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Communications playbook outline worksheet
A practical worksheet for nonprofits, schools, campuses, and community organizations to define what their communications playbook is for, what it should contain, and who will keep it useful.
1. Define the intended use and contents
Start by deciding what this playbook should help people do. A useful outline can make recurring communications easier to plan, keep language consistent, and show where teams need judgment rather than a script. Name the contents that will actually serve your organization instead of copying a generic table of contents.
Prompts to use
- Who will use the playbook, in what situations, and what decision or communication task should it support?
- Which sections belong in the first version: core messages, audience guidance, channel guidance, roles, examples, approvals, or something else?
- What is outside the playbook’s scope, and where should someone go when a situation needs a separate policy or response plan?
2. Shape the core messages
Record the small set of ideas your organization wants to explain consistently, while leaving room to adapt the wording for different people and situations. Keep supporting facts, proof, and open questions visible so a message does not become a claim without a source.
Prompts to use
- What should people understand about the organization, program, issue, or invitation?
- What supporting facts, examples, or sources make each message responsible to use?
- Which words, promises, assumptions, or claims need approval or should be avoided?
3. Map audiences and channels
Different audiences may need different context, access routes, timing, or next steps. Connect each priority audience to channels that are realistic and usable for them; do not assume that one platform reaches everyone or that a channel preference is confirmed without asking.
Prompts to use
- Who are the priority audiences, what is their relationship to the work, and what do they need from the communication?
- Which channels should carry which messages, and what makes each channel appropriate or accessible?
- What timing, language, accessibility, privacy, connectivity, or response considerations should the playbook name?
4. Assign responsibilities and approvals
A playbook becomes usable when it shows who owns the work and who can make decisions. Assign roles that people have agreed to take on, and identify backup or escalation routes for urgent, sensitive, or high-consequence communications.
Prompts to use
- Who drafts, adapts, reviews, approves, publishes, and updates communications?
- Who owns each channel and who is the backup when the primary owner is unavailable?
- Which messages or situations require leadership, subject-matter, community, legal, policy, or accessibility review?
5. Set a review cadence
Decide how the playbook will stay current without creating a review process your team cannot maintain. Use a routine check plus clear triggers for earlier review when programs, policies, schedules, audiences, channels, or responsibilities change.
Prompts to use
- Who reviews the playbook, how often, and where is the current version kept?
- What changes should trigger an earlier review or a new approval?
- How will the team record decisions, retire outdated guidance, and tell users what changed?
A working record for your team
Draft your playbook outline
Use these fields as a working record. Your notes stay in the page while you work; nothing is submitted, saved, or sent from this worksheet.
Working notes are cleared when you leave or refresh this page.
Who will use this playbook, when will they use it, and what should it help them do?
What sections, examples, tools, or references should the playbook contain—and what is out of scope?
What should people understand, remember, or be invited to do?
Who needs the communication, what is their relationship to the work, and what do they need?
Which channels should carry which messages, and what should each channel make possible?
Who drafts, reviews, approves, publishes, updates, and backs up each part of the work?
When will the playbook be reviewed, and what changes require an earlier update?
Continue exploring
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