Uploading content to Missions

Missions content can be uploaded by you, directly to the platform, and customized to meet your program needs. 

Missions content is organized in the following structure:

• The first level is the Challenge. Challenges are broad themes or goals, like the environment or diversity and inclusion.
• The second level is Missions. A Challenge can contain multiple Missions.
• The third level is Activities. A Mission can contain multiple Activities.

In this article: 

• Before you begin
• Finding Missions in Content Resources
• Creating a Mission in Spark
• Customizing Missions content
• Promoting Missions

Before you begin

Missions is an add-on feature of Spark. If you cannot see the Take Action tab on your dashboard, you don’t have Missions. If you are interested in adding Missions to your program, please contact your Client Success Manager.

Only users with the missions manager user role can create and manage Missions content. 

Finding Missions in Content Resources

New and updated Missions content is available in Content Resources. To browse Content Resources and find the right mission for your program: 

1. Log in to Spark and select Manage in the top right corner.
2. Select Content > Content Resources. This opens a new tab that includes the latest Disaster and Crisis Relief content, Issues and Awareness and Key dates content, and Missions. (The available Missions do not appear if you don’t have the Missions module enabled.)
3. Choose from the three latest missions or select Show All to display the full list of available Missions. Select the mission name or image to open it. 

Downloading the Mission’s files

1. Review the description of your selected Mission, including the notes for program leaders and any download instructions.
2. Download the files that you will need to publish this content as a Mission. This includes images that are already sized for use in a Mission in Spark and the YML file. If you are not sure what files you will need, you can download all the resources as a zip file.

Creating a Mission in Spark

Now that you have all you need to create a Mission, follow these steps to make it available in your program. 

Step 1: Import the YML file

First, import the YML file:

1. From the dashboard, go to Manage > Missions > Manage Challenges.
2. Select Import Content.
3. Select Choose File. Navigate to and select the YML file.
4. Select Run Import. Spark will display a list of the Challenge, the Missions, and the Activities you have imported. This content is not published yet, so you can edit it. 

Make a note of the names of the Challenge and the Missions as you will need to refer to them in the next steps when adding images.

Step 2: Add an image to the Challenge

Challenge images are displayed as a banner in the list of Challenges on the Take Action tab, and at the top of an open Challenge. 

1. Go to Missions > Manage Challenges.
2. Find the imported Challenge and select Edit.
3. Open the Design tab and select Choose File. Navigate to and select the banner image file you downloaded. The banner image is a large, wide image.
4. Enter alternative text for the image. This text is used by screen readers and displayed when the image is not loaded. 
5. Select Save.

Step 3: Add an image to the Mission

Mission images are displayed on the Mission tile when viewing a Challenge and when you open a Mission on the right-hand side. 

1. Go to Missions > Manage Challenges.
2. Find the imported Mission and select Edit. 
3. Open the Design tab and select Choose File. Navigate to and select the image file you received. Use the smaller and narrower of the two images.
4. Enter alternative text for the image. This text is used by screen readers and displayed when the image is not loaded. 
5. Select Save.

If the Challenge includes more than one Mission, repeat these steps for the other Missions.

Step 4: Review the Challenge

To review your drafted Missions content:

1. Go to the Take Action tab.
2. Spark will display both published and unpublished Challenges to administrators. Find the new, unpublished Challenge, and select View Details.
3. Review the Challenge’s title, banner image, and description.
4. For each Mission, select View Details, and review the Mission’s title, description and images.

Make any necessary changes before publishing your content. 

Step 5: Publish the Challenge

Only administrators with permission to manage Missions can view unpublished content. To promote Missions content to your program and make it available to your people, you only need to publish the Challenge: 

1. Go to Missions > Manage Challenges.
2. Find one or more Challenges that you want to publish and select the Challenge check box to the right. 

3. Choose Publish Challenge in the Choose an Operation dropdown at the top of the Challenge list. 
4. Select Apply to Selected Items.

Customizing Missions content

If you are experienced with uploading and maintaining Missions, you can customize the content that appears in your program. This is an advanced feature, and we don’t recommend customizing content unless you are confident in managing Missions in Spark.  

If you wish to make changes to the content or create your own, the following pages can be found in the Manage area under the Missions tab: 

• Manage Challenges allows you to add and edit Challenges. Select Edit next to a Challenge to update Challenge details and more. 
• Manage Missions allows you to add and edit Missions. Select Edit next to a Mission to update Mission details and more. 
• Manage Activities allows you to add and edit Activities. Select Edit next to an Activity to update Activity details and more.

Collaborating on content in Word

You may want to work with colleagues to create a highly customized Mission. We recommend collaborating on Missions content in Word before copying it into Spark. Each Missions page in Content Resources includes a Word file version of the Mission.

Promoting Missions

Once you have published the Challenge (and associated Missions), you and your people can find it on the Take Action tab. Open the Challenge or an individual Mission and copy the page URL to share it in internal communications.