What I do
I help organizations develop effective brands rooted in their strengths and culture. My unique Participatory Branding™ process is genuinely collaborative. The result is a brand that unites the organization and supports its fundraising and communications goals.
With my help, my clients have:
- Expanded their revenues by using messages that speak to their funders’ core interests.
- Streamlined communications, weeding out outdated and ineffective strategies and refocusing on strategies that work.
- Harmonized messages among staff and board members.
- Developed stand-out names for new programs and services.
- Positioned their brand to compete for shrinking funds.
- Balanced brand integrity with the flexibility that front-line staff need to communicate every day.
- Saved $50,000 or more by avoiding unneeded rebranding processes.
What I’ve done
I have been helping mission-driven organizations raise money and visibility through effective branding and messaging for more than 15 years.
Because I have spent my career in grassroots and nonprofit organizations, I know how to build support and facilitate change within each organization’s unique culture and dynamics.
As an expert in meeting facilitation and trainer in consensus-based decision-making, I enjoy helping groups unlock their creativity and achieve their goals in a spirit of harmony and cooperation.
When I am not helping mission-based organizations thrive, I am donating my skills to help reduce toxins in children’s lives, keep journalists out of prison, support community media, and make safe and healthy food available to everyone.
The campaign I founded in 2011 to label genetically modified foods in Minnesota generated dozens of media stories, endorsements by four major Minnesota newspapers, and legislation in the Minnesota House and Senate.
My latest campaign, for which I was awarded a 2017 Clean Water Action Hero Award, successfully won removal of shredded waste tires from kids’ playgrounds and includes legislation to protect kids statewide.
