After my graduation in May 2021 and completion of my CNN internship, I started freelancing at multiple publications including Canopy Atlanta. During this time, I primarily conducted Community Listening, which is the process of going into a community and speaking to residents on the topics and issues they need covered the most. This provides crucial pre-reporting and background research that fuels our future story coverage.
By the end of the year, Canopy Atlanta offered me a full-time role as a Community Audience Producer. In this role, I spearheaded a rebranding project, helping define CA's look and tone. I also led the initiative to completely redesign the visuals and content of their newsletter, social media, and website. I continue to deliver content through these three avenues across my time at CA.
During my time here, I've put on many hats, assisting in anything and everything I could to move this young, nonprofit organization closer to its goals of innovating the journalism field and serving the local community.
Here are some of the projects I've accomplished at Canopy Atlanta.
Community Reporter
Residents of Bankhead say they have a litter problem and want solutions
MARTA Board of Directors, Planning and Capital Programs Committee Meeting — Documenters Notes
This story was also published by WABE, Atlanta's NPR affiliate
When givers can’t give: People are donating a smaller share of their income than at any point in decades
From tax breaks to affordable housing: Your guide to Georgia’s 2024 referendums
The least of these: How is the Christian church responding to Atlanta’s cost of living crisis?
Upcoming: Tri-Cities reporting on arts and affordable housing developments
Audience Producer + More
General Audience Work
Created a branding guide with colors, fonts, logos and more to guide designs which I continued to develop, refine, and adapt over time
Published all content on the website, newsletter, and social media (Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter) since January 2022, including for almost every story published (I received some assistance with webpage and newsletter builds from our intern later on)
Created a monthly internal report that provides data and analytics on newsletter, website, social media, donation and membership — to help us quantifiably track our numbers and progress on a month-to-month basis
Created a 2022 annual report to summarize the monthly findings, big picture, and areas of focus for 2023 goals
Assisted in tracking impact, measurable change and value as the result of CA’s work
Assisted in the launch of the Atlanta Documenters program, through promotion and publication. Attended a trip to Chicago, to learn more about the nationwide Documenters Network, get tips from more established programs in other cities, and relay my learnings back to the rest of our team. Participated in the program by completing some of our first meeting notes published. Stepped in to manage the program temporarily for several months, assisting with notes editing, making payments to and organizing information on the Documenters, and planning upcoming content.
Assisted in collaborating with other publications like Capital B, Atlanta Civic Circle, Center for Civic Innovation, Axios Atlanta, Reckon News, 285 South, and AP News—including the ATL Budget, #VOTEAtl, and Cost of Living projects
Social Media
Designed visuals for social media posts and placement on the website and in the newsletter with Canva
Scheduled posts to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter through the platforms Buffer and Later, which I integrated into our process
Made and shared Instagram Reels content
Built and implemented Instagram highlights
Created templates and guidance for sharing Instagram stories and Reels
Created and maintained a Linktree and Link in Bio to direct users to our desired CTAs
Built in-house-ads for our regularly promoted content like subscribing to the newsletter or applying for a position
Tested marketing strategies around paid social on multiple platforms including Nextdoor
Created a vision and compiled visual and audio files for a promotional video project that explains our organization and how we do our work
Newsletter
Created three newsletter series: Voices, For the Record, and Member’s Letter
Created MailChimp templates for the newsletters
Created a welcome series for Voices and Member’s Letter, refreshed this series annually
Organized newsletter swaps with partner organizations like Capital B and 285 South to mutually expand our audiences
Tested strategies for reaching newsletter subscribers that are “un-openers”
Did a mass organization of our MailChimp contacts and designated tags based on community, role, and donor history
Website
Build a WordPress story template to meet a variety of needs (including in-line ads) with directions to build for any team member to be able to use
Maintained day-to-day website needs: publishing stories, updating the homepage carousel, newsletter archive and events calendar, footers, menu bars, building landing pages, adding team members, etc.
Made several rounds of revisions to our website to increase accessibility — including implementing language translation services — and improve content, design, and marketing goals around CTAs
Planned the content vision and needs of our website for a complete redesign. The main building of this was done by a hired designer, Brooklyn Valera, but some changes and updates were made myself
Rolled out the launch of the Bankhead, South DeKalb, Lakewood Heights, Norcross, and Tri-Cities Issues, the 2022 and 2024 Elections projects, and the Cost of Living project, including a landing page and builds on the stories published
Established the use of Google Analytics to track website traffic, including by creating goals and email reports to summarize our progress
Marketing
Participated in the Facebook/Meta Accelerator program to help learn marketing and content strategies around running small newsrooms and nonprofits
Participated in A/B testing across all of our platforms to optimize our system, including send times on newsletters and placement, look, and language of CTAs
Conducted audience surveys for feedback that then was implemented
Assisted in the launch of our Print Edition, including managing the distribution process
Fundraising
Assisted in donation acquisition efforts and the launch of our Membership Program — a monthly paid plan to increase donations — and general fundraising strategies and promotion
Participated in fundraising through promotion and conducted campaigns: birthday campaigns in summer 2022, 2023, and 2024; Newsmatch campaigns in winter 2022, 2023, and 2024; a Giving Tuesday campaign in the fall of 2023; and a Democracy Day campaign in the fall of 2024.
Community Engagement
Helped with event planning, promotion (including building Eventbrite pages), tracking data like cost and attendance, and hosting at the events themselves such as directing guests, setting up supplies, and moderating panels; one event in Bankhead for a litter cleanup was pitched and executed entirely by me, inspired by a story I wrote. Assisted with live streaming events on Instagram and Facebook.
Assisted with community engagement by reaching back out to community contacts and listening respondents to share stories
Designed flyers for events, handouts for community listening, business cards, stickers, and “print editions” of four Community Issues
Implemented the use of QR codes in our work
Developed Community Reports, a mass review of all of our community listening interviews and forms to identify coverage area gaps and opportunities
Internal
Managed meeting agendas and notes
Helped with HR-related tasks like adding contractors to our payment system, posting new job opportunities, and uploading tax documents as needed
Led onboarding and training of multiple new team members, including managing interns
Worked alongside our reporting Fellows to teach them and guide them through the journalistic process and collaborate on a written piece
Reorganized our Google Drive to divide content by division and create places to easily find documents
Built AirTable resources for internal tracking including a publication schedule and information on contacts within our network
Managed the publication schedule, coordinating deadlines and content with multiple different team members and projects
Improved communication about our publication internally, including by implementing social post updates directly to Slack
Maintained donor information through DonorBox
Maintained a password database and assisted with team member onboarding to specific platforms like Later, Canva, MailChimp, etc.
Created and guided an internally collaborative project on establishing processes and procedures for every area of our work from editorial to events
Implemented automation for several processes, including updating MailChimp tags, using Zapier, and sending out Tweets about newly published Documenters notes
Atlanta Press Club Awards
2023 Awards of Excellence, News Innovation Award (For the Atlanta Documenters Program)
2024 Awards of Excellence, News Innovation Award (For the Cost of Living Project)