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Belonging & Leadership for Mission-Driven Organizations

Seattle · Remote

Build
belonging.
Not just reach.

The strategy, systems, and culture that make people feel seen, not just counted. For organizations with digital platforms, physical locations, and global communities ready to close the gap.

Start With a Belonging Audit  

Leading the organization yourself? Take the Leadership Audit

Chericka Johnson
1.2M+

Members belonging to a global community across digital platforms, physical locations, and international outreach

$15M+

Budget overseen across a multi-entity organization with digital platforms, physical locations, and global programs

80K+

Belonging conversations facilitated through a first-of-its-kind AI-assisted digital care platform

$5.1M

Raised at signature Vision Summit retreats cultivating deep belonging among high-capacity donors

Every growing organization faces the same challenge: how do you keep people feeling seen as you scale?

We equip nonprofits, businesses, and churches with practical strategies and intentional systems, built on a people-first culture that strengthens relationships and builds thriving communities. Whether you serve 120 people or 1.2 million.

The Gap
1

You’re reaching thousands online, but individuals still slip through the cracks.

2

You have a following, but followers are not the same as community.

3

You want to use tools to care better, without losing the human heart of it.

This is not a reach problem. It is a belonging problem. And belonging can be built intentionally, measurably, and at scale, without losing the heart of what you are doing.

Start With a Belonging Audit
Global Digital Platforms & In-Person Community

What belonging
looks like in practice.

Whether it was a digital platform serving 1.2 million global members, a physical location network, international outreach, or a high-capacity donor retreat, the question was always the same: do people feel like they truly belong here? The environment changes. The goal never does.

01 Care at Scale
Building a Care System for 1.2 Million People

A global multi-entity organization was growing fast across physical locations, a digital engagement platform, and international outreach. With 1.2M+ members worldwide, the question became urgent: how do you ensure every person who reaches out feels genuinely seen, not processed? I built the operational infrastructure that made belonging real at scale across every channel: volunteer frameworks, AI-assisted care tools, and feedback loops that surfaced what people actually needed.

1.2M+
Members who felt cared for
80K+
Meaningful conversations
Read More
02 Community Expansion
Taking Belonging to 20 Markets

A global organization with both digital reach and physical locations wanted to expand across 20 major U.S. markets. The challenge was not expansion itself but belonging at scale: how do you ensure a digital follower in one city feels the same sense of connection as someone sitting in a physical location across the country? I designed a data-informed lifecycle strategy that answered exactly that.

90%
Market presence achieved
20
Target cities reached
Read More
03 Volunteer Belonging
When Your Volunteers Feel It Too

Belonging is not only for the people you serve. The volunteers who showed up to care for others needed to feel like they belonged to something meaningful as well. I built the systems, training, culture, recruitment, and retention, that kept people engaged not because they had to be, but because the work gave back to them.

6
Years of sustained growth
3
Platform redesigns led
Read More
04 Donor Belonging
The Vision Summit, Belonging at the Highest Level

High-capacity donors were giving consistently but not feeling like they truly belonged to the mission. Working from a consultant-designed framework, I led execution of the Vision Summit across multiple years, creating an experience that moved donors from transactional giving to genuine partnership. The result was not just revenue. It was a community of people who felt the mission was theirs.

$5.1M
Raised across retreats
2+
Consecutive years
See This Offer
05 Team Belonging
High-Performing Teams Start With Belonging

A capable team was underperforming, not because of talent gaps, but because people were not in roles where they felt they truly fit. Using a strength-based framework, I helped the organization understand each person’s genius, realign roles, and build a team culture where every person felt they belonged to the mission and to each other.

95%
Team alignment achieved
25%
Faster execution
Read More
Stories of Belonging

Hear it from the people it served.

Community Belonging
Isanne's Story — Belonging Across Borders
Care at Scale
Pastor Chat — The Platform That Cared
Volunteer Belonging
Nikki's Story — When Volunteers Belong Too
4.7
Digital Platform Rating
100%
Summit Attendees Would Return
80K+
Care Conversations Facilitated

“The compassion and hope she experienced through Pastor Chat gave her the strength to know God loves her, and she could choose safety for herself and her children.”

Platform User Story, Digital Engagement Platform
High-Capacity Belonging

The Vision Summit ,
where mission becomes community.

High-capacity donors and stakeholders do not just want to give. They want to belong to something. The Vision Summit is a signature retreat experience designed to move your highest-capacity supporters from transactional giving to genuine partnership, by making them feel, deeply, that the mission is theirs too.

At Churchome, a consultant designed the original run of show for the first Vision Summit. I took that framework and led end-to-end execution for the following retreats, raising $5.1M across consecutive years. I now bring that execution experience to other mission-driven organizations ready to cultivate belonging at the highest level.

Plan Your Vision Summit
What It Is
A Transformational Retreat Experience

An intimate, premium gathering designed to deepen the relationship between your mission and your highest-capacity supporters. Not a gala. Not a conference. An experience of belonging.

What I Design
End-to-end retreat strategy, narrative, and execution plan
Donor journey design, from invitation to investment
Case for support, messaging, and investment tiers
Premium experience curation via Love + Leisure Travel
Cross-functional team direction and logistics oversight
Post-retreat follow-through and donor cultivation plan
Proven Results
$5.1M raised across 2 retreats

100% of attendees said they would return. Not because the venue was beautiful. Because they felt like they truly belonged to the mission.

