I believe even the hardest things, misunderstood tools, complex stories, or painful experiences, can be turned into a force for good. That’s what drew me to social media: a space that’s often written off as shallow or overwhelming, but when used well, can move people to act, connect deeply, and create real change.

After a decade working on hundreds of social media campaigns, I’ve seen both sides of it. The impact side and the frustrating side. I’ve watched leaders pour time and resources into social without results, feeling like they’re shouting into the void.

I often hear:
"Social isn't working for us."
 "This is so frustrating."
 "You're my last stop before I throw in the towel."

That’s exactly why I founded Cause Fokus—a social-first thought leadership agency that helps executives and founders step confidently into their story, build trust, and turn their influence into impact.

We use empathy-driven strategy, grounded in human psychology, to get you in the room with the people who matter most to your mission. I’ve had the privilege of leading social for U.S. policymakers, international NGOs, small businesses, professional athletes, artists, and global change-makers.

And yes, I’m very proud of my Swedish roots, so you might hear me talk a lot about quality over quantity, fika breaks ☕️, and clarity in everything I do. (That’s also why "fokus" is spelled with a k. 😉)

3 ways to work with me:

- Subscribe to my free newsletter
- Hire me as a fractional consultant
- Hire our team for LinkedIn content strategy & support

CASE STUDY: Turning Influence into Opportunity

A CEO of a patient advocacy foundation came to me with a big problem: no traction from their company’s LinkedIn ad campaigns. Cold outreach was falling flat. They were losing momentum with healthcare partners—and couldn’t afford to keep spinning their wheels.

Our solution:

We activated the Chief Development Officer’s personal LinkedIn presence.
In his own voice, we posted 3–4 times a week, spoke directly to the pain points of ideal partners, engaged in strategic conversations, and sent warm, personalized messages to his top-tier contact list.

In just 6 months:
- His content reached 100,000+ impressions
- Profile views from key decision-makers jumped 508%
- Connection acceptance rate hit 60%
- A major lapsed partner re-engaged and said: “I love what you’re doing on LinkedIn. I can tell the organization is taking a turn for the better. Let’s chat.”

Because when the right people trust you, the right doors start opening.
Trust is currency. Let’s spend it well!

Brynne Krispin

What if joy was your competitive strategy? I can’t stop thinking about Alysa Liu's performance... winning Olympic gold not by pushing harder, but by stepping away, recalibrating, and coming back on her own terms. 

I see the same shift in the seasoned leaders I work with: they don’t need more content playbooks or more rules; they need space to say what they actually think. When they stop performing and start expressing something true, the partnerships, conversations, and revenue follow.

I wrote about that tension, how I've experienced it myself, and what happens when you choose differently! Read below.

This is what it looks like when you choose joy as your competitive strategy. Ever since Alysa Liu won Olympic gold, I haven't been able to stop thinki

Open article: She Stopped Playing by Someone Else's Rules by Brynne Krispin • 5 min read

She Stopped Playing by Someone Else's Rules

Spark Collective

Growing mission-driven organizations through effective digital marketing strategies.

Through the following services, I connect nonprofit's digital marketing efforts directly to impact:
SEO
Paid Ads
Google Ad Grant
Social Media Management
Website CRO
Email Marketing
Marketing Automation

Founder & CEO

Optimal Digital Marketing, Inc.

Managed and led a team of Growth Marketers and Specialists to produce results for a client base that generated a combined $130K of MRR (monthly recurring revenue) for Optimal. 
- Strategically led my team to regularly achieve 6x to 10x ROAS for clients through paid media, with a combined monthly ad spend of $146K
- Directed full-funnel digital marketing strategy for a team of 5 Growth Marketers and Specialists, serving 16 clients
- Effectively facilitated communication and vision between executive leadership and the growth marketing team, ensuring alignment at all levels
- Facilitated growth of team members through quarterly assessments to be promoted to new roles within the company and develop their hard and soft skills
- Facilitated client issue resolution
- Created systems and processes for my team to create digital growth strategies for clients that regularly generated $100K+ in revenue for clients
- Advised my team on full-funnel digital marketing strategies and implementation including: Paid media (Facebook, Google & LinkedIn), SEO, landing page and website design and development, conversion rate optimization, marketing automation, and email marketing
- Managed team members' by leading weekly one-on-one meetings, team meetings, and internal strategy sessions
- Ensure team members' billable time was meeting expectations 
- Managed the capacity and workload of a 5-person team

Lead Growth Marketer

GRIP Outreach For Youth

Managed the Marketing Communications Team to increase awareness for GRIP Outreach For Youth and drive donations that led to the highest fundraised amount in the history of the organization.

- Direct the strategy and activities for all marketing and communications.
- Supervise a team of three staff and sit on GRIP's staff leadership team.
- Plan and execute communications for the Annual Gala including storyboarding, scriptwriting, and directing video interviews raising $1M at each event. 
- Grow digital channels by creating an engaging content strategy resulting in a +88% increase in audience growth and a +300% increase in audience engagement for Facebook.
- Sit on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Team to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion through workshops, and strategic initiatives like changing GRIP's mission statement to promote dignity among Chicago's communities.

