When I began this work, the organization had not previously run a coordinated individual-giving campaign. Relationship information existed across spreadsheets and informal records, but there was no shared donor system or repeatable annual process.
The work therefore had two connected but distinct parts: building the internal system that made individual giving possible, and designing a public campaign that people would recognize, understand, and act on.
Building the System
Automation gathers and organizes possible information. Staff determine what is accurate, appropriate, and useful.
Create a reliable source of institutional knowledge
I consolidated disparate spreadsheets, contact histories, and organizational records in Airtable and organized them into a usable donor and household database. I cleaned and archived information, established relationships among records, identified missing fields, and developed a structure that staff could continue to maintain.
Use AI to reduce repetitive research—not replace judgment
I configured AI-assisted research agents to gather and organize publicly available household and contact information, flag incomplete records, and prepare possible matches for review. This reduced repetitive staff research and made it possible to work systematically across a larger body of records.
The agents did not make final decisions, determine who should be solicited, or communicate with prospective donors. Their output remained subject to human review, correction, contextual knowledge, and ethical limits. Automation accelerated collection and organization; staff expertise remained responsible for interpretation and action.
Turn information into a repeatable workflow
The resulting system supported research, segmentation, mailing preparation, campaign production, newsletter and social communications, follow-up, and documentation. Information that had previously lived in separate files or with individual people became institutional memory the organization could use from one campaign to the next.
Building the Campaign
Each annual appeal was developed as a coordinated multichannel campaign rather than a single fundraising letter. The physical, double-sided letter was mailed to selected households. A campaign newsletter adapted the letter’s visual identity and narrative for email. A full social-media strategy and content calendar carried the appeal from its Giving Tuesday launch through New Year’s Eve.
The fundraising infrastructure remained consistent across both years, while each campaign received its own concept, commissioned artwork, message, and set of visual assets. This created continuity in process without defaulting to a generic nonprofit identity.
2024: Growth
The 2024 campaign was organized around growth: growing community connection, creative opportunity, accessible programming, and Lansdowne’s cultural and economic future. I commissioned Sofia Carrera-Britten to create a watercolor system of vines, flowers, and rainbows that could frame the campaign without overwhelming its message.
The artwork and campaign language extended across the double-sided appeal, its email adaptation, Giving Tuesday communications, matching-gift promotion, program collages, and the full social-media sequence. The letter connected LEDC’s history and future plans with specific giving levels, translating contributions into tangible outcomes such as workshop materials, vendor support, professional development, and public art.
Original watercolor artwork by Sofia Carrera-Britten. Campaign strategy, writing, art direction, donor systems, and production by Clare Finin.
2025: Level Up
For the 2025 campaign, “Level Up,” I engaged Lansdowne artist Rachel Breeden, known for her retro visual style, to develop an original 8-bit interpretation of the community. The resulting system included streetscapes, cultural icons, landscapes, and program-specific elements that could move between the printed appeal, newsletter, and social communications.
The campaign responded directly to a changing institutional-funding landscape and positioned individual giving as a form of local resilience. The double-sided letter connected support with three priorities: rebuilding the farmers market as a reflection of the borough’s diversity, expanding professional development for entrepreneurs, and deepening arts programming. It also introduced monthly giving as a specific donor-development strategy.
The visual language was carried across the mailed letter, email adaptation, social-media launch, program-specific posts, year-end countdowns, and New Year communications—connecting the appeal to recognizable areas of LEDC’s work throughout the full campaign period.
Original 8-bit artwork by Rachel Breeden. Campaign strategy, writing, art direction, donor systems, and production by Clare Finin.
Results
from the 2023 baseline
The organization moved from scattered records and no coordinated campaign to a repeatable annual system combining donor research, supervised automation, segmentation, creative commissioning, print production, email, social outreach, and documentation.
What This Demonstrates
I help organizations build both the infrastructure and the public strategy behind individual giving: database design, ethical research, human-supervised AI workflows, segmentation, campaign planning, artist commissioning, messaging, coordinated communications, production, and documentation.