Greater Good Work

 Abilities

  • Comfortable working on varied teams with diverse colleagues
  • Significant experience in public/political work and community/significant engagement
  • A service ethic focused on the well-being of others
  • Application of an understanding of the dynamics of inequity and inequality in communications practices
  • Employment of emotional intelligence and sensitivity in working with diverse populations
  • Can serve as a storyteller to craft reflective, compelling and sophisticated messaging and narratives that are appropriate to any medium or outlet
  • Creation of cogent text from multiple/ disparate sources
  • Use of policies, research and established best practices to produce, change, maintain and/or implement text and campaigns
  • Experience in curation and empathetic use of individual’s narratives, stories and quotes
  • Coordination of multi-level, multi-media and multi-person publicity/marketing campaigns
  • Can form relationships with influencers, VIPs, board members, grantors and others in a position to support causes
  • Development and implementation of communications policies and goals, and ability to acquire stakeholder’s support in reaching them
  • Can report and analyze metric data to use for refining of messaging, policies or goals
  • Learn more about your story and social change here.
  • Contact Allena here to get started.

 Experiences & Projects

  • Huffington Post- Occasional blogger on justice and development topics
  • Adelante Forward magazine- Managing editor for this publication with a focus on the well-being and education of Latinos in the region (current, since 2005)
  • Progress/Engage Michigan- Ongoing contractual provision of talking points, news releases, media relations, social media, web content and translation in pursuit of organization’s pro-social goals, esp. immigration reform (since 2011)
  • Michigan United- Ongoing communications service to this justice-oriented organization through Progress/Engage Michigan (see above, since 2011)
  • Michigan Alliance of Latinos Moving Toward Advancement- Ongoing occasional provision of talking points, speech and op-eds on policy and justice topics such as the DACA program, driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants
  • Michigan Association on Problem Gambling- Past intern in grant research and proposal writing
  • Michigan Association on Problem Gambling- Completed several projects including re-branding and brochure production
  • “Writing for Social Justice” online class- Designer and instructor of three cohorts over the course of 2013-2014 through Women on Writing
  • Lansing Regional Sister Cities Commission- Provision of writing services, including grants, web, social media, and publicity pieces (former volunteer)
  • La Familia Migrante- Pro bono translation of student activity, through One in a Billion Consulting
  • Sero Project- Pro bono translation for HIV advocacy group
  • Día de la Mujer Conference, MSU- Pro bono Spanish support/proofreading (2014)
  • Advocates for Latino Student Advancement in Michigan- Pro bono writing and editorial support of dignitary invitation letter (2014)
  • Lansing for César E. Chávez- Pro bono publicity for annual fundraiser (2014)

Training

  • Rhetoric Society of America: workshop “Latino Rhetoric”
  • American Writers and Artists Institute: copywriting seminar
  • MSU Alumni College: seminars on grant seeking and proposal writing
  • IAC Corporation/ About.com: annual training (SEO, SERPS, Google, content, social) 2008-2015
  • Nielsen Corporation: webinar “State of the Hispanic Consumer”
  • The Storytelling Non Profit Conference 2016
  • Center for Story Based Strategy, various webinars/workshops, such as:
    • Introduction of Story Based Strategy, Detroit 2013
    • Online Organizing; A Trick or a Treat?
    • Dissecting Dis-intermediation, Messaging Middlemen
  • Immigrant Learning Center Public Education Institute, various webinars such as:
    • Immigrant Student Success Models and Tools, 2012
    • Data and Trends in US Immigration, 2013
    • Comprehensive Immigration Reform, 2013
    • New Messaging Strategies; Positioning Immigrants as Assets, 2014
    • Building United Communities of Immigrants and African Americans, 2015
    • Immigrants and Health Care, 2016
  • 4Good Organization: various webinars, such as:
    • Amplify Your Brand
    • Excel for Grant Writers
    • How To Tell Donors a Story
    • State Your Case; Crafting Advocacy Messages
    • How to Plan for Grant Application Success
    • Building Meaningful Online Engagement
    • 3 Key Ingredients for a Successful Online Campaign
    • Supercharge Your Fundraising with Content Marketing
    • Storytelling for Nonprofits
    • Journalism Tricks to Spice Up Grant Proposals
    • Raise More Money with Smarter Email Marketing
    • How to Tell Your Stories on Social Media
    • Mobile Impact 101
    • Nonprofit Blogging
    • Leveraging Social Media for Nonprofit Fundraising
    • Email Marketing 101
    • Telling the Right Story for Your Online Campaign
    • Data Mining for Direct Mail
    • Fundraising with Soc Media
    • SEO 101 for Nonprofits
    • Diversity Awareness for Nonprofits
    • Pinning for Good; How Nonprofits Can Use Pinterest
    • Crisis Communications for Nonprofits
    • Google Analytics for the Nonprofit Beginner
    • Indie Publishing for the Nonprofit
    • Writing Amazing Appeal Letters
    • Google Apps for Nonprofits
    • Social Media Metrics; Turning Data Into Content