Heinz Endowments President Grant Oliphant

If anyone knows how foundations can and should use communications, it’s Grant Oliphant. Grant, who was formerly communications director at the Heinz Endowments, now runs the organization as its president. As a former board chair of the Communications Network, the national organization of foundation and nonprofit communications professionals, Grant may be one of the country’s great champions for our field. But Grant isn’t satisfied. As Grant tells Eric in this episode of Let’s Hear It, “Many of the issues we care about are losing or at least deeply embattled.” Grant says that foundations have a “sacred responsibility” to change the narrative in the field and in the broader culture. If that’s not a challenge, we don’t know what is. In this very candid conversation, Grant and Eric discuss how foundation communications are advancing social change, and how they’re falling short.