I’m Natalie Blackmur, a strategic communications consultant.
Words are powerful. Together, let’s wield them for good.
☛ n.b., nota bene: mark well
About
I lead narrative change that starts from inside and ripples out.
I’ve spent over a decade working with nonprofits, organizers, and funders who believe in a world where there’s room for all of us. Using deft facilitation, concise and clear language, and a strategic orientation toward audiences and messages, I weave stories into narratives that move us toward this vision.
Creating the future we all want requires us to embrace our connections and commitments to each other and the world around us. I use language to nurture these relationships with the conviction that acting alone, isolated and insulated, will inflict devastating harm to ourselves and others. These are the stakes I bring to every project.
I use she/her pronouns. I live and work in Berkeley, California, better known as Huchiun, the unceded land of the Lisjan Nation.
Approach
Effective communication requires good listening.
Strategic communications can encompass a broad range of principles and approaches. Here are a few that are core to my work:
With our friends and loved ones, we know communicating is a two-way street of listening and speaking. The same holds true in organizational communications, where listening is essential to meaningfully engaging people in the conversations most critical to your mission.
Work from the inside, out.
You’ll get more mileage out of your communications efforts when your team is aligned on mission, vision, values, beliefs, and strategies. This type of internal storytelling is often called a theory of change. When I’ve helped clients surface the analyses and assumptions underpinning their work, we have all come away better equipped to communicate as one cohesive choir — in registers that are true to our unique roles and voices.
Walking the talk makes the talk stronger.
When we’re real with ourselves and our people about how we show up, we build the trust and accountability that are essential for sustaining change for the long-haul. Thanks to my background in research and evaluation, I build in opportunities for my clients to learn from and reflect on our work so we all have steady ground to stand on.
Services
Through deep partnership, focused messaging, and sharp storytelling, we can create a chorus for change — for justice, for liberation, for all of us.
Strategy & Facilitation
Communications strategy and planning
Organizational theory of change
Narrative development
Core messaging
Brand identity
Capacity Building
Communications coaching
Content management
Campaign planning and implementation
Media training
Writing
Ethical story gathering and sharing
Research findings and impact data
Ghostwriting
Press releases
Website copy
Social media content
Annual reports
Internal communications
Grantwriting
Copyediting
For samples of my work, please drop me a line.
Working Together
If you are a coalition, nonprofit, funder, or organizer who is curious about…
… sussing out and breaking down economic injustice, white supremacy, ableism, and heteropatriarchy,
… listening more, speaking less,
… building relationships rooted in trust and transparency,
… and working yourself out of a job,