Get to Know Us: Q&A with Lauren Daniels

You’ve been doing communications work in the nonprofit space for a while now and recently celebrated three years at Seattle Parks Foundation! What are some of the most rewarding aspects of your job?

I love learning about and getting to support all our fiscal partners. So many of them volunteer their time to make their communities better for everyone, and I want to uplift their work however I can! I love connecting with our partners directly and sharing my skills to make things easier for them, whether it’s in the design of a flyer for an upcoming event, the creation of a web page to showcase their project, planning for social media posts or otherwise.

It makes my day when more people learn about and want to get involved in the work our partners are doing. Our Communications team works directly with our partners to help elevate their projects in the public eye – so if they are fundraising for a specific project, hosting an event, looking for volunteers, or need anything from the community, we are happy to spread the word through our Monthly eNews, social media accounts, advocacy campaigns and more.

Since joining SPF, I’ve enjoyed seeing how our organization is becoming more well-known for the wide-ranging support we offer our fiscal partners. One of my favorite projects I’ve worked on was the redesign of our website and the creation of our members-only Partner Portal. I love thinking of new ways to engage the community with our work and with the work our partners are doing on a daily basis. Visit our Events Calendar if you haven’t yet!

As our Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications, you run our website, help with social media strategy, send out emails, and so much more! Seattle Park Foundation’s public presence heavily relies on you, which can be a lot of pressure. How do you ensure that you’re always dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s?

I believe that no one should be an island in their work, so I rely heavily on collaboration, which is thankfully one of our core commitments as an organization. I work very closely with our COO and Content Coordinator to ensure we three agree on any plans, external designs, public-facing language, and beyond. I also lean on our Partner team to ensure I have all the correct information about our partners before I go public with any emails, newsletters, or annual reports. And it’s important to stay in close contact with our Development team too, as we work together on strategy, messaging and design for fundraising campaigns. There’s always so much going on, and we support each other across the organization – because we know we all can’t be everywhere at once! I’m grateful for how well everyone works together and thinks of each other when making plans.

To support our work, I try to stay aware of best practices in the nonprofit marketing and communications realm, ensuring that I’m setting SPF and our partners up for success when sharing our work with the community. There are a lot of free webinars and resources out there! I think it’s also very important to stay engaged with our peers and other organizations who are working in parks and public spaces, so we can support and learn from their efforts as well.

What are some of the ways that the Communications team supports SPF’s fiscal partners and what actions can they take to make the most out of the resources we offer?

We offer a variety of communications and marketing support to our partners, from the creation of project web pages to cases for support, advocacy campaigns, posterboards for events, storytelling on our social media and blog, and more! When the budget allows, we also hire photographers and videographers to cover events and projects.

Our fiscal partners can take advantage of the resources we offer by logging in to their account in our members-only Partner Portal (the login is in the top right corner of our website)! The Communications team works directly with the Partner, Development and Finance teams to create and design new content for our already robust Resource Library, with information on everything from how to get started on social media to how to track an event budget or apply for a grant. We always call out newly added materials in our quarterly Partner eNews, so our Partners should look out for that (next edition sends on January 24). I highly recommend that our partners log in to the Partner Portal and check out the Resource Library today!

You’re one of those East Coasters who fell in love with the Pacific Northwest and never left! Many people move to this region because of the nature, weather and unique PNW culture that is hard to find in other parts of the country. What drew you to Seattle and are there any places in or around the city that remind you of New Jersey?

There is only one word that describes why I moved to Seattle: music. When I was quite young, I loved (and still love) the band Nirvana, and by listening to and researching everything related to them from my bedroom near the Jersey Shore, I came to know and love more about the Pacific Northwest. My parents and I first traveled to Seattle just before my freshman year of high school, and I never really looked back. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to come out to this region for college, and after graduating, there was no question that I’d ever leave.

Even though they’re wildly different, the sights, sounds and smells of Seattle’s saltwater beaches remind me of home. I feel most like myself when I am near or in saltwater – whether it’s the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean.

Happy New Year! What are you looking forward to in 2025? Do you have anything on your resolutions list that you’re particularly excited about; any new outdoor experiences you’re hoping to have?

Happy New Year! My resolution each and every year is to pay more attention to beauty – in my day-to-day, in my relationships, in my surroundings, and beyond. This year, I’d love to incorporate more poetry and art into my life – more creativity to fuel the work I can in turn do for our partners and for SPF!

I’m very much looking forward to the groundbreaking at Garfield Super Block and can’t wait to celebrate all the hard work the community has put into that project for over 20 years. I’m also hoping to finally do a sunset kayak tour off Alki – it’s been on my to-do list for too long!