I recently had the honor of working for Translators without Borders (TWB), an organization whose mission is to ensure people are included in communications about the issues that impact their lives, no matter what language they speak. 

It was a powerful experience to witness firsthand how much language matters, and how communications that are responsive to language needs are particularly crucial in the response to the global COVID pandemic. As a Boston hospital found in its examination of COVID patient outcomes, what language someone speaks can be a determining factor in their survival.

Despite our shared mission of challenging inequity and injustice, even the nonprofit sector has a problematic tendency to overlook the importance of reaching people in the languages they know best. The presumption that English is enough is inadequate, and it excludes far too many people. 
As I was wrapping up my work with TWB, I wrote an article for Nonprofit Quarterly, “Language Is Power: 5 Action Steps for Communicating in a Multilingual World” outlining practical steps that nonprofit professionals can make to better integrate people’s language needs in their communications strategies. I hope to continue using my work as a bridge to help bring language knowledge, awareness, and expertise to more audiences, and to support other communicators in making the language leap.