Intake Conversation
We listen for what the leadership is actually carrying and surface where pressure is concentrated.
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ENTRY 01 · STRUCTURAL, NOT SURFACE
Communication problems are rarely just communication problems.
We diagnose why communication keeps breaking — then build the infrastructure that holds — for under-resourced nonprofits and the white-led organizations accountable to them.
What we believe
Organizational communication is strategic.
Treating it as day-to-day tactics is often the reason it’s breaking down. Strategy is a long-term investment of time and money — and the organizations closest to their communities are the least funded to make it. That gap is what we work on.
THE PROCESS + WHAT YOU LEAVE WITH
01
Diagnose
A live diagnostic that maps where your communication infrastructure is actually under pressure — and which problems are structural, which are tactical.
You leave withA Pressure Map, immediate shifts you can make this month, and one structural warning to watch.
A live diagnostic that names which postures your organization is operating from — where communication protects your reputation instead of serving the communities you answer to — and the conditions that produces on the Black-led side.
You leave withYour active postures named, the conditions they produce mapped, and the first divergence to close.
02
Clarify
A facilitated session that names who actually owns communication labor — formally, functionally, and emotionally — and rebuilds the authority path.
You leave withA written authority path, a defined approval flow, and a labor distribution map.
A facilitated session that names where your stated commitments and your operating structure diverge — and what closing that gap requires: long-term strategic change, not better messaging.
You leave withA divergence map, an accountability path, and the structural changes that have to come before any external communication can hold.
03
Workshop
A multi-week engagement that turns diagnostic findings into structure — built to your real resource capacity: staffing, bandwidth, and authority, not an outside template.
You leave withAn action plan aligned to your real resource capacity — named owners, timelines, ready to execute without SLC present.
A multi-week engagement that builds communication serving the communities’ long-term interests into how the organization operates — not into how it protects its image.
You leave withA structural accountability plan with named owners, decision rights, and the operating shifts required to make external communication structurally true.
Your organization's
communication
problems have
a history.
Communication failure inside under-resourced nonprofits is not a performance deficit. It is a structural impossibility — produced upstream by the conditions an organization inherits.
We don't fix the message. We diagnose what's making the silence — and rebuild the infrastructure that produces voice.
WHY THIS WORK STARTS UPSTREAM
Whether the strain comes from inherited conditions or the stance an organization takes toward the communities it serves, the work begins by diagnosing what’s shaping the message — not by polishing it.
01 · SELF-CHECK · DIAGNOSE THE BREAKDOWN
Start with a diagnostic.
Our first move is a diagnostic — a structured read of what you're actually working with, under specific conditions, before anyone touches the messaging. What's below is a preview. For a deeper dive, open the full self-check.
Conditions
The Conditions Diagnostic
Postures
The Postures Diagnostic
For
Under-resourced & Black-led nonprofits.
White-led orgs accountable to Black & other communities of color.
What it names
What is destabilizing voice in your organization, and where the strain is concentrated across Resources, Practices, and Identity.
Where stated commitments and actual structure diverge — and what that gap produces in the communities you serve.
You leave with
Which condition to address first — specific to your org, not a generic diagnostic.
The postures your organization is operating from, and the conditions those postures produce on the Black-led side of the work.
EVIDENCE · CONDITIONS OF THE FIELD
The field is not neutral.
Under-resourced nonprofits are often evaluated against communication expectations that assume staffing, time, and infrastructure they were never resourced to build.
Most people guess these wrong. Drag each slider to your best guess, then reveal the real figure.
50%+
of Black-led nonprofit leaders interviewed received direct or subtle funder messages to modify race-explicit language
76%
Smaller unrestricted net assets — the disparity is widest where money is most free to use
33%
of Black-led nonprofits receive general operating support — vs just over half of other nonprofits
67%
of Native American–serving orgs received no new foundation funding in 2020
ENTRY 02 · OBSERVATION
The words you already use are applied social science.
Seven disciplines, read together — and the read shifts depending on whose desk it lands on.
Seven disciplines
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Institutional behavior under pressure.
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Decolonial systems, read structurally.
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What threat produces what behavior.
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Power, legitimacy, accountability.
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Loss aversion and herd dynamics.
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Concentration and geographies of withdrawal.
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The infrastructure beneath the message.
The read, by seat
For executive leadership.
Communication operates at two levels: tactical and strategic. Most organizations invest heavily in the first and assume the second will emerge on its own. It rarely does.
The work here is identifying where strategy leaves the system, where tactical demands begin to crowd it out, and what conditions allow both to operate together.
For the communications team.
Leadership often asks for more engagement, more channels, and better metrics—without seeing the outreach, relationship-building, and audience intelligence that make those outcomes possible.
The work here is not simply improving communication. It is understanding the organizational conditions shaping what communication can and cannot accomplish.
For operations & non-communications roles.
You likely see more of the organization than you realize.
The details that pass through operations, programs, finance, administration, and day-to-day coordination often contain information the communications team never receives.
The work here is understanding where your role sits within the communication system and how everyday observations become useful organizational knowledge.
APPENDIX · ENGAGEMENTS
Engagements built for the
conditions actually present.
Not a generic service menu. Every engagement begins with a no-charge intake and structural diagnosis, so the work is shaped by the conditions present rather than a pre-set package — you leave with named conditions and an operating posture, not a deck. Pricing is by scope.
ENTRY POINT
Structural Read
A first conversation to identify the pattern, the strain, and whether deeper work is warranted. The entry point into the work — no charge, no pitch.
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Diagnostic Interpretation
A working session where SLC reads your Conditions or Postures Diagnostic results with you and names what they mean for how your organization actually operates.
You leave with
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- A Pressure Map
- A Comms Infrastructure Profile
- The named conditions or postures driving it
- Immediate shifts to act on
- Structural warnings to watch
- A trajectory map — what progress looks like if you continue into the Workshop
Workshop-Based Strategy
A tailored curriculum that builds your communications strategy with leadership and team in the room — so the plan is owned and operated, not handed over to sit on a shelf.
You leave with
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- A Communications Strategy — aligned to mission, audiences, resources, Identity & Practices
- A tailored workshop curriculum
- Facilitated leadership & team sessions
- An operational plan your team actually runs
DISPATCH · LAB NOTES
Lab notes from the working diagnostic.
Field notes on the structural conditions producing communication breakdown in Black-led and under-resourced organizations — roughly monthly.
