The pitch team and the project team are the same people

With a larger agency, you’re going to meet with senior staff during project evaluation and proposal phases. But they’re unlikely to be the people who’ll be doing the work. To them, a $50k-$100k budget project is at a low end of work they’ll take on, even if to you it’s a significant investment. So the team you’ll be working with is likely to be made up of junior staff. The expertise and attention that sold you on working with the agency won’t necessarily be present every step of the way during the project.

At our small agency, the person you talk to when you’re considering working with us is the person leading your project. It’s our founder, who will be with you every step of the way. Each of your project’s team members is a senior practitioner who brings the entirety of their expertise to every step of your project.

This distinction matters for what might be a once-in-decade investment. You’re not buying access to an agency’s reputation only to get their B-team. The expertise and attention you get during the project evaluation is the expertise and attention you get during the project.

Nothing gets lost in translation

Large agencies have more staff, which can be attractive. It could mean higher capacity and the possibility of moving faster. However, it also adds layers and more handoffs.  Account managers interpret client feedback for strategists. Strategists brief designers. Designers hand specs to developers. At each handoff, the nuance of what you said gets lost and distilled into generic revision points.

Working with a small, tightly integrated team means the person who heard you describe your organization’s relationship with its community in the discovery session is the same person deciding what content to present in your organization’s project posts and how to frame your work.

This is particularly important for nonprofit organizations since language carries real weight and extends to design interface decisions.

Your budget goes further

A smaller team also means less overhead. No account managers, no layers that don’t touch the work. That efficiency has a real impact on what your budget can do. More of it goes toward strategy, design, and development, the things that actually show up in the final product and serve your mission.

Adapting quickly and wisely

Smaller agencies can adapt more quickly than larger ones. This isn’t because we chase every new tool or framework, but because we don’t have the organizational complexity that slows down changes. No approval chains. No getting a team of twenty on board, reaching agreement on an approach that works for everyone, or retraining them.

That agility is only useful when it’s paired with discernment. We’ve been working in this space long enough to know what actually improves outcomes for clients and what causes more trouble than it’s worth down the line. We keep close tabs on what’s emerging in the field, but we’ve also seen enough shiny objects cause enough real problems to know the difference between a meaningful improvement and an exciting distraction.

For example, we moved to the WordPress block editor and full-site editing earlier than most larger agencies did. That decision made our clients’ sites more modern and contributed to their longevity. It also made for a better, more flexible content editing experience. We knew that the experience would continue to evolve and preferred to be restrained in how we worked with it to avoid future conflicts. Still, it was a real improvement for real clients, which is exactly why we chose to do it.

Our values are lived, not stated

As a feminist digital agency, our values aren’t just a paragraph on our About page. They show up in who we collaborate with, how we run projects, what we build, and which clients we take on. They shape how we approach accessibility, not as a compliance requirement but as a baseline of respect for every person who might interact with what we build. They shape how we communicate with clients, with directness, transparency, and a genuine commitment to making sure you understand the reasoning behind every decision we recommend.

For nonprofit and purpose-driven organizations whose own work is rooted in values, working with an agency that operates the same way creates better results. Through conversations that are more nuanced. Through questions that go deeper.

You might be able to hire a large agency that has the resources to be certified as a B corp. But when Nespresso can get B corp certification, that’s no longer an accurate indication of true company values. The values of a small agency are more visible, no certification needed.

What large agencies do better

All of this said, there are definitely times when a larger agency is a better choice.

If your top priority is launching as quickly as possible, a larger agency may genuinely have the capacity to expedite your project timeline.

Similarly, if having support staff available to you outside of regular office hours, a large agency is more likely to have the necessary infrastructure to oblige.

If your organization has a procurement process that requires a vendor of a certain size or revenue threshold, a larger agency is also likely to be a better fit.

And if brand recognition matters to your board or funders, you’re much more likely to get that from a large agency.

But if what you’re looking for is a thoughtful, values-aligned team of experienced practitioners who will treat your project with the care and attention that it deserves while making your budget go further and delivering innovative work, then working with a small agency is an advantage, not a limitation.

Small but mighty is a real thing

Our clients don’t choose to work with us despite our size, but because of it. They want to talk directly to the people doing the work. They want to use their budget wisely while working with a team of experts. They want a genuine collaborative relationship, not a vendor.

That’s the kind of partnership we’re built for. And for organizations doing important work towards building a better world, we think it’s the kind worth seeking out.