STRATEGY · PUBLIC AFFAIRS · CAMPAIGNS
I think in constellations.
Consequential work rarely moves on one track. I look across communications, policy, fundraising, partnerships, and public engagement—then connect the plays that can move the mission.
Sometimes the unexpected move is the one that unlocks everything else.
Ideas move through systems.
People move when they feel what is at stake.
HOW I THINK
The path is rarely linear. An idea may need a place in policy circles, a point of view the media can carry, allies who strengthen the case, and relationships that can move it forward. I explore all of them at once, looking for the unexpected openings—and the combination of moves—that can build momentum.
Being right is not enough.
New ideas may need permission to exist. Established organizations may need room to become more. That permission grows when people understand the work, trust the people behind it, and can see their own place in what happens next. I help build it.
Selected work
The unexpected move
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Roca needed a story that could meet investors and customers, Washington policymakers, and federal grant reviewers where they were. I worked with the startup in its earliest days to build the narrative and found the category that could carry it: precision resource recovery. That language now leads Roca’s website and gives the company a clear way to explain what it is building across very different audiences.
See the messaging at work: https://www.rocawater.com/
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The Robbins House is a remarkable 544-square-foot historic site. I designed its first legislator and stakeholder breakfast around the lives connected to the house and the public history at risk. The breakfast produced tens of thousands in new support, including a state earmark, and put a $300,000 federal request into motion. Later, when there was real progress to show, I used that moment to re-engage stakeholders; one conversation produced an historic contribution.
Visit The Robbins House: https://www.robbinshouse.org/building-partnerships-to-preserve-black-history/
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After their son William died in a ski accident, Susie and Nick Shaw set out to build a free Cape Cod retreat for grieving families. I scaled the team to create a heartfelt, human-centered earned, owned, and paid media campaign. At its center was a film that gave people a way to feel what The Green House could mean before it existed. The campaign surpassed its first $750,000 goal and purchased the house that will become the retreat.
Watch the Shaws’ story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc0Zz5ngm6U
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Kestrel had spent years turning building codes into structured data. I helped define the company as the first structured compliance data layer for the built environment, then led the launch campaign, spokesperson preparation, crisis planning, and media work. Kestrel debuted at AIA26 with its first application built inside Revit. Architosh named it Best of Show in the Innovation category and one of the event’s biggest digital highlights.
See the launch: https://kestrellabs.com/resources/news/kestrel-labs-launches-bim-native-compliance-platform/
Read Architosh’s AIA26 Best of Show coverage: https://architosh.com/2026/06/aia26-architosh-12th-best-of-show-honors-for-digital-technologies-at-aia-san-diego/
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CLC serves about 1,000 libraries and librarians and is fighting predatory e-book pricing and politically motivated book challenges. I helped turn the e-book issue into a campaign, shaped the legislative argument, and helped elevate Executive Director Ellen Paul into a nationally significant voice. Connecticut passed Public Act 25-9, barring libraries from accepting restrictive e-book licensing terms; similar bills followed elsewhere, and national coverage placed Ellen at the center of the fight.
Read about the Connecticut campaign: https://www.ctlibrarians.org/news/701663/CT-Libraries-Applaud-Legislatures-Passage-of-E-Book-Legislation-Urge-Governor-Lamonts-Signature.htm
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On June 14, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told Dartmouth graduates, “Don’t join the book burners.” More than seventy years later, I partnered with EveryLibrary to bring that warning forward. We paired archival film of the speech with EveryLibrary’s advocacy, an EveryLibrary Live conversation with U.S. Representative Joe Courtney, and a national “Be Like Ike” pledge—turning a moment from the past into a present-day case for intellectual freedom and the future of libraries.
Explore the campaign: https://www.everylibrary.org/why_eisenhower_book_burners_message_matters
Watch the original film: https://www.dartmouth.edu/library/digital/collections/dartmouthfilms/eisenhower.html
The problem does not stay in its lane.
Neither do I.
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I find the human story, write the words, name the category when one is needed, and build a campaign that gives people a reason to care and act.
