Enjoy the Hunt

I love watching little children on Easter egg hunts; their pure delight and surprise in finding an egg tucked at the base of a tree or in the leaves of a tulip plant is contagious. And if the egg is a plastic egg, their anticipated joy at what lies inside exudes from every pore. Depending upon the child, the happiness is the hunt, not the hunted, or both. This is my Easter egg hunt to you: little nuggets that are not related, except they are all wrapped up in one blog and you can decide what to take away from each.

Many people will tell you that creativity is one of the things that makes our sector so special; the fact that innovation is a necessity for so many trying to do too much with too little is, sometimes at least, beside the point. But here is a concept that I just love. We all have gotten used to the idea of an “embedded reporter” traveling with a military group and covering a war from that vantage point. But an embedded reporter in a symphony orchestra?

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has created a one-year “embedded reporter fellowship” for a mid-level arts journalist who wants to help the orchestra tell the story of its musicians, music director, orchestra in general, stories about “the intersection of music and other fields.”  These stories will, of course, be posted on the Orchestra’s website with hope that the stories will be picked up by other media outlets.

What a marvelous way to get the expertise and time to tell your story. What makes this concept even better? Its prompt came from a board member, the head of a digital strategy consulting group; recognizing that the most popular stories in the programs at orchestra performances were those that talked about the musicians when they weren’t performing, she said the orchestra needed to do more to self-generate its own content. Talk about invaluable board expertise!

From innovative to MADD—and good governance. Don’t just say no to alcohol and driving but to tainted money! Earlier this year, a woman in Rhode Island hosted a birthday party for her 16-year-old daughter. At some point the police were called, and this woman was arrested for violating the social host law (a law common in many states where the host of a party is responsible for the alcohol intake of the people at the event)—there were over 100 teenagers at this party—assaulting an officer and obstructing an officer in the pursuit of his/her job. A plea was arranged and the woman was, among other things, required to make a $500 donation to MADD.

MADD declined the donation, saying the negotiated plea which would end with the charges being dropped if the woman made the donation and stayed out of trouble for a year, undermined the seriousness of her offense, not to mention ran counter their mission of preventing underage drinking. Actually, it didn’t undermine the seriousness; it made a mockery of her offense. Good for MADD for abiding by best practices and seeming to have a gift acceptance policy that guided this decision and absolutely the courage to say no to money. MADD stood up and said out loud what it thought.

But the whispering that has gone on behind United Way’s back, and in some instances in its front, can now totally come out in full voice. The mutterings have been there—all around the country—for some time that with declining workforce campaigns and UW’s need to reinvent itself, UW was looking more and more like a competitor to its members rather than a supporter of its members. The United Way of Marion County (Florida) makes that abundantly clear.  It has invited 1100 people to a posh fundraiser at the art museum. (This would appear to be the Appleton Museum of Art, part of the College of Central Florida, whose president sits on the Board of the UW.)

Those invited are not supporters of UW but they are known to be philanthropic, suggesting they are likely already to be giving to some nonprofits in Marion County, some of which could actually be current members of the UW.  This is definite competition for the almost 1000 registered nonprofits in the county, many of whom, I’m sure, couldn’t afford to use the museum for their fundraisers. And, I can’t help thinking that the Appleton Museum might gain greatly from this fundraiser, yet UW members don’t usually come from within arts and culture. From classic fundraisers at lovely locations to a new crowdsourcing opportunity: amplifyd.com/.

Because this is not yet quite launched, I cannot vouch for its actual workings, but I can say the concept is quite intriguing and could be a big boon to nonprofits with an advocacy mission, in whole or in part, or want to do a little lobbying. (Yes, remember, just because you aren’t a 501(c)(3) you can do a limited amount of lobbying.) Just as with other crowdsourcing sites, you would “shop” different nonprofits; but, instead of looking to support the production of a new playwright’s work or building a library for preschoolers, you’d be looking for the causes and positions that align with your own. When you find something you like, you would buy a call that will be made, on your behalf, to a legislator. Nonprofits get a certain amount of money for each call made by someone affiliated with them and different amount if the call is made on their behalf by a trained “caller.” (You can even sign up to become one of those trained callers.) But what makes the site really donor friendly is that all calls are made through the website, every call is recorded, thereby allowing both the nonprofits and the buyers to review the calls and flag any calls that were not “right”.

If the possibilities that amplfyd.com offer didn’t make you smile, watch this video. The goodnessproject.org will make you smile.