Who the heck am I?

When I landed my first marketing job for a rapidly growing Brooklyn brand, I was sure it was where I was meant to be. I liked the fancy job but I realized too quickly that I couldn’t care less about moving and pushing the company's products.

 I wanted to market something worth marketing. 

I left the dream job and began working with Friendship Circle, a non-profit that creates friendship & inclusion for individuals with special needs. While working as Program Director servicing hundreds of special needs families, I got a front-row seat to lives being transformed for the better. The shocker? I had come into an established organization that was struggling to get volunteers and new members. 

I’ll never forget the first event I did where I had to make dozens of phone calls to get enough people to attend so it wouldn’t look embarrassing.

Great programming, even life-changing programming, wasn’t enough. We needed people to see and experience the cause in the way that we did before they ever stepped through our door. We needed them to see that it was a no-brainer to get involved. So I added another hat and was soon directing all marketing in addition to a full-time job as Program Director. 

In the juggle, I discovered the benefits of marketing from within. I was living and breathing the mission of our organization so marketing became almost effortless.

Fast forward and we more than tripled our participants, programs, and had a waitlist for more. We had volunteers messaging us on social asking when and how they could volunteer. Our status in the city changed and our name was recognized everywhere, people loved us before they met us. We grew our annual fundraiser from 400 participants to 1,000 and we nearly doubled the funds raised. 

It didn’t happen with a massive budget. It happened with limited time and resources. Through applying the best marketing practices from the for-profit sector and experimenting and building strategies that could create lasting impact. It happened through stepping away from traditional nonprofit marketing that’s all about investing in asking instead of building meaningful relationships. It happened through brand awareness that made people feel like an insider & part of a tribe that represents who they want to be. 

I want that for you. 

Non-profit marketing is hugely under-utilized because we too often follow what we did last year and the organizations to the right and left of us, instead of what our bold & big mission calls us to do.

Enter Pedal. I work with you to create marketing that attracts people to you, makes them want in, and moves them to take action and spread the word. 

If you like the sound of that hop on my email list, follow me on social, or both. That’s where I drop tips, mindsets, and strategies for you. Or if you're an action-taker who’s looking to stop playing small, hop on a call to see if we’d be a good fit to work together. 

- Racheli

P.S. 

Congrats you have an above-average attention span! You made it 3,320 words in. I like you already.