Meet our happy campers.

Our work, working.

Communications strategy.

After labouring for nearly a year, a committee of government, educational groups and Indigenous associations and agencies asked Jonathan to supply communications support.

Tasked with providing First Nations, Métis and Inuit frontline-services workers with workplace-literacy and employability skills, the committee needed a communications strategy and branding that would honour, celebrate and encourage a culture of learning leading to employment. Respectful consultation with Indigenous partners and community members led to a values-based communications strategy – leaning heavily on oral communication and storytelling. Jonathan’s strategy guided the committee to heavily promote its initiative’s new radically branded visual identity through Indigenous-owned distribution channels.

The initiative appealed to, trained and certified more than 1,000 workers from 37 Indigenous communities across Manitoba, and earned the group an award from the provincial government.

Board development.

A medium-sized social service agency was in the not-uncommon position of having relied too heavily on project-based funding and had lost sight of their central mission.

After a number of layoffs and the resignation of its executive director, the agency’s board committed to a significant reorganization but its members were uncertain about next steps. John was called in and, after a brief assessment, led the board through a full-day planning session. Through judicious listening, restating and reframing, he modelled an asset-based approach that soon had the group forward-focused and planning as a team. By the end of the session, the group had self-identified the need for an environmental scan and a gap analysis complete with a time-line.

A resolution to hire this expertise passed unanimously.

Skills development training.

Several of Manitoba’s prominent arts groups gathered at an annual conference to hear Madskills Group explain the nuts and bolts of influential messaging.

Our aim was for learners to walk away knowing more about building and strengthening stakeholder relationships, so we focused on guiding these groups to develop and implement a donor-centric messaging calendar. We took our audience through the thinking behind influential messaging, the crafting process, and the consistent scheduling needed to deepen influence on an audience. Along with some literary techniques and devices, we stressed that effectively and systematically communicating your non-profit’s impact in ways that are meaningful to your stakeholders is your best shot at building a sustainable future.

As one learner gratifyingly noted afterward, the sweet spot you’re aiming for is to engage through thoughtful, purpose-driven messaging that honours stakeholders’ needs as well as your own.

Case for engagement.

For nearly 50 years an inner-city agency championed the evolving social, emotional and mental health needs of the most vulnerable people in its downtown community. Keeping pace meant adding more services, increasing levels of support – even a name-change. When agency leadership decided to up their revenue-raising efforts, we jumped at the chance to help them keep moving forward.

We suggested they double-down on their new revenue-raising strategy by adding a Case for Engagement. We quietly listened for hours as agency staff and stakeholders gave us their raw, lived experience with people who are accustomed to being tossed about, traumatized and dismissed. By project’s end, the agency had a Case that clearly and compellingly told its story along with a comprehensive plan for raising revenues. It moved forward with a much-needed capital campaign that had been stalled for over a year.