Instagram story viewer> @chappellcommunicationsgroup> Posts

Chappell Communications Group

@chappellcommunicationsgroup

205

followers

76

following

Humanizing complexity.
Strategic communications for social impact + purpose-driven brands.
Storytelling • Digital Strategy • Public Narrative ↓

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Don't fret, sometimes people don’t know what they mean until they see what they don’t mean. The first draft gets you there. by @chappellcommunicationsgroup

1

0

15 hours ago

Your organization may be carrying more debt than what appears on its balance sheet.

Communications debt accumulates gradually, often invisibly, until something important depends on it.

It can look like:

🟤 A value proposition that no longer reflects the organization’s direction.

🟤 Stakeholder relationships maintained only when there’s an ask.

🟤 Institutional knowledge concentrated in a handful of people.

🟤 Executives with valuable expertise but little public visibility.

🟤 Communications channels operating without a shared strategy or narrative.

Individually, these issues may not seem urgent. Until they compound.

A leadership transition takes institutional knowledge with it. Funding becomes uncertain, and the organization struggles to articulate its value. A crisis emerges, and relationships must be built overnight.

**What looked like a communications problem becomes an organizational capacity problem.**

Communications is infrastructure, not simply something organizations activate when they have something to announce, promote, or defend.

And its strength is determined long before it’s urgently needed.

As we approach year-end, organizations should ask:

What communications debt are we carrying, and where are we already paying the price?

Because the consequences extend far beyond the communications department. by @chappellcommunicationsgroup

2

0

3 days ago

AI is making cultural knowledge easier to access. Cultural proximity is a different story. 🤖🤖🤖

AI can analyze how communities talk about issues, surface cultural context, and recommend language likely to resonate.

That can make communications more informed. But it can also create false proximity. Knowing more about a community isn’t the same as having a relationship with that community.

Some things don’t sit neatly inside a dataset:

🟤 Why certain institutions are trusted and others aren’t.
🟤 How communities speak internally versus how organizations describe them.
🟤 The nuances that make messaging feel affirming, performative, or simply off.
🟤 The relationships that allow people to tell us when we got something wrong.

For social impact organizations, communities aren’t simply audiences to understand. They’re relationships to cultivate.

When information begins to feel like understanding, we risk confusing insight with intimacy and information with trust.

The better technology becomes at understanding people from a distance, the more intentional we must be about maintaining actual proximity.

You can prompt your way toward cultural knowledge. You can’t prompt your way into a relationship.
#StrategicCommunications #ArtificialIntelligence #CommunityEngagement #SocialImpact by @chappellcommunicationsgroup

3

0

15 days ago

“I could breathe.”

That was one student’s response during our campaign production at Illinois State University when we asked what they could focus on if they didn’t have to worry about paying for college.

A simple answer that captured exactly what was at stake.

Last spring, Chappell Communications Group partnered with the Coalition for Transforming Higher Education Funding to bring Fund Illinois’ Future: Public Higher Education Is a Public Good to life through storytelling rooted in lived experience.

Powered by:

🟤 Advance Illinois
🟤 Center for Tax and Budget Accountability
🟤 Illinois Federation of Teachers
🟤 Latino Policy Forum
🟤 Partnership for College Completion
🟤 University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100
🟤 Women Employed
🟤 Young Invincibles

From students and university leaders to legislators and advocates, the campaign translated complex higher education funding policy into a public narrative grounded in people’s lives and Illinois’ economic future.

The work reinforced a principle central to our advocacy communications: People don’t experience policy as policy. They experience its impact.

The strongest advocacy campaigns build trust, connection, and momentum toward action, not just communicate information.
#HigherEducation #NarrativeStrategy #Advocacy #Storytelling #PublicPolicy by @chappellcommunicationsgroup

2

0

17 days ago

When organizations lose Black women, they often lose critical infrastructure that makes their work effective.

Recent reporting points to two realities: Black women are among the fastest-growing groups of entrepreneurs in the country, while also experiencing disproportionate displacement from the workforce.

When Black women leave—or are pushed out of—organizations, the loss often extends beyond their job descriptions:

🟤 Institutional knowledge built over years.
🟤 Cultural fluency grounded in lived experience.
🟤 Relationships and credibility cultivated with communities.
🟤 The ability to communicate across differences when trust is fragile.

For social impact organizations, these aren't peripheral capabilities. They're often part of the infrastructure that makes the mission possible.

You can replace a position. Rebuilding institutional memory, cultural fluency, and community trust is much harder.

As organizations navigate restructuring and changing priorities, workforce decisions are also communications decisions. Who remains in the room influences whose experiences are understood, which relationships are sustained, and how effectively an organization communicates with the communities it serves.
#SocialImpact #NonprofitLeadership #StrategicCommunications #organizationaltrust by @chappellcommunicationsgroup

1

0

22 days ago

Awareness alone doesn’t move people to action.

Social impact leaders, advocates, and our communities are exhausted from being asked to care about systems that rarely seem to care about them.

Across CCG’s advocacy and community-centered work, we’ve seen:

🟤 People move when they feel connected.
🟤 People engage when they feel seen.
🟤 People act when they trust the story being told.

