Danielle Lewis, Vice President

Danielle Lewis works with nonprofits and foundations to develop and implement effective communications strategies, craft brand promises and message platforms that position organizations to achieve their goals, and lead trainings that build their capacity to communicate more effectively. Her clients work on a wide range of issues – from the environment and criminal justice to philanthropy and international health and development.

Recently, Danielle led Spitfire’s work with the Surdna Foundation to assess the communications capacity of 30 grantees in its Sustainable Environments portfolio and conduct research to identify ways to strengthen the national green economy conversation. Surdna is using the results of this work to guide future investment priorities and as a model for strengthening the Foundation’s communications efforts in other portfolios.

For the last three years, Danielle has worked with the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions, a coalition of 16 organizations working on sustainable seafood issues with support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. She worked with the Alliance to develop and implement the strategy for its launch, securing over a dozen endorsements from seafood businesses and coverage in all major seafood trade publications. Since the launch, Danielle has worked closely with the Alliance to raise its profile at industry events and among key trade groups; develop protocols and tools to facilitate more efficient and effective internal communications; and provide full-service support to address the coalition’s other day-to-day strategic communications needs.

Other recent projects Danielle has worked on at Spitfire include assessing the communications strategy of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT program and providing recommendations to strengthen its position among advocates and policymakers; developing a new brand for the Population Council that focuses on the organization’s unique role in using research to change the way the world thinks about critical health and development issues; and developing a shared message platform so that a network of organizations working on community land trusts can speak with one voice about the benefits of this model for affordable housing. Danielle also contributed to Spitfire’s most recent publication “From Big Ideas to Big Change,” a report to help foundations communicate more effectively about their change strategies. Danielle led the development of the planning tool that accompanies the report.

A frequent trainer in the United States and worldwide, Danielle leads sessions on strategic communications planning, message development, responding to opposition, media relations and interview techniques, and is Spitfire’s resident expert on building effective PowerPoint presentations. Recently, Danielle led a train-the-trainers session for members of the Conservation Alliance to prepare them to lead messaging trainings for their staff and taught community land trust advocates to tailor messages for local audiences and respond more effectively to opposition arguments. Danielle has also trained health-focused nonprofit leaders for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; researchers and advocates working on global health and development issues across Africa for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and a conservation coalition in Palau for the Packard Foundation.

Prior to joining the Spitfire team, Danielle worked at McKinney and Associates, a Washington, D.C. PR firm, where she coordinated national and regional media campaigns on issues such as affirmative action, racial profiling and fair housing. Danielle was born and raised in the D.C. area and holds a B.A. in rhetoric and communication studies and Spanish from the University of Richmond.