A look at the people behind the numbers in area business:
Liwanag Ojala CaringBridge
Title: Chief operating officer
Age: 42
Ojala has brought her corporate experience to the nonprofit sector as chief operating officer at CaringBridge, the Eagan-based nonprofit that offers free websites where users share news about health conditions. Ojala said her immediate focus was CaringBridge's holiday fundraising campaign, which the organization hopes will raise $1.2 million by the end of December.
"It's an opportunity to tell our story more broadly during this time of year when people make a lot of charitable decisions," Ojala said of the campaign.
Ojala said the CaringBridge mission — "to amplify love, hope and compassion in the world" — appeals to her. So does using her executive-level digital strategy experience at a nonprofit that she said has been at the online forefront since its 1997 launch.
"It's one of the unique nonprofit organizations that has been very successful in the digital space," Ojala said. "As things continue to morph with new ways for people to interact with nonprofit organizations in the digital space, I thought that would be an interesting challenge."
Ojala previously worked as vice president of e-commerce at Meijer, a Michigan-based retail chain. She also held executive positions at Pear Tree Greetings, SimonDelivers and CobornsDelivers. Ojala, who has a law degree from the University of Minnesota, also was an associate in the mergers and acquisitions group at the Briggs and Morgan law firm. Last year CaringBridge had more than 43 million online visitors and more than 1.5 million health updates posted.
Q: What does the CaringBridge mission mean to you?
A: I wish I had used it when my father was having triple bypass surgery in Manila. I really needed a solution to help communicate with people all around the world. It would have been very effective. The challenge of making Caring Bridge the top-of-mind solution when people are going through a very difficult time appealed to me.
Q: What will you focus on next year?
A: Building greater awareness of the value of what we do and building new capabilities and offerings that resonate with our authors and visitors. It's a constant challenge to meet people's expectations on how they interact with multiple devices.
Q: Will corporate digital strategies work for a nonprofit?
A: Some of those things can work. I also think there's an element to CaringBridge that's not just about building the business model. It's about building the business model for the sake of growing our impact on people, and that is a big reason why I came here.
Todd Nelson
