It is with great joy that we learned that the International Institute of New England (IINE)  recently raised over $1 million at its Golden Door Awards event honoring MIT President Dr. L. Rafael Reif.  We had the pleasure of creating a tribute video in his honor.   In my opinion, one excerpt from Dr. Reif’s speech perfectly sums up the value that immigrants bring to our community: In...

                          Last week I attended a powerful workshop organized by TSNE – MissionWorks called “Moving Beyond Diversity to Inclusion.” Co-facilitators Stewart Lanier and Trina Jackson offered loads of food for thought, including feedback shared by people of color about white-led institutions:   “There are good intentions but a lack of substance.” As...

  Some of you may remember that around this time last year, Geoff and I had the bittersweet opportunity to record Heather McManamy on video.  She was a friend of my sister's, 34 years old with Stage 4 cancer.  She wanted us to capture messages and stories that would get shared with her 4-year-old daughter, Bri, as well as images of Heather, her husband, Jeff, and Bri all together. Sadly,...

Carla C. Cataldo, Principal of Proposals, Etc., has more than twenty years of experience in fundraising and non-profit work. She helps nonprofits, cities and towns raise more money, and helps for-profit companies access Workforce Training Fund grants. She answers two questions on how development professionals can hone their focus to raise more funds. Q. How should busy fundraising professionals spend...

I did a short interview with my friend Julia Campbell, who does a lot of marketing and social media work for nonprofits. I wanted her to share a few social media tips for nonprofits. Here is the first half of the interview. The second half will be next week. How do you decide which is the right social media platform for your organization? JC: I think organizations need to focus on strategy first...

  Last week I attended the annual meeting of Women in Development of Greater Boston and had the chance to hear Helen Drinan, the President of Simmons College, share leadership lessons from her personal experience. Below are a few of her key points.   Business Acumen In order to understand your organization, you need to have a command of basic financial literacy. She recommends...

Over the recent holiday break, we volunteered on a different kind of video project. It was one that really resonated with us, particularly as parents. One of my sister’s friends, Heather, is 34 years old and has Stage 4 cancer. She has a daughter who is only 4-years old and doesn’t fully understand what is happening with her mom. So Heather wanted us to record a few stories and her explanation...

January 8, 2013 We recently had a meeting with a school that intends to produce video for a fundraising campaign. The conversation hit a bit of a snag when they didn't share with us exactly what they were seeking. The work that we showed them did not match their vision, and, as a result, we won't be working together. This certainly isn't the end of the world - some things are not meant to be!! - but what's...

This blog is not intended to be a forum for political talk, but in light of recent events in Connecticut, it seems like sharing this video is a propos. Beyond the power of the mother's story, the video is effective because it's so simple.  83 Americans are killed by guns every day. Perhaps if one of these stories was created for each of the victims, and the videos were mandatory viewing for our members...

// We recently completed work on an animated video for Basis Technology.  One look at our website, and it’s pretty clear we haven’t done much work in the technology field.  Basis could have chosen to collaborate with other production companies with tech portfolios.  And this, I think, confirms a point I made in an earlier post about why video producers don’t necessarily have to be experts...