Come play.
trainings and conferences
Instructor: Sarah Milston
Join Sarah in Harrisonburg for a session to learn about online fundraising, giving and marketing in the 21st century, and how to tell your story!
Instructor: Sarah Milston
Join Sarah for a lively discussion around assessing your own capacity in the major areas of concern for nonprofits. Walk out with a plan of action!
Virginia Volunteerism and Service Annual Conference - Presenter: Chris Bennett
Your organization has all the assets it needs to make the change you want to see in the world. But are your staff, your finances and your time aligned to produce that change? This workshop will explore organizational assets and how they are aligned (or not) towards the mission and vision of your organization. Participants will walk away with an asset and alignment map, and some next steps to achieve organizational alignment.
Virginia Volunteerism and Service Annual Conference - Presenter: Sarah Milston
This session will highlight key aspects of a robust community engagement program beyond focus groups. We will review the community engagement spectrum and discuss best practices for co-leadership with community transformations.
Virginia Volunteerism and Service Annual Conference - Presenter: Chris Bennett
Albert Einstein is quoted to have said "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” So how can we think differently about the challenges facing our organizations? Utilizing “design thinking” is one effective way to change our perspectives. Design thinking is about identifying and working within given constraints to arrive at innovative and generative solutions. In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore design thinking through a fun-filled gamified experience to address complex problems and social ills. Participants will walk away with practical and actionable design tools that can be applied with teams to solve problems in their context.
Virginia Volunteerism and Service Annual Conference - Presenter: Sarah Milston
Boards can be useful, harmful, or dead weight. Learn some tips to manage the board for the best impact for your organization.
Instructor: Sarah Milston
Advanced Social Media Tactics is designed for professionals who know how to use the most popular tools (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and are looking to increase engagement and develop a deeper understanding of social media. The class will focus on areas including emerging trends and tools, strategic use of social media, and more!
Presenter: Sarah Milston
Register Here
Probono requests are inevitable for businesses. So why not create a thoughtful program that works for both you and the nonprofit. Learn pitfalls and mistakes as we talk through the highs and lows of our own program.
Mariah Williams will be presenting the talk, "A City for Her: Exploring How Women and Girls Shape the Urban Environment" as part of the Women's Empowerment Summit hosted by the VCU Office of Multicultural Student Affairs.
The conference is taking place from 12-9pm tomorrow. A few of the other presentations include: Powerful Women in Business, Being Gray in a Black and White World, What Does Respect for Women Mean in Pakistan?, and Practical Advice for Thriving in Careers Underrepresented by Women.
Sarah Milston will present as part of a 10 session series focusing on basic concepts of health equity, diversity, inclusion, and socioeconomic determinants of health and how they may impact healthcare delivery, access, and utilization.
This is a private class designed for pre-professional graduate students in healthcare including Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Allied Health and Dentistry.
Course presented by the Academy of Nonprofit Excellence, Norfolk, VA
Come learn about the role strategic planning plays in a nonprofit organization and why it is essential to your future. Review some best practices about the role of board, staff, and your stakeholders and how best to engage them. Participants will review the trifecta of strategic planning magic - the gathering of data, group processing and dreaming and landing a plan with solid implementation tools.
Crash Course in Nonprofit Strategic Planning. Come learn about:
1) The role strategic planning plays in a nonprofit organization and why it is important.
2) The how to's - who leads and manages the process, who should be involved and how to engage them.
3) Tips on implementation of the strategic plan.
Please join Linden Legal Strategies for our first Lunch & Learn of 2018 as we welcome Sarah Milston of the Spark Mill, a Richmond based consultancy that helps businesses make change happen. Sarah will be leading a discussion on strategic planning, offering insight and guidance for businesses of all sizes.
Instructor: Sarah Milston
Creating marketing materials is part of an organization’s effective giving day strategy. Participants will review brand strategy, audience definition, and cover the basics of marketing – including email and direct mail. Participants will leave the session with an idea of their intended audience and the basics to start a marketing plan. They will learn tips, tools, and tricks to edit their own images and videos, along with the basics of social media. Match fundraising will also be discussed as a marketing tool.
Instructor: Sarah Milston
Does your organization do a good job of telling the story of your work? Stories people will remember? Stories that drive people to action? Sarah will explain why telling good stories is vital, identify what makes a story "good," and how all of it relates to relationship building with clients, partners, and donors. You will also learn some tips and tools for crafting your own stories.
Instructor: Sarah Milston
This workshop will cover insights on improving your organization's storytelling, how to capitalize on social media and storytelling for effective marketing, and Give Day strategies. Sarah will cover trends, tools, measurements, and strategy.
Presenter - Sarah Milston
As part of the biannual CCA conference, Sarah will discuss tools and tactics for using social media to fundraise and friendraise, particularly as they apply to higher education foundations. Here's a tip: if you think the tools and tactics for fundraising and friendraising are the same, you should come to this class.
