Building a B2B Content Strategy for Comic Relief US

At Comic Relief US, I developed a B2B content strategy designed to generate and nurture leads among mission-aligned corporate partners, moving the organization beyond traditional fundraising asks toward a more sophisticated, content-led approach to brand sponsorship and co-funding.

At the center of the strategy was a sizzle asset that did double duty: sharp enough to anchor a paid LinkedIn campaign targeting prospective partners, and polished enough to work in boardroom presentations and branded sales materials. LinkedIn was the primary channel — chosen deliberately to reach decision-makers where they were already engaging with purpose-driven content — but the ecosystem was designed to pull audiences through to the full breadth of Comic Relief US’s content, partnerships, and impact work.

Alongside this, I developed a content series under the Partnering for Purpose banner, collaborating with purpose-driven organizations to create co-branded editorial that gave prospective and existing partners a clear view of what meaningful collaboration with Comic Relief US looked like in practice.

Together these assets laid a strong strategic foundation for Comic Relief US’s partnership development — creating the tools, content, and channels needed to generate leads and keep the right brands engaged at the right level.

Read more: Streaming Success Meets Social Impact

Watch the sizzle

Launching the 2023 Audacious Project Cohort: From Strategy to the TED Stage

In 2023, The Audacious Project announced its most ambitious cohort to date — ten bold ideas backed by over one billion dollars in philanthropic commitments from funders including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Emerson Collective, and MacKenzie Scott.

I led the communications, marketing, and PR strategy for the cohort launch, coordinating across a complex web of stakeholders including donors, grantee partners, internal TED teams, and media, to bring ten very different stories to the world simultaneously and with impact.

The launch was underpinned by a significant digital overhaul completed in the months prior — a full redesign of the Audacious Project website and social presence that created a stronger, more cohesive platform from which to tell these stories (check it out here). This groundwork meant that when the cohort went public, every channel, from the website to social media, was built to carry the weight of the moment and convert attention into deeper engagement with each grantee’s work.

Central to the launch was a sizzle video presented live on the TED stage, which I developed and directed. Drawing on interviews, archival footage, motion graphics, and music, the film introduced ten distinct, multi-million dollar ideas as a single, cohesive narrative. The reaction in the room was unexpected and electric — a reminder of just how powerful the right combination of visuals, music, and storytelling can be, even in a brief interstitial format.

Every cohort I launched during my time at TED was special in its own right, but this one holds a particular place for me creatively. It required deep collaboration with grantee partners, careful editorial judgment, and the ability to hold a creative vision steady across a high-pressure production timeline. The cohesion and quality of what we delivered as a team still stands out to me as some of my best work.

The launch marked a significant milestone in the initiative’s five-year history, generating our largest global media coverage to date and reinforcing The Audacious Project’s position as one of the most ambitious collaborative funding initiatives in philanthropy.

A new home for The Audacious Project!

Recently I spearheaded the launch of two new sites, the redesign of the Audacious Project website, and the first digital iteration of our annual report.

Collaborating on this project with the talented team at Whiteboard was such fun and it’s been a thrill to have a beautiful new home for the initiative to showcase stories about so many important issues I care about.

Check out Whiteboard’s case study on the project.

Producing TED Conversations

TED’s social team has been experimenting with live conversations on the TED Instagram account, for the past year and recently I reached out to them with a proposal to do an Audacious series of these focused on urgent global issues.  We launched late last year and have to say it’s been such a fun collaboration!

The idea is to bring together a change-maker/ activist and an influencer with a passion for a particular social issue to discuss innovative ideas and strategies to address it. Our first one was a climate conversation featuring James Bond star Pierce Brosnan and Audacious Project leader Dr. Heidi Sosik of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Recently we hosted Top Chef host and activist Padma Lakshmi in conversation with World Central Kitchen founder Chef José Andrés.

Love how engaged global influencers like Padma have been in this project and how they are using it as a platform to talk about issues they are passionate about.

I’m excited to see the series grow and super proud to be leading a project that has seen so many people engaging with important global issues in an accessible and entertaining way.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk!

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I can’t believe that I have been working at TED as the Editorial Director of The Audacious Project for almost a year now! It’s been an exhilarating ride figuring out ways to amplify the work of the extraordinary social impact organizations funded through this initiative.

