SERVICES
How can I help your nonprofit grow?
I have years of experience creating high-impact campaigns for fundraising, membership, marketing and communication programs at a variety of organizations. These days I'm an independent consultant, available to apply my expertise and some elbow grease to help you connect with your audience and inspire them to take action.
Every engagement is custom-tailored to fit your needs and your budget, whether I'm augmenting your in-house staff or handling the job myself.
And for every engagement, we mix-and-match from among the services you see listed here, creating a custom plan that's just right for you and your organization.
I'm happy to do small jobs... like a couple of hours for some strategic advice or a quick editing project. Or I can do more complex engagements... like developing a new website or leading your team in planning and producing a major campaign.
Please feel free to contact me and let's see if I can help.
Writing and Editing
As a writer, I'm an expert at appeal letters and emails, websites, annual reports, newsletters, advertisements, radio PSA's, video scripts, speeches — you name it, I've enjoyed doing it all.
As an editor, I'll bring out the best in your copy and make it shine.
You can look at my writing samples and portfolio to see some of my work.
Creative Direction
As a creative director, I lead the collaboration it takes to produce top-notch work.
One aspect of my role it to generate ideas:
"How about this for a tag line?"
"Let's spread the photo across both pages."
"We'll put that same banner at the top of the online donation form."
But it takes a village to cook up a creative project: designers, printers, the mailing service, web programmers, video directors, event producers and others, along with the folks on your team. My job is to lead the way and make sure everyone involved has clear information and feels comfortable sharing ideas, voicing opinions and raising concerns.
I start by working with your team to articulate exactly what the piece needs to accomplish. Then I produce an outline with sketches and specifications that the design and production teams use to guide their work. Throughout the process, I keep you involved for key decisions, and together we'll arrive at a finished product everyone feels great about.
The point is to make sure the concept, writing, design, and production all serve to:
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activate strategies and tactics that advance your objectives
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reflect your organization's values and culture in a genuine way
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reinforce your organization's brand identity
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maximize results by incorporating proven best practices
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minimize costs through careful planning and decision-making
I'm happy to work with your designer, or I can bring in the designers I love to work with like Stoller Design Group, i4 Design, Renée Harcourt Design, Studio Aluminum and others.
You'll see examples of my work as a creative director in my portfolio.
Strategic Consulting
Successful campaigns are built on smart ideas. I can help you develop strategies that will energize your campaign and produce the results you want.
If you're producing your own campaign, I can help with a few hours of consultation to get you going. Or if you prefer, I can lead your team through a complete planning process.
We start with lots of questions: What specifically do you need to accomplish with this project? Who is the target audience, and why? What do you know about them that will help us craft the right message? What are your competitors doing, and what are the current best practices? What's worked for your organization before, and what hasn't?
I'll find the answers by facilitating staff input sessions, studying the background material and data you already have, and doing a competitive review. If necessary, I can also put together focus groups and online surveys.
Using the information we gather, I'll develop a strategic brief that will guide the entire creative process and position your project for success.
Assessment and Planning
Sometimes it helps to have a fresh perspective and some expert advice.
When I assess your marketing, fundraising, or communications program, I take a look at everything — brand positioning, constituent data, past campaign performance, budgets and staffing, and samples of your recent appeals and publications. I'll also study what other organizations in your field are doing and look for competitive advantages you can highlight.
With all this information in hand, I'll make recommendations for improving your future results, and I'll help you develop actionable plans to make it happen.
Project Management
Creative productions work best when the needs of everyone on the team are understood, all the tasks and assignments are clearly defined, and the schedule is laid out step-by-step.
I can put together a plan for your project that makes it easy for everyone on the team to do their best work, on time and on budget. Then I use online meeting and collaboration tools to manage the production and review process and keep everything coordinated.
Capacity Building
I've developed high-functioning staff teams for marketing, fundraising and communication departments at organizations large and small, including California State Parks Foundation, SF-Marin Food Bank, Seva Foundation and more.
Through a customized course of consulting, training and coaching, I can help you and your staff develop the skills and know-how to produce your own winning campaigns.