Hi, I'm Laura Olin. I've shaped President Obama's voice online, raised millions of dollars for nonprofits, and run record-breaking social media programs.
I like helping causes, campaigns, and companies reach people and build relationships to accomplish meaningful things.
Want to work together? Get in touch at laura@withsisu.co.
Proud to have worked
with & within:
Obama 2012
Hillary for America
Google Creative Lab
The Gates Foundation
Center for American Progress
WNYC
Medium
ACLU
EMILY's List
American Red Cross
DLCC
DSCC
Services
Digital fundraising
Raise more money with data-driven, delightful-as-heck programs that deepen relationships with your audience at every step, from calendars to page flows.
Innovative storytelling
Want to do something different, even if you don't quite know what "different" looks like yet? Get brainstorming and execution help on new ways to reach people.
Cross-platform campaigns
Get help planning and executing your launch, big moment, or new campaign—with creative strategies to reach your target audience on the right platforms.
Social media
Tune up your existing social media program or launch a brand new one. Find a compelling voice, create content that gets shared, and make the most of big moments.
Gut checks
Risks are great. Avoidable mistakes are not. Get an outside perspective on your new thing, and ideas for how to change course if you need to.
Work
Obama 2012
As the re-election campaign's first digital staffer, I helped set our digital strategy and establish the campaign's voice online, from email to the website and social media. The program I helped shape went on to raise $690 million for the President's re-election and recruit millions of volunteers.
I also ran the campaign's social media strategy—everything from the @BarackObama Twitter handle to Michelle Obama's Facebook page and the campaign's Tumblr. My team helped shape what campaigns look like on social, grew our followings by 40 million, and created the most-shared Twitter and Facebook posts in history.
Photo: Scout Tufankjian
Fundraising for nonprofits & campaigns
I’ve helped clients of all sizes and missions plan and run engaging, effective fundraising programs to raise millions of dollars from thousands of donors.
Some recent highlights: Performing an assessment of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee's fundraising program in 2015 and helping them re-tool to break their previous records; planning a calendar and writing emails to raise millions for American Red Cross flood relief; and helping the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee rethink its tone and messaging to break out of a burn-it-down fundraising trap.
Launching Hillary
In 2014, an invite appeared on my calendar for a meeting with my boss. The title: “Democratic Party of Virginia.” He messaged me with a follow-up: "DPVA is code." It turned out the two of us were the very beginnings of Hillary Clinton's 2016 digital operation.
Over the next several months, I led strategy, planning, and execution on several aspects of the digital launch, from social strategy to the content and design of the campaign's website to treatments of the campaign's well-received launch video.
Introducing a new generation to JFK
The JFK Library has a challenge all presidential institutions will eventually face: How to engage a generation of young people with the values of a president they have no living memory of.
First up, we assessed and refreshed the Foundation's social media presences to help reach target audiences with optimized formats and a more natural voice. Then we set up a focused social and email program around one specific Foundation initiative: getting more supporter nominations for the Library's Profile in Courage Award. In our first year of working together, we increased nominations to 900; in our second, over 4,000.
Everything Changes
In the fall of 2014, I launched an email list with the intention of playing with theme and format every week to see how far the medium could stretch. I called the project Everything Changes.
Over three years, Everything Changes has gained thousands of subscribers, generated earned media in The Atlantic and The Guardian, and become a part of the online publication The Awl while dispensing facts about Dolly Parton, collecting a map of memory bombs, exchanging advice, generating a Thought Clock, and a lot more. Subscribe here.
