Amoebaworks · Marketing and communications for nonprofits

You already have something worth caring about.The hard part is getting other people to see it.

One person holding a framed picture up above their head while a line of people walk away without looking.

Hello there

Hi, I’m Shaan.

I help nonprofits make the case more clearly, reach more of the right people and turn good work into communications people understand, remember and act on.

More about me

I’ve spent twenty years inside agencies and brand teams, working with Porsche, The New York Times, Toyota and Amazon, and with nonprofits across housing, education, policy and the arts.

It’s hard to read the label from inside the bottle.

Especially when you’re close to work that matters.

I read it from the outside. What people understand. What gets lost. What makes someone care enough to give, join or act.

Then I help make more of that come through.

Amoebaworks · Portland, Oregon

The condition

The mission is the part you shouldn’t have to manufacture.

You already know why the work matters. But making other people understand it is its own craft, and in most nonprofits that job lands on one or two people who are already doing something else.

What I can take off your plate

A little craft goes a long way when the story is already good.

The case for support One clear account of the work that gives people a reason to care.

Website A site that makes the organization easier to understand and easier to support.

Annual report Proof that the work matters, told in a form people might actually read.

Appeals and donor email Reasons to give that sound like reasons to give.

Donor follow-up A relationship after the receipt.

Campaigns An idea strong enough to carry the ask.

Brand and identity A public face that feels as considered as the work behind it.

Board and staff materials A clear way for everyone to tell the same story.

The system underneath A way to keep all of it going without reinventing it every week.

Where it goes wrong

A person deep in a thick report, beside a large empty speech bubble.

Good work does not automatically make a good case for itself.

Usually, something is getting lost in one of four places.

Story

The meaning isn’t making it across.

Reach

The right people aren’t hearing it.

Conversion

They care, but don’t act.

System

Good communications happen, but not reliably.

Where it starts

Start with what you want people to do.

Give. Join. Fund. Attend. Volunteer. Understand the work differently. Then we work backward.

The Read

One focused week to figure out what’s standing in the way, what to change first and where not to spend yet. One written recommendation at the end of it.

$1K · 1 week · credited toward whatever it scopes

Then the work

Whatever the Read finds, the work takes one of three shapes.

A project: You give me a brief and I build it. Finished, in use, handed over with somebody named to own it. For when the job has edges.
An intensive: A short, concentrated push with time on site deciding together. For when one priority has to move now.
Ongoing: Running the function, or building a capability your team keeps. For when what’s missing isn’t a deliverable, it’s somebody doing the job.

Book a 15-minute call

Selected work