About
Once upon a time, when I was young and foolish, marketing agencies discovered that I had some talent, so they offered me jobs.
Unfortunately, I took those jobs.
(or don’t, if reading’s not your thing)
I’m a recovering agency strategist who now specializes in community building and employee engagement for brands from $10MM to $1B+, with an emphasis on employee well being, corporate/brand empathy, microgiving, and CSR.
I’ve done work for NBC, Howard Stern, Harley-Davidson, Wolverine, Groupon, Applebee’s, Cinnabon, The Motley Fool, Silicon Valley tech companies, and more. My writing, projects, and other work have been featured in top publications, including CNN, The Atlantic, Forbes, Fast Company, Wired, and The Washington Post.
In addition to building out activations for client companies, I’ve attracted over 20,000 people to participate in my own social good projects, and been invited to speak at or consult with dozens of blue-chip brands (including early Google, to direct their internal community giving) and conferences.
Now I’ve started my own boutique creative firm to use these powers to put more good into the world in a sustainable way 🙂
You can find me here: Skeleton Crew Creative ☠️
J. Money
Julie St. Pierre
Mari Luangrath-Ullrick
Steve Adcock
Once upon a time, when I was young and foolish, marketing agencies discovered that I had some talent, so they offered me jobs.
Unfortunately, I took those jobs.
I brought some of my own skills to the table, learned a few more, and pumped out big campaigns for big brands month after month. Looking back on it now, I wish I would’ve just stuck with doing my own thing in my own way. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bad: I did meet a few truly fantastic people and got to do some cool things in life. But the work itself was never really fulfilling , and so I consistently found myself in a place where I was both working a full-time day job and spending part-time hours building and running philanthropy projects in order to do work I believed in.
Fast forward to early 2022, where I’m a little older, a little wiser, and I politely decline the agency recruiters who show up in my inbox. Instead, I decided to create a way to stop burning myself out doing two jobs at once just to pay the bills while I try to make a positive impact in the world.
And the answer – you have to love the irony here – was to use all my skills and experience to start my OWN small creative firm. Now I know what you’re thinking . . . “But Nate, that sounds really hypocritical! Also your home office smells of cabbage!”
Honestly I think the personal insult was uncalled for, but I get your point. Here’s the difference, though: I run a boutique creative firm, which is a fancy way of saying that it’s basically just me (along with a few trusted contributors) doing what I do best for client brands.
And the thing I do best is building micro activations with the people within your organization to drive internal engagement and produce social good at the same time. It’s a beautiful thing when you can design activities that not only help your team members feel more connected to your brand and to each other, but also benefit the community at large. Of course we need to keep an eye on profits in the corporate world, but happy employees and authentic, original CSR stories with organic social sharing all contribute to a healthy bottom line, so it’s a win-win for everyone.
Anyway, that’s basically what I do and what this small business is about. I can also consult on other areas of digital strategy for your business, but I prefer to focus on the social good aspect. Feel free to ask, though!
Oh, and one last thing: In addition to the business side of Giving Cards, I also run the community project, where we give out free cards to anyone who wants to use them to do good. It’s 100% supported by the community (including any generous corporate sponsors), and 100% of donations go to funding cards. It’s how I keep my philanthropy project street cred 😉
Here’s to creating some unexpected joy out in the world!
— Nate
