Cheriss Lansens - Connecting Stories, Building Success

Blog

Organizational and Partnership Network

Capability Ecosystem

Work In Action

Building strong connections within your community is essential for meaningful marketing success. Start by identifying key local groups and stakeholders who align with your mission and values. Engage with them authentically through listening sessions, collaborative events, and consistent communication. Remember, genuine relationships thrive on trust and mutual benefit, so approach each interaction with empathy and openness.<h3>Effective Strategies for Meaningful Connections</h3>To deepen your community ties, focus on creating shared experiences such as workshops, volunteer opportunities, or storytelling events that highlight collective goals. Utilize social media platforms to amplify voices and stories from the community, fostering a sense of belonging and visibility. Consistency and follow-up are crucial; keep the conversation going beyond initial meetings to build lasting partnerships that support your marketing objectives.

Brainwalking Idea Generation Workshop by FORTYTWO October 2019

Mastering the Art of Community Engagement: A Step-by-Step Guide

The landscape of strategic communications is evolving rapidly, influenced by technological advancements and changing audience behaviors. One notable trend is the rise of personalized content powered by AI, allowing marketers to tailor messages with unprecedented precision. Additionally, brands are placing greater emphasis on transparency and ethical storytelling to build trust in an era of information overload.<h3>Adapting to a Dynamic Communication Environment</h3>To stay ahead, businesses must integrate data analytics with creative storytelling, ensuring their narratives resonate on a deeper level. Video content and interactive experiences continue to dominate, making engagement more immersive and memorable. Embracing these trends can help marketers like Cheriss create innovative campaigns that connect authentically with their audiences while driving measurable results.

Emerging Trends in Strategic Communications for 2024

Storytelling is at the heart of effective marketing, but what goes into crafting these compelling narratives? Behind the scenes, it involves a blend of research, listening, and creative ideation. Understanding your audience's values and challenges helps shape stories that resonate and inspire action. Collaboration with diverse voices adds richness and authenticity to every project.<h3>The Creative Process Unveiled</h3>Each story begins with a spark—an idea or insight that aligns with strategic goals. From there, scripts are drafted, visuals are storyboarded, and feedback loops ensure the message stays on point. This iterative process is a team effort that highlights the importance of flexibility and open communication, ultimately resulting in stories that build meaningful relationships and drive success.

Behind the Scenes: Crafting Stories That Connect

A selection of fundraising and engagement events demonstrating end-to-end project leadership across planning, partnerships, creative execution, and event operations.

Bringing strategy, community, and experiences to life.

Proof of Impact

Community Fundraising | Experience Design | Revenue OptimizationLed the planning and execution of a signature fundraising event focused on community connection and donor engagement. Managed the event lifecycle including sponsorship acquisition, auction strategy, logistics, budgeting, volunteer coordination, and event communications to create a high-impact experience.Scope of Contribution Event strategy • Sponsorship management • Auction packaging • Donor stewardship • Volunteer recruitment &amp; training • Budget tracking • Guest communications • Day-of coordination

2023 Cabin Fever Reliever Dinner & Auction 

Fundraising Event | Sponsorship | Experiential MarketingManaged the execution of a large-scale annual fundraising event from strategy through event-day delivery. Led sponsorship development, registration experience, auction coordination, budget oversight, volunteer mobilization, and on-site operations while creating a seamless guest experience across multiple audience touch points.Scope of Contribution Event design • Sponsorship strategy • Registration &amp; guest journey • Auction management • Volunteer leadership • Budget management • Event communications • Day-of execution • Stakeholder coordination

Lexus of London Golf Classic (Golf Day)

Donor Experience | Auction Strategy | Guest ExperienceDelivered a premium fundraising experience designed to maximize engagement, participation, and revenue generation. Oversaw event planning, sponsorship activation, auction logistics, creative communications, volunteer execution, and attendee experience from concept through post-event wrap-up.Scope of Contribution Auction procurement &amp; packaging • Sponsorship fulfillment • Guest experience • Creative development • Budget oversight • Volunteer engagement • Timeline management • Event operations

2019 Lexus of London Golf Classic (Gala)

Capabilities

Rowing boat in Yarra River near Southbank, Melbourne

Hi, I'm Cheriss.I help organizations uncover blind spots and translate insight into measurable growth.By combining data-driven analysis, consumer behaviour insights, and strategic relationship-building, I identify opportunities that others may overlook and turn them into actionable solutions.Through a collaborative approach and a strong professional network, I connect people, ideas, and opportunities to turn complexity into practical direction that drives results.

