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Your work speaks for itself.
Your brand should too.

400k+ unique users reached across client organizations

Brands built to last — clients average 4–6+ years without a rebrand

Building thriving brands in historically polarized categories

400k+ unique users reached across client organizations

Brands built to last — clients average 4–6+ years without a rebrand

Building thriving brands in historically polarized categories

Building brands that open doors and keep them open.

I partner with nonprofit leaders and their teams to build brands that attract sustainable funding, honor stakeholder trust, and enable long-term growth.

My “for-profit solutions for nonprofits” approach brings strategic rigor to mission-driven work, building battle tested brands and web experiences engineered to bring in results.

Advocating for your cause shouldn't be this hard

Stakeholders are always asking you to explain your mission and programs and you're tired of feeling misunderstood.

You've tweaked your messaging, refreshed the website, updated the deck, but no one seems to notice.

You're embarrassed by how your brand shows up online and you know it's costing you.

You're proud of your programs — but your brand doesn't do them justice.

In their own words

“When our team was in the early stages of a new, major project, we knew we needed a cohesive, compelling brand from day one. Our target audience has some particular nuances that made getting this right especially important. Siena was a meaningful partner in the development of this project's sub brand from its earliest days and conceptualized and executed a brand kit that continues to serve us well to this day. With a nationwide reach of 250k, we've continued to work with Siena in a wide variety of projects and she remains a valued member of our extended team!”

Curtis Chang, Founder

Redeeming Babel

"Everything exceeded my expectations! What I thought would be a simple advisory session on how to design a good website turned out to be a deep dive into the vision, mission, and purpose of our Institute. Siena came prepared with much more than I anticipated. My experience working with her on this branding project was joyful, energizing, and tremendously exciting. It clarified so much and led to deep conversations about the nature and purpose of our work."

Aaron Ebert, Executive Director

The St. Irenaeus Institute for Catholic Thought

Featured results

Hands raised in praise and worship
250+ unique visitors engaged
COMING SOON
Redeeming Babel
Branding, Web Design, Social Media Content
Group of people sitting indoors, some holding papers, smiling and engaging in a discussion near a window with natural light.
Online donations within first week of website launch
COMING SOON
The St. Irenaeus Institute
Brand strategy, Brand Identity, Web Design & Development
3x increase in site traffic
COMING SOON
The Okaja Foundation
Branding, Web Design, Web Development
Good Faith brand guidelines presentation showing color palettes, typography, logos, texture use, digital applications, and messaging examples.
Website section featuring 'Enter Into Sacred Music' text, event offerings like weddings and special events with related images, and portraits of three men with their names and titles.

7 years in business • nonprofits served worldwide

Your partner for long-term success

I've spent 7 years working with nonprofits and social impact organizations across education, fine arts, humanitarian aid, and political bipartisanship — building brands, sharpening storytelling, and developing websites that have driven record-high fundraising campaigns, increased online giving, and built genuine community around causes.

Having worked with and within nonprofits, I understand the pressures your team faces every day. That firsthand knowledge gives me the ability to close the gap between where your organization is and where it deserves to be. I deliberately take on a small number of clients to ensure work that is grounded in your story, your stakeholders, and your cause.

Smiling woman with long black hair wearing a white shirt and blue jeans sitting on a wicker chair indoors.

Frequently asked questions

The short answer is that it depends on where your organization is and where it is trying to go. If an organization is in early startup mode, still testing its program model, and not yet engaging donors or partners at scale, a simple and inexpensive brand presence may suffice. If programs are proven, ambitions are growing, and you are starting to compete for attention, funding, and talent, then a brand that was built quickly and cheaply will struggle to support your growth. Professional branding is more about building infrastructure than aesthetics. It allows your organization to show up credibly and consistently at every touchpoint — and that infrastructure has a compounding return over time. Many small nonprofits find that investing in brand at the right moment unlocks greater growth and sustainability, not the opposite.

A logo is a single visual mark. Without a coherent system around it — color, typography, tone of voice, and consistent application across touchpoints — it has limited capacity to build trust or recognition on its own. Many nonprofits find that after investing in a logo, their communications still feel inconsistent or unconvincing, because the logo was never given the infrastructure it needed to do its job. A brand system solves that problem and gives your team a shared framework to show up consistently, without needing a designer at every turn.

