Your work is the best kept secret in your city. Let's fix that.
The people who do find you often never hear back. We set up your follow-up, so every person who gives, volunteers or asks for help hears from you.
The scorecard is free and takes about three minutes.
Fewer than 1 in 5 first-time donors ever give again.
That's the Fundraising Effectiveness Project's number, from 2025.
Reaching new people is hard enough. Watching the ones you already have drift away is worse.
Nobody decided it should go that way. It's just that nobody's job is the follow-up.
We read the websites of 2,412 nonprofits in DC, Maryland and Virginia this year.
About 1 in 4 had no way to leave an email address. When we joined a mailing list, we usually got one “thanks for joining” email and then nothing.
We build the follow-up into the tools you already use.
It happens every time, and you approve every message before it sends.
Here's what changes when every person hears back.
Every person hears from you.
A donor, a volunteer or someone who walked in for help hears from you within days, by name and in your own voice.
One story gets used all year.
One shoot becomes the film, the email, the social media post and the year-end appeal.
You don't have to do it all yourself.
You're already doing the work of three people. The follow-up is one job you get to hand to someone else.
Getting started takes three steps.
Get your free scorecard.
In about three minutes, you'll see how your website looks to someone who has never heard of you.
We find what's broken.
We read your donor records, then hand you what's broken and the plan to fix it.
We set up the follow-up.
Every person who gives, volunteers or asks for help hears back, and keeps hearing from you.
There are three ways to work with us.
The Storytelling System
We set up your follow-up. It goes into your own system in 30 days, and every person who gives, volunteers or asks for help hears back.
See the systemThe Content Retainer
We keep it running every month. The retainer keeps your follow-up going and brings in real stories, some of them on film.
See the retainerVideo projects
We make one film for one moment. It could be a camp recap, a year-end appeal, a banquet film or a testimony.
See video projectsWhen a story needs a camera, we film it.
See all the films
“My entire life changed because of this story. Now I'm hoping and praying that it'll help me change other lives too.” Braden Beck · Mila Studios Founder
I believe our vulnerabilities are what often connect us the most. In 2022, my wife and I experienced a miscarriage. Through that loss and pain, we experienced healing and community as we shared what happened with the people around us, and it was a reminder: story really does connect us.
I'd already spent five years running marketing and storytelling for FCA Mid-Atlantic, so I knew that professionally too, being the whole department, having a camera and no time, watching the best story in the building never make it out the door.
Pairing the two together, I think nonprofits are the world that needs this the most right now, and that's why Mila exists: to serve them specifically.
Not to make pretty videos, but so the work that's already happening gets seen by the people who would support it if they could just picture it.
Your story is worth telling. Let's tell it together.
“I have never felt more connected and understood in a 15 minute phone conversation than I did with him.”
Start by seeing how your website looks to a first-time donor.
The scorecard is free and takes about three minutes.
If you're not ready yet, you can watch the free webinar first.
You can also join our newsletter.
Leave your email address, and the newsletter will arrive in your inbox.