Target Audience
“We're investing in communication but what is it actually achieving?”
CEOs, senior leaders and decision-makers, including board members and trustees, in nonprofit organisations who want to understand whether their organisation's communication is contributing to organisational objectives and how its value can be demonstrated.
The session does not require specialist communications, marketing, research or evaluation knowledge and is suitable for organisations with different levels of resources and measurement capability.
Outline
Nonprofits invest considerable time, finance and human resources in communication. But how do leaders know whether that investment is actually contributing to organisational objectives? In an attention economy, where organisations compete for increasingly scarce stakeholder attention, measuring activity alone is no longer enough.
This practical session will equip leaders with the questions should ask about communication performance and help participants move beyond measures of activity and outputs, such as media coverage and social media metrics to consider what really matters: outcomes, impact, and the contribution communications make to delivering organisational objectives.
1. What Are We Actually Trying to Achieve?
- Connecting communication with organisational priorities.
- Moving from communication activities to meaningful objectives.
- Understanding the difference between activity, outputs, outcomes and impact.
2. Measuring What Matters
- Identifying meaningful measures and indicators.
- Choosing measures appropriate to each organisation's objectives and resources.
3. From Evidence to Decisions
- Using evidence to demonstrate the value of communication.
- Using measurement to inform resource allocation.
- Learning from results and improving future communication and organisational decision-making.
4. A Practical Approach for Nonprofits
- Developing a proportionate approach to measurement and evaluation.
- Questions leaders should ask about communication performance.
- Identifying practical next steps for participants' own organisations.
Methodology
Delivered virtually via Zoom. The session will combine presentation, practical examples and discussion, with opportunities for participants to apply the principles to their own organisational context.
Instructor
Martina Byrne
Martina Byrne is the founder of Byrne Consultants, where she advises boards and leadership teams on governance, strategic communication and organisational performance. She previously spent eight years as CEO of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland and has extensive experience in communication strategy, delivery, measurement and evaluation. Martina combines non-executive board experience, executive leadership and academic research to provide independent, evidence-informed advice to organisations facing challenges, change and complex environments.
Martina has worked for many years to promote evidence-based, global best practice approaches, to communication and PR measurement and has contributed to the development and adoption of international principles for communication measurement. She is a non-executive director of a State body and registered charity and lectures in Corporate Communications at postgraduate level. She holds a PhD in Sociology, a B.A in Communications, and Law Society qualifications relating to governance, AI and the law.
Outcomes
By the end of the session, participants will:
- Be better equipped to ask the right questions about communication performance and use evidence to improve organisational decision-making.
- Understand the difference between communication activities, outputs, outcomes and impact.
- Be able to connect communication objectives more clearly with organisational objectives.
- Understand how communication evidence can be used to demonstrate value and inform resource allocation.
Carmichael’s Spring Summer 2027 Scheduled Training Programme is kindly sponsored by BoardEffect.
BoardEffect is part of Diligent, the leader in modern governance. BoardEffect delivers an agile board management solution optimised for governance leaders of nonprofits, higher education institutions, community healthcare organisations, and credit unions with the right tools, analytics, and insights to drive more efficient, transparent, and secure governance.
Fees
| €80 | Nonprofit Organisation |
| €70 | Carmichael Resident Organisation |
| €90 | Statutory Organisation |
| €90 | Corporate Organisation |