#WeLeadComms: Kayce Ataiyero

Today the #WeLeadComms spotlight lands on Chicago-based communication leader Kayce Ataiyero.

She shares her story here:

“My role encompasses Joyce’s Foundation’s strategic communications and public engagement, our Journalism Program and our Lend A Hand community grants fund. It has evolved over the eight years I’ve been at the Foundation in recognition of the increasingly important role communications plays in advancing our organizational goals. 

“The Journalism program was created as part of our communications strategy to increase public affairs reporting on Joyce policy issues. Lend A Hand, initially a COVID response program, was created to demonstrate the Foundation’s commitment as a civic institution to Chicago, our home city. 

“One of the most effective ways we can communicate our values is in how we show up. The best communications show rather than tell. These days, I spend a lot of time making the affirmative case for philanthropy as a social good. The field is not used to having to make this case as we’ve long taken public support for granted. But we’ve recently found ourselves playing defense as political winds have shifted against us. I came to my role from politics where you’re always having to prove your value to the public. So when I got to philanthropy I was surprised at how little we were telling the great story of the work we do and the organizations we fund that form the fabric of our country’s social safety net. 

“I’m happy to be one of those storytellers shaping the narrative for philanthropy.

“I also work to grow the field of media funding through my role as board chair for Media Impact Funders, a national membership organization representing U.S. and international funders of public interest media. 

“As a former journalist, I am passionate about the role of media, local news in particular, as a cornerstone of the civic health of communities. You can draw a straight line between the decline of local news and the decline in civic participation – when people know less about what’s going on in their communities they are less engaged. In order to tackle the most pressing issues facing our society, we have to get more people off the bench and back in the civic game. Local news is one way to do that. In an ideal world, every community would have access to trusted local news and information that enriches their lives.

“In a very full circle way, I am really grateful to be in a position to help make that vision a reality.”

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