Company Offers a Budget-Friendly Path to Publicity for Nonprofits

by Karen Plourde, Editor, Weavers Way Shuttle

If you’re part of a nonprofit that’s looking for communications and/or marketing help but doesn’t have the funds to hire a staffer or contract with an agency, Weavers Way member Stef Arck-Baynes may be able to help you out.

Arck-Baynes, 49, launched her public relations company, Achieving Good Communications, in April, partly in response to having her hours cut at the nonprofit where she was working. She has close to 20 years of experience in the field, handling the communications needs of agencies as large as Philabundance and the Opportunity Finance Network along with smaller initiatives like the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at SCH Academy. Through the company, she wants to help smaller nonprofits get recognition for themselves and their work while staying within their budget.

“Having a consultant, either project-based or retainer-based… will better meet their needs,” she said. “… And then, if they want that sustained visibility, or sustained support, then I can work with them on a monthly or project basis that’s gonna cost them much less than a full-time employee.”

In certain cases, she may be able to partner two groups and leverage the funds or time from one into the other.

“I’m definitely willing to be creative and have been creative to spread the word about things that I care about,” she said. “I’ve been doing word of mouth for a long time.”

Arck-Baynes grew up in Logan and left for New York City after college in 1996 before returning in 2010. She lives in West Mt. Airy with her husband, Nate, the owner and purveyor of Two Street Sammies food truck, and their five-year old daughter, Zoe.

In addition to her professional goals, Arck-Baynes is hoping that by working for herself, she can have a more fluid schedule that will better support caring for Zoe. Since the pandemic, she’s found it more difficult to parent while working full time.

“If I want to work on the weekends or work at night because I want to take her to the pool, or I need some time for myself, I can do that,” she said.

Through the socially responsible marketing agency A Little Better Co, she’s currently working on The Unless Project, a grant program for underfunded nonprofits with transformational ideas.

The project’s name comes from “unless,” the last word the Lorax of Dr. Seuss fame left on a rock before he disappeared. The full quote from the book is “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing’s going to get better. It’s not.”

The program will offer up to $150,000 in marketing services to four small, deserving nonprofits with ideas that, once implemented, will help change society. ALBC is especially looking to fund ideas on how to curb gun violence, lessen hate and increase equity. The inaugural grant cycle will launch this summer. Find out more at www.alittlebetter.co/unless.

Not long before she quit her job, Arck-Baynes joined a “mompreneur” group that grew out of a cluster of new mom support groups started through The Nesting House children’s consignment shops (she belonged to one as a new mom in the late 2010s.) She reached out to Al Lubrano of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and he wrote an article about the group that featured her. The story was picked up by representatives of syndicated daytime talk show host Tamron Hall, who invited Arck-Baynes to appear on the show and gave the group $5,000. They’re now discussing how best to use the money

Despite her current lack of economic certainty, Arck-Baynes is excited to check her email every day and see if a particular proposal has come through, or if a new project is in the works.

“Hopefully, I can get those types of engagements where I can make a difference,” she said. “I feel like that’s meaningful change that needs to happen.”