A New Kind of Learning Space: Introducing Collective Sparks

Miriam • Apr 29, 2026

What does it look like to design learning not just for a community, but with it?

Over the past several years, we have been listening closely to nonprofit leaders and staff across northern Michigan. Through workshops, conversations, and evaluations, a consistent pattern has emerged. No matter the topic or format, people tell us the same three things matter most: hearing that others are navigating similar challenges, having time to connect, and learning from what others are trying in real time.

Collective Sparks is our response to that insight.

From Listening to Experimentation

Collective Sparks is a new pilot program designed to create space for practical learning, shared reflection, and local connection. It builds on our experience offering workshops while also asking a simple question: what if the most valuable learning is already happening within the community and our role is to help surface and support it?

Rather than a traditional workshop, Collective Sparks sessions are facilitated gatherings centered on real, local examples. Each session highlights an organization or individual who is actively experimenting with a new idea or approach, and invites others into an open, curious conversation about what that work looks like in practice.

This is a pilot by design. We are experimenting, learning, and adapting in real time, alongside participants. The structure is intentionally flexible so it can evolve based on what people find most useful

What Makes This Different?

Collective Sparks shifts the center of learning.

Instead of deciding what our communities need to know, we are starting from a different place: what people are already learning in their work, and how we can learn from each other.

Each session is built around:

• Peer learning grounded in a local case study
• Reflection time to consider what this means for your own work
• Connection through structured and informal engagement

Participants are not expected to absorb a set of prescribed ideas. Instead, they are invited to explore what resonates, ask questions, and consider what might be possible in their own context.

Nonprofit organizations are constantly innovating out of necessity. Collective Sparks is a way to make that innovation more visible, more shared, and more actionable.

Why This Matters

Our work is grounded in the belief that thriving communities are built through connection, learning, and collaboration.

Collective Sparks is one way we are putting that into practice.

We are particularly interested in what emerges when people:

• Recognize shared patterns across organizations and sectors
• Reframe challenges as systemic rather than individual
• Feel empowered to take small, meaningful steps forward

And just as importantly, we want to understand what does not work. This pilot will be shaped by the people who participate in it.

Join Our First Session

We invite you to be part of this experiment.

Collective Sparks: Exploring the 32-Hour Week Week
June 9 @ 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Northwestern Michigan College Innovation Center, Rooms 104–105

Register to Attend

We are starting with a topic that has already sparked curiosity and conversation among nonprofit leaders locally.

This first session will explore the concept of a 32-hour work week, as experienced and led by Juliette Schultz, Executive Director of the Women’s Resource Center.

The approach was not adopted overnight. It was researched, piloted, and refined with staff and board input to understand what was sustainable in practice, following a “100-80-100” model: 100% pay, 80% time, and a focus on maintaining 100% service and impact.

Like Collective Sparks itself, this work was approached as a pilot—designed to learn, adapt, and understand what is possible in practice.

Together, participants will have time to ask questions, reflect, and consider what this approach might look like in their own organizations.

This session may be especially relevant for executive directors, HR and operations leaders, and board members who are thinking about staff wellbeing, organizational sustainability, or new ways of structuring work.

Whether you come with a specific challenge in mind or simply a sense of curiosity, you are welcome.

You might consider:

• What would a 32-hour work week make possible for your staff or organization?
• What questions or concerns would you want to explore before trying something like this?
• Who else from your team should be part of this conversation as you think about what is feasible?

Looking Ahead
Collective Sparks will be offered quarterly as we continue to learn what this model can become.
This is not a finished product. It is a starting point.
And like any good spark, its potential depends on what we build together.