Watertower 3, 334 Furman Street, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Tom Fruin, 2014
Digital & Social Media • Healthcare • Food & Lifestyle • Arts & Culture • Education
I have extensive communications and fundraising experience working with global clients in the healthcare, food and lifestyle, and education sectors. I also have managed integrated social media plans across platforms, both as an in-house leader overseeing an organization's entire social media strategy and presence and as a strategic advisor for short-term, focused projects.
Working Together
The case studies below—in digital and social media strategy, healthcare, food and lifestyle, nutrition, and education—reflect work for corporate companies, small businesses, and non-profits across these communications, marketing, and development areas:
strategy, messaging & copywriting • fundraising campaigns & events • branding for businesses, programs & events • account-based marketing B2B strategy • advertising campaigns • marketing materials • video assets • advocacy campaigns
I am available to serve as your strategic advisor, offering communications, marketing, fundraising, and branding expertise for consultancy projects of all kinds. I'd love to collaborate with you to tell your story and amplify your brand. Get in touch for a free, consultation to discuss your project needs.
Digital & Social Media Strategy
"The Next Generation"
Fundraising Campaign—THE DOOR (youth services agency)
Core Skills & Objectives: Fundraising & revenue growth • Donor growth and cultivation • Youth membership recruitment and engagement • Brand visibility & reach • Integrated multimedia communications, marketing, and fundraising
BACKGROUND CHALLENGE: Aiming to capitalize on post-autumn gala engagement and momentum, I crafted and rolled out an end-of-year fundraising campaign for The Door.
STRATEGIES/SOLUTIONS: Use the uplifting stories of current Door members and Broome Street Academy scholars to convey the organizations’ life-changing impact on young people. Integrated multimedia campaign plan included:
• Thematic tag line—“The Next Generation”
• 4 youth stories featured in all print and digital campaign elements. Digital components (eblasts, newsletter, and social media) showcased the 4 video clips shown here (two above, two below), and the print campaign letter featured photos and testimonial pull-quotes from the same young people.
• Giving Tuesday launch
• Matching gift incentive
• Printed and mailed campaign letter
• 4 social media posts in December
• 3 eblasts in December
• Campaign promotion in newsletter
• Personalized toolkit shared with Board members for their outreach
• The Door January anniversary used as a strategic push to target donors who missed December giving deadline
RESULTS: “The Next Generation” campaign exceeded its revenue goal. The video clip featuring Door youth member Jae garnered The Door’s highest Instagram content viewership to date. The campaign increased newsletter subscribers and site traffic.
50th Anniversary
Fundraising Campaign—The Door (youth services agency)
Core Skills & Objectives: Fundraising & revenue growth • Staff and youth member outreach and engagement • Donor growth and cultivation • Brand visibility & reach • Integrated multimedia communications, marketing, and fundraising
Background challenges: In 2022, in celebration of The Door's 50th anniversary milestone, in addition to the usual annual donor-driven events, I oversaw a year-long, multi-touch engagement strategy that reinvigorated relationships with past volunteers, staff, and youth alumni and deepened ties with current community members. Details on the resulting "50 Years of The Door" campaign follow below under "STRATEGIES & SOLUTIONS" and "RESULTS."
"50 Reasons We're Proud of The Door" Digital Engagement Campaign
STRATEGIES/SOLUTIONS: My team spent Q2 & 3 planning and managing phone, email, and video interviews with alumni and current community members and curating archival footage of The Door’s history. “50 Years of The Door” campaign elements included:
• stories from over 25 current and past youth members, alumni, staff, and Board members, featured in all print and digital campaign elements for the years, including eblasts, newsletters, website content, blogposts, print campaign letters, fundraiser event video and speaker content, and social media posts
• archival footage and photos from the early Door years in the 1970s and 1980s
• 50th anniversary logo integrating agency values • primary tag line: “50 Years of The Door” • thematic marketing tag line variations: “50 Years of [value or adjective] at The Door”• springtime launch of "50 Reasons We're Proud of The Door" digital campaign (see examples below), generated by multi-touch outreach campaign over months
• over a dozen versatile video segments adapted and re-purposed across platforms (live events, social media, website, blog, eblasts, text blasts etc.) to support Door events, fundraising, and other goals throughout 2022 and 2023
• anniversary campaign promotions in quarterly organizational newsletter
• 2 youth stories featured in all print and digital campaign elements and at the gala fundraiser. Digital components (eblasts, newsletter, and social media) showcased the video clips shown here as well as shorter, teaser segments, and the print campaign letter featured the same young people.
• branded components integrated into the full cycle of development touchpoints throughout the year, including June campaign, 50th anniversary gala promotion, Giving Tuesday, matching gift incentives, print mail and email outreach, and social media
• personalized toolkit shared with Board members for their outreach
• The Door January anniversary in 2023 used target donors who missed end-of-year giving deadline
Shorter Organizational Video (cross-platform use)
"The Door: Bright Possibilities for NYC Youth, Today and Tomorrow."