Connecting People. Driving Results.

Bringing stories to life through innovative content that resonates and inspires action.

An incredible floor event for my dorm at school. Worship and good food. Can’t get much better than that.

Creative Storytelling

Crafting clear, compelling messages that connect brands with their audiences to drive engagement and growth.

Strategic Communications

Fostering meaningful connections within communities to amplify voices and create impactful initiatives.

Community Engagement

I use engagement data and performance insights to guide decisions across marketing, events, and partnerships, and to continuously improve the systems that capture and track this information.

Data, Insight & Decision Making

I build relationships that connect people, organizations, and ideas to create mutual value and long-term opportunity, supported by ongoing engagement and clear communication.

Partnership & Community Building

I lead events and programs from strategy through execution, whether building from the ground up or stepping into existing initiatives to strengthen and improve outcomes, with a focus on engagement and continuous improvement.

Events, Campaigns & Program Execution

How I Work

Work in Practice

Female electronics engineer discusses data in meeting with colleague

Two middle age business workers smiling happy and confident. Working together with smile on face hand giving high five at the office

Business to business cooperation b2b concept, young woman hands showing 2 pieces of jigsaw puzzles

People meeting to discuss app development. Mapbox Uncharted ERG (mapbox.com/diversity-inclusion) created these images to encourage and enable everyone in tech to represent LGBTQIA+ people at work, including collaboration and teamwork, leadership, design, engineering, and mobile development. These photos are free for anyone to use, as long as the use contains attribution to Mapbox. For more information see bit.ly/QueerTechPhotosAnnounce. For the full collection visit https://bit.ly/3chojW5



two businessmen having a meeting in the park 

"Young professionals discussing business plans at an IT startup meeting." - Free to use, but we’d appreciate a credit link to https://echoglobal.tech

Connect with Cheriss

Selected Organizations & Partners

<h4>Behaviour-led segmentation and engagement optimization for revenue growth</h4>ContextAlumni Perks engagement data was underutilized, with inconsistent profile completion and limited visibility into user behaviour. This created barriers to developing targeted affinity revenue strategies and reduced the effectiveness of fundraising outreach, particularly within higher-value alumni segments.The opportunity was to better understand audience behaviour and transform existing engagement data into a structured system that could support segmentation, acquisition, and revenue growth.StrategyA data-first approach was used to uncover behavioural patterns within the Alumni Perks user base and identify opportunities for targeted engagement and revenue optimization.Analysis focused on understanding how different segments interacted with the platform and where engagement was strongest, weakest, or underdeveloped. This insight was then used to define a strategic target segment (35+ alumni), identified based on engagement behaviour and giving capacity indicators.Rather than relying on broad acquisition tactics, the strategy focused on:<ul><li>aligning partner selection with high-value demographic segments</li><li>increasing data quality through structured engagement design</li><li>using behavioural incentives to improve profile completion</li><li>converting engagement activity into a foundation for affinity revenue growth</li></ul>Execution<ul><li>Conducted full export and analysis of user data to identify gaps in contact information and engagement behaviour</li><li>Analyzed population trends including age, device usage, perk interactions, contest participation, email engagement, and click behaviour</li><li>Identified strategic target segment (35+ alumni) based on engagement and giving capacity indicators</li><li>Secured and onboarded partners aligned to target demographic (including Source for Sports, Grand Theatre, Stratford Theatre, Wild Birds Unlimited)</li><li>Designed co-branded giveaway campaigns using existing budget to drive targeted engagement without increasing acquisition costs</li><li>Converted alumni within partner ecosystems into active PERKS users through targeted outreach and incentive alignment</li><li>Implemented structured participation requirements tied to contests and giveaways to increase fully completed profile rates</li><li>Introduced physical fulfillment (mail-based rewards) to reinforce engagement behaviour and improve profile completion quality</li></ul>Impact<ul><li>Grew registered users from 35,798 → 39,531 within one year</li><li>Increased representation of higher-value alumni segments:<ul><li>31–35: 15.6% → 17.4%</li><li>36–40: 13.3% → 14.1%</li><li>41–45: 6.0% → 6.5%</li><li>46–50: 6.8% → 7.2%</li></ul></li><li>Expanded engagement among older alumni segments (51+) including +152 (51–55), +202 (56–60), and +308 (65+) new users</li><li>Improved overall data quality through increased fully completed alumni profiles</li><li>Strengthened foundation for affinity-based fundraising and targeted alumni outreach</li><li>Transitioned Alumni Perks from a passive benefits platform into a data-driven engagement and segmentation system</li><li>Delivered a 46% increase in affinity revenue within the year, directly linked to improved segmentation, engagement quality, and data completeness</li></ul>InsightThis initiative demonstrated that engagement platforms become significantly more valuable when treated as behavioural systems rather than static benefits.By using data to identify high-value segments, aligning partner ecosystems to those segments, and designing incentives that reinforce profile completion, engagement activity was successfully converted into measurable revenue growth.It reinforced a core principle that appears across all case studies: when data is used to understand behaviour, it becomes a tool for designing systems that drive both engagement and financial impact.

