Who we are
The organizations doing the most important work often struggle most to tell their story.
Not because the work isn't compelling but because they're too close to it to see the narrative clearly. Common Thread Strategy was founded to close that gap.
Favel Jens launched Common Thread to sit alongside mission-driven organizations and find the thread that connects their work to the people who need to hear it - donors, policymakers, media, and the community they serve. The result is communications that doesn't just inform. It moves people.
"Strategy without the story is just a plan. Story without strategy is just noise. Common Thread connects both."
The belief that started Common Thread Strategy
The Team
Someone who has done this work from the inside.
Favel Jens
Founder & Principal
Favel Jens is a communications strategist and nonprofit advocate with more than two decades of experience working inside the organizations she now serves. Her career spans labor organizing with SEIU Local 721, statewide coalition building with Raising California Together, civic engagement and donor programs at the Women's Foundation, and national marketing leadership at AveNew Solutions.
She has built coalitions, launched campaigns, managed high-stakes donor relationships, and developed communications infrastructure from the ground up, often under pressure, always with purpose. She knows what it feels like to be under-resourced, over-extended, and asked to do more with less. That experience shapes every engagement.
Based in Kansas City and serving clients nationwide, Favel brings a rare combination of strategic rigor and genuine mission alignment to every project. She holds a BA in Journalism and Public Relations from the University of Oklahoma. When she's not working, Favel volunteers with animal rescue organizations, travels (43 U.S. states and counting), and reads voraciously about history.
Our Story
Built from the inside out.
Common Thread Strategy was founded by someone who spent her career inside the organizations it now serves. Before launching the firm, Favel led communications and strategy at national advocacy organizations, community-based nonprofits, and high-stakes issue campaigns.
There's no generic playbook here; just genuine curiosity about each organization, its community, and the specific challenge it's trying to solve.
Since launching, Common Thread has worked with nonprofits, advocacy coalitions, and purpose-driven businesses across the country on everything from organizational rebrands to high-stakes policy campaigns. The work is different every time. The commitment is always the same.
Work With Us
Every engagement starts with a conversation.
Tell Common Thread Strategy about your organization, what you're working on, and what's getting in the way. From there, the work begins.