Say it plain
Jargon is what people write when they haven't found the answer yet. If you can't say it out loud to a stranger, it isn't finished.
Words that do the work.
Fundraising and brand copy for people who make things worth caring about.
01Why this exists
Work that gives a damn.
You're not paying for words. You're paying for the brain behind them.
Most copy is written to be approved, not to be read. It moves through six people who each remove the one thing they'd have said differently, and what survives is accurate, inoffensive, and completely forgettable.
I write the other kind.
Ten years in theater taught me how to read a room: what makes an audience lean in, and what makes them check their phones. Twenty years in advertising taught me how to do that on a deadline, for a client, at scale.
Read the room
Every audience tells you the second you've lost them. Ten years in theater is ten years of learning to notice it in the moment instead of three weeks later in a report.
Someone has to decide
Copy written to please everyone in the room reaches no one outside it. Part of what you're hiring is someone willing to choose.
Care is the strategy
People give their money and attention to things that are obviously loved. Caring is a competitive advantage almost nobody bothers to use.
02Nonprofits & Cultural Orgs
Words raise money.
Fundraising is storytelling with a deadline. Most mission-driven organizations are extraordinary at the work and vague about why it matters to anyone deciding where the money goes. I write the part that closes that gap.
Three ways to start.
Each one starts the same way. Find the biggest leak, fix that first, and expand later.
Case for Support
The argument for why your organization deserves money.
For when you're asking people to give, and nobody has written down why they should.
Appeals
The letters and emails that actually ask.
For when your shows sell out and donations stay flat.
Campaigns & Concepts
A whole idea, not just the words for one.
A membership program, a capital campaign, a season-long story that gives people a reason to stay.
03For business
Words sell.
Most businesses are clear about what they make and muddy about why anyone should care. More traffic into a muddy message just wastes the traffic. I write the part that makes it land.
Three ways in.
Same method, different leak. Start with the one costing you the most.
Voice & Messaging
How your brand sounds and what it says, written down so your whole team says it the same way.
For when it's hard to explain what you do.
Core Narrative
The story your brand tells before anyone asks.
For when you're great once people find you, but nobody's looking yet.
Copy That Compels
The words that turn interest into action.
For when you have traffic and no bookings.
04The method
Same four steps, every time.
The method doesn't change. What changes is what we're looking for.
01
Listen
Two or three conversations with the people who know why the work matters, plus whatever you already have. Old campaigns, decks, reports, the pitch that almost worked.
02
Find the argument
The reason a stranger should care. Not the mission statement, not the value proposition. The thing underneath that nobody has written down yet.
03
Write it
The core piece first, then the shorter versions that live in emails, decks, and conversations.
04
Handoff
You get the finished work and the thinking behind it, so your team can write the next one without me.
About
Hi, I’m Ivonne Azurdia.
Playwright and creative director.
Nine produced plays, and a long run writing for brands at Firstborn, SapientNitro, MullenLowe, and Chameleon Collective.
- Red Dot Award for The New York Times in Education.
- Carbonell Award for Best New Work, Tin Box Boomerang, Mad Cat Theatre Company.
- Resident playwright at Mad Cat, where Portrait and Trembling Hands also premiered.
- Profiled in the Miami Herald and Street Miami.
Brands I’ve written for
05Get in touch
Not sure which one you need?
Most people aren't. Tell me where the money is leaking and I'll tell you what would fix it first. If it's not something I do, I'll say so.