Referrals from other nonprofit leaders are usually the most reliable starting point. If an organization you respect has a brand presence that works, it is worth asking who built it. Beyond referrals, look for agencies or independents who have a visible body of work in the nonprofit or mission-driven space — not just a general portfolio. Review their case studies with an eye toward outcomes, not just aesthetics. Did the work solve a real organizational problem? Did the client relationship extend beyond a single project? It is also worth paying attention to how a potential partner communicates before you hire them. A discovery call or initial consultation will tell you a lot about whether they ask good questions, listen well, and understand the particular constraints and culture of the nonprofit sector.

Look for an agency that leads with strategy, not just aesthetics. Your brand should be built on a clear understanding of your audience, your positioning in the sector, and your organizational goals — not just what looks good. An aligned partner will seek to understand these core fundamentals before launching into the design phase. Beyond that, look for someone with real experience working with mission-driven organizations, a collaborative process that respects your team's expertise, and work that is engineered to hold up over time. It is also worth asking a potential brand partner how they measure success. A deliverable is just an output — what you are really investing in is the operational capacity and momentum that comes after the project closes.

Start by looking at who they have worked with. An agency with a genuine track record in the nonprofit sector will understand things that take time to learn — the dynamics of board oversight, the constraints of program budgets, and the particular way nonprofit teams make decisions together. Beyond portfolio, pay attention to how they show up in early conversations. Do they ask thoughtful questions before talking about design? Are they genuinely curious about your organization, your people, and what you are building? A partner who takes the time to understand you before proposing solutions is one worth trusting with your brand.

Most nonprofit leaders come to branding at a moment of transition — a new program launch, a funding milestone, a leadership change, or a period of growth. These are natural inflection points where the gap between what an organization is becoming and how it currently shows up becomes hard to ignore. Branding works best when leadership has clarity on mission, audience, and direction. If that clarity is not fully there yet, that is not necessarily a reason to wait. Brand strategy work is often where that clarity gets built, and for many organizations it is the right entry point before any design work begins.

Nonprofit branding costs vary widely depending on the high-level objectives of each organization. A brand identity project can range from a few thousand dollars with a freelancer to six figures with a large agency, and is primarily based on expertise of the brand partner, scope of work, ambition and complexity of the engagement, and expected return on investment. At Siena Mara Design, engagements are structured to deliver the most strategic value within a nonprofit's real budget constraints, while also keeping in mind the above factors. The more important question is not what branding costs, but what it costs your organization to operate with a brand that does not serve its needs.

Branding project timelines vary depending on scope, but most engagements at Siena Mara Design run between six and twelve weeks from kickoff to final delivery. Brand strategy and identity projects require more time upfront for research, stakeholder input, and creative exploration, while web projects follow a more linear build process once strategy and design direction are established. The biggest variable in any timeline is client availability and internal alignment. Organizations that come in with clear direction move through the process efficiently. For those still working through that clarity, a focused brand strategy engagement is often the right starting point — it shortens the overall timeline, reduces revision cycles, and ensures the design work is grounded in something real from day one.

The biggest risk in a rebrand is surprising your audience. Donors and long-term supporters have an existing relationship with your organization, and a visual change that feels sudden or unexplained can create confusion or concern. The most effective rebrands are ones that bring key stakeholders into the process early — not necessarily to make design decisions, but to feel heard and to understand the reasoning behind the change. Clear communication about why the rebrand is happening, what is staying the same, and what the new brand represents goes a long way toward maintaining trust through the transition. It also helps to remember that a rebrand is not a departure from your mission — it is an investment in communicating where your organization is now. When that framing is clear internally, it becomes much easier to communicate externally.

There are a handful of design studios and agencies in the Milwaukee area that take on nonprofit clients, though few specialize in the sector exclusively. Siena Mara Design is a Milwaukee-based boutique studio focused specifically on nonprofit brand strategy, identity design, and Webflow web development. That said, Siena Mara Design works with nonprofits across the United States, so geography is never a barrier to finding the right partner for your organization.

You're proud of your mission. Get a brand and website you're proud of too.