Two of Six Campaign Clips (cross-platform use)
RESULTS:
REVENUE & DONOR GROWTH
• exceeded individual and collective, 7-figure revenue goals for the 50th anniversary gala event, the 50th anniversary year-end campaign, and the full fiscal year
AUDIENCE GROWTH, INCREASED ENGAGEMENT
• increased site traffic, social media audience size, and audience engagement
EXPANSION OF ALIGNED, DIGITAL MESSAGING MATERIALS
• 2 teaser clips of Door members & BSA students (Melody & Zulaki) used to promote The Door 50th anniversary gala event
• 6 video clips featuring Door founders and past staffers shown at the 50th anniversary gala, which exceeded its revenue goal
• 5 clips adapted from the gala videos for the 50th anniversary year-end campaign, including "50 Years of of Commitment at The Door—The Door As a Safe Haven" and "50 Years of Connection at The Door—Our Strengths-Based Counseling & Mental Health Services for Youth" (both embedded above).
• a longer “Then & Now” video (embedded below) on why The Door's holistic model for NYC youth works, which launched at an event and has garnered over 1.8K views to date
• 3 "About The Door" organizational videos of varied lengths used for marketing, fundraising, recruitment, and enrollment initiatives across digital channels, including "The Door: Bright Spaces & Brighter Futures for NYC Youth," first video embedded above.
• 1 "About Broome Street Academy" video for social media and website
• dynamic b-roll video for digital ad campaigns and websites
STREAMLINED, COST-EFFECTIVE PIPELINE FOR FUTURE CAMPAIGNS
• a substantive, growing library of evergreen interview footage for future video needs, especially short clips for social media
• a even larger evergreen archive of interview pull-quotes for future campaigns, story-telling, reports, and other collateral
• a scalable, cost-effective production process that became a best-practices model for annual development campaign, donor event, and video protocols
"The Door: Bright Spaces & Brighter Futures for NYC Youth."
Website Redesigns
The Door & Broome Street Academy (BSA) (charter high school)
Core Skills & Objectives: Content strategy • Messaging • Information architecture • Visual identity
Background challenges: The Door and its partner charter high school Broome Street Academy (BSA) relied on drab websites that didn’t reflect the vibrant spaces they provide for NYC youth. Both sites were hampered by:
muddled information architecture • disjointed, confusing menu navigation • difficulty in understanding high-level program offerings and finding more detailed info about areas of interest • outdated and unengaging aesthetics • ad-hoc patchwork design • visual inconsistencies between pages • lack of visual alignment between The Door & BSA sites to indicate their partnership • cumbersome CMS for site updates.
Before the Site Redesign
After the Site Redesign
Strategies/solutions: A coherent, intentional strategy, with aligned navigation and layout) was used to create new websites for The Door & Broome Street Academy (BSA):
• homepages that serve as intuitive navigation hub, featuring tag lines capturing internal culture
• large headlines for improved high-level scannability and ease in locating info
• organization and consolidation of The Door's comprehensive programs into 5 digestible services areas and sub-categories
• more actionable steps for site visitors: youth member signup, more prominent donation forms, and ways to engage
• showcased imagery and video to engage users and highlight the humanity and compassionate approaches of The Door and BSA
• new color palettes to create vibrancy that matches the brands and visual identities of The Door and BSA
• modern, cohesive navigation systems
• templated modules & user-friendly CMS for site updates
RESULTS: New sites for The Door and its embedded charter high school, Broome Street Academy feature aligned designs that translate the amazing impact of both agencies, allowing users to grasp what the organizations do, how to join or get involved and enabling staff to update content quickly and easily to keep it fresh and relevant.
Youth Member Recruitment Campaign
Digital Advertising—The Door (youth services agency)
Core Skills & Objectives: Audience growth and cultivation • Youth membership recruitment • Fundraising & revenue growth • Branding • Brand visibility & reach
Background challenge: In 2023, The Door employed a member recruitment strategy with a limited ad budget to increase the NYC young people using its services.
Strategies and solutions:
• Purchase cost-effective LinkNYC digital ad space, which runs ads on a 24/7 loop at all kiosks for the campaign duration.
• Geotarget the ad placement by zip code based on internal membership data and proximity to direct subway lines.
• Create messaging and design for 2 30-second digital ads featuring 2 youth stories.
• Include in the campaign messaging a soft-sell push of The Door’s health center services, which are revenue-generating.
RESULTS: Youth membership increased by 17% in 2023. Patient intakes at the health center also increased.
