Events.
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” - Nelson Mandela
Installation of the Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson as General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ
The General Synod of the United Church of Christ made history Monday, July 3, 2023 when it elected the Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson as the first woman, and the first Black woman, to lead the denomination as General Minister and President. On October 20, 2023, Rev. Thompson was officially installed as the 10th General Minister and President of the UCC. The MarCom team of UCC National led all marketing, communications, production, and promotional efforts for this event, including press releases, invitations, special webpage, and live-streaming, all graphical elements and a comprehensive communications strategy that tied everything together.
Watch the Installation and view the special Installation webpage.
The Moran Center’s first Virtual Fundraising Gala
None of us could have imagined we’d be doing a virtual fundraiser, let alone during a global health crisis. In late March, the decision was made to transition what would have been an in-person event to an online event. To say it was a daunting task would be an understatement. Myself, along with the Executive Director, board chair, development assistant, and our event co-chair re-imagined what a virtual fundraiser would look like.
Working with BON Events, I was responsible for creating a comprehensive communications strategy to market the fundraiser, as well as generate much needed dollars for the agency. We re-branded the fundraiser to reflect the efforts of the agency during COVID-19, and building off the agency’s tagline Justice Changes Everything to Justice Responds. Renews. Rebuilds. We eliminated tickets to the virtual fundraiser, allowing us to reach new audiences, and removing barriers to those who otherwise, wouldn’t be able to afford a ticket. I was then tasked with working with BON events to develop a run-of show agenda, as well as develop the graphical and musical elements seen throughout the live-stream, staying true to the Moran Center brand.
I developed a robust social media plan, which included posts on how one’s dollar would be used, testimonials from board members, thorough email marketing campaigns, and featuring the work of our honorees, the producers of the Pulitzer Prize nominated podcast, Ear Hustle.
The event, which ran about 1 hour, generated $230,000, a 50 percent increase over last year. 7 percent of the night’s donors were new, which can be attributed to having the fundraiser stream on Facebook and YouTube. Our Facebook numbers were also impressive, with over 2,500 people viewing the live-stream (only 200 people would fit in our physical event space), 7,105 people reached, 1,750 total engagements, 304 total likes, shares, and comments, and 1,416 post clicks.
Color. Culture. Class. COVID-19: A Virtual Town Hall Series
Community Renewal Society, a faith based organization that works to eliminate race and class barriers decided to host three town hall series dedicated to addressing the disproportionate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic among under-served communities. Each town hall focus on a specific topic (race/racism/class, socio-economic issues, and race on a global scale.)
I served as technical director for these town halls, tasked with building the ZOOM webinars on the backend, developing a communications plan for promoting the town hall, holding test runs with the panelists, recording, editing, and publishing the town halls for future viewings.
I also built and designed the landing page and event page(s) (May 7, May 14, May 21) for the town hall series, including links to the full recordings, as well as speaker bios and social media handles.
Each town hall had 75 attendees total. The town halls were also live-streamed on Facebook, increasing our reach, with each webinar reaching about 1,000 people.
View the Color. Culture. Class. COVID-19 Town Hall Series
Chicago Theological Seminary 2021 Commencement (Virtual)
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) opted to hold its Commencement exercises virtually for the first time. Led by the Minister Tim Wolfe, who is also an alum of CTS, I was contracted to create a virtual procession of all the graduates, as well as edit a montage of video clips from social justice movements over the last year, which is what the Class of 2021 felt best described their work and calling. I built and designed each slide that for the processional that is seen at the beginning of the Commencement ceremony, using CTS branded fonts, colors, and logos to give the processional a consistent look and feel. I worked with the Director of Admissions, the Registrar, and the Assistant Director of Student Formation to ensure student names, degree programs, and other relevant information for the slides were accurate.