Each year the announcement of the funded projects happens during the annual TED conference in Vancouver, and it’s always a much-anticipated highlight of the week. So when it became clear that due to COVID, we couldn’t have an in-person event, it was decided that we would pivot to an 8-week online experience. This was pretty daunting for the whole organization. Having to convert an event designed for the live stage (one of the most famous in the world) into a compelling online program is no joke!

Luckily for the Audacious team, we had some digital-friendly content already in the bag, because pre lockdowns I had traveled to Rwanda and Kenya to shoot two mini-documentaries highlighting the work of Audacious grantees. Both ended up being selected for the mainstage session at TED2020 held virtually in June!

One of the videos features SNHU’s GEM program, which provides access to Bachelor’s degrees to refugees.  Spending time with Saida, a refugee student from Kakuma camp in Kenya, and sharing her story and those of many other displaced communities was life-changing. 

The story is now up on TED.com, and I couldn’t be prouder to share it. Check it out here.

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Saida Aden Said, a SNHU student, living in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya

We built a chatbot!

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It’s been a busy few months at Girl Effect for me. I got promoted (yay me) and now lead content strategy across the organization. We also rolled out the first social campaign for the Nutrition International project and most exciting we launched my passion project for the last few months Big Sis, Girl Effect’s first ever chatbot!

Big Sis uses guided conversation to answer girls’ questions about sexual health. Girls are guided through entertaining, informative content with quizzes (you know I had to have quizzes), to test their knowledge on sex, sexuality, contraception, and relationships.

Learn more about the iterative User Centered Design process we employed to build Big Sis here.

We recently showcased our pioneering girl to experts at the Global Digital Health Forum in Washington DC. The forum is the leading networking event for global public and digital health experts from more than 100 countries. 

Empowering Girls with Mobile breakfast panel

Screenshot 2019-03-14 at 14.50.32.pngLast week I hosted a breakfast panel launching Girl Effect and Vodafone Foundation’s  #girlsandmobile research to the development community! The event was a preview of one of the biggest studies ever conducted on girls and mobile. Later that day I had the pleasure of participating in the public launch at the Social Good Summit, where 16-year old filmmaker Zuriel Oduwole introduced the report with a fantastic presentation that had us all on our feet!

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Our insights and evidence colleagues worked very hard on this, so well done team!

I spoke at the SBCC Summit

I spoke at the 2018 International Social and Behavior Change Communication Summit exploring the thorny oxymorons that the development sector routinely wrestles with as it integrates digital platforms into behavior change work.

The panel was moderated by Laura Baringer, Senior Manager Girls Connect (Girl Effect)  and included Kecia Bertermann, Senior Manager Evidence, Girl Effect, Linda Raftree, Independent Consultant, and Samantha Jackson, Managing Director, Percolate Galactic

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We discussed how we can we both enable greater voice and participation while still ensuring that we are protecting young people and their privacy. We shared how on Springster we collect the data needed to be able to adapt platforms and content to users needs and interests while minimizing the data we collect, so that we are respecting privacy and reducing the potential for data breaches. We also explored how we use our data to understand the contribution of mobile and online platforms to behavior change whilst complying with privacy laws and regulations.

Launching Girl Effect’s first global brand, Springster

facebook-header-3.2e16d0ba.fill-790x400After 2 and half years as the digital content mama on Girl Effect Mobile (GEM) working with the amazing media non-profit Girl Effect, I’m excited to finally be able to reveal our new rebrand as global girls digital brand Springster!

We traveled to 5 countries to talk to girls about what they wanted from GEM and girls told us they wanted to be part of something, as well as support and celebrate each other. We listened and responded with Springster, a brand that aims to build a community-focused identity and attitude, celebrating the diverse, inspirational and convention-defying experiences of all girls.

The branding is beautiful and it was an amazing collaborating with the incredible team at Design Studio in London. But it’s not just our new illustrations (all done by an amazing female team we handpicked from almost every corner of the world) and fun UX that made this an amazing project for me, it was seeing how we’ve grown and evolved and learned with girls to bring them an even better version of our platforms.  I have to give us all a pat on the back… we did good!

You can learn more about Springster in our factsheet

03_girlconfidence_feature_Look in the mirror…