Leadership
Eddie Kaufholz
Founder + CEO
Eddie spent seven years at International Justice Mission telling stories of modern-day slavery in ways that made people act, not just feel. He then moved to Bread for the World, where he led strategic communications and helped reshape how the organization showed up in the world. Alongside that work, he spent years coaching the leaders behind it: writing speeches, preparing executives for high-stakes stages, and sitting across from senior communicators who knew what they wanted to say but needed someone to help them say it well. That work drew on something deeper than communications strategy. Eddie holds a master's degree in mental health counseling, and that training shows up in how he listens, how he asks questions, and how he helps people find a voice that actually sounds like them.
After years of freelancing alongside that organizational work, he kept seeing the same gap. Large agencies had infrastructure but rarely put their best people on the actual work. Smaller shops had energy but not always the depth. In 2023, Eddie founded PILLAR to close that gap. A senior-led agency that assembles serious teams around each engagement, and treats every communication challenge like it deserves to be solved well. The work spans advocacy organizations, global nonprofits, corporate brands, faith communities, social enterprises, and individual leaders preparing for moments that matter. The common thread is not the sector. It is that something real is on the line.
If the stakes are real and the work needs to match them, this is the right place.
What Eddie Brings
Executive and Leadership Coaching
Eddie has spent years as the person behind the person: coaching C-suite leaders, keynote speakers, and senior communicators through high-stakes presentations, internal speeches, and moments where clarity and confidence both need to show up. His approach is built on counseling instincts as much as communications strategy.
Strategy Before Creative
Every engagement starts upstream. Before a logo, a campaign, or a deck, Eddie works to understand what is actually true, what audiences need to believe, and what has to change. The creative follows from that. Not the other way around.
High-Stakes Communications
Twenty years of working where the communication has to be right: modern-day slavery, hunger policy, corporate culture, international development, advocacy. That depth shapes how PILLAR approaches every engagement, regardless of sector.
Senior Attention on Every Project
PILLAR does not hand work off after the kickoff call. Eddie stays in it. He writes, edits, coaches, and sits in the strategy sessions. Clients get the person they hired, not a proxy.
A Model Built for This
The contractor-first structure means assembling the right team for each engagement rather than staffing from a fixed bench. Costs stay honest and quality stays high. Organizations get senior creative talent without paying for overhead that has nothing to do with their work.
Bonus Points
Host of podcasts with millions of downloads, including The New Activist, Annie and Eddie Keep Talking, and Doing the Best We Can.
A recurring guest on That Sounds Fun with Annie F. Downs, one of the most-downloaded podcasts in the faith and culture space. He shows up, says things, and somehow keeps getting invited back.
Serves on the boards of Mended and Breadcoin, two organizations at the intersection of dignity, justice, and economic empowerment.
Received honorary distinctions from The Webby Awards and The New York Festivals Radio Awards — though all of those trophies were lost in a move, which still makes Eddie a little sad.
Lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his family and two cats named Waffles and Mrs. Landingham. To know Eddie is to know that West Wing references are not optional — they are load-bearing.
Ready to work with someone who takes the mission as seriously as the creative?
Start a conversation