Giving Compass' Take:

· Richard Darlington talks with Devex about the importance of communicating effectively. For the aid sector as a whole, communicating messages and requests has been handled poorly in the past, and Darlington provides a few tips on how to improve communication with the public.

· What methods can NGOs use to communicate effectively? What strategies are used to attract attention?

· Read about the digital strategies nonprofits can use to spread their message globally.

Richard Darlington is full of ideas.

He is flicking through his phone to find the Christian Aid advertisement he saw that morning on the train into London. It is the latest example of how smart NGOs have become with their communications, he enthuses. Darlington’s words tumble out excitedly: The #Standtogether ad offers an optimistic image of solving problems; it uses a striking photo and a simple hashtag to “engage the agency” of the viewer; and it tells a compelling story about aid, rather than simply asking for money.

His enthusiasm isn’t so surprising. Darlington has spent more than a decade thinking about exactly these themes. He was a special adviser at the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development during the last Labour administration, where he specialized in working with the media. That job was sandwiched between several stints as head of news at Britain’s leading center-left think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research. He then spent three years in Nairobi, helping aid organizations across Africa hone their communications strategies. Now back in Britain, he is heading up a campaign bringing together more than two dozen development NGOs to talk about aid and global poverty.

Darlington talks about where, in the past, the aid sector went wrong in communicating its work, and what it can do now to reconnect with a skeptical public.

Read the full article about the communications crisis by Russell Hargrave at Devex International Development.