Healthcare
Accenture Healthcare Client B2B Strategy
Account-Based Marketing—The Marketing Practice (digital agency)
Core Skills & Objectives: B2B messaging • Brand alignment • Messaging architecture • Content & design strategy
The Marketing Practice digital agency crafted Accenture Account-Based Marketing (ABM) B2B strategy for its North American healthcare accounts. My B2B project clients included Walgreens, Cigna, and Sutter Health.
Accenture & Walgreens
Accenture & Cigna
Accenture & Sutter Health
Global Health FUNDRAISING & Marketing Toolkit
Funder Stewardship—HealthRight International (global health agency)
Core Skills & Objectives: Donor cultivation • Brand strategy & alignment • Messaging development & architecture • Visual identity
Affordable Care Campaign
Advocacy Campaign—Housing Works (health care provider focusing on HIV/AIDS)
GOAL: To protect the Affordable Care Act from being repealed and to educate the public about the need for afforable health care for all
Core Skills: Advocacy messaging development • Brand strategy & alignment • Visual identity
BACKGROUND CHALLENGE:
• Throughout 2017, the federal administration attempted to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Housing Works, in partnership with Center for Popular Democracy, led the charge on protecting ACA, Medicare, and Medicaid during this period.
STRATEGIES & SOLUTIONS:
• Educated communities nationwide about protecting ACA, Medicare, and Medicaid
• Training stakeholders in nonviolent activist techniques and protocols
• Organized and mobilized communities for press conferences, marches, protests, and civil disobedience actions during key moments in the D.C. legislative sessions
• Created branded assets in support of the preceding strategies, including explanatory one-sheets, banners, signs and posters, and presentation slideshows.
RESULTS: Ultimately, all the 2017 legislative attacks on the Affordable Care Act by Republicans in Congress failed. The March 2017 attempt to repeal ACA by replacing it with House Republicans' American Health Care Act stalled quickly, with the bill being withdrawn when it became apparent that it would not have the votes to pass. The May 2017 attempt to repeal ACA and replace it with House Republicans' American Health Care Act passed by a narrow margin of 217-213. The Senate announced it would write their own version rather than vote on the House bill, and in late June announced the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017. In late July 2017, the Senate debated and voted on three successive bills attempting to repeal and replace ACA—the American Health Care Act, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, and the Health Care Freedom Act—and all three bills were defeated. Finally, the Graham-Cassidy bill, an amendment to the American Health Care Act was submitted, and again, when it was clear the bill would fail, the vote was tabled.
Food, Lifestyle & Nutrition
Taste of Community—Inaugural Tasting Event
Fundraising, Brand Creation & Programming—The Door (youth services agency)
GOAL: To launch a new spring fundraiser as a new revenue generation source (to complement The Door’s annual fall benefit) and to cultivate and expand a younger donor base
Core Skills & Objectives: Event fundraising, promotions & programming • Donor growth & cultivation • Corporate partnerships • Content & design strategy • Sub-brand creation • Brand alignment
BACKGROUND CHALLENGES:
• In 2024, as part of 4-person leadership team, I created and launched a food event—Taste of Community, a new spring fundraiser to complement The Door’s annual fall benefit as a new revenue generation source. The Door's donor pool also skewed toward older individuals and partners, so a related goal was to gear the event to appeal to and engage a younger audience of Door supporters and grow and diversify the donor pipeline.
STRATEGIES & SOLUTIONS:
• Whereas The Door’s gala (a formal dinner event in a ballroom) draws an older, affluent audience, Taste of Community was designed as a more casual drinks-and-small bites affair showcasing an array of tasting stations.
• The ticketing strategy was intended to be aspirational and at the same time accessible, particularly targeting supporters who believed in The Door's mission but couldn't yet afford to show their financial support through the annual gala.
• Restaurant and beverage partners were curated to cultivate a young, hip audience—donors of the future.
• The event brand needed to feel elegant and adult while fitting seamlessly into The Door’s vibrant, youthful Soho space.
• In order to give attendees a genuine sense of the mission, programs, and young people the Taste of Community event supports, the event also featured live music by longtime Door artist Elle Prado; a pop-up market of young people's artistic creations from The Door's pottery, painting, and crochet workshops; and delicious culinary and beverage offerings from THE CUT, The Door's culinary arts training program.
RESULTS:
Cause-marketing partnerships: The inaugural event was supported by 18 new restaurant and beverage partners.
Branding: I created a full suite of branded print and digital event collateral: logo, invitation, sponsorship levels, digital graphics for social media and website, site pages, signage, gifts for attendees, and more.
Revenue generation & donor cultivation: The event exceeded its revenue goal and expanded its younger donor base.
