Frank O’Brien is widely recognized as one of the leading fundraising and communications strategists in the nonprofit community. Throughout a 35-year career leading O’Brien Garrett, the firm he founded, Frank has helped raise billions of dollars for blue chip organizations including the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Doctors Without Borders, the Democratic National Committee, Greenpeace, the ASPCA, Oxfam, Everytown for Gun Safety, Move On and more. 

O’Brien is known for his exceptional ability to craft organizational positioning and strategic messaging reflecting the unique voice, values and emotional stance of the groups he works with. That approach has helped dozens of advocacy, charitable and political organizations including Democratic presidential campaigns and high-profile Senate candidates not only succeed financially, but also transform their brand presentation, organizational voice, and emotional stance.

A decade ago, with the NRA at its zenith and the gun violence prevention movement struggling to get its message across, O’Brien helped spark a major repositioning of that messaging as the principal author of Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging.   

In 2024, with so many causes he cares about under duress, Frank launched OBrien On Message. This new community-wide project reflects his belief that the best contribution he can make at this critical juncture is to apply his time, energy and expertise to the urgent task of dramatically improving the persuasive power of nonprofit communications.   

Here are some of the groups whose messaging Frank has helped shape:

ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Doctors Without Borders, ASPCA, Democratic National Committee, MoveOn, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Hillary Clinton for President, Everytown for Gun Safety, NAACP, People For the American Way, Wikimedia Foundation, USA for UNHCR