
Five years (almost to the day) of starting my small business, I’m re-introducing myself to the internet. I’m already grateful you’re here, and excited to be in community with you.
Many Years, Many Hats
A little about me: like so many in the nonprofit world, I was a generalist for many years before niching down to focus on what I do best: writing for nonprofit leaders and their fundraising teams, with a focus on high-level portfolio management and creating grateful patient content, often in healthcare and hospital settings.
Before I came to that, I was a speechwriter, a correspondence specialist, a donor stewardship report and proposal writer, a director of development, a grant writer, a planned giving specialist, and at the very beginning of my career, a script wrangler for new plays in development. (Yup!)
Writing for Leaders
I’ve always found it easy (or at least approachable) to step into the voice of a principal or an institution, and convey meaning quickly and efficiently. I attribute it to a background in theater, where as actors, we are trained to step into someone else’s shoes and worldview, and always ensure that the audience was resonating with the narrative unfolding onstage.
It’s hammered into us: it doesn’t matter if you’re feeling it–is your audience receiving the intended message or effect?
That’s a lesson I come back to, again and again. It also mimics the ‘kill your darlings’ advice for writers. If you love a particular phrase, quote, or point, but you’re trying to wedge it in and it just won’t work, it’s probably better off on the cutting room floor. (Enough mixed metaphors for you?)
Our Mission
As you’ll see throughout the site, we work with teams who are functioning at a very high level. They typically are experiencing high volume and/or rapid growth, either in their fundraising, their team, or both. They know they have more than they can handle in the stewardship department, and they are eager to partner with specialists who will provide great content without needing a ton of hand holding.
Our specialty and focus is grateful patient content. For nonprofit hospital fundraising teams, we take the referrals you receive from clinicians, major gift officers, volunteers, and we work with these grateful patients to capture their story and activate that content for you and your team in an immediate way. Imagine never having to use a stale quote again, ensuring that a multitude of voices are heard, and dripping fresh content to your six figure and above donors in the pipeline on a monthly basis. What results could your team achieve, with that type of support?
Bottom line, and this comes back to the title of this particular blog entry–we believe that you deserve excellent support, and someone who is excited to see you and your team soar.
Realistically, in a heavily female-led field, sometimes we get used to doing everything for ourselves. But with a little extra capacity, staffing, and content, we believe that we can deepen your donor engagement, increase the frequency and amount of giving, while contributing to an atmosphere of thriving and ensuring that worthy nonprofits benefit from the consistency of results and institutional knowledge that comes from well-supported rockstar fundraising teams.
(Im)perfection
And if you made it this far, here’s a few things you can expect from this blog, moving forward!
Personality - I spend a lot of time writing for others; here you’ll get my own voice and opinions, god help you! ;)
Staffing Tips - I care a lot about ensuring people receive the level of staffing they deserve, and there are some easy practices to adopt - e.g. always write for a leader as if they just got off a red eye - they often have!
Donor Engagement - best practices are even better when shared; I’ve been doing this for 15+ years, and I learn new things all the time.
Banning Burnout - I don’t pretend to be an expert in self care, but keeping ourselves energized and well is a critical part of ensuring your team’s success.
Embracing Imperfection - when we write for YOU, it will be of the highest quality/caliber. But when I write here, in the name of consistency, there will be plenty of imperfection. Consider it an invitation to give yourself permission to ‘do the thing’ even imperfectly.
TRUTH: It’s possible to do the work we love without sacrificing quality or sanity–we just need to enlist the right help at the right time.
If this resonates with you, please add a comment below–we’d love to hear what your team is needing most, right now. What stands between you and soaring?
Cheering you on!
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