working in strategic partnership to get you the credit you deserve for your amazing work —
Matt Davis Communications, Inc.
A deeply experienced strategic communications professional specializing in editorial thought leadership, Matt partners with organizations to craft compelling narratives that resonate and drive meaningful change. He brings a unique blend of storytelling expertise and strategic insight to elevate your brand’s voice.
Active Clients ❤️
Articles, op-eds, emails and blog posts written ✍🏼
Media outlets in which Matt's writing has appeared 🗒
What people say about working with matt davis communications, inc.
Services and approach
Editorial Thought Leadership
Helping clients secure media placement by drafting opinion pieces in response to the news cycle. These pieces name your organization and position you for your key audiences, often securing dozens or even hundreds of reprints in syndication around the world.
Communications Strategy
Helping clients develop and implement written communication strategies with clear target audiences, messaging, and narrative shift goals so that they can leverage opportunities to deepen broad awareness of their work for years to come.
Public Relations
Identifying target publications for your work, drafting and sending out bespoke pitches and press releases, and securing traditional media hits.
Experienced, Trustworthy, Conscience-Driven
Matt spent 10 years as a journalist and won multiple awards for his reporting on the U.S. criminal justice system, particularly its treatment of Black and Brown people, juvenile detainees and those in mental health crisis. He has since led communications at nonprofits in London, Oakland, and in New York City, and founded Matt Davis Communications, Inc. in 2020 to work on a strategic basis for a variety of clients whose missions interest him.
Drawing Attention To Injustice
In California, when Harvard University started buying up water rights in a valley where groundwater was running out, Matt took a Greyhound bus down there and found the people whose livelihoods would be threatened, making an 11-minute film that attracted the interest of the Wall Street Journal, who subsequently ran an investigative story on the issue, prompting lawmakers to pay more attention to how water rights are regulated in the state.
Supporting Winning Campaigns
A million Californians lacked access to safe and affordable drinking water, so Matt went and found them. People who had spent their lives having to buy bottled water, and he made films in the Coachella Valley and Los Angeles, shooting footage of people bringing their arsenic-laced water to the state capitol. All this was ultimately part of a coalition effort that led the state legislature to allocate $130million a year to improve things.
Recent client List
17 Communications
89UP
Alana Foundation
America’s Promise Alliance
Berlin Rosen
Boston University
Catnip Comms
Center for Popular Democracy
Columbia University Justice Lab
Community Sponsorship Hub
Cheddar.com
Children’s Defense Fund
Clery Center
Clearly Next
Data.org
/dev /color
E3G
Further Faster
iFoster
Fenton
Flannel & Blade
Freedom Futures
The Fund for Global Human Rights
Generation Citizen
Inward Bound Mindfulness Education
Health in Her Hue
Ignite National
Katten Muchin Roseman LLP
Kounkuey Design Initiative
Los Angeles County California
Martha Schwartz Partners
Model People
Movement for Black Lives
M+R
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Milk + Honey PR
New England Foundation for the Arts
NEAR
Nonprofit Builder
Open Squash
Open Supply Hub
National Farm To School Network
Porter Novelli
Pulse Forward
Quadrant 2
Quora
Radical Health
Refugee Congress
Refugees International
Refugee Advocacy Lab
Real Voices Media
Ripple Effect Images
The Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
Roddenberry Foundation
San Francisco Unified School District
Stop Hazing
Techsoup
Temple University School of Art and Architecture
Trust for Public Land
Tyler School of Art and Architecture
The Shareholder Commons
United Stateless
We Are All America
Matt’s Strategic Communications journal
Don’t Be A Jerk At work
I know we live in an era where being a huge jerk is an essential qualification for higher office. But I want to dwell for a moment here on why it's a good idea not to be a jerk when you work for a good cause these days. When you care, it can be tempting to make that...
Silence Is A Very Powerful Communication Tool
Did you watch the Master's golf on Sunday? In part I ask because I realize my audience is pretty diverse. As a strategic communications leader I do work with CEOs of fortune 500 companies. But I also work with plenty of people helping good causes communicate. Let's...
“Losing the Locker Room” and Leadership Communications
Are you a good leader? I am. I know I am, because right now I'm not one. I know leadership comes with a personal cost and I don't owe that to anyone. I don't like the burden of leadership, even though it's been thrust on me since I was a teen. I realize that to lead...
Before George Orwell Became George Orwell
I've just finished a great historic novel by Paul Theroux called "Burma Sahib," in which he imagines George Orwell's formative early career as a policeman in what's now called Myanmar, between 1922 and 1927. Orwell died of tuberculosis a year older than I am today, in...
What Donald Trump Can Teach Us About Communications
I watched "The Apprentice" this weekend. My poor wife has had flu for ten days and I've been doing a lot of childcare, as well as running the business. On Saturday and Sunday night our four-year-old did me the enormous favor of falling asleep on time. I've found that...
A Changing Of The Guard Is Coming
Amid all the horrific news of recent weeks, a changing of the guard is afoot in the Democratic Party. Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has repeatedly slammed Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer's decision to enable a Republican bill that would have...
