Persuasion Plus advances the public policy and organizational agendas of nonprofit organizations through clear, intelligent, and effective written and oral communications.

Edie Canter, the principal of Persuasion Plus, is an attorney with 22 years of litigation experience. In her legal career, Ms. Canter honed her advocacy skills, becoming known for her well-researched, finely crafted, and effective written documents and oral presentations. Ms. Canter opened Persuasion Plus in October 1999 to offer her advocacy and communications skills to the nonprofit community.

A seasoned persuasive writer, Ms. Canter can research and write short and concise documents, as well as longer, more comprehensive reports. She brings to the table the ability to frame a sentence, solid research, strategic analysis, organization, respect for the audience, and the skill to put it all together with an advocate's eye.

Ms. Canter is particularly interested in supporting her clients' public policy agendas by developing and executing policy communications plans with an assortment of linked pieces, each targeted to a particular audience and need.
 

Persuasion Plus offers nonprofits powerful tools for communicating their message and achieving their mission.

Policy Communications: communications strategies, research reports, issue briefs, fact sheets, legislative testimony.
Program Communications: publications, program reports, manuals.
Development Documents: foundation and government grant proposals, prospect research.
Public Relations: annual reports, newsletters, op-ed pieces, articles.
Oral Communications: speech-writing, speakers' training.

In recent engagements, Ms. Canter:

• researched and wrote a 50-page report on the views of diverse groups of women in Chicago on reproductive rights issues;
• prepared a set of six issue briefs conveying her client's policy agenda for distribution to legislators and supporters;
• crafted a social service agency's strategic plan with clearly defined mission, needs, and history statements;
• raised over $1.7 million for clients through government and foundation grant proposals.  

Ms. Canter serves clients in a variety of nonprofit fields. She has a particular interest in organizations focusing on:

• progressive public policy issues;
• law and legal services;
• women's issues;
• the arts;
• homelessness; and
• social services.

Representative clients include Women Employed, Genesis House, Chicago Foundation for Women, Illinois Facilities Fund, Children's Place Association, Chicago Women in Philanthropy, Teen Living Programs, Porchlight Music Theatre, Access Community Health Network and Uhlich Children's Home.

Ms. Canter welcomes collaborations with other consultants.

Education: Princeton University, A.B. (Woodrow Wilson School of Public And International Affairs); Boston University School of Law, J.D.

Community/Volunteer Activities: Women Employed (former board chair; development); Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center (pro bono legal representation of asylum seekers); Association of Consultants to Non-Profits (former board member; member of program, marketing, newsletter committees); Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation (school committee member); Princeton Club of Chicago (Leadership Council); Rogers Park Montessori School.