Data-Driven Audience Growth & Revenue Optimization

Reframing attendance, engagement, and auction performance to improve fundraising efficiency and guest experience<h4>Context</h4>The Lexus Golf Gala &amp; Tournament had been a long-standing signature fundraising event supporting prostate cancer research through the London Health Sciences Foundation.While the event was well-established and consistently successful, a review of historical performance and operational structure revealed that many elements had remained unchanged for over a decade. This created increasing misalignment between guest behaviour, event flow, and fundraising potential.Key challenges included:<ul><li>Informal and inconsistent attendance practices that impacted planning accuracy</li><li>Under-optimized auction performance across multiple revenue streams</li><li>Event layout and guest flow limitations affecting engagement with key fundraising elements</li><li>Lack of structured insight into guest behaviour and preferences</li></ul>The opportunity was to use historical performance data and attendee feedback to redesign how the event functioned across registration, engagement, and revenue generation.<h4>Strategy</h4>A full performance review of multiple years of event data (2017–2019) was conducted to identify patterns in attendance, revenue streams, guest feedback, and operational inefficiencies.The analysis focused on:<ul><li>How guests were engaging with different parts of the event (gala, golf, auction, raffles)</li><li>Where revenue was being generated most effectively</li><li>Where value was being lost due to structure, layout, or execution</li><li>How guest behaviour had evolved over time</li></ul>Key strategic insights from the analysis:<ul><li>Attendance had become inconsistent due to informal invitation and registration practices</li><li>Auction performance was strong overall, but presentation and category placement impacted yield</li><li>Certain high-value auction categories consistently outperformed others (e.g., dining, experiences, home goods)</li><li>The “Super Silent” format was diluting value by spreading high-interest items too thinly</li><li>Physical layout decisions directly influenced participation and bidding behaviour</li><li>Guest feedback highlighted opportunities to improve accessibility, comfort, and flow</li></ul>These insights informed a shift in approach from event execution to event system design—focusing on how structure influences engagement and revenue outcomes.<h4>Execution</h4>Event Structure &amp; Attendance<ul><li>Introduced structured registration practices to improve visibility of actual attendance</li><li>Refined guest eligibility and attendance rules to improve planning accuracy</li><li>Assessed guest-to-registration patterns to better understand participation behaviour</li><li>Identified opportunities to improve guest experience through layout and flow adjustments</li></ul>Auction &amp; Revenue Optimization<ul><li>Reviewed multi-year auction performance by category to identify high-performing segments</li><li>Identified categories consistently generating stronger returns (e.g., dining, entertainment, home experiences)</li><li>Recommended consolidating or repositioning underperforming auction groupings to improve bidding intensity</li><li>Assessed “Super Silent” structure and identified oversaturation as a limiting factor on perceived value</li><li>Proposed simplifying auction segmentation to improve clarity and competition for items</li></ul>Sponsorship &amp; Partnerships<ul><li>Evaluated sponsor ROI and contribution across financial and in-kind value</li><li>Identified opportunities to better align sponsorships with event visibility and guest engagement</li><li>Recommended earlier engagement with key sponsors to improve planning and activation quality</li><li>Highlighted opportunities to repackage underutilized assets into higher-value sponsorship opportunities</li></ul>Guest Experience &amp; Layout<ul><li>Incorporated attendee feedback related to seating, food variety, and accessibility</li><li>Identified how spatial layout impacted engagement with auction and activation areas</li><li>Recommended repositioning key engagement zones to increase visibility and participation</li><li>Highlighted opportunities to reduce friction in guest movement across the event space</li></ul><h4>Impact</h4><ul><li>Improved clarity in attendance tracking and guest participation patterns</li><li>Strengthened alignment between auction structure and category performance</li><li>Identified opportunities to optimize auction yield through category consolidation and repositioning</li><li>Enhanced understanding of sponsor value contribution and activation effectiveness</li><li>Provided actionable recommendations to improve guest experience and operational efficiency</li><li>Shifted event planning approach from traditional execution to data-informed event design</li><li>Established a framework for ongoing event optimization based on performance review and behavioural insight</li></ul><h4>Insight</h4>This analysis demonstrated that legacy events often evolve slowly not because they are ineffective, but because their success masks underlying inefficiencies.By breaking the event down into its core components—attendance, engagement, revenue streams, and guest experience—it became clear that small structural adjustments could significantly influence both participation and financial outcomes.The most important takeaway was that event performance is not only determined by programming, but by how structure shapes behaviour. When guest flow, auction design, and engagement touchpoints are intentionally aligned, overall event effectiveness increases without requiring fundamental changes to the core experience.

