hey, i’m Matt…

The editorial thought

leadership specialiast

you talk. i write. Everybody loves it. we win.

I have slots for five clients on a retainer working five to ten hours a week. We meet once a week, you tell me what’s on your mind and then I help you by drafting opinion pieces and placing them with editorial outlets. I also leverage my press relationships to introduce you to journalists who are genuinely interested in your work. I’m honest and direct but never a jerk about it.

Book a quick zoom call here, and let’s chat about your needs.

Active Clients ❤️

Articles, op-eds, emails and blog posts written ✍🏼

Media outlets in which my writing has appeared 🗒

What people say about working with me

"Everyone loved your segment at the convening, we're an impact-led organization and our members trust you and have developed a deep sense of collaboration on raising up our stories. We've had incredible success through the partnership. It's not just the media placement and the policy wins that you've contributed to, but also you bring a strategic partnership approach. You give people who've survived statelessness the confidence to share and talk about their experiences. It pairs well with our resilience work, shedding the shame and embarrassment that comes from being lonely in this position. It builds power and community. We'd recommend you to anyone in a similar position."

– Karina Ambartsoumian-Clough, Executive Director, United Stateless

"I think this opinion piece is f***ing awesome. I would give it 10 gold stars. I only wish your squash game was as good as your writing."

– James Green, Board Member, Open Squash, New York

"I've been contracting with an agency for years at considerable expense, and they were flubbing every deliverable. Matt got our organization published in the Financial Times within a week."

Chief Executive of a Nonprofit.

"Matt is a media magician. His pace is phenomenal, his insights are always on point, and he creates a welcoming, relaxed environment with whoever he's talking to. You'll leave a 15-minute conversation with Matt wondering how he could possibly have gotten all the information he needs to write a kick ass opinion piece in that short amount of time, and two days later (or less) he's sent you a fully fleshed-out, ready-to-go draft. A magician. "

Becca Rodack, Communications and Advocacy Manager, Refugee Congress

"Matt got our political campaign endorsed by the New York Times Editorial Board on the eve of the council vote."

Nonprofit Director.

"Matt rapidly created a pipeline of awesome content for the blog, and it’s been fantastic. His work rate is a lot higher than we've been used to, and we're eager to continue working with him."

Communications Manager, Major U.S. Foundation.

"Yeah, Matt's a white guy. But he gets it."

Juan Gomez, Executive Director, MILPA.

"Thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone. I really enjoyed the exercise, that was one of the best trainings I've ever attended!"

Media relations trainee at a refugees organization

"I call Matt the Michael Clayton of press coverage."

A Strategic Consultant To Major Nonprofits and Foundations.

"Whatever he's doing, Matt is always an asset."

Mark Crick, the London-based photographer Matt has humbly assisted, intermittently, for 20 years.

"I'd been putting off our content marketing, then Matt listened to me talk for 20 minutes and wrote us a Hubspot email that generated dozens of new business enquiries and led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue."

CEO & Founder Of A Tech Startup.

Why editorial thought leadership?

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Filling A Niche

I often do this work alongside colleagues from PR Agencies. They’ll be looking to pitch organizational work to reporters. The trouble is most reporters aren’t interested in this kind of thing. What they’re looking for is ongoing relationships with experts in each area. They want people they can call for comment on their stories as they’re writing. Not someone who’ll make them write a whole different story of their own.

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More Strategic than an Agency

What’s big news internally at most cause-driven organizations struggles to rival the major news of the day. Essentially, PR agencies specialize in throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. They land press coverage sometimes, but they charge at least $10,000 a month to do it. When I make an occasional introduction to a journalist, it’s because I know they’re interested in your work.

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Better Value for Your Money

My rate works out at $150 an hour. In a year doing this with one organization I’ve delivered more than 50 pieces of press coverage. The work names the client and features them as leaders in their field. That’s less than $1,000 per published article about the client. If your PR agency can offer that kind of return on investment for their services, then stick with them.

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Cause-Driven Organizations Want to Be More Relevant

Cause-driven organizations hate feeling cut off from what’s going on in the newspapers. They want their work to have relevance to a broader audience. To do that they need to figure out how to involve themselves in the news cycle more often and this is a proven way to do it. Instead of asking “what are our program areas and what are they doing?” one needs to ask oneself, “what do our leaders have to say about the breaking news of the day?”

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Leaders Don’t Have Time to Write

I’m yet to encounter a chief executive who can pen an op-ed in their voice quicker than I can do it. Or one who would prefer to do it. I can get your voice down and have a first draft ready for your review fast. It’s immodest, but: I don’t know anybody who can do it quicker or better than I can. It is what it is. Flex flex flex.

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Building Writing Capacity for Your People

As organizations work with more diverse constituents, they want to lift their voices. I enjoy helping people shape drafts that they feel comfortable with. It can be a transformative process for somebody who has felt invisible for years. Now they’re writing pieces for publication in the media and they’re leading. It’s an act of political allyship for me to help such people raise their voices.

Deep journalistic and campaign experience

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Experienced, Trustworthy, Conscience-Driven

I spent 10 years as a journalist and won multiple awards for my reporting on the U.S. criminal justice system, particularly its treatment of Black and Brown people, juvenile detainees and those in mental health crisis. I’ve since led communications at nonprofits in London, Oakland, and in New York City, and now I work on a contract basis for a variety of clients whose missions interest me.

