You Might Be Becoming Known for the Wrong Thing

“I’m sick of it.” That’s how a community foundation CEO opened our meeting last week.

We'd just hopped on Zoom to talk about a 2026 communications plan. After the usual pleasantries, she said, “I’m sick of sitting in board meetings and hearing members say, ‘It’s because no one knows about us.’”

It wasn’t dramatic. It was weary. The frustration had clearly been building.

This client is new to us, so we started by looking at their current situation—specifically the channel they rely on most: Facebook.

First, you should know they serve a region of more than 250,000 people.

In 2025, they published 175 posts. From the inside, that felt active. Board members were seeing posts in their own feeds. Staff were sharing things.

The median reach per post was 450 people. They have about 4,500 followers. That means roughly 10% of their followers saw any given post—and often it’s the same slice of people repeatedly. In fact, 88 of the 175 posts reached fewer than 500 people.

They were genuinely shocked. They had never looked at the numbers.

Then we looked at topics. More than half of their total reach for the year was tied to scholarships.

Scholarships matter, but they are far from a strategic priority. Scholarships require significant staff time and are not the primary lever for growing assets or long-term community impact.

And yet, because scholarship-related posts traveled the farthest, that topic had gradually become what people associated with them.

At the same time, their general email list and quarterly mailed newsletters were reaching less than 2,000 people.

Internally, these activities felt like steady communication. They assumed the broader community was seeing what they were seeing.

As we talked it through, it became clear they didn’t have a volume problem. They had two structural problems.

First, a story problem. The topic getting the most visibility was not aligned with their long-term priorities.

Second, an amplification problem. Even the RIGHT messages were reaching only a tiny fraction of the people they need to influence.

They were working hard. But their story was drifting toward what was easiest to post, and their amplification relied on channels that limit visibility unless you pay to extend it.

Their unintentional system was producing exactly what they were frustrated about. And that’s the part that stings. Because it means the answer isn’t “work harder.” It’s “build differently.”

If you’re feeling that same tension in your own organization, ask yourself:

- What are we actually becoming known for?

- Is our message reaching far enough, often enough, to shape that perception?

Activity feels like communication. But without an intentional system of Story + Amplification, you may be leaving a large swath of your audience in the dark—or with the wrong impression.

Lori