One Year with MissionWired: A Q&A with President Kate Kline

MissionWired has grown in some exciting ways over recent years, to better serve the missions of our incredible partners across the nonprofit and political space. One such pivotal step along that journey was when Kate Kline joined MissionWired as president last year. With her extensive background in client services at The Advisory Board Company and leading Zocdoc clients through a period of high growth, we knew from the start that she’d bring invaluable insight and expertise to our evolving team.

On her one-year anniversary, we sat down with Kate Kline to reflect on what we’ve accomplished together so far – and to look ahead to the places we’re eager to go next.

BM: Looking back on your first year with the team, what has surprised you most about your experience at MissionWired?

KK: Well to begin with, there’s the incredible team at MissionWired. I’ve heard colleagues talk about how they’ve never worked with a more supportive team, and it couldn’t be more true. The impact the people at MissionWired make on the day-to-day, and the way every small interaction adds up, is unmatched.

It’s also been really interesting and exciting to broaden my focus across an incredible range of cause-driven organizations. Before MissionWired, I spent my career in health care on the nonprofit side, working with hospitals, health care systems, and large medical groups. So for someone who went very deep into a single slice of the nonprofit sector, to be able to see everything else that’s going on across the broad array of nonprofit and political clients we serve, and how many of these causes are intersectional, has been energizing and inspiring.

And those intersections speak to our intention as an agency, when you think about it, to advance the reach and impact of so many mission-based organizations across the nonprofits and political campaigns we partner with. Because if you look at the work of a food bank, for instance, you can see how access to good nutrition is one of the biggest social determinants of health; or if you look at political organizations working to elect Democrats up and down the ballot, those leaders will go into office and become critical to advancing issues that are core to many nonprofits’ work. The connections are everywhere. And this opportunity to broaden my perspective has been one really happily surprising element of my first year.

BM: What’s exciting you the most right now, or making you feel the most proud or hopeful?

KK: There’s so much energy right now across the MissionWired team around the amazing nonprofits and campaigns that we are privileged to partner with – and the breadth and depth of impressive work that we get to uplift. We’re honored to be working with the Kamala Harris for President campaign as their direct mail partner, and having partnered previously with the Biden campaign, to have been able to step up and help support a seamless transition between campaigns as quickly as possible. We’re thrilled to be working with nonprofit partners like the Innocence Project, Human Rights Watch, Make-A-Wish, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, among so many others.

Getting to the very best possible place to support such incredible partners has involved a series of intentional choices over recent years. Because integrating across online and offline channels is a key priority for nonprofits, we made it our goal to become a team of experts in every channel, offering services across direct mail, telemarketing, email, SMS, and digital ads. We joined forces with Zuri Group to help connect our partners with the very best technology ecosystem for their unique needs. We’re constantly asking ourselves how we can best support the causes of our partners, to solve our partners’ challenges through data, through creative, and through strategy, and to expand what’s possible for organizations whose missions we care so deeply about.

BM: Where are you hoping to see the company go in the next few years?

KK: Some of the best innovations we’ve made as a company have come out of problem-solving for our partners, from listening to what they need and having the resources and agility to take their challenges on as our own. If we continue to apply that approach to today’s unique challenges, and if we continue to be fearless innovators bringing new strategies, tests, and ideas to our clients, then I think we can expect to see some really exciting things over the next few years.

Take The Digital Co-Op, for instance. Four years ago, we moved into the acquisition space because our clients weren’t acquiring the high-quality supporters they needed. We developed a tool that would allow nonprofits to keep up with their growth and revenue goals even when technology, advertising platforms, and the fundraising industry changes. It was a risk that we believed in, and now The Digital Co-Op is a resource that’s helping almost 300 members find high-quality leads.

So our hope for the next few years is to continue to offer our partners across the nonprofit and political space the resources they need to advance their work and mission. It’s an incredibly important year for our political clients – and we’re honored to be investing deeply in our partners running in key Democratic races across the country to help power their campaigns through Election Day. What’s more, for our nonprofit fundraising partners we’re looking to the political space for inspiration, too. The rapid rate of change that’s unique to political fundraising is a major fountain of innovation, and it’s helped us discover top-performing strategies and bring them into the nonprofit fundraising space in really smart and effective ways.

And at the very center of all this innovation are the expert strategists, creative minds, and leading data scientists who are bringing these ideas to life for our partners. With a team of dynamic thinkers at work on the biggest problems that nonprofits and campaigns face, the solutions are going to just keep coming in new and exciting ways.

To read more about MissionWired’s approach to partnerships and innovation, read CMO Bob Albrecht’s reflections on brand, identity, and becoming. For insights into fundraising strategy in today’s nonprofit landscape, check out Election Year Strategies for Nonprofit Fundraisers. If you want to dig into recent political fundraising trends, read SVP Patrick Burton’s analysis on grassroots fundraising in 2024.