I’ve always loved working with Institute for the Future. The 50-year-old futures-thinking nonprofit provides global forecasts, custom research, and foresight training for businesses, governments, and social impact organizations. I partnered with IFTF years ago for some editing projects, but we recently reconnected.

IFTF are a group of academics, and for years it was academics they sought to engage. But starting in 2019, they decided to broaden their approach, to reach a wider audience who might benefit from their big brains. l was hired to help them translate key marketing materials for two of their essential programs into cleaner, clearer copy—copy that aligned carefully with a refreshed brand voice.

Organizations that spend a lot of time talking amongst themselves can benefit from an outsider: someone like me who can help them see patterns that they might be missing, or suggest fresh language to enliven the way they’re said things for years. IFTF’s Foresight Training is an immersive learning experience created for individuals, teams, and organizations committed to developing and expanding their capacity for foresight. Triangulating between program directors and IFTF’s design team, I wrote two | new brochures, repurposing and expanding the copy for the program’s web page.

After that, I helped IFTF create a brochure and slide deck for the Future 50 partnership, an enviable program whereby companies can leverage IFTF expertise for a year’s worth of guidance and resources. The project required us to re-think the materials completely and to consider a broad audience who might be spending a great deal of money on the partnership. Yet in the end, it came down to straightforward storytelling: how to move potential partners through their pain points to see how IFTF could make a difference for them.