The Patterson Foundation created TPF Communications Excellence to offer tools, guidance, and learning opportunities to strengthen the communications capabilities of its staff and consultants. The knowledge and resources shared through TPF Communications Excellence are developed and updated by MagnifyGood, TPF’s strategic communications partner, and are informed by more than a decade of TPF initiatives.

You can also find the guidance and resources featured on this page can in your complete TPF Communications Guide or an abbreviated Communications Guide on the Go.

Stacy Sternberg, TPF’s Communications Coordinator, or Nancy Henry, TPF’s Office Manager, create the majority of TPF’s visual content, including brochures, flyers, announcements, or other printed/electronic materials. If you would like additional visual content for TPF or your initiative, please contact Stacy or Nancy.

Please contact Stacy Sternberg, TPF’s Communications Coordinator, or Nancy Henry, TPF’s Office Manager, to request TPF logo files. Any materials bearing The Patterson Foundation’s logo must be reviewed and approved by Stacy or Nancy before publication, printing, or sharing online.

When sharing The Patterson Foundation’s name in writing, use the proper, full name, “The Patterson Foundation” on the first reference. Using “TPF” or “the Foundation” in subsequent references is acceptable.

• Example: The Patterson Foundation strengthens the efforts of people, organizations, and communities by focusing on issues that address mutual aspirations, foster wide participation, and encourage learning and sharing.
• Example: The Patterson Foundation’s (TPF) approach to philanthropy works beyond traditional geographic boundaries, tapping into expansive networks and movements working toward shared aspirations. TPF learns insights and best practices from these broader networks, which are applied to strengthen initiatives locally.

Please use the “Cambria” font in all TPF-branded materials.

Sharing the same key messages regarding your work consistently lends clarity to your communications and helps your audience develop an informed, accurate perception of your organization. TPF’s talking points — easily recallable messages intentionally crafted to share information about TPF and its purpose — are a helpful tool as you prepare to speak or write about your work. Review TPF’s talking points here.

Additionally, each TPF initiative has its own set of talking points, including sets that include more detail on specific endeavors within an initiative. To request these initiative-specific talking points, please contact your initiative lead.

Beyond talking points, TPF favors intentional words and phrases to describe the nature of its efforts. These are used to maintain an aspirational tone focused on longer-term outcomes while adding further clarity to communications. For guidance on TPF’s preferred language, please review the following resources:

• TPF Communications Guide on the Go
• TPF Messaging Quick Reference Sheet
• TPF Style Guide

When creating a presentation for The Patterson Foundation, it is important to follow best practices and brand guidelines to ensure you create a presentation consistent with organizational standards. First, you’ll want to use the default TPF presentation, which will include pre-formatted slides, colors, and fonts. For initiative-specific PowerPoint templates, please contact Nancy Henry at nhenry@thepattersonfoundation.org.

Next, you’ll want to go through your presentation and ensure all slides are formatted consistently throughout, are easy to read, use visuals where appropriate, and don’t use distracting animations or transitions.

Finally, you’ll want to practice speaking through your presentation, timing yourself when you do so to ensure you can present within the allotted time.

Read more on promising practices for creating presentations. information and detailed promising practices.

The Patterson Foundation has a policy to ensure it has appropriate permissions to use images and recordings from programs and events for promotional, educational, and digital engagement purposes while protecting participants’ rights.

• Event Attendees: Attendance constitutes consent to incidental photography/recording (e.g., crowd or group shots). A prominently placed printed disclaimer must be displayed at event registration, giving attendees the option to opt out. If an attendee does not consent, a TPF team member will provide a wristband or badge marked “no photography/recording,” and TPF will make a reasonable effort to avoid including them in images or video.
  
  
• Featured Individuals: Speakers, panelists, and performers must sign an individual release form.
  
  
• Podcasts and Webisodes: Individual releases are required for podcast and webisode/webinar guests. (TPF staff and consultants are exempt.)

A recording disclaimer and release form are available in TPF’s Media Rights Policy.

An email signature is like a digital business card. It establishes trust and credibility, provides a quick and easy way for recipients to contact you, and promotes the TPF brand. When creating your email signature, please use the following format:

Sometimes, an updated signature may be used to promote a particular TPF initiative, endeavor, or event. In these cases, you will receive an email from Stacy Sternberg with information on what to include in your signature.

Watch this video for a step-by-step guide on how to change your email signature.

The communications startup process begins once a new partnership agreement is signed and approved by the Governing Board. When The Patterson Foundation funds a new initiative or endeavor, the signed partnership agreement includes the expectation of communications alignment. The level of communications capacity provided by The Patterson Foundation is based on the nature of the work and the partners involved.

Once a new partnership agreement is signed and approved by the Governing Board, Initiative Leads will contact MagnifyGood to initiate communications. For more information on activating communications at the start of a new initiative or endeavor, refer to the TPF Initiative Startup Communications Process.

