Deborah’s message: Celebrating 2023’s incredible growth and 5 years of Luminate!
What a year! As 2023 came to a close, I am amazed by all we’ve achieved. Last year marked our largest single-year growth in our five-year history, and let me tell you — we’re just getting started!
We created a fun e-card for Nellie’s to send to donors during their holiday campaign.
Supporting our Clients Helped Us Grow Together
When I threw open Luminate’s virtual doors back in 2019, it was just me and one copywriter. Between the two of us we worked as as-needed copywriters for a handful of non-profit organizations, a number of small businesses, and as a partner to a marketing agency. As new and exciting prospects came into view, our little agency grew and we seized the opportunity to work on projects, and with clients, that expanded our skills and services.
Today, we’ve grown to a team of 10 writers, designers, editors, social media managers, and project managers. And, with this expanded team, came our growth into a full-service communications agency for non-profit organizations.
Stepping into this role just made sense. While we’re still available for on-demand copywriting-only projects, we’re building bonds with our clients to strategically elevate their donor communications projects, all year long, and acting as their de-facto communications team. And, rather than being ‘just their copywriters,’ we’re carrying those projects from concept to completion.
Embracing all Opportunities Expanded our Horizons
No matter the size or scope of a project, we approach each one with the same level of motivation and respect. While we pride ourselves in providing full-service strategic donor communications solutions, we invest our time with many non-profit organizations and community projects that need our expertise and support.
By taking this attitude, we’ve worked with community hospital foundations, mental health groups, gender-based violence shelters, anti-poverty advocates, 2SLGBTQI+ organizations, First Nations, public libraries, and so many more who are doing meaningful and important work.
It’s a privilege to work with such diverse organizations and we put a lot of effort into building deep connections and alliances based on trust.
Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity Annual Report
Elevating the Annual Report Created an Impact
The communications project we’re most often approached for is the annual report. These massive and intensive undertakings can tax an organization’s internal resources and are one of the most common items outsourced to our agency.
But long gone are the days of the mammoth annual reports that readers skim over; here are the days of annual reports that readers get excited about. In our first four years, we wrote and produced a handful of these impactful reports each year. In wanting more organizations to find intense value in their annual report, at the beginning of the year we launched our Annual Reports for Non-Profits guide; by year-end we had strategically planned, written, produced, and designed 12 beautiful reports. Each one infused a human-centric and friendly voice, emphasized wise spending at a glance, and made donors feel appreciated.
The Year Ahead is Bigger and Brighter
After so much growth and evolution in our first five years, nothing feels impossible as we launch into our next five years. As we look to 2024, we will continue to embrace our growth by doing what we do best — supporting our incredible clients by strengthening their connections with their donors.
And to all our clients, thank you for trusting in us and offering us the opportunity to do what we love: create content that connects.
With gratitude,
Deborah Evans 🫶
2/3 of the Luminate Communications team: Deborah, Hanna, Suzanne, Lynn, Jonathan, Rachel. (Missing in action: Cara, Juliana, Emma, Keltie.)