Legacy Fundraising Event System Redesign for Performance & Engagement

The Alzheimer Society Walk for Alzheimer’s is a key fundraising initiative supporting individuals and families affected by dementia across local communities.When I stepped into this role, a major organizational shift was also underway. The Alzheimer Society of Elgin County, London, and Woodstock were in the process of merging to form Alzheimer Society Southwest Partners.This rebrand created both a challenge and an opportunity: multiple legacy organizations were coming together, each with their own established walk events, structures, and marketing approaches. Across the region, there were four separate walks being delivered across three organizations, all supporting the same cause but operating independently.My role became focused on helping translate this organizational merger into a unified, scalable engagement model that could support consistency while respecting local community differences.<h4>🔄 Building alignment during organizational change</h4>With the merger underway, I began by conducting a comprehensive review of all four walk events across the region.This analysis identified key overlaps and inconsistencies in:<ul><li>Event structure and delivery</li><li>Branding and communication approaches</li><li>Participant experience across communities</li><li>Operational planning and execution models</li></ul>From this, I developed a standardized framework for the Walk for Alzheimer’s initiative under the new Alzheimer Society Southwest Partners brand.This approach allowed all four walks to be positioned as part of a single, unified regional initiative, while still enabling each community to maintain its local identity and demographic relevance.The result was a clearer, more cohesive representation of the organization during a critical transition period.<h4>🏃‍♀️ Reimagining the London event experience</h4>One of the most significant changes implemented during the first year was a redesign of the London walk format.The event was relocated from Springbank Park to Mother Teresa High School, shifting the experience from a dispersed scenic walk to a structured, track-based environment.This change was intentional and strategically driven. It improved:<ul><li>Health and safety oversight, by creating a controlled environment for participants</li><li>Operational clarity, by improving visibility of attendees and event flow</li><li>Audience concentration, allowing for more intentional engagement and programming within a defined space</li></ul>From a communications and media perspective, the structured environment also enhanced visual storytelling. The condensed format allowed for more impactful imagery, capturing greater participant density and strengthening the perceived scale of the event in external communications.<h4>📍 Scaling a unified model across multiple communities</h4>Once the updated structure was implemented in London, the same framework was replicated across the remaining communities: St. Thomas, Tillsonburg, and Woodstock.This created a consistent regional model that could be adapted locally while maintaining alignment with the broader Alzheimer Society Southwest Partners brand.Each community retained its unique demographic profile and local engagement style, but operated within a shared structure that improved:<ul><li>Cross-region consistency in execution</li><li>Efficiency in planning and coordination</li><li>Clarity in marketing and messaging</li><li>Overall participant experience across the organization</li></ul><h4>📈 The broader impact</h4>This initiative transformed the Walk for Alzheimer’s from a set of independently run local events into a unified regional engagement platform aligned with a newly merged organization.It supported the broader goals of Alzheimer Society Southwest Partners by ensuring that, during a period of structural and brand transition, community-facing programs remained consistent, recognizable, and strategically aligned.Most importantly, it helped ensure that regardless of location, participants experienced a cohesive connection to the organization and the cause it represents.<h4>💡 Reflection</h4>This project reinforced that organizational change is most visible in how programs are experienced on the ground.A merger is not only about aligning names and structures—it’s about aligning experiences, expectations, and execution across every touchpoint.By bringing four independently developed events into a unified framework, the goal was not to reduce local identity, but to strengthen the collective impact of a newly formed organization.

