Twenty years of helping others change. Now it’s our turn.
September 1, 2026
Taylor & Grace has quietly passed the 20-year mark. In human years, that’s barely grown up. In agency years, it’s practically ancient.
But we decided against the party, the retrospective and the celebratory post. Because this milestone coincides with something even more significant, and a new chapter we couldn’t be more excited to share.
Twenty years holds a lot: people I feel privileged to have worked with, organisations that trusted us with important decisions, hard-earned lessons and a body of work I remain enormously proud of.
That work has been recognised with numerous design awards and inspired my award-winning book, Rebranding Branding, written to challenge narrow ideas about brand and demonstrate its power to shape organisations from the inside out.
The work has changed
When we started, clients generally came to us with a brand or communications challenge. Today, the challenges they face rarely fit into such neat boxes. A conversation may begin with brand, but it soon reaches into strategy, leadership, culture, technology, capability and the people holding it all together.
Taylor & Grace has always looked beneath the presenting problem. As organisations have become more complex, that process has increasingly uncovered broader issues requiring attention.
Leaders want to keep working with people they trust, people who understand the bigger picture. But the right partner for one challenge isn’t always the right partner for what comes next, or for the additional expertise needed along the way.
It became clear that the way we were structured needed to evolve with the work and the needs of our clients. I’ve spent much of the past 20 years helping organisations recognise when they’ve outgrown the structures that once served them well. It was time to recognise that in ourselves.
A new chapter begins
Taylor & Grace is merging with Benefolk.
Why Benefolk
This isn’t a sudden decision or a marriage of convenience. It’s not a loss of identity or a change of values, but a deliberate expansion of impact.
We’ve been part of the Benefolk community for some time. We know each other well, share the same B Corp values and believe purpose-driven organisations deserve excellent support, and that the people doing the work matter just as much as the work itself.
Taylor & Grace also worked closely with the team on its evolution from The Xfactor Collective to Benefolk, including its strategy, name and brand. That process gave us a deep understanding of Benefolk’s ambitions and confirmed just how closely our thinking and values align.
Through that work, I also came to know Benefolk’s founder and CEO, Julia Keady. Julia and I share a belief in what purpose-driven organisations need, an ambition for what Benefolk can become and, importantly, the trust to build it together.
Benefolk is building something the purpose sector has needed for a long time: one connected place where organisations can access expertise across strategy, leadership, people and culture, brand, marketing and communications, technology, governance, finance and organisational wellbeing.
Since 2018, it has supported more than 900 purpose-driven organisations and reached over 20,000 people through its online resource hubs and events.
As the Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, recently said of Benefolk:
“You’re the sector SWAT team that comes in to look after charities and not-for-profits at their time of need. You’re the changemaker’s best friend.”
What this means for our clients
The Taylor & Grace team will become a new business unit within Benefolk, with the same familiar faces you have come to know. I will become a Director of Benefolk and continue to lead work across brand, transformation and growth.
What Taylor & Grace has learned, built and stood for over the past 20 years will continue within Benefolk, with more people, perspectives and possibilities behind it.
If you’re currently working directly with Taylor & Grace, it’s business as usual. We’ll continue working with you as we do now and will speak with you personally before anything changes.
The people behind the 20 years
No business reaches 20 years because of one person. Taylor & Grace certainly didn’t.
It has been shaped by the remarkable people working here today, every former team member who contributed along the way, and the advisory board members, collaborators, partners and suppliers who made our work stronger.
Most of all, it has been shaped by the clients who trusted us with decisions that mattered, and by everyone who referred us, opened a door, backed an idea or took a chance on us.
Taylor & Grace carries all of their fingerprints, and I am deeply thankful to every person who has played a part in its story.
I’m immensely proud of what we have built together. I won’t pretend this transition isn’t emotional; Taylor & Grace has been a huge part of my life. But I’m incredibly excited about what comes next.
To everyone who has played a part in Taylor & Grace:
thank you.
20 years brought us here. I couldn’t be more excited about where we go next.
Warmest regards,
Darren