Instructor: Sarah Milston
This class is designed to give participants a deeper understanding of social media and how to use popular tools, to understand how to apply social media to their work, understand return on investment and risks of social media tools.
It will also cover:
• Emerging Trends and Tools. This will cover what is on the horizon, the latest news and laws around social media, and the best new apps and tools.
• Strategy. Using research, we will focus on creating great content and timing it for the greatest impact.
Instructor: Sarah Milston
Everything you need to know you learned in kindergarten—except the ins and outs of running a nonprofit. We will cover the core aspects of nonprofit management, including board development, fundraising, vision and strategy, and marketing. This is designed as a pragmatic course with plenty of on-the-ground practical application.
We will review how to work with a board, including management, meetings, expectations, and recruitment.
This course is designed for staff and board members who are new to nonprofits, founders who are launching their first nonprofit, career transitioners, and anyone else who wants to develop their foundation in nonprofit management principles to help their organization thrive.
Instructor: Sarah Milston
Social Media Strategies is designed for professionals who know how to use the most popular tools (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and are looking to increase their fan engagement. The class focuses on three major areas:
Instructor: Sarah Milston
Social Media Strategies is designed for professionals who know how to use the most popular tools (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and are looking to increase their fan engagement. The class focuses on three major areas:
1. Emerging Trends and Tools. This will cover what is on the horizon, the latest news and laws around social media, and the best new apps and tools.
2. Strategy. Using research, we will focus on creating great content and timing it for the greatest impact.
3. Measurement. Using information from Beth Kanter's book Measuring the Networked Nonprofit, we will dive into measurement techniques.
In addition, throughout the one-day class we will take breaks to workshop problems submitted prior to the class.
Instructor: Sarah Milston
Social Media Strategies is designed for professionals who know how to use the most popular tools (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and are looking to increase their fan engagement. The class focuses on three major areas:
Presenter: Lindsey O-Pries
The Virginia Housing Alliance and the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services are pleased to present the 2017 Housing Virginia's Most Vulnerable Conference, which will be held on August 16-17 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Midlothian. Lindsey will be speaking on philanthropy and giving models.
Click here to register.
Presenter: Lindsey O-Pries
Right now, it’s more important than ever to start fast tracking your development office towards being more diverse and inclusive of historically overlooked communities. This workshop will be an overview of the many intricacies of diversity-- moving from the WHY you should want it to the HOW to get there. We will provide time for questions and real life scenarios to meet the needs of participants.
Instructor: Sarah Milston
So you don't have money to hire a graphic designer and you don’t even know what a style sheet is or how to get started. This course is designed for nonprofits who need to make the most out of donated services and with little to no budget for marketing.
This class is designed for people who have marketing in their "other duties as assigned" job description, development professionals, and any other professional looking to beef up their skills.
Presenter: Sarah Milston
How effective is your online presence and strategy? Come and learn as Sarah Milston, talks about the impact of online giving and generational giving patterns, and see case studies of successful online campaigns.
Presenter: Chris Bennett
This workshop explores the concept that some organizational challenges are not problems to solve but tensions to manage. A combination of small-group work and interactive conversation will give participants tools to manage organizational challenges to find win-win solutions. (Polarity management)
Presenter: Sarah Milston
Come learn about the role strategic planning plays in a nonprofit organization and why it is essential to your future. Review some best practices about the role of board, staff, and your stakeholders and how best to engage them. Participants will review the trifecta of strategic planning magic - the gathering of data, group processing and dreaming and landing a plan with solid implementation tools.
Presenter: Sarah Milston
Using Creative and Fun Facilitation tactics to engage your community through focus groups, charrettes, and listening sessions.
Presenter: Chris Bennett
Excellence is doing small things well consistently over-time. This session challenges conventional wisdom on the necessity of talent in order to have excellence. Participants will get a framework for developing excellence in their organization. Interactive discussion along with group activities will provide a road map and some tools to develop a habit of excellence in themselves, their staffs and their volunteers.
Join The Spark Mill at YNPN RVA’s upcoming Ask an Expert Social on Thursday April 27th from 5:30-7:30pm at Triple Crossing Brewery in Fulton for networking opportunity with lots of professionals including TSM's Christopher Bennett and Rebecca Butler.
The 4th Annual Power of Good is back - a celebration of volunteerism in Richmond and a joint presentation from The Spark Mill and Hands on Greater Richmond. Come play and enjoy learning about all the good happening in Richmond. BUT FIRST! Nominate someone here. Don't know what we are talking about? - Read more here.
Then, register to attend https://powerofgoodparty.eventbrite.com
Instructor: Sarah Milston
Does your development office need a make-over? Are you new to development or new to your role at your nonprofit and want to spend some time doing a deep dive? This session is designed to walk you through the basics of setting up a development office or rejuvenating one. We will focus on asking, thanking, events, board engagement, and committee involvement. This class is appropriate for development staff, executives, board members, and career switchers! You will learn:
