Category Archives: nonprofit

Storytelling Jam Session: The Perfect Pitch

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Today and every day until March 7, 2013, I will share with you an article on whatsyourread_bkgdstorytelling, a remarkable video or my own thoughts on the subject. I believe this will help us calibrate our minds toward the possibilities for creative expression. I’m also hoping it will get everyone excited about coming to What’s Your Read — Barkada Circle’s storytelling jam session.

So my first honest attempt to make that happen is by sharing with you this article from Andy Goodman’s Free-Range Thinking newsletter. It’s called The 5 Parts of the Perfect Pitch. In it, Goodman gives his assessment on the components that are common between winning pitches based on his observations of LA’s Social Innovation Fast Pitch Competition.

According to Goodman, your pitch must answer the following questions in order for your audience (or potential donor) to get the whole story:

  1. Who are you?
  2. What problem does your organization solve?
  3. What is distinctive about your solution?
  4. What evidence can you offer of impact and sustainability?
  5. What do you need now, and how will it help?

Click here to download the article’s pdf. Once you’ve got something going, we’d love to showcase your pitch at the March 7 Jam Session.

Let your voice lead to your genuine self.

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As we look ahead to the New Year, I’d like to share with you a uniquely moving experience.

Bobby McFerrin, renowned artist, singer and composer, chats with Krista Tippett from American Public Media about what the human voice alone can convey.

Audio: Catching Song with Bobby McFerrin

Here are a few of his thoughts that greatly resonate with me. I hope you find it as inspiring and enlightening as I do. Listen and enjoy!

One reason I enjoy singing songs without words is because it allows the individual hearer to bring their own story to the sounds that I make.

The wisdom of improvisation — it’s simply motion. The courage to keep going without self-criticism. Just be. It is essential to finding your genuine self.

There’s a lot of music in scripture.

Why don’t we sing more often? For me, the highest point in my evening is hearing 3,000 voices singing with me, getting them to remember who they are and what they can do.

I’m no longer afraid of making mistakes. Wherever my voice goes, wherever it takes me, I just follow it. I just watch it. It leads me to wherever. I trust it.

So what if you have a wonderful instrument. What we want is the core — your essence.

We are embodied memories of our ancestors. Am I accessing a memory when I sing?

Music is a tool for inner attainment.

Skip the Apocalypse and Celebrate.

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It’s the end of the world as we know it…” — R.E.M. 1987

And there have been other songs, movies, documentaries and books that tell stories about how the world will end. Have you ever pondered why our society seems to be fascinated (even obsessed) with the apocalypse? Maybe we subconsciously want an end to things — so we can start over with a clean slate.

What do you wish you could have done differently?

The last quarter of 2012 has been a game-changer. For everyone. The ground beneath us has shifted and continues to shift. Our world has been shaken to the core — economically, politically, environmentally, socially, emotionally. Where do you turn for something stable and familiar? And if you find it, is that just the calm before another storm?

The way I see it, we have two choices. Either we ride the wave, keep our fingers crossed and see where it takes us. Or we create a new game and sail it through the current. The message I got these past three months is that things will never be the same again.

The last chapter is coming to a close. Time to write a new story.

“It’s the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine.”

It’s time for the empirical truth.

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It’s been a recurring comment in recent conversations that a nonprofit is essentially a business and how it should be run as a business. I caution you to not get out of one box to simply move into another.

We need to shift our conversations away from merely labeling what we do and toward encouraging constant innovation — at all levels and across all functions — starting with the board. Regardless of titles, structures and systems, you have a better chance of getting on the right path if you ask the question: Does the culture of my organization support change where and when it needs to happen?

There certainly is a business aspect to managing a nonprofit, but why maintain a fragmented approach? It is not the entire picture. The empirical truth is that a nonprofit is a community where we constantly have to connect the dots for the people we serve, individuals who want us to succeed and those who can carry us forward. Some of them are one and the same.

It’s about relying on the relationships, the emotions and the stories to fuel what we hope will, one day, become a sustainable community.

Time to see things and act on them more holistically.

Creativity x Community = Change

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The other day, I had a conversation with a friend who was contemplating a new direction for her art. Lindsay is a fine artist, author, educator and a crafter. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally. She also received a prestigious grant to organize a large community art program involving thousands of knitters from around the world. She has taught adults in a world-renowned art institution and major universities.

With all her impressive achievements, I still consider Lindsay to be typical of artists today who exercise their multiple capabilities for personal fulfillment and largely for practical economic reasons. Artists, especially those with families to support, have to secure at least two or three jobs. If these jobs match their talents and passions, then all the better for the communities that benefit from their work. Fortunately, I live in a city that has grown to value their artists. Chicago is a multi-cultural melting pot of artistic talent celebrated in the art museums, live theater, musical and dance concerts, galleries, humanities festivals, and the list goes on.

Although the ability of the arts to bring about cultural and economic vitality is well promoted, beyond this, I believe that the arts is the key to preserving humankind. Art holds up the mirror that reflects the truth about what we do as a society and its consequences. Art provides us with the context for having the clarity and the courage to ask the difficult questions and wrestle with them. It can be an arduous journey, but it is necessary for finding real answers.

Artists create. And they can create from nothing. What this world needs moving forward are more people like my artist friend Lindsay who finds that it is in her nature to pull from her many facets as author, educator and crafter all the necessary skills, ideas and inspiration to create something that will benefit her community.

Imagine that we had at least one artist on every block of this city, of this country, of this earth. Imagine what we could accomplish by multiplying that amount of talent by each artist’s stretch of their imagination. Given that opportunity, what can we as a civilized society accomplish? What can we create? The problems of this world can be overwhelming. The only way we can begin to wrap our minds around them is by wrapping them with our imagination–with ART–to see what’s possible and to boldly reach for it.

To an artist, the most important question is “What if?” What if the artist on my block got together and collaborated with other artists in my neighborhood? What if we went to the alderman with an artistic approach to address a specific problem in our ward? What if we grow this to be a city-wide initiative? What if Lindsay found this to be the new direction for her art?

Now, more than ever, is the time to ask the hard question. And you may find the answer in your block living next door.