Ways to Work Together

Ways to work
together.

Build With Chericka partners with leaders and organizations ready to move from vision to execution, strengthening leadership, systems, culture, and sustainable growth.

Start Your Assessment Explore Executive Partnership
Start Here

Complimentary Organizational
Assessments.

Executive Transformation Partnership

An ongoing partnership
built for transformation.

Designed for organizations navigating growth, transformation, and change. One relationship, built around leadership, systems, and sustainable growth, not a fixed scope of work.

Care Infrastructure

Designing systems, practices, and experiences that help people thrive while strengthening organizational health, engagement, and retention.

Organizational Alignment & Execution

Connecting vision, leadership, priorities, and operating systems so organizations can execute with clarity and momentum.

Advancement, Fundraising & Growth

Building sustainable pathways for revenue growth, partnerships, fundraising, and long-term organizational resilience.

Explore Executive Partnership
Signature Experiences

Signature
experiences.

High-Capacity Engagement
Vision Summits

Facilitated experiences that bring leaders and teams together to align around vision, priorities, and actionable next steps, curated in partnership with Love + Leisure Travel.

  • End-to-end retreat strategy and execution
  • Donor journey and investment tier design
  • Premium experience curation and cultivation plan
Begin a Conversation
Speaking
Keynotes & Workshops

Transformational leadership experiences focused on belonging, culture, organizational growth, and impact. Talks built around your audience and theme, available in person and virtually.

  • Keynotes, panels, and workshop formats
  • Talks built around your audience and theme
  • Available in person and virtually
Begin a Conversation
Beyond Advisory

Beyond
advisory.

Chericka believes transformation happens not only through systems and leadership, but through meaningful connection and shared experiences.

Through Love + Leisure, she creates intentional travel experiences and retreats designed to foster belonging, restoration, connection, and growth.

Whether helping organizations evolve or creating transformative experiences, the mission remains the same: creating spaces where people connect, grow, and flourish.

Begin a Conversation
Trusted Introductions

Recommend a leader
or organization.

Know a leader, founder, or organization navigating growth, change, or transformation? Introduce them to Build With Chericka for an opportunity to explore how we can support stronger leadership, organizational alignment, and sustainable growth.

Make a Referral
Also From Build With Chericka
Your Digital Portfolio, Built and Cared For

A professional portfolio site designed to reflect who you are, not what a template decided. I build it, host it, and keep it current, so you stay focused on the work.

Learn More →

“Chericka is a remarkable leader who manages both people and projects with confidence and clear direction, earning trust and respect across the organization. Any organization would be fortunate to have her.”

Judah & Chelsea Smith  ·  Senior Leadership, Churchome
Who I Am
Chericka Johnson

Chericka Johnson, Seattle, WA

The question that has shaped my whole career started early: what does it actually take to make someone feel like they belong? I first felt it at ten years old, looking around my own church and noticing the room did not reflect the full range of backgrounds and stories I knew existed in the world around me. I did not have language for it then, but I have never stopped asking the question since.

Belonging is not what you say from the stage. It is what people experience in the smallest interaction, and it can be built.

I spent six years on staff at Churchome, a global multi-entity nonprofit organization with physical locations, a digital engagement platform, and international outreach serving 1.2M+ members worldwide, building the operational infrastructure that backed up that belief. I built care systems, trained teams, designed frameworks, and led three major iterations of a digital platform that served 1.2 million members. Through it all, the work was the same: making belonging real, not just rhetorical.

I am a pastor by calling, a strategy and operations executive, and someone who has lived inside the complexity of global, multi-entity nonprofit organizations long enough to know what makes them work, and what makes people quietly stop coming back.

I work with global multi-entity nonprofits, mission-driven organizations, and organizations with physical locations, digital platforms, and international reach, in Seattle and remotely across the U.S. I am also the founder of Love + Leisure Boutique Travel Agency, where I curate the retreat experiences that make belonging tangible.

Experience20+ Years across Sales, Strategy, Operations & Ministry (6 years on staff; a lifetime of service)
Past OrgChurchome, 6 Years on Executive Staff
LocationSeattle, WA, Available Remotely
AlsoFounder, Love + Leisure Boutique Travel Agency

The First Step

Start with a
Belonging Audit.

A focused diagnostic for multi-entity nonprofits and mission-driven organizations. It shows exactly where your organization is creating belonging across your digital platforms, physical locations, and community programs, and where people are slipping through.

Take the Free Belonging Audit

Or email hello@buildwithchericka.com to start a conversation.

Existing Clients

Your work
is waiting.

If Chericka is already working with you, whether that's a portfolio, a care infrastructure build, an advisory engagement, or a belonging or leadership audit, you can access it, share it, and review your results here — privately, on your own time.

Private Access

"Your work is ready. Enter the private code Chericka sent you to step inside."

Enter Your Portal  →

Don't have a code yet? Email Chericka to get started.

Start the Conversation

Every belonging journey
starts with a conversation.

Tell me a little about your organization and what you are working toward. I read every submission personally and respond within a few days. This is not a sales process. It is the beginning of figuring out whether we are the right fit for each other.

You can also reach me directly at hello@buildwithchericka.com

Chericka reads every message personally. Your information is never shared.

Message received.

Thank you for reaching out. Chericka will read your message and respond personally within a few days. In the meantime, take the free Belonging Audit to get a sense of where your organization stands.

Take the Free Belonging Audit