Behind-the-Scenes: A Week at Icing Smiles Headquarters

See how the small but mighty Exec Team makes the magic happen week after week.

When you consider that Icing Smiles facilitates the delivery of 60 cakes each week, you might think we have a large team of full-time employees. You’d be wrong. Our Executive Team is four people strong. 

Founder and Executive Director Tracy Quisenberry, Assistant Director Karen Griffiths, Development Coordinator Chelsea Boog, and Technology Coordinator Cindy Johnson work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that the icing keeps spreading. (Of course, we couldn’t do what we do without our army of volunteers who donate 750 and 1,000 hours each week just to help with the administration process!)

This small but mighty team showcases our service mindset whether helping families get the medical eligibility form to doctors or putting new systems in place so we can schedule more families with cakes.

“Our goal is to make these families’ lives a little more normal during a difficult time,” Karen says. “Even if a request doesn’t end up with a cake, we want to provide a positive experience. This is a service. We want to be helpful, not hindering or a roadblock. Our mantra is, ‘How do we get to yes?’ If we can, we’ll find a way.”

No wonder Icing Smiles has been recognized as a top-rated nonprofit for eight years running.

But just what does it take to get to a yes? We recently spent a week following around the Exec Team at Icing Smiles headquarters (which isn’t a bricks-and-mortar place but a virtual space) to see how the magic happens. 

Coordinating Violet’s Bake Sale

Development Director (and Sugar Angel!) Chelsea Boog kicked the week off with our volunteer coordinator for Violet’s Bake Sale. They discussed the success of the February and March bake sale incentive push. So far Icing Smiles has hosted 19 bake sales in 17 states and raised $7,170. The goal is to host 50 bake sales by the end of the year — one in each state.  

Scheduling Cakes and Cookies

As assistant director, Karen Griffths works with cake and cookie scheduling as part of her duties. This week, she held the regional biweekly conference call for cake scheduling.

“Recently, we migrated all our family and baker data into a new customer relationship management (CRM) system so that has included working with the programmers, training, and scheduling the migration of each state,” Karen says. 

Karen also fields calls from family members who are applying and answers many eligibility questions. An example: A mom called to check in on her application, but no application existed in our system. The mom initially wanted the cake for a high school graduation celebration; however, the date was less than a week away (Our deadline is one month prior for all paperwork to be completed and approved.)

“I suggested that the mom apply during the summer for an off-to-college cake so that we can still serve the family this year,” Karen says. “Her daughter loves that idea, and a baker accepted the cake for the event. In cake scheduling, the team is always making the impossible happen. Every now and then, I get the request first, and I am able to work my magic as well. That is truly rewarding.”

After the call, Karen responded to two families, both referred to Icing Smiles by their medical social workers, regarding applying for a celebration date. 

Developing a Blogging Strategy

Icing Smiles has had a blog since 2015 , but this year, we’re ramping up our communication efforts. Chelsea met with some volunteers to discuss a strategy to ensure the blog communicates the strength and impact of what Icing Smiles does as an organization. They talked about blog reach and how to get it in front of more readers and developed an execution plan and workflow for the blog team.

“Development and communications are constantly changing as does what I work on each week,” Chelsea says. “Many of my weekly tasks are based on which campaign is currently running. I oversee campaigns throughout the year — from Violet’s Bake Sale to Best Cake Ever to our Christmas ornament fundraiser. It’s so special to use our digital platforms to share the impact Icing Smiles makes on families while working to increase funding to continue the programs and serve as many families as we can.”

After the call, Chelsea designed buttons that help readers get from the blog to intended places on the website. (You’ll see one at the bottom of this blog encouraging you to donate today! They’re called calls to action in blogging lingo, not to be confused with an Icing Smiles call to action when a baker is assigned a cake for a family.)

Partnering with Other Organizations

Cards of Kindness is a global initiative to get handmade cards to people who are in need of an emotional boost, a smile, or a helping hand. Through volunteer Olivia Casey, Icing Smiles is starting a family outreach program in collaboration with Cards of Kindness to send handmade cards to our medical families. This week, Karen had a call with the organization to discuss logistics. 

Meeting as a Team

Every other Tuesday, the exec team hops on a video call. This week, they reviewed the success of the SoFlo expo — which included receiving this amazing $25,000 donation from Sugar Angel Beth Townsend — and discussed the upcoming SugarThon event and promotion plan. 

Planning for SugarThon

Later in the week, Karen reached out to our corporate sponsor to ensure we had the right packaging for Sugarthon, and Chelsea scheduled Sugarthon promotions, designed emails, and checked in with participants to ensure we get video footage for the event.

Appreciating Our Donors and Volunteers

Founder Tracy Quisenberry met with a donor management volunteer to ensure our donors are properly recognized, and Chelsea connected with Giving Coordinator Tina Mike to determine what acts of appreciation we could do for different sponsor levels.

Tracy also ​​sent out thank-you notes to admin volunteers for their service anniversaries, and Karen wrote a thank-you note to the American Cake Awards.

Developing Emails

Every other month, Karen puts together the Icing Smiles newsletter. This week, she worked on the  rough layout of next month’s newsletter. She also worked on revamping the Cookie Club system and drafted an email for bakers explaining the upcoming changes. 

Starting Monthly Reports

It was the first week of the month, which means that Technology Coordinator Cindy Johnson started compiling reports: She uploaded first-time cake recipients to the new CRM system so volunteer schedulers can process surprise cookies through our Cookie Club. She compiled the cake count analysis for bakers who anxiously await their pins through our Pin Program (we recognize bakers who have served 10, 20, and 30 cakes in their time as Icing Smiles Sugar Angels). She also contacted consultants with the list of applications that need monthly updates.  

Karen also worked on reports, including the cake and cookie numbers reports for the previous month. 

Chelsea got in on the report action, too, running a report in our donor management software system to better understand where donations are sourced from to help understand the impact of our efforts on different platforms.

Implementing the New CRM

As technology coordinator, Cindy has been leading the transition to the new CRM, which has rolled out in phases. This week, Cindy spent time digging into the final issues of Phase II, which included new notifications for bakers and families that make it easier for the schedulers.

The new database platform offers more automation features for easier and faster communication and more accurate data and minimizes the time spent on each request. So far, it has reduced the average application processing time from 30 minutes to 10 minutes.

Cindy also connected with a database team member for a weekly process update and to troubleshoot a problem with Google Search.

Reviewing Financial Statements

With an expertise in the field of accounting and tax, Tracy runs Icing Smiles like a business. “Transparency is at the core of what we do,” she says. 

This week, she spent time reviewing financial statements in preparation for presentation to the board of directors. Part of this process includes making decisions about which needs will be met with our current funding levels. “This is a very fluid process as projected donations and expenses change,” she says.

Donate Today

Icing Smiles does all of this with an annual budget of $150,000 — 83% of which is directly related to getting smiles into the hands of kids. Only 13% is spent on administrative or fundraising expenses, including things like insurance, accounting services, and corporate governance expenses. 

“As much as we wish we could pay our bills in cake, we can’t,” Tracy jokes. 

But we all know that each cake we serve is more than just a cake — it’s a chance to make a magical memory. “We are incredibly appreciative of financial support so that we can continue to bring smiles to critically ill children and create magical memories for their families all across the country,” she says.

Help us create a smile today.