Marketing Communications Manager

Think Digital

Managed digital marketing strategies for global nonprofits (clients) increasing client retention and agency revenue for Think Digital, and developed products that later were acquired.

- Managed client relationships resulting in overall client retention and growth.
- Managed a team of 4 contractors to execute marketing strategies for agency clients and in-house products.
- Created & directed social media strategy for an agency client, resulting in a +20% increase in engaged audience growth on Facebook. 
- Developed and implemented an online course and conference.

Marketing Manager

Park Community Church

Managed digital strategy to launch three new locations and assisted increasing revenue from $3 million to $5 million through strategic campaigns.
- Implemented new giving platform resulting in +200 new giving units and an +$100K increase in giving.
- Developed digital communication strategy to attract new attendees and increase cohesiveness among members across six locations.
- Directed website redesign to streamline user experience for members participating from six organizational locations.

Director of Web & Social Media

Experience Institute

Social Media Manager

Experienced Marketing Leader with a track record of leading teams to generate results through digital channels. In the last 12 years I've created campaigns that have generated over $1.3MM in revenue for a nonprofit, expanded organizations from 3-6 locations and their revenue from $3MM to $5MM, while leading team members to create digital marketing strategies that have regularly achieved 6x-10x ROAS for clients.

Josh Burns

I wanted to share great women in the nonprofit space Part 1 (in alphabetical order) that I’ve learned much from, and you should follow and connect with them…


—> Arloa Sutter - Founder of Breakthrough: She’s taught me much about what it looks like to invest in a single community over the long-term.

—> Becky Endicott - Co-Founder at We Are For Good: The list of learnings is too long for LinkedIn, but in short, she’s taught me what it looks like to build something not just with community—but on community.

—> Brynne Krispin - Founder of Cause Fokus: She models what it means to lead with empathy, specifically in the digital space, and I’m grateful that she was one of the first people I connected with when we started Spark.

—> Dawn Nicole Baldwin - Co-Founder of Mavericks: I’ve known Dawn for about 15 years and she is one of the most authentic people you’ll ever meet. She is also one of the best branding brains in the ministry space. So grateful for her friendship and continued partnership.

—> Elizabeth Berkeley - Director of Chicago Grows Food: Elizabeth and I met through the We Are For Good ImpactUp Chicago Meetups, and she’s consistently shown up and taught us about gardening and running an organization in Chicago. And is a fellow Survivor fan!

—> Hallie Gilmore - Director of Digital Experience & Content Strategy at Joni and Friends: Hallie continues to teach me what it means to treat social media as just that—social. She does such a great job of building the social media community at Joni and Friends, and I always love talking shop with her.

—> Katelyn Baughan 💌 - Founder of KB Digital: Katelyn is another one of those people that I connected with early on after starting Spark, and I’m so glad I did. She has so much wisdom when it comes to email marketing for nonprofits and another person I just love talking shop with. Go follow her for all the email marketing insights!

—> Lynne Moyer - Founder of Luminate Marketing: Lynne is a real one. We’ve known each other for 15 years, and it’s people like her that precede me in experience and she’s been so generous to share hers with me. She tells nonprofits and ministries’ stories so well!

—> Susan Sperry - Executive Director of World Relief: While I’ve been connected with World Relief’s work for a long time, I’ve never had the opportunity to formally meet Susan, but it’s been a pleasure to get to learn from her from afar and on LinkedIn. Go support her work!

—> Tonya Burns - Former El. Ed. Principal and most importantly—My Mom: I saved the best for last. A LinkedIn post could never suffice for everything I've learned from her. My mom is one of my original inspirations and one of the main reasons I am wired for nonprofit work. Watching her consistently invest in mission-driven communities since I was born, has been amazing to say the least. Thanks, Mom.


Who would you add to this list of amazing women in the nonprofit space?

Leading people with empathy // Growing nonprofits & businesses through digital marketing // Agency Founder // Husband & Dad

It's time to shout out some more amazing people on this lovely Friday! Go follow these people for nonprofit leadership resources...


Tim Alia - Nonprofit Website Development at Nerdy Nonprofit: Tim is one of those people who within 30 seconds of meeting I realized that I'm pretty sure we were in the same room at some point in the last 10 years and didn't realize it. We met last week for the first time and got to reconnect again this week to discuss potential collaborations! If your nonprofit needs any type of website support, Tim and the team at Nerdy Nonprofit are your people.

Clint Sievers - Over the years I've become somewhat of a systems and process nerd, and when I met Clint for the first time this week, I felt seen when I said "EOS" and he knew what language I was speaking. Clint is your person for nonprofit systems and operations! Go connect with him.

Jon McCoy - Jon needs no introduction because I feel like he's LinkedIn famous, but he and the team at We Are For Good are building one of the best global networks of nonprofit leaders, and I'm just so grateful to get to be a small part of it. Jon also introduced me to the Zoom hug this week, and it's my new favorite Zoom greeting. Go connect with him for all things nonprofit leadership and resources.


Now it's your turn!

Who should I Follow or Connect with this week in the nonprofit space?

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The Battle

Brynne Krispin

Josh Burns

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Performance ScoreBrynne Krispin's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Brynne Krispin

Josh Burns

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Brynne Krispin's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJosh Burns's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreBrynne Krispin's LinkedIn Performance