list?

SPEAKER_01 29:08

So I read a lot of lots of different kinds of book uh fiction, nonfiction. I would say uh what could be possibly relevant to this audience in this conversation that I read recently that I really enjoyed was Toni Morrison's um language as liberation. It sort of talked about language and sort of investigates like the the black experience in the literary canon America's literary canon I think it was a really interesting read just to see her perspective as someone who's a brilliant writer and and thinker and sort of think about the application of some of her thinking into like uh could our current world and environment so good I love that thank you thank you uh I will definitely be adding that one to my to read list so thank you you are welcome let me know what you think absolutely well Vanessa thank you so much for joining us we really appreciate the conversation uh again check out the Wakeman agency online and look at all of those resources this has been another episode of the Nonprofit Hub Podcast I'm your host Megan Speer and we'll see you next time