Project Management: Websites

Upgrading a website or creating a new web presence can be a daunting challenge. McKnight Higgins & Associates provided services that included staff and constituent interviews, content architecture, copywriting and image selection, client/web designer communications, internet marketing and beta-testing.

Project Management: Marketing Collateral

For this 25-year annual report (Local Initiatives Support Coalition) and 48-page catalog (East Bay Housing Organizations), McKnight Higgins created copy and headlines and managed a team that included staff from the nonprofit, and outside contractors (graphic designer, photographer, copy editor, other writers, advertisers, etc.)

Project Management: Finding Marin: Stories of Home

McKnight Higgins helped address the issue of affordable housing as project manager of Finding Marin: Stories of Home – a 2 year project with the Marin Arts Council (in partnership with the California Council for the Humanities and the Marin Community Foundation) that culminated in an exhibit, a book and a DVD, and used the arts – poetry, film, visual art, oral history, storytelling – to bring over 50 nonprofit partner agencies and over 70 residents of Marin from all walks of life together with oral historians, artists and other community members to explore, define,and celebrate the diverse meanings of home for people from all backgrounds, walks of life and economic levels in Marin County.

Direct Mail: New Donor Acquisition & Targeted Messaging

McKnight Higgins worked with the Executive Director of the Polly Klaas Foundation to grow their donor base from 100 to over 2000 donors in a three year time period by testing mailing lists and various appeal strategies in multiple mailings. McKnight Higgins has conducted other successful mail campaigns for Marin County School Volunteers, DrawBridge, Marin Arts Council, Spirit Rock Meditation Center and others.

Fundraising Assessment: The Dance Palace

McKnight Higgins & Associates conducted an assessment of the fundraising potential of The Dance Palace to create a $600,000 Legacy Fund. We conducted community and donor interviews and donor base research to provide strategies, recommendations, and a board report. The consultancy was successful in motivating and inspiring the board to take on this challenge.

Grassroots Fundraising: Campaign to Save Bahia

Marin Audubon Society & Marin Bayland Advocates
Grassroots fundraising under the direction of McKnight Higgins over a nine-month period brought in $1,000,000 in non-state matching funds to complete the $15.8 million dollar purchase of the Bahia property in Novato, California. We advised the direct mail, major donor, proposal writing, collateral and public relations efforts.