Building Your Online Presence
Introductory Three-Session Workshop
Online Presence for Spiritual & Interfaith Leaders
MAY 13, 20 & 27 | 6:00 - 7:30 PM EST
Practitioners doing the most meaningful work often lack the time to build & maintain their online presence.
This workshop is designed to help — with practical skills, a supportive cohort, and time to actually build something. We'll work across the full toolkit (websites, newsletters, social media, AI) with honest conversation about which tools serve your work and which don't.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:
Articulate your interfaith work clearly in writing — in a bio, on a homepage, social media and in an introduction that fits your voice and tradition.
Make informed choices about which platforms to use for your website, newsletter, and social media based on your actual work and capacity — not on what everyone else is doing.
Launch or refresh a newsletter, including setting up the platform, writing a first send, and inviting your community into an ongoing relationship.
Develop a sustainable rhythm for showing up on social media that fits your work, rather than burning out trying to match the pace of platforms built for virality.
Develop your own ethical framework for using (or not using) generative AI in your work, grounded in your tradition's wisdom about labor, attention, and stewardship.
Build concrete cross-promotion relationships with practitioners from traditions other than your own — and leave with opportunities to amplify each other's work
Technology We’ll Review
You don't need to be using any of these already, and you won't need to switch platforms to participate. We'll discuss the strengths and tradeoffs of each so you can make informed choices for your own work.
Websites: Wordpress, Squarespace, Notion, Wix
Email: Substack, Ghost, MailChimp, ConstantContact
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and X/Twitter
Graphics: Canva & generative AI for images
AI tools: ChatGPT, Claude, and the open-source/privacy-respecting alternatives most workshops don't mention. We'll talk honestly about training data, environmental cost, labor practices, and how to develop your own framework for when these tools belong in your work — and when they don't.
Who this is for
Interfaith leaders and practitioners — rabbis, imams, ministers, Buddhist teachers, Indigenous ceremonialists, African diaspora practitioners, chaplains, spiritual directors, educators, and grief workers — committed to deep interfaith practice and growing its reach in the world.
You don't need to be tech-savvy, just willing to show up and do a little homework.
Teaching Approach
No shame. Wherever you are — no website, an abandoned website, a newsletter you sent once in 2019, a social account you haven't touched in a year — that's the starting line.
We are in this together. Kindness as a working principle. The peer feedback is structured to be generous and specific, not critical. You will leave each session with more confidence in your work, not less.
Collaborative. I'm not going to tell you the one right way to have an online presence. I'm going to help you figure out what makes sense for your work, your tradition, your capacity, and your audience.
You'll be learning alongside practitioners from faith traditions other than your own. The cohort itself becomes a source of insight, feedback, and ongoing relationship.
Course Overview
Note: The final course will be developed based on the participants’ feedback in the registration form.
Session 1 — Your Public Presence (May 13)
Your bio, your about page, your core message. What is the language, tone and style that will help you communicate with your community?
You'll leave with some basic content for your online presence and support in determining what tools are best for you.
Session 2 — Website & Newsletter (May 20)
How to build a basic website & mailing list, maintaining a regular relationship with your community.
Platform choice, list-building fundamentals, and drafting your first (or next) send.
You'll leave with an overview of web & newsletter technologies and worksheets for drafting content.
Session 3 — Showing Up (May 27)
Social media for people whose work is about depth and community relationships, not virality.
Sustainable rhythms, platform choices and art creation — crucially — how to promote your work.
You’ll leave with a draft social media plan to help you move forward.
Join the Introductory Course
Your Facilitator
Alison Avigayil Ramer has spent over 20 years helping individuals and organizations communicate their work to the world.
Her clients have included World Vision, Oxfam, and Meta, alongside small nonprofits and independent practitioners around the world. She has helped clients articulate their missions, develop their strategies & build the kind of online presence that reflects the real depth of what they do.
She is also a rabbinical student, an interfaith leader, and the founder of the Social Change Sanctuary, where she brings together groups from diverse traditions for collective mourning.
This workshop is where those two sides of her work meet: practical digital craft in service of interfaith leaders whose voices belong in the public conversation.
About the Workshop
This workshop is a partnership between Alison Avigayil Ramer, one of Interfaith America’s 2025 - 2026 Innovation Fellows, the Social Change Sanctuary and Interfaith America.
It is supported in part by an Interfaith America grant and has grown from the Social Change Sanctuary's Collective Mourning Salon — a monthly interfaith gathering that has brought together practitioners from several different traditions since October 2023.
Join the Course
Payment
Participants are invited to make a contribution to the Social Change Sanctuary to support their participation. Suggested donations range from $45 - $300. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Please take into consideration your own financial circumstances when determining what you will pay, including if you have inheritance and employment.
Scholarships
Participants experiencing economic hardship and/or coming from underserved and minority faith communities are invited to join for a reduced cost of $30.
In addition, six participants will receive a $100 mini-grant to put toward the real costs of building their online presence — a website platform, a newsletter service, or a design investment. Recipients will be selected after filling out a short application.
Book an Exploratory Session
Still trying to understand if this is right for you? Let’s have a chat and see if this course is a fit. I offer 30 minute consultations to prospective participants.