How We Became MissionWired

Sometimes the answer’s right in front of you.

Was it our parents who told us that? The books we read as kids? Occam’s razor? Who’s Occam, anyway?

But there’s something to it. As we explored rebranding from Anne Lewis Strategies to an identity more encompassing and reflective of a growing and increasingly dynamic team, we gravitated almost immediately to an idea, a calling, a force that moves us: a mission.

Our work has long included Democratic political campaigns and transformational nonprofits. The spaces in which they operate, the work they do, and the approaches they bring to bear are all unique and dynamic. But again, there’s that common thread: the mission.

Every organization we work with has a goal for improving people’s lives, whether through elections and legislation or direct service, advocacy, environmental justice, education reform – the list goes on. Their causes are as varied as the organizations themselves, but they share a purpose for promoting equity, combating injustice, and helping the people they serve live better lives.

As we reflected on our own “whys” for supporting these organizations, we got to the same place, too: mission. We bring together people who’ve worked in politics and studied poetry. We’ve worked in government and for news organizations. We’re marketers and coders and musicians. But for all the different expressions of individuality within our team, there again was commonality. We do this work because we want it to matter, to make a difference.

Once we achieved consensus around mission – as an idea reflective of both us and our partners – we sought modifiers. Like we do with our clients, we entertained a lot of ideas – some good, some admittedly not so good. Along the way, wired emerged, and what we loved is the way it evokes something innate. One doesn’t necessarily choose to pursue cause work; rather, cause work chooses us. And again, this isn’t just true of us; it’s also true of the people and partners with whom we share our work.

It was the recognition of what we’re about, and why we’re about it, that led us to our name. We’re MissionWired, a noun and an adjective: who we are, what we do, and with whom we do it. Our mission has always been to be the best fundraiser and audience builder for campaigns and causes. In pursuit of that, we obsess down to the word, pixel, and number in a cell on a spreadsheet. We’re there for our partners – because our partners and their missions deserve the best.

We’re MissionWired. It’s who we’ve always been, and now our name reflects it.

—The Team at MissionWired