Founders, please stop confusing Canva with communications strategy!

From viral FOMO to pitch deck poetry—how India’s social sector leaders are single-handedly dismantling the comms function, one ignorant hot take at a time.

The Indian social sector Founder/CEO - a half visionary, half hustler, and completely unqualified to manage a comms function. Equipped with an X (formerly Twitter) name, Canva Pro, and a fuzzy recollection of a brand campaign they saw on Shark Tank once, they go about "reinventing" comms. What they really do is plow it under, drive in the opposite direction for good measure, and then post the flaming wreckage as a reel—with Coldplay swelling in the background, naturally. So, where and how do the dominos fall and why are so many communications professionals entering and exiting India’s social sector organisations, faster than rabbits breed?

Step 1: Get marketing confused with communications

In the magical brains of most CEOs and founders, "communications" is simply another variant of marketing—such as Pepsi vs. Diet Pepsi (No, I am not viral enough for Pepsi having paid me to write this). PR? Media planning? Brand story? Internal culture messaging? Pfft. If it doesn't have a pixel aspect or boost budget, it's not important. You, communications person, will now spend your week making 57 Instagram posts to hype a PDF report that was downloaded by precisely three people—two of which were your own mom and dad. Bonus? You’ll be asked, midway through writing a press release, to “just quickly edit this fundraising deck”—because clearly, strategic storytelling and that bar chart from 2017 are one and the same. Whats funny is that the fundraising deck will not come to you from the team, it will come from the founder because “communications ka kaam toh likhna hai na?” (in the same breath they say - “communications ko likhna hi nahi aata”)

Step 2: Assume Fundraising = Communications = Marketing = a post that went viral once

Try explaining to a founder that fundraising is not communications and watch their brain do the buffering circle. “But we conveyed our influence in that presentation to the CSR head at Infosys, na?" they contend. Right, and once I conveyed my affection by liking someone's 2016 vacation post. Didn't work either.

In reality, fundraising is a distinct beast requiring its own tools: investor narratives, relationship management, tailored decks, strategic positioning—and yes, communications can help with this. But it cannot be this. Unless your entire strategy is “manifest the money by manifesting the vibe.”

Step 3: Treat the communications department like it’s tech support with Canva

Ask a founder what their communications team looks like and you’ll get: “Riya does the social media.”, "I think Amaan's writing blogs. Or was it last month?", "Our intern is editing videos on CapCut."

Now ask them what communications plan they have. Prepare yourself for: "Make it viral, bro.", That's it. That's the plan.

The typical founder's comprehension of the communications role reaches as far as "get featured in YourStory" and "create a nice video for LinkedIn with background sound that shouts 'purpose'." The subtlety, complexity of internal comms, multimedia narrative, positioning strategy, brand voice, effect-driven design, and even logistical communications (hello, event briefs and donor communications!)? Nope, they believe all of that can be addressed within one late-night monthly newsletter.

Step 4: Undervalue, overload, and then blame

Here's the best part. When nothing gets shared on X, when no reporter attends their 87-slide report release webinar, when their team is in bad spirits because nobody even knew they were working on anything worth a celebration—whose fault is it? The communications director! Who, incidentally, was only employed six weeks ago and doesn't even have the brand guidelines folder privileges yet. And the icing on this irony cake: the same founders who underpaid, overworked, and misunderstood the comms team then go to industry panels and moan: “We’ve done such great work, but unfortunately it’s not being communicated well.” (Translation: “We ignored our comms team and now we’re shocked nobody’s clapping for our invisible tap dance.”)

Step 5: Watch them leave

Let’s throw in some real numbers, shall we?

More than 64% of communication professionals identified "lack of leadership understanding and prioritization of communications" as the number one reason for their exit in a 2024 internal survey among more than 50 Indian non-profits and social enterprises, done by Arthan and Dasra. Almost 7 out of 10 also told them that they were not provided with sufficient time or resources to create a strategy. And more than 80% were slated to multitask between PR, social media, content creation, and fundraising—with zero team or tech assistance.

But founders? Wandering around still wondering:

"Why can't we get picked up by The Ken?"

"Can't we just create a viral reel with kids and despairing music?"

"Do we really need a brand voice guide? Just write in a lighthearted tone."

“Communications job is to only write na? Why do we even need a multimedia team when Canva exists?”

In Conclusion: Communications is a department, not a ‘support function’

Here's a revolutionary thought, CEOs and change-makers: employ seasoned communications pros. Trust them. Let them plan. Set them up at the table before the pitch deck is complete, the campaign goes live, or the crisis erupts. Recognize that comms isn't simply "putting nice things on the internet"—it's the invisible framework supporting your brand, your people, your movement.

And the next time you're tempted to wing it with a Canva post and label it a campaign, ask yourself: Would you also create your tech stack with MS Paint and cross your fingers?

Yes?

Disclaimer: No founders were injured in the creation of this article, though many egos may be softly bruised. That's what communication is for.