MagnifyGood handles and manages all media activity for The Patterson Foundation and its initiatives according to The Patterson Foundation’s Media Policy. Please refer to this policy if you are approached by a member of the media.

Direct all media inquiries to Branan Jacobs, bjacobs@magnifygood.com. If Branan is not available, please contact Roxanne Joffe, rjoffe@magnifygood.com.

Blogging is fundamental to The Patterson Foundation’s desire to connect, learn, share and evolve with the community. From relaying major initiative news, to recounting the individual experiences of working face-to-face with the community, blogs are a library of The Patterson Foundation’s unique and aspirational history.

The audience of a TPF blog is wide and far-reaching. Blogs are posted on the TPF website, posted on TPF social accounts, included in newsletters, and more. Blogs should be written for audiences who may know little about The Patterson Foundation or its initiatives.

A guest blog is a post written by an individual who has a viewpoint that is in alignment with The Patterson Foundation’s Values. TPF invites anyone who feels they have learnings to share – as related to our work – to write guest blog posts. If you are new to blogging, we suggest first viewing our guest blogging guidelines here to get a feel for what to write in your blog.

To submit your blog, please email Stacy Sternberg at ssternberg@thepattersonfoundation.org. If the blog needs major revisions, you will be included in the revision process.

A guest post for The Patterson Foundation should be:

• Compelling content related to The Patterson Foundation’s work and values
• An interesting perspective to share related to The Patterson Foundation’s work and values
• Of value to our target audience and the philanthropic sector
• Appropriate, thoughtful, and strategic in its content, imagery, and links

It should not be:

• A sales pitch of your website, product, or consulting services
• An article with numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes
• Defaming or tarnishing any individual or organization
• A topic that has been extensively written about in the past
• More than 500 words
• Religious or political in nature in its content, external links, and imagery

Sharing stories and experiences is an effective way to communicate The Patterson Foundation's work. Please consider the questions below as thought starters. If you have another idea for your content, we welcome your approach.

• Why is this initiative important to the community?
• What happened in this experience that fostered connecting, learning, sharing, evolving, and strengthening?
• Which TPF Values guided your approach?
• How did not arriving with the answer create trust and change?

To increase the readership of posted blogs, it is a great idea to notify your key influencers (key leaders/people who care about this topic) by adding the blog to your social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook. In your post, tag relevant individuals and organizations. When you do, they’ll get an alert to view your post, and on some platforms, your post will be shared with the tagged party’s followers as well.

Once the post is made, you can pin the blog to the top of your profile on certain platforms like Facebook. This will make the post the first thing people see when they view your profile.

You can also email specific interested parties and let them know your blog is available for reading, placing your blog link in your email.

While The Patterson Foundation connects with others through its own social media channels, each individual has their own following. Whether through work related accounts or personal accounts, you have the opportunity to tap into networks TPF has not yet reached. By sharing TPF content and news on your own social media channels, along with building up your own online presence, you’ll help TPF connect to a broader community and expand its impact.

While top performing content will differ from platform to platform, below are some recommended content ideas for posts across the platforms:

• Blog posts you write or find particularly compelling
• TPF Beyond the Blog podcasts
• Pictures or videos from a TPF event
• Information about initiatives
• Work accomplishments
• Relevant news articles
• Impact statistics, infographics, or reports
• A video montaging your time at an event or working on a project
• Images from a location based or visually compelling initiative (ie. Patriot Plaza)
• Impact stories

For additional guidance on what to share about your work with TPF on social media, review this TPF social media training presentation deck and watch this recording of a previous social media training session.

When selecting music and sounds to use on videos, reels, TikToks, or other audio-visual content, please only use royalty-free music or music purchased by The Patterson Foundation. As an organization, The Patterson Foundation can be found liable for copyright infringement if music that is not purchased for commercial use or is not royalty free is used by staff to promote TPF, its events, or any of its initiatives. Royalty-free libraries are easily accessible on the internet, and can also easily be found on 3rd party content creation sites such as Canva. To inquire about TPF purchased music or subscriptions, please contact Nancy Henry at nhenry@thepattersonfoundation.org.

If you encounter another user of a social media platform who acts negatively towards The Patterson Foundation in a public manner on your work social media accounts or posts you make about The Patterson Foundation on your personal accounts, it is considered a social media crisis. This includes:

• Complaints
• Politically charged statements
• Misinformation, or derogatory comments about The Patterson Foundation’s initiatives, staff, or partners

It is also a social media crisis if your professional or private social media accounts are hacked. As a member of TPF’s internal community, if your account is hacked, nefarious individuals may potentially send untoward posts and messages to your followers passing off as you, which could negatively impact the perception of you as well as the Foundation.

In case of any of these situations, immediately notify Stacy Sternberg, The Patterson Foundation’s communications coordinator, even if you’re not sure whether your situation counts as a crisis or not — it’s better to be safe than sorry. You can reach Stacy at ssternberg@thepattersonfoundation.org.