Testimonials for Barrie Atkin

I highly recommend working with Barrie — whether or not you’re still planning your first appeal letter; or you’ve already run a capital campaign to fund your Senior Center. Barrie has a strong commitment to elders and working with nonprofits, combined with an expertise in fundraising and marketing. I have worked with Barrie for over six years. I find her to be incredibly gifted in making fundraising profitable, manageable and fun.

I chose Barrie because of the diverse expertise she demonstrated previously in business planning, her knowledge of health publishing and the healthcare field, her work ethic, and her experience working with nonprofits. In addition to her professional skills, Barrie is a pleasure to work with, and works well with the rest of our staff as part of our team.

Barrie Atkin is a tremendously energetic and committed marketing, strategy and development professional. She worked tirelessly with our staff and board to establish a framework and plan for our development goals, and then provided development, marketing, training and planning services to help implement our goals. Barrie gave 110% and together we achieved great success.

When Barrie researched new markets for Rodale, I could depend upon her recommendations. She helped us understand new opportunities, evaluated potential competitive threats, and provided a thorough analysis of risks and rewards. We received real value for her work — detailed deliverables and actionable recommendations that really helped our bottom line.

Barrie’s knowledge of direct marketing and circulation was invaluable. She analyzed our situation and put plans and programs into place to fix the problems. And when we had some unexpected staff turnover, she put together a team of experienced professionals to get us back on track. Barrie served as Interim Circulation Director, overseeing budgets, audits, creative programs, direct mail and testing. She also helped us hire an outstanding permanent Circulation Director.

I hired Barrie to help write a business plan to fund a new initiative within a fairly large company. This initiative had to compete with other worthy ones for limited available funding. Barrie did the market research, competitive intelligence, and market valuation pieces, which were key to our successful pitch for funding. This was a one-year project, and during its course I came to enjoy working with Barrie, looking forward to her visits and our trips together, and I got more than I expected with each deliverable.

Barrie Atkin led a disparate group of business professionals at a seminar we held for our corporate customers, easily adapting her message and delivery to this diverse audience. From hair salon owners and general contractors to representatives of NEXTEL and other large companies, everyone came away with a wealth of practical ideas. Whether it’s a broad-brush approach to energizing your business or honing in on a particular business challenge, Barrie’s approach is right on target. She’s dynamic, engaging and enlightening!

Barrie has shared her expertise in fundraising and public speaking with our Accelerator program participants, to great success. Here’s a representative quote from one of the entrepreneurs: “Barrie was a great speaker and took the time to involve each person. She also had lots of great insights… I was hanging on her every word!” I recommend Barrie to any individuals looking to take their fundraising to the next level.

I attended one of Barrie’s conference presentations. I was so impressed that I immediately hired her as a consultant for our organization. I’ve continued to use her over the years for numerous consulting projects. She is one of the very best.