The Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations needed sharp marketing materials to help grow its portfolio of corporate partners and supporters.
Following good journalistic protocol, I:
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- Sifted through internal documents, proposals, website content and external research to select the most compelling information
- Met (virtually) on a regular basis with the team to discuss priorities, ask questions, request content, and review their feedback to my drafts
- Liaised with the designer early on so that I could write with an eye to the finished pieces
- Reviewed, edited, and fact-checked throughout the process
The client was excited with the final product and generous with their thanks.
New York City Cultural Institution
Assessing current state of fundraising department and developing short- and medium-term strategies for growth
Service:
STRATEGY
NYC Cultural Institution had just completed a successful multi-million-dollar fundraising campaign and wanted to prepare for the next one. Impactualize was part of a consulting team asked to assess and benchmark the Institution’s current program in order to help create a roadmap for more robust and sustainable fundraising.
Working closely with senior staff members, we did a deep dive into the Institution’s culture, stakeholders, strengths, weaknesses, successes, failures, and plans for the future. We also did a benchmarking study with five similar organizations.
Our due diligence included:
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- Interviewing executive leadership, staff, board members and other supporters to gain insight into what was/was not working and their hopes and aspirations
- Creating an-depth questionnaire for benchmarking five similar organizations and interviewing key contacts
- Reviewing internal documents and systems, donor/prospect lists and communications, fundraising events and campaigns
Our final reports included a thorough assessment of the current fundraising program, an easy-to-read comparison of fundraising programs at similar organizations, and actionable recommendations for the near- and medium-term future.
Sidley Austin LLP
Building reputation by creating and running a successful Global Rankings & Awards Program*
To make sense of the overwhelming number of requests for information about Sidley’s lawyers, clients, and work from publications that rank lawyers and law firms. Publishers like Chambers, The American Lawyer, and U.S.News-Best Lawyers were asking for in-depth submissions including narratives, metrics, and client references. There were no internal systems set up to collect and vet this information and turn it into persuasive pieces. The process was overtaxing resources and not leading to the most optimal outcomes.
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- Identified key publishers and established good working relationships with them
- Worked closely with firm management to identify and agree upon priorities
- Researched, wrote, and edited, edited, edited!
- Coached lawyers and marketing staff to write successful submissions in order to scale up
- Created a global calendar, best practices, templates, databases to track client references and results
- Promoted results internally and externally
By the time I left Sidley at the end of 2015, we were submitting hundreds of submissions and nominations each year and receiving 1000+ accolades.
*I was a marketing director at Sidley before pivoting to serve organizations in the social and environmental good space. This experience transfers well to writing CSR/Impact Reports, grant proposals and complicated survey responses, and to setting up and optimizing programs and departments.