MARLENA McCARTHY

PRESIDENT

Respected, experienced and successful

Done Write Communications was founded in 1999 by president Marlena McCarthy.

She has been an active member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals since 1995, and was active in the Canadian Association of Gift Planners, attending regular conferences and webinars. In 2013 and 2017, she presented at CAGP's national conference.

Marlena has 35 years of experience working with non-profit organizations, offering affordable, strategic and creative fundraising and communications services. She also has experience working with publishers as an editor and writer.

Marlena has helped more than 170 charitable organizations, and come highly recommended for their success rates, creativity, knowledge of the science of fundraising and donor communications, and ease to work with. 

Marlena’s particular areas of expertise are  direct mail, donor communications, planned giving marketing, developmental and copy editing, and production management. 

In 2011, Marlena also helped found Bequest Insurance, an organization that promotes how donors can increase their generosity to charity through powerful legacy gifts using insurance. For fundraisers, she authored Multiplying Generosity and for financial advisors, she co-authored Ripple Effect, the first books to dive deep into this topic. 

Earlier in Marlena’s career, she worked for 15 years for Canadian charities in public relations, communications, and direct mail fundraising. Then after 2 years working as a senior consultant with a leading Canadian agency handling some of their biggest clients, Marlena founded Done Write Communications. In her hands, fundraising campaigns often see increased giving rates year over year; she even quadrupled the net direct mail income of one charity. 

She has a B.A. in Journalism from Ryerson University and a Certificate in Public Relations from Humber College.