Event and restaurant sponsors promotion, digital ads (reels and stories) across social media platforms
celiakutcher.com Website
Content Strategy & Branding, Celia Kutcher (nutritionist)
Core Skills & Objectives: Brand building • Content strategy • Information architecture • Content development • Copywriting
Celia Kutcher nutrition site, Services page
Celia Kutcher nutrition site, About page
Celia Kutcher nutrition site, Testimonials page
BACKGROUND CHALLENGES:
• Temperamentally, Celia Kutcher seems the opposite of a health counselor and nutritionist, so the challenge was to brand her services as a food expert and dietary advisor while remaining true to her unusual background and approach to the work and her clients.
• In order to keep site aesthetics and maintenance simple, the client wanted to keep her site clean and simple visually, mostly limiting content to graphic text rather than photos or video.
STRATEGIES & SOLUTIONS:
• The client's logo was expanded to feature a tagline "Celia Kutcher does nutrition, is well-liked by many people, and has quite a history." Each phrase in the tagline served as a site navigation menu tab leading to the sites three sub-pages: Nutrition Approach & Services, Testimonials, and About pages.
• The most effective and efficient way to lay out a nearly all-text site was to nest the information within rollovers: Each page displayed 5-6 short labeled subheaders and the accompanying copy, spanning no more than a paragraph or two, only appeared onscreen if the user rolled over it and clicked on it.
RESULTS: The Celia Kutcher nutritionist site was minimalist, bold, and to the point, just like its business owner. The site positioned her brand as candid and no-nonsense, conveyed her approach to nutrition as approachable and adaptable to individual needs rather than rigid adherence to absolutist dietary rules. and established her range of expertise in methods that improve the health of her clients in ways that work for their busy, dauly lives and are sustainable practices.
"Hunger Doesn't Take A Break"
Marketing Campaign—Food Bank For NYC (hunger relief agency)
Core Skills & Objectives: Audience growth and cultivation • Fundraising & revenue growth • Branding • Brand visibility & reach
Arts & Culture
ARTS & CULTURE STRATEGY AND INNOVATION
Innovation, Branding, Audience Growth, Fundraising, Programming—EmcArts (non-profit arts consultancy)
This non-profit arts management consulting firm worked with a range of high-profile foundations and arts-and-culture organizations across the nation to strengthen the capacities and effectiveness of their programs, fundraising, and overall reach and impact. Projects and deliverables included:
strategic plans • innovation roadmaps • program evaluations • audience engagement studies • visitor experience technology evaluations • white papers • comparative studies.
Core Skills & Objectives: Audience growth and cultivation • Audience recruitment and membership enrollment • Brand visibility and reach • Ticketing systems and customer experience strengthening • Program evaluation and impact • Arts programming innovation • Arts education program enhancement
Select Clients
Select Projects
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Innovation Lab for the Performing Arts • Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Jazz Ensembles Project Program Evaluation • Whitney Museum Audio-Guide Evaluation • James Irvine Foundation, Arts Grantee Profiles • Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Orchestra Forum Program Evaluation • Carnegie Hall, Weill Music Institute Strategic Planning • Carnegie Hall, Weill Music Institute, The Academy and Global Encounters Education Program Evalution • Misnomer Dance Theater Comparative Study • Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Partnership for a Nation of Learners Program Evaluation
Education
Annual Student Recruitment
Enrollment Campaign—Broome Street Academy (BSA) (charter high school)
Core Skills & Objectives: Annual student recruitment & enrollment • Audience growth and cultivation • Brand visibility & reach • Co-branding alignment • Cross-promotion of BSA partnership with The Door and its wraparound services for BSA students and youth members
Video assets for BSA student recruitment & enrollment campaigns
BSA promo video for social media. Click image to view video.
BSA organizational marketing and recruitment video for website and multi-channel outreach follow-up. Click image to view video.
Digital & print assets for BSA student recruitment & enrollment
BSA social media promotion
BSA informational one-sheet, English
BSA informational one-sheet, Spanish
BSA school open house flyer
The Door & BSA logos refrehhed designs
Co-branded Door-BSA apparel
BSA palm card, English
BSA palm card, Spanish
BSA palm card, French
BSA social media, student spotlight
BSA media advertorial
BSA media advertorial
New BSA website. Click image to explore the newly restructured and designed site.
BSA social media promotion
BSA social media promotion
BSA social media promotion
BSA social media promotion
B2B & B2C Sales & Marketing Assets
Digital & Print Educational Products—Macmillan
English Composition & Rhetoric
Film
B2B & B2C Sales & Marketing Assets
Digital & Print Educational Products—Pearson
English Literature
World Literature
British Literature
Explore My Other Work
In addition to consulting for specific markets, I also provide branding and communications services and editorial and writing services.
Let's Work Together
Let me help you build or strengthen your brand and tell your story. I'd love to collaborate with you. Get in touch to tell me a bit about your company or business and the project you have in mind.