For your convenience, you can download the webinar slides here.

No matter how much great work you’re doing in your community, if your story isn’t connecting with the people and organizations you’re serving, the work is falling flat.

In this on-demand webinar, hear how St. Luke’s Foundation in Cleveland, OH is taking community connectedness to the next level. Kristen Summers, Senior Grants Manager shares how intentionally listening to what their community needs and responding to that need via their grantmaking has turned their community relationships around.

She shares the story of:

• How leaning into their Resident Advancement Committee (RAC) for discretionary budget decisions in the community has resulted in better decisions and more trust.
• How they identified the data needed to tell a story that connected with the community.
• How they have been able to act on that data to drive meaningful impact.
• How they formatted that data in a way that connected to all stakeholders and brought their board along.
• How they will continue to build on this work in the future and where they see that evolution taking them and their community.

SPEAKER

Kristen Summers | Former Senior Grants Manager, St. Luke's Foundation
Kristen joined the Foundation in February 2016 as Grants Manager and was promoted to Senior Grants Manager in 2020. Kristen appreciates streamlined systems with an equity focus. She knows that grantmaking need not be overly complicated to achieve impact. Kristen is always asking her colleagues "how are we going to use this data that we're collecting?" and striving for increased knowledge sharing throughout the community. Kristen is a long-standing member and proponent of PEAK Grantmaking and has served in a leadership capacity of the PEAK Mideast Chapter since 2018.

Prior to working in philanthropy, Kristen worked in the international education field, both directing a small English as a second language school and leading a team in the international admissions department at a large public university, recruiting international students and processing their applications. She also spent considerable time volunteering in animal rescue and honing her grant writing skills, which served as the catalyzing force to work in the nonprofit sector.

Kristen earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in French Translation from Kent State University. While not working, Kristen enjoys spending time with her husband and energetic toddler, hiking the many beautiful trails in Ohio, or just putting her organizational skills to the test inside her home.