about Itinerant Ink
For the past decade, Itinerant Ink has been helping nonprofits in a variety of sectors develop smart fundraising strategies, win grants, tell compelling stories about their accomplishments, and deepen connections with constituents. We’ve worked with organizations in youth development, social services, the arts, education, health care, advocacy, philanthropy, technology and more.
Itinerant Ink has secured significant operating, program and capital grant funding for clients; conceptualized and reported on new projects and collaborations; coached staff and board members on fundraising; helped leaders tell stories through in-depth interviews; strengthened relationships with donors through engaging appeals and appreciations; and implemented other special projects to achieve client goals.
Mytili Jagannathan
Principal
Founder and principal Mytili Jagannathan is a versatile writer, strategic thinker, and educator experienced in fundraising, strategic planning, and marketing communications in the nonprofit and business sectors. She has particular expertise in nonprofit fundraising strategy and funder and donor communications, both in staff roles and as a consultant. Mytili delights in collaborating with organizational leaders to ask questions, dream big, map strategies, and shape compelling communications that advance an organization’s vision and social impact.
Mytili was introduced to nonprofits when she joined AmeriCorps after college and took on a role as a public awareness coordinator at the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, a foundational experience that taught her about the power of collective vision, persistence, and truth-telling to remake the world. In her time as a marketing writer at the architecture firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Mytili learned to tell the story of buildings and spaces and the possibilities they hold for people who inhabit them. This came in handy when subsequently, in roles as board chair and director of development at Asian Arts Initiative, Mytili helped guide the community arts organization through the challenge of being displaced by the expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center and through envisioning, launching a capital campaign for, and successfully transitioning to a vibrant new home. More recently, her staff roles have included director of development at Mazzoni Center and associate director of donor relations at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
In addition to her consulting work, Mytili is a poet whose work has been honored with artistic awards from the Leeway Foundation and the Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Mytili holds a B.A. from Brandeis University and an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania; she also spent a year honing her Tamil language skills and indulging in mangos in Madurai, India. Mytili was born in Iowa, grew up in West Virginia, and now makes her home in Philadelphia. She also has a soft spot in her heart for Bangalore, Boston, Boulder, Chennai, Coimbatore, Coonoor, Kochi, London, Madison, Mesa, Mumbai, New York, Paris, Palakkad, San Francisco, Toronto, and Thanjavur.
Patricia Ma
Senior Consultant
Through her work with local and national non-profit organizations focused on direct service, innovation and policy, Senior Consultant Patricia (Pat) Ma has cultivated expertise in big-picture thinking, designing programs for impact, and finding the philanthropic resources to move initiatives from idea to reality. She has designed and evaluated youth and workforce development initiatives; implemented programs for Philadelphia schools; and secured major funding for community-based arts, education and health efforts. In every project, Pat is motivated to help align the needs of passionate doers with partners interested in investing in fresh ideas for challenging problems.
As associate director of development at Moore College of Art, Pat has deepened engagement of volunteer leaders and strengthened institutional partnerships with corporate, foundation and government funders. As senior program manager for grants and development at the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, she helped secure foundation and government funding for programs targeting patients with complex health and social needs. Prior to that she worked at the Association of Community College Trustees on a national initiative for trustees and presidents to improve community college completion. Locally, she has served as associate director at Asian Arts Initiative; program and research manager at Public/Private Ventures; and community education director at the American Red Cross-Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Pat received her B.A. in economics and Chinese from Wellesley College and her Master’s in Public Policy from the Kennedy School Government at Harvard University. She is currently a board member of the Nationalities Service Center, which helps immigrants and refugees in the Greater Philadelphia area.