Welcome to Burness!
By Andy Burness, January 20, 2015
Twenty-nine years after our founding, we continue to receive a lot of positive feedback. Above all, the most consistent compliment is that we’re consistent: people know that we’re genuine and passionate, that we deliver excellent work, and that the nonprofits we represent see real impact as a result of partnering with us.
Well, in a small way, we’re about to change that—sort of.
We’re changing something that’s been perfectly consistent for 29 years—our name! Exit Burness Communications. Enter Burness.
Why?
Three reasons:
First, we’re more than a communications firm. Communications is and will be what we’re about. But, we’re more change-makers than communicators. We’re strategic advisors to foundation program officers, coaches to leading science and health researchers the world over, information sources for policy makers, and counselors to managers at universities, advocacy organizations, think tanks, global research institutions, and small and large nonprofits generally.
We’re about imagining how social policy can be improved for people whose decks are stacked against them, and then moving with urgency to draw attention to their problems, while offering solutions. It’s communications, for sure, but it’s more than that.
And importantly, we’re increasingly content creators, researching and writing original material on any number of issues, from land rights of indigenous people in Brazil to reforms that show promise of better health for people who cycle in and out of America’s jails, from research advances with seeds that can be brought to scale for thousands of African farmers to solutions for reducing disparities in health through innovative policies in housing, finance, transportation and education.
We’ve been told for years that we’re much more than news release writers, media pitchers, policy connectors, and event planners, though we are all of those, too. So, we’re finally taking our own press to heart!
Second, we’re already called “Burness” now by most of you. We’re only validating what we’ve been hearing from our collaborators, and what we’ve been saying to each other.
And, third, we finally have the rights to the Burness domain! We are grateful to Jack Burness—whom we do not know—for agreeing to relinquish the domain. Wouldn’t you rather type “Burness” than “Burness Communications?” Case closed. Find us at www.burness.com
We’re Burness! We’ve updated our web site, not only to reflect the name change, but to introduce our current content in a more navigable, functional, and accessible way.
Enjoy the tour, and thanks for caring enough to learn more about the remarkable people and institutions that welcome us as partners in pursuit of a more just and better world.