By Jessica Forres, Executive Vice President, Top of Mind PR
For decades, many mission-driven organizations, such as NGOs, foundations, think tanks, and nonprofits, operated on a deeply held belief. If the research was rigorous and the work meaningful, recognition would follow.
For a long time, that approach worked. But times have changed. Today, visibility determines viability. In an attention economy shaped by algorithms and AI, even the most important institutions can fade from view, lose influence, or miss out on funding when political winds shift and global priorities change. Greater visibility can strengthen an organization’s case with donors, funders, policymakers, and partners by making its impact easier to understand, trust, and support.
For example, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge turned a little-understood disease into a global conversation, drawing more than 17 million participants worldwide and raising $115 million for ALS research and care. More recently, AP reported that Brilliant Cities, a Detroit nonprofit, saw increased donations after its CEO was featured in a YouTube documentary series, including one funder who wanted to increase a gift from $7,000 to $100,000.
These examples show the upside of visibility. When people understand an organization’s mission, recognize its leaders and see its work connected to a larger public conversation, they are more likely to engage, support and invest in it. Visibility does not guarantee funding, but it gives donors, funders and partners a clearer reason to pay attention.
The reverse is also true. When important work remains invisible, even the strongest research and most credible institutions can struggle to influence the people they are trying to reach.
The Invisibility Problem
A recent U.N. report unintentionally revealed something uncomfortable when it found that many U.N. reports are not widely read. The World Bank has seen a similar challenge. A 2014 analysis of its policy reports found that more than 31% were never downloaded and almost 87% were never cited.
The irony is striking. Institutions charged with shaping global policy, development, cooperation and public understanding are producing rigorous research that too often struggles to travel beyond expert or internal circles.
This is not a critique of substance. Mission-driven organizations produce extraordinary analysis, data and expertise. The challenge is reach and narrative.
In today’s environment, reports do not build public understanding. They do not mobilize public support, protect funding, and influence policymakers if they never travel past internal circles.
The Attention Economy Has Changed the Rules
Most people can name the leaders of major companies or social media influencers. Far fewer can name the leaders working to protect democracy, climate stability, public health, or development finance. That visibility gap matters.
Lawmakers scan headlines. Staffers search online before meetings. Journalists rely on digital research and AI tools to synthesize complex issues quickly. Donors increasingly assess public presence as a signal of relevance and momentum.
And the broader public shapes its understanding of institutions based on what surfaces in search results, social feeds, and media coverage. Silence is vulnerability.
When organizations choose not to engage publicly, they leave space for others to define them. In a fast-moving media ecosystem, absence does not create neutrality. It creates a vacuum that gets filled by critics, competitors, misinterpretations, or simplified narratives that reduce complex work to a headline or a hashtag.
Silence erodes institutional memory. If your work isn’t consistently visible, searchable, and explained in plain language, it becomes easy for decision-makers to overlook it when priorities shift. Staff turnover, leadership changes, and budget pressures all reset the conversation. If your organization isn’t top of mind in those moments, it can quietly fall off the agenda.
For mission-driven organizations, that’s the risk of treating communications as a series of one-off outputs, such as launching a report, hosting a panel, issuing a press release, or sending a newsletter. Information alone doesn’t command attention.
Winning the narrative battle requires more than documentation. It demands clarity, repetition, and a human voice, explaining complex policy in ways people understand and showing up when the issue is in the headlines, not weeks later.
Why You Need a Public Relations Strategy
Winning the narrative battle also requires infrastructure, consistency, and long-term positioning. A robust public relations strategy ensures your organization is not simply reacting to events but shaping how issues are understood.
That includes:
Proactive issue monitoring
Closely tracking legislative, regulatory, and geopolitical developments so you can shape the narrative early. It requires following the news, spotting openings, and consistently placing your expertise into the conversation. When a bill is introduced or funding priorities shift, your perspective should already be part of the public dialogue, not scrambling to catch up.
Creative opportunity mapping
The strongest opportunities do not always fall neatly within an organization’s usual issue area. A strategic communications partner looks beyond the obvious news cycle to identify connections to emerging debates, cultural moments and adjacent sectors. That might mean positioning a workforce organization in a conversation about AI, connecting land rights to climate finance or introducing a policy expert to business, technology or lifestyle outlets that would not normally cover the organization’s work. These unexpected entry points can help organizations reach new audiences, broaden their relevance and break out of the same small circle of familiar publications and stakeholders.
Strategic media relations
Building sustained relationships with reporters who cover your issue areas and offering expert commentary when news breaks. Placing timely op-eds or developing media pitches that connect your work to real-time developments ensures your organization is quoted in the first wave of coverage, not the fifth.
Leadership visibility and thought leadership
Positioning executive leaders and subject-matter experts as credible public explainers through interviews, podcasts, conference panels, and opinion pieces. People trust people more than amorphous organizational brands. Elevating recognizable voices builds institutional resilience.
Social media as amplification, not afterthought
Using LinkedIn, X, and other platforms to reinforce media placements, explain complex policy in plain language, and engage directly with stakeholders. A well-timed thread or short video from a respected expert can shape perception faster than a lengthy report.
Digital discoverability
Structuring website content, blog posts, and policy briefs so they appear in search results and AI-generated summaries when journalists, lawmakers, or donors research your issue. If someone types a question into Gemini or ChatGPT, your organization’s voice should surface.
Stakeholder engagement beyond press
Maintaining consistent outreach to policymakers, regulators, coalition partners, and donors so your organization is seen as a trusted resource, not just an advocate.
Rapid response capability
Publishing timely commentary within hours, not weeks, when major developments occur. Speed often determines whose framing becomes dominant.
Public relations is not a one-off campaign. It is a sustained commitment to visibility, clarity, and credibility.
The Cost of Invisibility
Policymakers, journalists, donors and stakeholders increasingly rely on search engines and AI tools to understand issues quickly. If your organization does not appear in search results, media coverage or digital summaries, it risks disappearing from the conversation.
The cost of invisibility is not always immediate or easy to measure. It often becomes apparent only when an organization loses a major grant, faces a political attack or needs supporters to defend its work. If too few people understand the mission, there may be no broad constituency ready to replace lost funding or make the case for its survival.
Recent research illustrates that disconnect. A Candid survey found that only 32% of respondents knew charities had experienced federal funding cuts in 2025. Yet 36% said they would be more likely to donate to a charity if they knew it had lost significant government support. People cannot respond to a threat they do not know exists.
Organizations with limited public visibility are more vulnerable to funding pressure, shifting priorities and misunderstanding. Visibility builds familiarity, familiarity builds trust and trust builds durability.
This is not about self-promotion. It is about protecting the mission and ensuring that credible, evidence-based expertise remains part of the public debate. Today, influence does not automatically follow impact. It follows visibility.
For mission-driven organizations, winning the narrative battle is no longer optional. It is essential.
About The Author
Jessica Forres is Executive Vice President of Top of Mind Public Relations, where she leads the firm’s Law and Advocacy Practices and oversees the agency’s Traditional Media team. With a decade at the firm, she brings deep expertise in strategic media relations, thought leadership positioning, and issue-driven advocacy campaigns.
Jessica has guided communications strategies for national nonprofits, international coalitions, and leading law firms, securing high-impact coverage across top outlets while shaping narratives on complex policy, legal, and social issues. Known for her ability to bridge traditional journalism instincts with modern PR strategies, she helps clients elevate their voices, influence public discourse, and build lasting visibility in an evolving media landscape.
