What I offer...
If you’re a community, family, or private foundation
My popular one-day workshop (soon to be a book) "Making Friends with the People Who Matter: A Cheap, Yet Incredibly Effective Approach to Public Relations". Good for you or for your favorite group of grantees.
For the big picture:
- Strategic planning for a single department or your whole foundation. We’ll look together for that clear mission you’ve always wanted. I can be your facilitator, analyst, interviewer, and/or synthesizer. The secret? Create a vision and get everybody on the same page.
- Building your initiatives. Need to create a targeted program in response to a new field-of-interest fund? An evaluation of a short-term or longstanding project? Outreach to a special group of donors? We’ll determine together what ‘success’ is and design or evaluate accordingly.
For your essential communications:
- A full-fledged Communications Audit that determines what your foundation’s capacity to talk to the public is today and how to get where you should be. We’ll look at everything from your website to how you say 'no' to applicants. We’ll chart a timesaving and cost-efficient workplan for the future. Is it time for a Communications Department?
- Take stock of your regular publications. We’re talking about your newsletter and annual report. Do you start out with a clear idea who you’re talking to and what they want to hear? We’ll transform the work from intimidating to fun.
- Build a successful website and get the right people to go there. Don’t you wish websites were like books, with a beginning, middle, and end? But they aren’t, so let’s capture the special energy of great websites and other electronic tools. We’ll use the excellent "Don’t Make Me Think" by Steve Krug as our road map.
- Media campaigns. I can help you understand the basics or execute a press strategy. One hint? Don’t ever do press conferences.
For community foundations especially:
- Advertising, direct mail, and other tried-and-true methods to get new donors. Yes, there are proven rules and research to what works and what doesn’t when it comes to broad-based marketing. The secret? Test, test, test.
- Interviewing and donor stories. I’ve interviewed literally hundreds of donors at all levels of giving. It’s a major part of meaningful relationship building. I’ll show you the ins and outs of the donor interview, or even interview your favorite giving partners.
