Keeping the Evidence Base Alive Amid the Rise of Misinformation
50+ major education reports
disseminated to school leaders, practitioners, and policymakers
Media coverage in 10+ national outlets
and trade publications
Three podcast series and 10 videos
produced to help Wallace reach new audiences
Overview
The Wallace Foundation is a national philanthropic organization that seeks to help all communities build a more vibrant and just future by fostering advances in the arts, education leadership, and youth development. The foundation identifies knowledge gaps within its areas of interest, develops and tests promising policies and practices to narrow those gaps and then shares its research findings with stakeholders who can effect beneficial change. For more than a decade, The Hatcher Group has served as the foundation’s primary communications consultant, sharing its passion and articulating its complex research findings to an influential audience of policymakers, school and district leaders, out-of-school-time programs, and education organizations.
Challenge
The Wallace Foundation is widely known as a nonpartisan, credible source of information for the field. However, the rise of social media over the past two decades and the rapid increase in the spread of misinformation have not only fueled political polarization but also made it especially challenging for organizations like Wallace to reach their stakeholders with the research they need to make informed decisions.
Solution
Strategic Synergy: Hatcher and Wallace’s Collaborative Approach
The Wallace Foundation relies on Hatcher’s extensive knowledge and policy expertise, involving us as a thought partner in the planning and execution of all major communications activities. This partnership has grown significantly over the years to embody a full suite of creative strategies, tactics, and collateral to convey the impact of The Wallace Foundation’s grantmaking.
Reaching New Heights: Amplifying Credible Research Through Purposeful Outreach
Hatcher develops annual strategic communications plans for the foundation, conducts ongoing analysis of progress against the plan, and provides a year-end review of all communications activities— complete with insights for the following year. We provide ongoing strategic counsel and thought partnership to the foundation’s communications team, advising them on communications related to specific initiatives, publications, and efforts, as well as foundation-wide outreach approaches. Taken together, our support helps solidify the foundation’s reputation as a credible, non–partisan, research-based source of information for practitioners and policymakers alike.
To support Wallace in sharing the research it commissions with the field, Hatcher develops dissemination plans that identify objectives and key audiences, establish core messages, and outline a proposed outreach plan. We then help Wallace execute the plan, which could include conducting media outreach, developing social media toolkits, conceptualizing and executing webinars, or creating videos and podcast episodes.
Impact
Over the years, Hatcher has supported Wallace in releasing more than 50 major reports that have shared promising policies and practices with the education field. We have secured media coverage for Wallace in major national publications such as The New York Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and NPR, as well as coverage in educational trade publications like Chalkbeat, Education Week, and The Hechinger Report.
We have hosted more than a dozen national webinars, each one drawing hundreds of policymakers, school and district leaders, members of the media, representatives from education organizations, and education advocates. We’ve also produced three podcast series and created more than 10 videos that have helped Wallace reach new audiences with the research it commissions, and ultimately, share its lesson more broadly with the field.
We manage 19 communications grantee organizations for Wallace, serving as a thought partner as they share the foundation’s research findings, publications, and insights with their constituents. Overall, we have helped position Wallace as a go-to resource on school leadership and youth development among field leaders, policymakers, and the media.
Capabilities
Analysis, optimization, and reporting
Animation
Audio
Content
Crisis communications
Digital products
Earned media
Events: activations and virtual
Public affairs
Social media
Strategic communications
Technical assistance
Visual (video and photo)