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
Looking Ahead to 2025: Do The 10-Minute Strategic Communications Audit
I've been getting a lot of calls in the wake of the 2024 election from CEOs and communications leads at nonprofits who want to talk. Last week, for example, I spoke with a communications lead whose chief executive was pressuring them to "get more press" before Donald...
The Rules of Strategic Communication Have Changed
Donald Trump's re-election as President of the United States changes a lot of rules. As a professional communicator, I wouldn't work for Trump, period. Aside from his well-documented behavior, he also doesn't appreciate expertise of any kind. As an evident narcissist,...
What Image of Yourself Do You Need To Project?
I spent an hour downtown with photographer Eliza Kommer taking pictures this week. My website imagery is old, and my main corporate headshot is a selfie I took on the subway. So, it was time for a rebrand. Before we started shooting, Eliza gave me two tips. One, don't...
How do you generate engaging and compelling content ideas?
I was chatting last week with a new cause-driven communications consultant. She's a former journalist, she got disillusioned with journalism, then got a comms role. But working in-house for a major foundation also disillusioned her. Now she's got an anchor client to...
When Have You Chosen the Path Less Travelled? How About Now?
It's always a pleasure to meet a client who's interested in working with me to communicate better. As a consultant running my own business, I'm at an unusual end of the spectrum of options for many of my clients. There are several large consultancies who help good...
The Surprising Thing About My Trip to The New Yorker’s Offices
As a young journalist my ideal job was to be a staff writer at the New Yorker. The idea of writing long-form pieces about any subject I liked was so intoxicating. Somebody told me about the writer Joseph Mitchell, and after reading Up In The Old Hotel, I fell in love...
