Our experience in providing capacity building for NGOs
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Indonesia have long had a tall task to improve the lives of Indonesian people. Challenges are faced on a daily basis, whether you are here battling the climate crisis or human rights’ violations, the governing people can’t seem to run out of ideas to make our heads twitch. Not only is your task challenged, but attempts to attack the legitimacy of your very existence have been constant.

We have a shared concern in how things are going to unfold when the upcoming office takes place - and getting prepared for this is one thing. On the other hand, our observation tells us a look into the way most NGOs in Indonesia see communication strategy.

Common mistakes in public communication for NGOs
We made a thorough explanation of this topic in this article. To sum up:

1. Communication is often treated as an afterthought.
While this may have been done unintentionally due to various reasons, planning a communication strategy often happens when an activity is about to or has taken place. Therefore treating it as a way to only announce what your organization is or has been doing.

This is not to say that it’s an entirely wrong practice, because a strategy will also include those. But if we agree that the goal of non-profit organizations is to influence policy changes or promote behavioral changes, designing a communication strategy should happen very early in the beginning. It is inseparable from and should complement the organization's program design.

2. Strategy is developed for the sake of just having a strategy
Allocating the time and resources to develop a factual, clear, and focused strategy is then the consequence of the first point. Essentially, designing a strategy is crafting an argument as an approach to get to where we are going from where we are standing. A strategy should have the following elements:

• Description of where we are now
• Description of where we want to be
• The barrier that stands in between
• The approach we are using to get to where we want to be (or the change statement)
• Course of actions

In a good communication strategy, the change statement should come from the perspective of the communication target. In order to develop it, we can first clearly define the target audience, then ensure we use a single communication output for each audience, and stop assuming that our audience cares about the issues we are monitoring as much as us, the people who work on it on a daily basis.

3. Unwilling to work with creative professionals due to limited resources
Strategy is a matter of logic and bringing a communication strategy into life involves stimulus to incite the desired response. Assigning the task to specialists and professionals is where the magic happens. We are living at a time where we have so many options to access creative professionals and with guidance, professional practitioners will be challenged or encouraged to engage in the issues we care about.

Building communication mindset as a starting point and providing tools to accelerate changes
There are ways to make public communication work. Some extend the frustration about the situation by releasing anger. Some criticize the issue by going down to the streets. Adding to these other means, C4C does it by persuasion or “Bujuk Rayu” in Bahasa Indonesia.

In 2022 we provided communication capacity building for 10 non-profit organizations. The project began with a series of 4 online learning sessions, consisting of lectures and exercises.

• Day One. We first introduced participants to the points in the earlier section, including elements of communication strategy and how to work on the Theory of Change. The session wrapped up with a homework assignment for participants to pick a communication program based on their organization needs, then decide and build the Theory of Change based on that needs.
• Day Two. Participants are invited to learn about brand building for non-profit organizations. While branding is very common in the profit sectors, nonprofits can learn a thing or two about how companies build their brand. Building a solid brand ensures trust, gets organizations acknowledged, and invites commitment of resources from stakeholders.
• Day Three. Nonprofits working to influence public policies often work with research findings and policy briefs to elevate their standing. In this session, participants learn how to craft those into a communication product by analyzing their target audience.
• Day Four. In the final session of the class, we picked up from the previous meeting on how to craft the right messages for target audiences. The session wrapped up with a course to monitor and evaluate the organization’s comms programs.

Among the 10 participants, two organizations, WALHI Jawa Tengah and WRI Indonesia, were chosen out of their quality of work to receive additional mentoring sessions as well as provided with communications support that caters to their specific needs.

We help reformists become better at persuading
Sufficient communication support and skills for CSOs in promoting changes allows NGOs to realize there were mistakes they may have to address. At the same time, it gives them the tenacity that what they are doing really matters and have impacts
We can agree that promoting change requires a meaningful amount of time and effort. Having the skills and being introduced to ways of measuring those skills is not only useful, but can also give us the reassurance that we are on the right track.

If you also believe that persuasion through communication is one of the ways to make Indonesia suck less, we are here for you. Schedule a 1-hour free consultation by clicking the contact button below and let us support you.