we help you deliver the outcomes society deserves.
We are a small communications firm that offers services to mission-driven organizations focusing on transformational change in communities around the world. Our clients are found within private philanthropy, national nonprofits, NGOs, CSRs, and socially conscious for-profits. Our services include strategy design, campaign work, and brand, organizational and corporate communications. We intentionally keep Defy Communications small – offering you senior-level talent and uniquely crafted work for your needs and timeline.
what we do
strategy activated through communications
Our approach to work draws deeply from our experiences working with external agencies. When we developed the conceptual framework for Defy in 2017, we wanted to draw on lessons learned – the good and the bad – to craft an approach that would be most successful in service to others.
Strategy, Design, and Implementation
We partner with you to design short- and long-term communications and marketing plans, staffing models, internal support structures, and much more. Will remain as trusted thought partners and doers throughout the process.
Organizational and Corporate Communications
We bring years of experience in organizational and corporate communications to the work. We offer support in short- and long-range campaigns, media relations, executive visibility, crisis communications, messaging, thought leadership, deploying influence, brand development, and internal communications and staff engagement.
Programmatic Communications
We will work with you, your program or portfolio teams, grantees, and other key stakeholders to elevate community voices, strengthen networks, and help drive systemic change.
Our approach starts with listening. We want to listen as thoroughly as possible as we get a sense of your organization, the landscape of your work and the details of your current challenges and needs. We are fully focused on understanding what you are working toward within the context of the current environment to help devise actionable ways of advancing your agenda, efforts or cause.
We promise to never let the speed of information outrun your message. This requires knowing as much as possible about the current conversation and message landscape relative to your audiences and stakeholders. To acquire these insights, we combine modern and traditional methods of gathering data and analytics with deep network analysis and sources of information from our digital lives.
Our core offering is strategy activated through communications. We use data and analytics to gain insights that will drive the communications strategy toward the desired outcome. Whether it is to advance your brand, messages, annual report, overall content, digital presence or for a specific campaign, we promise that what we develop with you will be informed and targeted to the right outcomes.
Once the strategy is set, we will work with precision to execute it with you, supporting you or on your behalf. We will utilize unique tools to measure results so there is a clear sense of how well we are telling stories, delivering messages, feeding content, and most importantly, creating experiences that help propel your success. We promise to always be refining and learning so that our work together only gets better and better.
how we partner
Advancing causes, issues, and movements with communications takes much more than a well-timed story in the media. In today’s world, your communications should remain as modern as the digital gadgets we charge by the bedside every night. We help you get there by approaching our partnership in four key steps.
Our approach starts with listening. We want to listen as thoroughly as possible as we get a sense of your organization, the landscape of your work and the details of your current challenges and needs. We are fully focused on understanding what you are working toward within the context of the current environment to help devise actionable ways of advancing your agenda, efforts or cause.
how we partner
Advancing causes, issues, and movements with communications takes much more than a well-timed story in the media. In today’s world, your communications should remain as modern as the digital gadgets we charge by the bedside every night. We help you get there by approaching our partnership in four key steps.
We promise to never let the speed of information outrun your message. This requires knowing as much as possible about the current conversation and message landscape relative to your audiences and stakeholders. To acquire these insights, we combine modern and traditional methods of gathering data and analytics with deep network analysis and sources of information from our digital lives.
how we partner
Advancing causes, issues, and movements with communications takes much more than a well-timed story in the media. In today’s world, your communications should remain as modern as the digital gadgets we charge by the bedside every night. We help you get there by approaching our partnership in four key steps.
Our approach starts with listening. We want to listen as thoroughly as possible as we get a sense of your organization, the landscape of your work and the details of your current challenges and needs. We are fully focused on understanding what you are working toward within the context of the current environment to help devise actionable ways of advancing your agenda, efforts or cause.
how we partner
Advancing causes, issues, and movements with communications takes much more than a well-timed story in the media. In today’s world, your communications should remain as modern as the digital gadgets we charge by the bedside every night. We help you get there by approaching our partnership in four key steps.
Once the strategy is set, we will work with precision to execute it with you, supporting you or on your behalf. We will utilize unique tools to measure results so there is a clear sense of how well we are telling stories, delivering messages, feeding content, and most importantly, creating experiences that help propel your success. We promise to always be refining and learning so that our work together only gets better and better.
our clients
we understand how to translate modern thinking & approaches for our mission-driven partners and clients.
Our clients are found within private philanthropy, national nonprofits, NGOs, CSRs, and socially conscious for-profits.
passion is what drives us
we believe communications plays an ever-increasing role in shaping movements and changing hearts and minds.
we believe communications plays an ever-increasing role in shaping movements and changing hearts and minds.
our mission
Defy’s mission is to partner with extraordinary people and organizations on issues, causes and movements that defy convention, perception and limitation while helping to deliver the outcomes our society deserves.
We possess the strategic and organizational agility necessary to get things done, and we have a keen understanding of the communications landscape and how to navigate it successfully. We put our strong work ethic to work for you, and we promise that our lights do not go out until yours do.
client testimonials
what our partners say
Sara Critchfield
Vice President of Global Outreach, The Fetzer Institute
Roben Smolar
Chief Communications Officer, the Schusterman Family Philanthropies
Jill Schwartz
FMR. VP of Communications, American Forests
We have worked with Defy since 2018 on several projects ranging from messaging to competitive landscape research to helping organize our external agency expertise. They bring big and fresh thinking, attention to detail, and commitment to our organization’s mission. They remain among our most trusted partners.
Kevin Corcoran
Strategy Director for Communications, Lumina Foundation
let’s discuss now
get in touch!
we look forward to hearing from you!
We answer all email and requests as they come in. If you have any questions, requests, or need assistance, kindly fill out the Contact form. Our team is always ready to help and we will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible.