Unifying Four Community Walks Through a Regional Merger

<h4>Turning a partnership opportunity into a scalable, organic fundraising initiative. </h4><h4></h4>ChallengeGiving Tuesday is one of the most competitive fundraising periods of the year, with organizations competing for attention in a saturated environment. Traditional campaigns often rely on paid media or large-scale promotional budgets, making it difficult to achieve standout engagement and meaningful conversion through organic channels.Within this context, there was an opportunity to design a fundraising initiative that could:<ul><li>Generate revenue without significant advertising spend</li><li>Leverage existing community and partner relationships</li><li>Increase participation through behavioural and timing-based strategy</li><li>Expand engagement beyond traditional alumni audiences</li></ul>The core challenge was not just fundraising, but identifying how consumer behaviour, community trust, and timing could be aligned to drive participation at scale.SolutionThis initiative was built through a combination of partnership development, behavioural timing, and multi-channel organic distribution.<ul><li>Identified an opportunity through a conversation with Columbia Sportswear regarding their Community Cares program</li><li>Aligned Columbia’s community engagement goals with institutional fundraising objectives</li><li>Positioned the campaign within Giving Tuesday and Black Friday, leveraging peak consumer spending behaviour</li><li>Distributed physical promotional passes to alumni during Convocation, capturing audiences at peak institutional affinity</li><li>Required Alumni Perks registration to access offers, creating a low-cost acquisition and data capture mechanism</li><li>Produced all campaign content organically without paid media investment</li><li>Captured on-site content at the retail location to increase authenticity and engagement</li><li>Featured store staff and community-recognized individuals to strengthen social trust and relatability</li><li>Developed trend-driven video content optimized for organic social sharing</li><li>Expanded Year Two distribution through partner networks, including mailing physical passes to retail partners and community organizations such as the London Knights</li><li>Introduced Instagram DM automation to distribute digital passes instantly to social audiences</li></ul>Impact<ul><li>Generated $30,000+ in fundraising revenue over two years<ul><li>Year 1: $13,000+</li><li>Year 2: $17,000+</li></ul></li><li>Achieved year-over-year revenue growth without increasing paid media investment</li><li>Increased Alumni Perks registrations through mandatory participation pathways</li><li>Expanded reach through partner-owned audiences, retail networks, and organic social distribution</li><li>Improved campaign efficiency through dual-channel physical + digital pass distribution</li><li>Strengthened cross-sector partnerships between institutional, retail, and community stakeholders</li><li>Demonstrated how behavioural timing (Convocation + Black Friday + Giving Tuesday) can significantly increase participation and conversion</li><li>Created a scalable, repeatable model for organic fundraising activation</li></ul>Key InsightThis initiative demonstrated that fundraising performance is not solely driven by budget or campaign scale, but by the alignment of:<ul><li>Consumer behaviour timing</li><li>Community trust and recognition</li><li>Low-friction participation design</li><li>Strategic use of partner ecosystems</li></ul>When these elements are intentionally structured, organic campaigns can outperform traditional paid approaches in both engagement and revenue generation.

Partnership-Led Fundraising Activation & Organic Revenue Growth

Taking Risks. Trusting Data. Driving Impact.