We recently connected with Audrey Sargus and have shared our conversation below.

Audrey , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?

Our non-profit organization KSU Flashathon started over a decade ago and since the beginning, we have had a team of Internal and External members. From day one Flashathon had a family of college students who were all ready and in it together to fight and change kids’ health. I took over this organization in 2022 and we had close to no team – literally, it was just four of us, including my Co-Executive Director Karsen Damon. That was super hard but throughout the year we recruited a small team and Karsen and I completed more positions than just Executive Directors throughout the year to make up for that. Looking at our friend circles and other clubs and organizations we had been a part of really helped us find like-minded people who could support our needs and team. This upcoming year we have an overfull team and have all positions filled and extras created to support our crew. The interview process was super daunting for busy college students so we got rid of that completely and asked simple questions in a Google Form to get to know our applicants. The most unconventional part of recruiting applicants was knowing if they were Kent State students or not and if they could handle the work load we have at Flashathon. Once we had our team in place we held a mandatory meeting with refreshments and went over our organization inside and out providing an abundance of knowledge, doing icebreakers, and getting to know one another! We have formal one on one training in July which we have pre-planned. I would have changed how we communicate with our team and recognize that just because we are all friends doesn’t mean work can be turned in late or simply not completed, we will be harder on that this year and communicating with our team what your expectations are from the beginning will help us succeed!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

KSU Flashathon is a non-profit organization that raises money for our local miracle children’s hospital, Akron Children Hospital. We raise money throughout the school year with fellow Kent State University students. All the money raised goes straight to Akron Children’s hematology and oncology unit specifically to benefit kids that cannot fight for themselves and parents who need aid in hard situations. I am so proud to work for this organization which is a Dance Marathon-affiliated non-profit. Something that really impacted me from my time as Executive Director is how this past year we raised over $17,000 for the kids which was a huge jump from the previous directors year where they raised just under $11,000 so having raised $6,000 more with a smaller board of directors was so rewarding. We always have our kids from the hospital, Miracle Kids, join us throughout the year, and seeing their smiles and knowing all our hard work goes straight to saving and changing the lives of these awesome kids is why we do it.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My Co-Executive, Karsen Damon, is amazing. Karsen and I met our first year at Kent State University and have been strong leaders ever since! Through our first year of Flashathon as general board members, we saw a lot that needed to change, our organization was run by super-talented seniors who needed a break and were ready to graduate. We both would come up with fundraising ideas, Child Health Day incentives, and more and realized that we worked out great as a team and as partners. If there is ever a day that I am struggling she will back me up with the best idea I have ever heard of. Together we have learned how to run an organization, traveled the country together, raised thousands of dollars barely knowing what we were doing at the time, and overall changing kids’ health so they can have more birthdays, smiles, and a happy life.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Our social media handles are all super simple @ksuflashathon which makes it great to get partners involved and members signed up to help or donate to us. We did a social media rebrand during the first year we took over this organization and that grew our engagement immensely. Knowing what is trending helps us as well specifically on the Instagram feed we can see what other Dance Marathons are posting and create similar ideas or we can see directly if a post did bad and learn that whatever colors or fonts we used should not happen again. Photos help us a ton as it shows real people and what we are all about and those get more likes and comments than text posts. I would say when starting a social media presence have someone whose specific job is PR and Marketing and that will benefit you. Another tip is to invest in software such as Canva Pro which has posted already created where in a rush you can quickly update them or create your own! Also commenting, liking, and even direct messaging members have helped us and let us keep direct contact with those that support us. Social media in our opinion is necessary to keep Flashathon alive and without it, we may not be where we are today.

Contact Info:

• Website: ksuflashathon.wixsite.com/ksuflashathon
• Instagram: ksuflashathon
• Facebook: ksuflashathon
• Twitter: KSUFlashathon
• Youtube: ksuflashathon

Image Credits
Audrey Sargus, Karsen Damon, Hayden Cruz