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Parent Category: Onstage

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Parent Category: Onstage

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Parent Category: Onstage

How Social-Savvy Professionals are Making a Difference through 12 Months of Service to the Community

By Natasha T. Brown

During the holiday season, there is no shortage of need. In DC alone, over 12,000 people are classified as homeless, and that number increases if you include the surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia. If you can imagine then, the number of those in need is even higher when you calculate the hungry, cold, and otherwise less fortunate residents of the Nation’s Capital and surrounding areas, who are in need of some integral resources. That means the growing need for philanthropists, private donors, government support agencies and kind-hearted, selfless people is at an all-time high. Many young professionals are attempting to answer the call to assist.

On September 1, a simple tweet from @Betta_Mo (Maurice McClanahan) asking his followers to support #SANTACAUSE by giving $10 in support of Safe Shores, began an important social media fundraiser still underway in the DMV. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this piece, the common mind frame of young, philanthropic influencers is that they have the desire to help anyone in need. Another similarity is that these individuals understand exactly how to activate their resources and networks. Since that tweet about SantaCause was sent, a couple dozen entertainers, influencers, and music professionals have donated approximately $3,500 to support DC’s advocacy center for abused and molested children.

“SantaCause is about the quantity of individuals involved and the quality of their hearts and kindness, more so than the quantity of a monetary donation. ‘It takes a village’ mentality,” McClanahan said. The #SantaCause campaign ends in the middle of December, and anyone can participate by visiting safeshores.org, clicking “donate” and designating “#SantaCause” with any size gift.

Philanthropic Influencers know that, “It takes a village,” to make a difference.

Take Project Giveback – an organization that mobilized the community to donate and volunteer in order to feed 1,000 less fortunate. The organization’s founder, Ransom Miller, understood that in order to help a massive amount of people, he had to widen his network. He did that through Twitter, email and a network of volunteers who provided everything from PR support to food delivery.

In addition to having the desire to help, influence to mobilize “the village,” and the ability to use resources effectively, social, philanthropic influencers, must also be connected to the population they are trying to help and have a foundation of their own to build from, according the DC Activist Tony Lewis, Jr., Founder of Sons of Life.

“Whatever your aim or your cause is, you have to have some connection and have done some groundwork. You can have the greatest intention, but if you’re not connected to the people, it’s not going to have the best impact,” said Lewis.

An example of this occurred on November 17. Lewis and Sons of Life partnered with The Board Administration to host their 3^rd Annual Turkey Drive, and had a tremendous amount of support resulting in 290 DC residents receiving turkey and meals.

“The success and experience that people have when they come to support spreads. The next time, those people will speak for the event(s) and their experiences,” Lewis said. “When people come out and experience a volunteer event, they’re like, ‘Wow, anything else that you do, I will help!’”

Whenever I speak about philanthropy or on behalf of a specific cause, I often get pulled aside by at least one caring person who feels some sort of guilt about, “Not doing as much as [they] can.” Last Sunday, I spoke at a brunch full of successful media and public relations professionals, and someone said those exact words to me followed by, “I don’t have a lot of money to give…”

As I said on Sunday, and what I hope the stories of today’s young, philanthropic influencers will demonstrate, is that anything you can do is enough. Because just by sharing your thoughts about issues of importance, you become an influencer with the ability to touch those who can offer the things that you may lack, including money, time, venues and so forth. If you’re an influencer and you want to help a community effort, the simple act of sharing a message, pulling together resources, advocating on behalf of an important cause, including a philanthropic message/benefit to an existing event and engaging your followers in important community and solutions-oriented conversations is perfect.

Notes:

Please visit all of the young, philanthropic, influencers in Parts 1 and 2 on Twitter: @Betta_Mo, @RansomMiller, @ProjectGiveback, @MrTonyLewisJr, @MelisaKim @WillRap4FoodInc, @YoDiddy, @TalkOfDC, @DreamsWorkInc and @SunniAndTheCity.

Also, follow and learn more about @SmileNationwide, which works with these and other organizations/individuals to increase support of various causes each month through a program called #12MonthsOfService.

Natasha Brown is a writer and founding communications strategist of Think Brown INK, a creative think tank and strategic communications agency in the Washington area. Follow her on Twitter @TBINatasha or @ThinkBrownINK.

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Parent Category: Onstage

How Social-Savvy Professionals are Making a Difference through 12 Months of Service to the community

By Natasha T. Brown

The one commonality of the DMV’s young, philanthropic leaders that I met with over this past week is that they, like me, have a deep passion for supporting every good cause that needs help. This need to use personal influence for good is what prompted myself and the other Ambassadors of a new community organization group, Smile Nationwide, to create a platform that would encourage people everywhere to unite in supporting good causes anywhere under a social, philanthropic conversation called #12MonthsOfService. It’s a community conglomerate mentality of sorts that has positioned DMV’s young, philanthropic influencers to succeed in business and affect change for thousands through social networks, peer-to-peer mobilization and leveraging resources (and their voices) for the greater good of the community.

