A School District Communications Firm Dedicated to Public Education
We help public school and district leaders engage stakeholders, increase transparency and compete well in an increasingly competitive educational marketplace.
Your Dedicated School Communications Partner
A Full-Service Approach
The Donovan Group focuses exclusively on education, delivering school district communications services that help you reach your marketing, public relations and stakeholder engagement goals. We leverage our expertise in communications and apply it to K-12 schools and districts.
Education is our Passion
We’ve become a national leader in school district communications by staying on top of emerging best practices. We come from an educational background and are well-versed in state and federal policy, changes in teaching and learning and new forms of competition.
Proud Partners
You gain access to school district communications services that include everything from consulting and coaching to high-quality deliverables. Our clients are large, urban districts and small, one-building rural schools. We also deliver communications and consulting services to state and national associations.
Services Tailored to Your School or District
Consulting
Our deep knowledge of public education drives our school district communications services. We help you achieve your goals, whether it’s navigating a leadership change, assisting during a crisis, conducting audits or streamlining your communications efforts.
Creation
We help schools, districts and educational organizations with graphic design, content creation, social media management, website development, app development, polls, surveys, focus groups and spokesperson services—among many other solutions.
Coaching
Our firm’s directors have been called on regularly to provide coaching services for superintendents, administrators, principals and communication professionals. We offer coaching services for organizations large and small across the United States.
The 4 a.m. Blog
Getting Started with a School District Rebranding Effort
In an era of open enrollment and charter, voucher, virtual and private schools, public schools and districts must have a distinct brand if they hope to compete among the wide variety of options available to families and students. This makes school district rebranding...
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Effective School Referendum Planning is About More Than Pass or Fail
When we think about what it means to have a successful school referendum planning process, our goal is to do much more than ensure 51 percent of community members vote in favor of the question on the ballot. Instead, we consider a well-executed referendum effort to be...
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Report Sheds Light on Parents’ Emerging Expectations for School Communication
Data from Blackboard's recent Trends in Community Engagement Report indicate that schools and districts must strike a balance when communicating with parents. The report included data on communications trends from more than a half-million parents, students, teachers,...
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First #NationalSchoolWalkout Offers Communications Lessons for School Districts
Wednesday, March 14 was a historic day in the world of education. While coordinated demonstrations among college students are somewhat common, this was the first time in which K-12 students joined together in a large-scale, nationwide protest. Regardless of where you...
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3 Things School Leaders Should Know About Telling the Truth in Difficult Times
“No news is good news.” It’s a common saying, but not one that ever makes it into an organization’s mission statement. Regardless, it has been said in many boardrooms, likely as often as common mission-statement words like “integrity” and “character.” Navigating a...
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School Finance Communication: Asking the Right Questions
This is the third article of a three-part series on communication about school finance. If you haven’t already, we invite you to read the first and second articles in the series. I always find that when communicating about budgets and attempting to create messages,...
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School Finance Communication: The ‘Gas Station Principle’
This is the second article of a three-part series on communication about school finance. If you haven’t already, read the first article. Not long ago, I was filling up my tank at a local gas station the night after a long and contentious board meeting at which the...
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School Finance Communication: Early and Often
This is the first article of a three-part series on communication about school finance. There is a universal truth when communicating about education: nearly everyone has an opinion because nearly everyone has attended school. But if it’s true that everyone has...
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Tools we Love: The Donovan Group Tech Stack
It is almost cliché to say it: education and communication are changing so fast that it is difficult to keep up. Central to this change are the tools that are used to engage in communication, to collaborate and generally to get work done. We are often asked for...
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Long-time Journalist Jerry Gallagher To Lead Donovan Group’s Iowa Office
Long-time Waterloo Journalist Jerry Gallagher Joins Educational Communications Firm Donovan Group: Gallagher’s addition will allow the firm to deliver its communications services to schools, districts and educational organizations throughout Iowa CEDAR FALLS, Iowa —...
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Get out of the Bubble
Educational leaders often communicate in bubbles. Based on our communications efforts, we receive feedback from the same group of people, often the most actively engaged parents. And, as a result, the way in which we communicate, including how we communicate and what...
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School District Communication Tip of the Day: Crisis Communication—Lining Up Your Team
In the last two posts, I outlined what I consider to be the first steps to take when communicating during a crisis situation. These steps are: Step 1: Get as many facts as you can, as quickly as you can. Get the who, what, where, when, and how. Be as specific as...
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