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I call the policymaker or department head, connect the work to the decision in front of them, and build the allies and relationships that make the case stronger.
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I prepare the principal, stay close enough to know when the strategy needs to change, and help leaders handle the public moment without losing sight of the larger mission.
About Brian
I know how institutions make decisions. I also know they are made by people.
Monument Square Strategies is my practice. Clients get me—fully engaged in the problem and the solution. When the facts change or a better path appears, I say so.
I am drawn to people and organizations facing a Goliath of their own—and to leaders inside established companies and associations who know an outside perspective can change the path. I want to work with people on a mission.
During the Obama administration, I led public affairs for U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx across the 55,000-plus-person Department of Transportation. At the Federal Transit Administration, I also led communications and congressional affairs.
I served on Capitol Hill as a deputy chief of staff and communications director, and later led global communications for Autodesk’s largest business unit—experience that continues to shape my work at the intersection of technology, policy, and the built world.
Today, I work alongside founders, nonprofit leaders, association executives, and leaders inside established companies. I also mentor founders through Techstars Boston.
Photo: Brian Farber with U.S. Representative Joe Courtney (CT-02) at the U.S. Capitol. Jay Clendenin, The Washington Post.
Questions people ask
Straight answers
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Brian Farber is a strategic communications and public affairs advisor and the founder of Monument Square Strategies. During the Obama administration, he led public affairs for U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and the 55,000-plus-person Department of Transportation. He has also led communications and congressional affairs at the Federal Transit Administration, worked on Capitol Hill, directed global communications for Autodesk’s largest business unit, and advised mission-driven organizations, associations, nonprofits and founders. He is also a mentor with Techstars Boston.
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Monument Square Strategies is Brian Farber’s advisory practice. It helps people and organizations with consequential ideas make a clearer case, build stronger relationships and find the moves that can advance their work. Assignments can cross strategic communications, public affairs, policy, partnerships, coalition-building, fundraising, media, public engagement and executive counsel.
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I work with mission-driven organizations, nonprofits, associations, foundations, and philanthropies, as well as startups and established companies facing consequential work. My sector experience is especially strong across the built environment—architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), transportation, infrastructure, and technology. The common denominator is a complex challenge that needs a persuasive story, an outside perspective, or a path through institutions and audiences that do not move together.
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Most consequential challenges do not stay in one lane. Brian looks across communications, policy, fundraising, partnerships and public engagement—and considers how a move in one area might unlock progress in another. Constellation thinking is not about pursuing every possibility. It is about seeing the whole field, recognizing the useful connections and finding the sequence that can move the mission.
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Clients often call when an important idea is difficult to explain, a campaign has stalled, a company is emerging from stealth, a policy goal needs broader support, stakeholders are not aligned or an organization knows its existing approach is not moving people. Sometimes the answer is a better message. Sometimes it is a new ally, audience, partnership or first move.
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Facts can establish that an idea is credible. They do not always give people a reason to care or act. Monument Square Strategies finds the people, consequences and emotional stakes inside complex work—without flattening its substance. The objective is not manufactured emotion. It is helping audiences understand why the work matters and what their place in it might be.
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Yes. Monument Square Strategies is intentionally principal-led. Clients work directly with me and are not handed off once the work begins. When an assignment requires more capacity or specialized expertise, I build and lead a team from a trusted network of collaborators, scaled to the work. Clients get continuity of senior counsel alongside the additional talent the assignment requires—without automatically taking on the structure and overhead of a large agency.
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Engagements may be structured as defined projects, ongoing retainers or focused hourly advisory work. The scope and investment vary based on the problem, the level of involvement required and the length of the engagement. For select early-stage companies, I may also consider an advisory role that includes equity. Clients invest in direct senior counsel and an approach tailored to what the work actually requires—not a predetermined package. Scope, expectations and cost are agreed upon before the work begins.
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Monument Square Strategies is based in Concord, Massachusetts, and works with clients and partners across the United States. The practice is rooted in one place but not limited by it.
Tell me the complicated thing.
No deck required. A note is enough.