Here's the thing about running a development office:
You know exactly what your school means to the people who love it. You just don't have time to tell them every week.
Your donors want to feel connected to the community they believe in. Your alumni want to know their school is still the place they remember — and that it's growing into something even better. Your parents want evidence, every year, that they made the right choice.
All of that lives in the stories your school tells. And the schools that tell those stories consistently — in donors' inboxes, week after week — are the ones that grow their annual fund, retain major donors, and build the kind of community loyalty that survives leadership changes and capital campaigns alike.
That's where I come in.
Twenty years of storytelling. Now working for your advancement office.
I've spent my career doing one thing: taking complex, important topics and turning them into stories that make people care.
I started as a journalist — covering local politics, environmental issues, healthcare, and breaking news across print, broadcast, and digital. I learned early that the best stories aren't only about facts. They're about people making decisions that matter.
Later, I taught at the UNC School of Media and Journalism, where I trained the next generation of storytellers. Over the years, I’ve led editorial teams under real deadlines and learned something that changed how I think about every piece of writing: the people who are closest to a story are often the worst at explaining why it matters to someone who isn't.
That insight is the foundation of everything I do now.
A few years ago, I realized that schools — especially independent schools with small development teams and big ambitions — were sitting on extraordinary stories they didn't have time to tell. Donor impact. Faculty innovation. Alumni who'd changed their fields. Students doing remarkable things in the world.
So I founded The Ghostwriting Lab, an agency that captures those stories and turns them into donor communications that actually move people.
I run your donor newsletter end to end, so you don't have to.
That means I handle story sourcing, writing, editing, scheduling, and light performance reporting. You review and approve. I take care of everything else.
More specifically, this looks like:
Weekly or biweekly donor newsletters that feel like a letter from someone who loves the school, not a fundraising pitch. Stories from classrooms, alumni updates, faculty spotlights, community milestones. Content that keeps your donor base warm between campaigns and primed when the ask comes.
Alumni communications that reconnect graduates to the place that shaped them — and to each other.
Annual fund supporting content timed to your giving calendar, so the right story lands in the right inbox at the right moment in the cycle.
Voice development so everything I write sounds unmistakably like your school, not like a ghostwriter.
What I Actually Do For Your School
My Favorite Clients
I work best with independent and private school development offices that know their school has great stories — and are tired of watching those stories go untold because there's no time to write them.
That usually means:
A Director of Development or Director of Advancement who's managing up, managing down, and managing a giving calendar, and genuinely cannot add "write the newsletter" to the list
A small development team that punches above its weight but needs a reliable communications partner
A Head of School who cares deeply about donor relationships and wants communications that reflect the school's actual culture and excellence
You don't need to have a polished communications program already. You just need to believe that consistent, story-driven communication is worth investing in, and be ready to give me 30 minutes a month to make it happen.
The Personal Stuff
I'm a first-generation American, born to Colombian and German parents, and fluent in Spanish. I live in North Carolina with my husband and two daughters. When I'm not writing, I'm probably hiking, planning our next travel adventure, or doing something creative with my kids.
I believe every institution has fascinating stories hiding in plain sight. Independent schools especially — you're producing extraordinary human beings every year, and most of the world never hears about it.
That's a problem I know how to solve.
Your school's stories deserve a wider audience.
If your donor newsletter keeps getting deprioritized — or if you have one but you know it could work harder — let's talk. I'll show you exactly what a story-driven communications program looks like for a school like yours.