Too often, advocacy communications prioritize information over narrative. But facts without emotional connection rarely shift behavior.

That’s why our approach brings together storytelling, lived experience, and community-centered narrative strategy to build relationships that sustain engagement and inspire action.

Because the goal isn’t simply awareness. It’s giving people a reason to care—and act.

Read From Apathy to Action: Rethinking Advocacy Strategy at the #linkinbio.
#Advocacy #NarrativeStrategy #StrategicCommunications #PublicPolicy #socialimpact by @chappellcommunicationsgroup

2

0

24 days ago

Graduation season hides many survival stories. 🎓🎓🎓

During our Public Higher Education Is a Public Good campaign production with the Coalition for Transforming Higher Education, one student shared that if they didn’t have to constantly worry about paying for college, they could finally “breathe.”

That answer continues to stay with me.

Behind many degrees are students balancing pressure, sacrifice, work, uncertainty, and the emotional weight of simply trying to make it to graduation.

College should expand opportunity, not force students into survival mode just to access it.

#GraduationSeason #HigherEducation #Storytelling #StudentVoices by @chappellcommunicationsgroup

2

0

5 months ago

Public higher education changes lives. 🎓

But behind every degree is a story of sacrifice, resilience, and opportunity.

Our latest campaign with the Coalition for Transforming Higher Education Funding brings together the voices of students, university leaders, and legislators to share what’s at stake when higher education becomes harder to access. and what becomes possible when we invest in Illinois students and families.

Because this isn’t just about college. It’s about the future of Illinois.

We are proud to partner with the Coalition for Transforming Higher Education on bringing this narrative campaign to life through storytelling rooted in lived experience.

⏳ With the May 31 budget deadline approaching, now is the time to urge lawmakers to pass SB13/HB1581.

🎥 Watch the stories.
📢 Take action.
🔗 Link in bio

#HigherEducation #Advocacy #PublicPolicy Illinois Storytelling by @chappellcommunicationsgroup

3

1

5 months ago

Across the state, funding gaps are hindering access to higher education, particularly for first-generation students and under-resourced communities where resilience is survival.

These funding gaps fall on the students and their families. Needless to say, public colleges and universities are being asked to do more, with less. The ripple effects don’t stop at campus—they impact our workforce, our communities, and our state’s collective future.

This type of work hits differently. @chappellcommunicationsgroup is proud to partner with the Coalition for Transforming Higher Education Funding (CTHEF) to launch an integrated marketing campaign advancing legislation designed to reimagine how we invest in public higher education and move awareness into meaningful civic action.

At the core of this work are four critical principles:

1️⃣ Students First: A student-centered approach that expands access and elevates student voice
2️⃣Equity-Driven Access: A commitment to equity—removing systemic barriers to affordability, persistence, and completion
3️⃣ Sustainable System Growth: Building a more sustainable, diverse higher education system that meets students where they are
4️⃣ Equitable Institutional Funding: Ensuring institutions are fully resourced to support the success of all students—especially those historically underserved

I’m proud to support this work by translating complex policy into clear, compelling narratives that drive awareness and action—meeting both the moment and the communities it impacts.

#HigherEducation #PublicPolicy #Equity #SocialImpact #Communications by @chappellcommunicationsgroup

1

0

6 months ago

As we celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month, it’s important to be aware of the disinformation and misinformation that continues to circulate online.

From historical erasure to harmful stereotypes perpetuated by AI algorithms, the LGBTQ+ community faces unique challenges in the digital age.

We need to remain vigilant about our digital footprint and consumption to combat disinformation and to not allow social media’s algorithm to dictate our peace, dignity, and identity.
🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍🌈
#LGBTQHistoryMonth #SocialMediaLiteracy #CombatDisinformation by @chappellcommunicationsgroup

8

0

a year ago

Growing a small business isn’t linear; there are times when you have to take five steps back to make a giant leap forward, and repeat.

Running a small business is a whirlwind of highs and lows, wins and losses,
but above all, it’s a journey of growth, resilience, and success.

As small business owners, we must always maintain a sense of reverence for where we are in our respective journeys because that’s where we’ll find insights.

As @chappellcommunicationsgroup [CCG] commemorates five years in business, our Principal, @terrence_chappell dives into the realities of owning a small business - from the funny memes that perfectly capture the chaos to the below valuable insights:

✅ Network laterally
✅ Find success in failure
✅ Understand that clients aren’t forever, but relationships are

#LinkinBio to check out @terrence_chappell’s @linkedin article about Failing Forward: The Key to Growth in Entrepreneurship by @chappellcommunicationsgroup

4

0

a year ago

On Sunday we marched on the legacy of so many before us. It’s important to remember our history and the importance of the annual Chicago Pride Parade - creating hope, joy and visibility.

Let’s remember the work doesn’t end on June 30th. We must remain United in Pride year round.

#chicagoprideparade #unitedinpride #pridechicago #lgbtq @lgbthalloffame @sidetrackbar @chappellcommunicationsgroup by @chappellcommunicationsgroup

54

2

a year ago