Drawing Attention To Injustice

In California, when Harvard University started buying up water rights in a valley where groundwater was running out, I took a Greyhound bus down there and found the people whose livelihoods would be threatened, making an 11-minute film that attracted the interest of the Wall Street Journal, who subsequently ran an investigative story on the issue, prompting lawmakers to pay more attention to how water rights are regulated in the state.

Supporting Winning Campaigns

A million Californians lacked access to safe and affordable drinking water, so I went and found them. People who had spent their lives having to buy bottled water, and I made films in the Coachella Valley and Los Angeles, shooting footage of people bringing their arsenic-laced water to the state capitol. All this was ultimately part of a coalition effort that led the state legislature to allocate $130million a year to improve things.

Recent client List

17 Communications

89UP

Alana Foundation

America’s Promise Alliance

Berlin Rosen

Boston University

Catnip Comms

Center for Popular Democracy

Columbia University Justice Lab

Community Sponsorship Hub

Cheddar.com

Children’s Defense Fund

Clearly Next

Data.org

/dev /color

E3G

Further Faster

iFoster

Fenton

Flannel & Blade

Freedom Futures

The Fund for Global Human Rights

Generation Citizen

Inward Bound Mindfulness Education

Health in Her Hue

Ignite National

Katten Muchin Roseman LLP

Kounkuey Design Initiative

Los Angeles County California

Martha Schwartz Partners

Model People

Movement for Black Lives

M+R

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Milk + Honey PR

New England Foundation for the Arts

NEAR

Nonprofit Builder

Open Squash

Open Supply Hub

National Farm To School Network

Porter Novelli

Pulse Forward

Quadrant 2

Quora

Radical Health

Refugee Congress

Refugees International

Refugee Advocacy Lab

Real Voices Media

Ripple Effect Images

The Rockefeller Foundation

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

Roddenberry Foundation

San Francisco Unified School District

Techsoup

Temple University School of Art and Architecture

Trust for Public Land

Tyler School of Art and Architecture

The Shareholder Commons

United Stateless

We Are All America

Thoughts you can use…

What Image of Yourself Do You Need To Project?

I spent an hour downtown with photographer Eliza Kommer taking pictures this week. My website imagery is old, and my main corporate headshot is a selfie I took on the subway. So, it was time for a rebrand. Before we started shooting, Eliza gave me two tips. One, don't...

How do you generate engaging and compelling content ideas?

I was chatting last week with a new cause-driven communications consultant. She's a former journalist, she got disillusioned with journalism, then got a comms role. But working in-house for a major foundation also disillusioned her. Now she's got an anchor client to...

When Have You Chosen the Path Less Travelled? How About Now?

It's always a pleasure to meet a client who's interested in working with me to communicate better. As a consultant running my own business, I'm at an unusual end of the spectrum of options for many of my clients. There are several large consultancies who help good...

The Surprising Thing About My Trip to The New Yorker’s Offices

As a young journalist my ideal job was to be a staff writer at the New Yorker. The idea of writing long-form pieces about any subject I liked was so intoxicating. Somebody told me about the writer Joseph Mitchell, and after reading Up In The Old Hotel, I fell in love...

How To Be Your Best For Broadcast

I'm spending this week emceeing the Open Squash Classic, a squash tournament here in New York City. If you're in town the finals are on Thursday night with tickets available all week. Hope to see you there (all proceeds support the community's junior scholarship...

Call Me When You Decide You Want Your Life to Matter

What’s your “why”? Why do you do what you do? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? Once you know, let’s talk: It’ll make you a great writer!

Americans Will Line Up For Hours For Something Popular Including A PR Agency

A new bagel shop opened in our neighborhood a few weeks ago. I took a picture on Sunday morning because I am not kidding: People wait for hours to get one. The great thing about living here, apart from that our rent is a little pricey, is that I'm around on a...

Nothing Comperes To You

I’m emcee’ing a major event in two weeks. My motto? “Proper Preparation Prevents P*ss-Poor Performance.”

We’ve Been Cooking A Bit

My wife and I used to cook a lot. We'd email each other during our workdays at our offices and figure out which ingredients to buy. We'd spend time cooking together when we got home and enjoy a nice meal. These days, we both work at home, and take care of our toddler....

We Finally Threw Out Our Couch

The summer is over in New York City. Our three-year-old son starts at a new school on Thursday and we're excited and scared to see how it goes. Yesterday I bumped into a friend of mine at the playground, a teacher. "I'm the furthest away I'm ever going to be from my...

Most People Ignore Good PR And Comms Advice, And That’s Their Problem, Not Mine

One of my best friends in the world is a dentist. He often gives people excellent advice about their teeth, but he's also used to it going by the wayside. I was joking recently that a good title for his memoir should be: "Well you would say that wouldn't you because...

Does Your Cause Feel a Long Way from The Headlines?

It’s been a busy summer on the news front, with the news cycle turning over more rapidly than it often does when the temperatures soar. In that context, I still believe most nonprofits and foundations are doing valuable work with good intentions. But if you’re doing...

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I'm based in Manhattan's West Village but work with clients all over the world.