Bio
I launched Written Wings in 2011 because I am a writer at heart and feel profoundly rewarded when helping others by doing what I love. I also believe that we are all responsible for contributing our personal skills to make the world a better place, and those of us born into privilege are doubly responsible for leveraging that privilege to stand behind and support the leadership of those born without it.
Through Written Wings, I raise about $2 MILLION annually in grants mainly for small nonprofits. I have provided grants, outreach materials, and consulting for dozens of organizations throughout the US working in social justice, human services, economic development, environmentalism, and the arts. I also provide similar services for mission-based businesses (e.g. farms, alternative healers, life coaches), publications, and individuals working on projects to improve the world without 501c3 status. Coaching writers of all levels and kinds is another great passion, and I have inspired many to hone their voices, organize their thoughts, and bring their writing to life.
Every morning I warm up before work by working on my own poems and novel, and every afternoon I take a break to do yoga, then run the beautiful woodland trails by my house. Outside of work, you will also find me Latin dancing, swimming, biking, and kayaking with my partner Michael, or making beaded jewelry.
The Journey Here
My journey to this work has been lifelong, and I believe it is what I am meant to do. An avid reader and writer since early childhood, in college writing workshops and the writers’ groups I discovered a talent for constructive critique and deep fulfillment in using it to inspire other writers. This led me to publishing, where I started as a textbook editor specializing in English Language Arts. I wrote, edited, and managed production of major publishing house textbooks for students and teachers, and was gratified to make a difference in the classroom. Yet whenever I pushed to correct content against social justice values, I was not able to fix it all and paid a price for trying. When the Recession hit, I was laid off along with half my coworkers.
Next, I worked as a writing tutor for students from third grade to graduate school and gave writing skills presentations to those in college. This enabled me to focus on helping people, but didn’t provide the hours and pay of a good career and made me miss writing for a living.
When I discovered grant writing and nonprofit development, It was love at first sight, a chance to build a successful writing career that would really make a difference. I started networking to learn about it, and soon met development consultant Suzanne Bowles (now Philanthropic Partnerships Officer for the African NGO Tostan), who immediately offered to mentor me. After an 8-month apprenticeship in grant writing and nonprofit development, I wrote my first grants, and all were funded.
I had never planned on starting my own business, but there were no entry-level jobs in grant writing, so at the end of 2011, I launched Written Wings and built it from scratch through networking. I turned out to be as much of a natural in business development as in critiquing writing and writing grants, and quickly developed a thriving business focused mainly on nonprofits, but also assisting mission-based work outside the nonprofit sector and continuing to coach individual writers. I am incredibly fortunate to be able to help so many people fulfill their dreams of making the world a better place for all of us.
Commitment to Social Justice
I recognize my privilege as a cisgender, white woman from a middle class family, educated at a highly-respected university and partnered with a cisgender man. As a Jewish person whose spirituality is earth-based, I also know what it feels like to be a minority, inherit ancestral trauma from oppression, face both bigotry and sexism, and sometimes feel unsafe – but I do not know what it feels like to be a visible minority living daily with over-policing, economic oppression, racial bias, and more. I recognize the people most impacted by social justice issues as the experts in how to move the world toward true equality; since I am not one of those people, my role is to support their leadership and to help keep others accountable to them.
Written Wings is a mission-based business in service to people striving for a better world. My business is a way of leveraging my privilege by working as a consultant to stand behind and uplift the leadership of oppressed people. I seek constantly to learn and grow as an ally, and strive to be aware of and compassionate to the dynamics that oppression and trauma bring into the spaces where I work, especially with people who experience far more oppression than I do. To increase access to my services, I offer a sliding scale based on the economy of the client’s location, the client’s ability to pay, and the extent to which the work to be supported assists people who are systemically oppressed. It is also my role to gently but firmly call out organizations that are not adequately serving, consulting, or representing people living with oppression, and to advise them in how to correct these issues.
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