Diversifying Your Audience

Chances are someone on your comms or fundraising team has asked about “diversifying your audience/donor base” sometime recently – but what does it actually mean? Reaching a wide range of demographics is important, but if you haven’t thought about why you’re trying to reach them, your approach can be generic and ineffective, at best, and tokenizing at worst.

Rather than starting with broad platitudes, it’s important to take a step back and understand what diversity in your audience actually means. More specific audiences, with narrowly targeted content and tactics will make your outreach more relevant and effective with all your audiences – and yes, that will likely make your audiences more diverse over time.

Follow along as our panelists talk through their experiences and various ways to think about, and start, diversifying your audience.

Event Recording

Recorded March 30, 2022 | ~50 minutes
Slide deck: Diversifying your audience

For more on ways to consider diversifying your audience, check out this recent blog post from PTKO president Patti DeBow

Moderator

Patti DeBow

President, ParsonsTKO

Patti is a data-minded strategy and operations executive with a passion for solving the unique challenges found in the non-profit and public sectors. In her role as President, she oversees project execution and operations, ensuring that we deliver high-quality, comprehensive, and effective solutions to our clients.

Patti came to ParsonsTKO with over a decade of experience in management consulting at Accenture, where she worked on strategic planning, customer engagement, digital transformation, program and operational strategy, and financial forecasting. Prior to that, her 5 years of experience in data analytics at Towers Perrin and an MBA from Wharton business school gave her a background in data-driven analysis that informs her approach to managing the growth of our company.

Panelists

Kate Villarreal

Senior Director of Strategic Communications, Urban Institute

Kate works in close partnership with research and communications staff to lead and execute strategies that raise the visibility of research, engage critical audiences, and help drive smart evidence-based policy. From 2013 to 2016, she was the communications manager for Urban’s Justice Policy Center.

Villarreal joined Urban after serving two years in the Obama administration as public and media affairs staff for former US Trade Representative Ron Kirk. Before this, she pursued graduate study in political communication while managing communications for a nonprofit organization in the Texas Hill Country, where she wrote a weekly news column for the local paper. From 2003 to 2007, Villarreal was a community organizer in Seattle and earned citywide recognition for leading an effort to preserve public housing at Yesler Terrace. She received a BA in history from Macalester College and an MA in political communication from the University of Texas, San Antonio.

Sueann Tannis

Senior Director, Integrated Communications, United Nations Foundation

Most recently, Sueann was Head, Corporate Communications at the Caribbean Development Bank and Consultant at the World Bank, where she advised on digital communications for a $530 million Trust Fund focusing on women’s and children’s health.

Prior, Sueann held marketing communications roles in the financial services, luxury real estate and retail, and tourism sectors.

Sueann holds a Master’s degree in Public Relations with a focus on Digital Strategy from Georgetown University, and an undergraduate degree in Communication and Culture from Howard University.

Beyond the office, in her spare time, she enjoys providing pro bono PR advice to youth entrepreneurs and fledgling brands.

Jim Hu
Executive Vice President, Audience, Participant Media

Jim Hu serves as Executive Vice President of Audience for Participant, the leading media company dedicated to entertainment that inspires audiences to engage in positive social action.

In his role, Hu oversees the company’s growth toward building an online community of Participants through daily touchpoints that complement the company’s film and episodic content and its social impact work. His responsibilities include digital short-form content production, audience acquisition and audience growth across Participant’s digital channels, including social media.

Hu first joined Participant in 2018 as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, a role in which he oversaw the design and implementation of the Company’s long-range strategy across film, television and digital media in both domestic and international markets. Hu is a digital media veteran who led strategy, operations and monetization teams across global digital brands including Instagram, Yahoo!, CNET and the Los Angeles Times. He holds a B.S. at Tufts University and an MBA at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.