First Annual Community Spotlight Retreat Day
Over the last 18 months Sanctuary has been experimenting with an alternative means to community engagement and philanthropic activities. We’ve coined it the Community Spotlight Series, and it essentially involves a month-long partnership with a local organization in which we share their mission, vision, and impact through our outreach channels and also make use of our downtown studio space for community-building events that benefit each organization. Here is a blog I wrote earlier this year celebrating our first year of these collaborations. And, for a specific example of how we’ve used our platform to bring awareness to an organization, check out the blog we created for It Takes a Village this past Fall.
One thing I know for sure is that our Community Spotlight Series has brought us into closer connection with the leaders of many local organizations, and the powerful work they are doing in the Valley. It’s also provided meaningful awareness and involvement amongst our student community. As a small business we understand how critical it is financially to donate to local organizations, yet we also recognize that there are other intangible ways we can contribute to their work. The Community Spotlight Series has helped us reimagine how a traditional business-to-nonprofit relationship can operate and has challenged us to create more value than any single donation we can make.
In that spirit, Sanctuary hosted our First Annual Community Spotlight Retreat Day earlier this month. In collaboration with a group of our Collective members we organized a full day of Sanctuary-inspired activities, exclusively for the staff and board members of the organizations that have participated in our Community Spotlight Series. The sampling of services included yoga classes, bodywork sessions, meditation, somatics, and more. And, Thornes Marketplace businesses, such as Cedar Chest and Fire Type Chocolate donated a selection of goodies to be raffled off to participants.
Those that participated had great things to share about their experience, such as:
“This is the first time I’ve ever heard of something like this. Amazing!”
“I can’t believe you're doing this!”
“This is a great reminder that sometimes we need to stop doing, and just be.”
We couldn’t be happier with how things unfolded for the first annual retreat day, and we are looking forward to brainstorming with our nonprofit friends to make the second one even better!
Cheers, Jonathan