In Part 1 of this series

I will introduce you to a group of people who inspire and mobilize the masses, daily. They give a voice to the underserved, provide a platform to urban artists who are often negatively stereotyped; they make kids smile through hospital visits, and provide relief to third world countries; they donate coats and turkeys to homeless and create opportunities for the arts culture to coincide with underserved residents of the DMV.

Today, you will meet them and in future articles we’ll explore their mindsets, ways that you can get involved and what’s to come for DMV’s “Young, Philanthropic, Influencers.”

Meet Sunni.

“I came from a refugee camp in Bosnia, and my family was homeless. When I moved to the DMV and started getting involved in the community, I pictured myself. I was once without a home,” said Sunni (And the City), midday personality of WPGC 95.5 FM. She’s a philanthropist, socialite, and celebrity who makes a difference daily through her deeds.

As an on-air personality Sunni works four hours a day, and so she often fills her days with community work and supporting various charitable social and volunteer events that are going on throughout the region.

“I always try to get myself involved in what is happening. I haven't been an ambassador for a particular cause (before now), but I kinda just go with the flow and help everyone out,” she explained. “I know a lot of people donate to big causes, but I personally like to do things in the DMV, where you can see the kids personally, or donate coats (or something else of need) and know you’re making a real difference.”

Sunni recently became an ambassador for Wish Upon A Teen, and she’s hosting her first fundraising event for the organization on November 29 at the W Hotel.

She’s the Talk of DC.

If you’re not familiar with Yodit Gebreyes, founder of Talk of DC, without a doubt, the DMV’s most consistent and successful female promoter, you are definitely familiar with her work.

Rewind to January 2010

“I remember before I sent the tweet that started DMV Helps Haiti. I was talking with my friend who was Haitian, and I cried with her and I was there for her, and she didn’t know where her family was after the earthquake. I was like, ‘Oh my God, what can I do?’ So I tweeted and people were on it. At our first meeting at Bus Boys and Poets there were literally 100 people there, who were all willing to help, and within a week we put together two events that raised $50,000 for two organizations for Haiti Earthquake Support,” she said.

It was one of the greatest showings of unity and support in the DMV that many had ever seen, attracting, nearly everyone who was doing anything major in music to the movement, just to support. For once, there were no egos, no sense of “me.” The DMV music industry had united.

They make Dreams Work.

A few years ago, Daniel Bradley, one of four co-founders of Dreams Work Inc., an arts non-profit that helps youth realize their talents and how they can make a difference, was in St. Thomas with Dreams Work Co-Founder Anwan “Big G” Glover (co-star in “The Wire”) talking with youth about dreams. One young lady who lived very close to beautiful beaches said that it was her dream to visit the beach that tourists like Bradley get to enjoy, because she had never been. They made her dream come true.

“About three months later she mailed us a thank you letter for talking to the kids about dreams and taking them to the beach. ‘Because of you,’ [she wrote], ‘I am now enrolled in Florida A & M University, because my second dream was to attend college and you made me feel like it was possible.”

For Dreams Work Inc., the arts is just a tool. Their strategy is to teach youth resilience, focus and communication.

“We figure out what goals we can help our youth accomplish and try to figure out where their talent is,” said Bradley.

Her team Will Rap 4 Food.

Melisa Duncan is the Chief Operating Officer of Will Rap 4 Food, Inc. founded by DMV Hip-Hop Artist Pro’Verb. Duncan helps change the perception of hip-hop by inspiring artists and the hip-hop community to volunteer for various causes, including anything positive that members bring to the table, while also operating online and in-person food drives, hosting charity rap concerts for food donations and much more.

Will Rap 4 Food, Inc. envisions the Hip Hop community as the most influential agents of change in the fight against hunger. Their mission is to empower, and mobilize the Hip Hop community to be agents of change in the global eradication of hunger through awareness, unity and the powerful influence of art.

“Our mission and our vision pretty much sums it up. We're very inclusive. You don't have to be a rapper and you don't have to be from the DMV. If someone wants to do a video from California about why Will Rap 4 Food is important to them, that’s fine,” Duncan said. “What it's about is using your gifts and your talents. It could be your business savvy - like with me, I'm not a rapper at all. People have their stereotypes of rappers, but when they come out and hear and see our members talk so intelligently, their perspectives and stereotypes are changed.”

Please follow our philanthropic influencers and their orgs on Twitter: @WillRap4FoodInc and @MelisaKim; @WeMakeDreamsWork; @TalkOfDC and @YoDiddy, and @SunniAndTheCity.

Stay tuned for future articles in this series to learn more about the work of these four influencers, and others, and for tips on how to use your influence to make a difference.

Natasha Brown is a writer and founding communications strategist of Think Brown INK, a creative think tank and strategic communications agency in the Washington area. Follow her on Twitter @TBINatasha or @ThinkBrownINK.