The Art of Being Seen with Common Great

Wednesday, November 18, 2026, 10.00 – 11.30 am

Growing your audiences without stretching your resources thin

Arts and cultural organizations have incredible stories to tell, but reaching new audiences requires more than great content. It takes a thoughtful approach to understanding who you’re trying to reach, choosing the right communications channels, developing messages that resonate, and measuring what’s working.

This introductory training with Kirsten Rogers and Ariel Glassman Barwick of Common Great will provide a framework for building an audience acquisition strategy, with special attention to organizations working with limited budgets, staff, and technical resources. 

Through real-world examples, accessible tools, and actionable guidance, participants will learn how to prioritize their marketing efforts, reach new communities, and turn initial interest into lasting engagement.

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ArtsFund is pleased to host a special follow-up office hour session with Kirsten and Ariel. This session invites participants to bring specific marketing challenges, questions, and campaign ideas for collaborative problem-solving. Potential discussion areas include identifying new audience segments, choosing between organic and paid acquisition strategies, selecting KPIs, navigating limited budgets, and evaluating underperforming campaigns. Please note that attendance at the initial new audiences training is not required to join this unstructured conversation, but having at least watched the recording of the session in advance of the office hour will help ensure we can make the best use of that time. 

When?

▪ Tuesday, December 1, 1.00-2.00 pm (ASL interpretation will be provided during this session to ensure accessibility for all participants)

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Kirsten Rogers

A seasoned strategist and communications polymath, Kirsten has mastered the art and science of building visibility, growing audiences, and inspiring action. From planning to implementation, clients apply her many talents to their greatest communications challenges, including digital marketing, copywriting and content strategy, public and media relations, graphic and website design, and analytics and evaluation. Kirsten knows that the right technology tools can make a huge difference, and loves helping clients work smarter – not just harder – through automation, integration, and building strong systems. She’s so organized that Marie Kondo calls her for tips.

Kirsten earned her Masters in Public Administration from the University of Washington Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs, specializing in nonprofit management and philanthropy. She served with the Peace Corps’ Small Business Development program in Morocco and on the Board of Directors for OneWorld Now. In her spare time, Kirsten appreciates travel, getting lost in bookstores, playing with her dogs (Arya and Lumi), and hiking. Fair warning: she might show up to an in-person meeting with home-baked treats.

Ariel Glassman Barwick

Ariel serves nonprofits and the people who power them – designing systematic, intentional, and equitable donor engagement practices that galvanize real relationships with supporters and get real results. In her 22+ years on the front lines of fundraising, she has helped hundreds of nonprofits on 4 continents raise over $75 million. As the Founder & CEO of Common Great, she leads the charge – refining methodology, calibrating projects to meet your goals, and testing innovative ideas to generate new possibilities.

Ariel’s razor-sharp view of the big picture helps her see around corners, find upstream solutions to entrenched challenges, and create the readiness and conditions for fundraising success organization-wide. But she still loves to dig into the weeds (and the data!) to connect the dots between strategy, tactics, and operations. Ariel excels at turning confusion into clarity, converting chaos into systems, and transforming reactivity into proactivity. If the inertia of “we’ve never tried that” or “that’s the way we’ve always done it” is holding you back, slide into her inbox (or LinkedIn DMs) ASAP.

Ariel never stops learning, and learns the most through teaching. She has taught workshops, lectures and presentations for field service organizations like AFP Advancement Northwest, 501 Commons, The Seattle Foundation, Philanthropy Massachusetts, Artist Trust, and Shunpike; nonprofit-focused higher education programs at University of Washington and Seattle University; funders like The Russell Family Foundation, ArtsFund, and Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture; and nonprofit technology platforms like Givebutter and Civic Champs. Ariel attended Stanford University, where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and got a head start on her leadership skills through collegiate a cappella. She one day hopes to write and star in Nonprofits: The Musical!

ASL Interpretation

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If there are additional accessibility features that would help your participation, please reach out to us. Our team will make every effort to accommodate all requests but encourage participants to respond by November 13, 2026. Contact jordan.lusink@artsfund.org with questions.

ArtsFund supports the arts through leadership, advocacy, and grantmaking in order to build a healthy, equitable, and creative Washington. Over its grantmaking history, ArtsFund has supported more than 650 arts organizations with more than $115 million in grants and championed leadership and advocacy for the cultural sector through programs such as Board Leadership Training, the Cultural Partners Network, and Building for the Arts capital funding. Join us and learn more at www.artsfund.org.