by Nedra Weinreich | Jul 19, 2007 | Blog, Communication
Guest Post from Sandra Beckwith:
I often hear from nonprofits asking how they can position their executive director as the local expert on the organization’s key issue. Here’s what I tell them.
First, make sure that if your leader isn’t already an expert, he or she is taking steps to become one. This is one of those situations where you don’t want to use smoke and mirrors.
Then showcase that expertise using specific steps designed to provide opportunities to share that knowledge and experience freely, which is essential. Start with these steps to develop expert credibility:
- Make your leader the exclusive spokesperson for your organization, whether it’s for media interviews, public service announcements, or advertisements.
- Send your local media a letter listing story or news segment ideas that your leader can contribute to as a resource. Attach your director’s photo and narrative bio, a backgrounder on your issue, and a brief history of your organization.
- Produce a relevant booklet with tips or advice from your leader. Identify your executive director as the author. Send it to the media with a news release announcing the booklet’s availability; distribute it to stakeholders; promote it in your newsletter and on your Web site.
- Continually schedule speaking engagements for your executive director with community groups.
- Write timely op-eds with your leader’s byline for the newspaper as frequently as possible.
These and other steps executed well locally could help your leader become recognized as an expert nationally, as well. While that might not be your goal, it certainly won’t hurt your local efforts.
Got a media relations or publicity topic you’d like to know more about? Drop me a line at sb@sandrabeckwith.com and I’ll try to answer it here.
by Nedra Weinreich | Jul 16, 2007 | Blog, Communication
Guest Post from Sandra Beckwith:
Op-eds – essays that appear opposite the editorial pages of newspapers – are powerful communications tools for nonprofit organizations working to influence public policy or initiate change. But too many local nonprofits miss some of their best opportunities to inform readers through these opinionated essays.
National headline news stories give nonprofits the hook their opinion pieces need to catch an editorial page editor’s attention, but we don’t always take advantage of this because we can’t react quickly enough to write and place an essay when it’s still timely. That’s why I recommend having at least one op-ed written in advance to use when a news event brings the op-ed’s topic to the public’s attention.
Recent headlines provide examples. Last week’s comments from the director of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, that we are “entering a period of increased risk” for terrorist attacks provided an opportunity for organizations with opinions on this topic to place op-eds about whether we are doing enough to protect Americans at home – or whether we should react to Chertoff’s “gut feeling.”
Here are 10 tips for writing effective op-eds you can update according to the news story for immediate publication:
- Read the publication you’re submitting to. You want to be familiar with its style and tone as well as the types of op-eds it typically runs.
- Introduce yourself to your newspaper’s op-ed page editor by telephone or e-mail and request the publication’s op-ed guidelines. Then follow them.
- Determine your goal. What do you want to achieve through your op-ed? Do you want people to behave differently or take a specific action? Keep this goal in mind as you write.
- Select one message to communicate. Op-eds are short – typically 800 words or less – so you have room to make just one good point.
- Be controversial. Editors like essays with strong opinions that will spark conversation.
- Illustrate how the topic or issue affects readers. Put a face on the issue by starting your essay with the story of somebody who has been affected or begin with an attention-getting statistic.
- Describe the problem and why it exists. This is often where you can address the opposing viewpoint and explain your group’s perspective.
- Offer your solution to the problem and explain why it’s the best option.
- Conclude on a strong note by repeating your message or stating a call to action.
- Add one or two sentences at the end that describe your credentials as they relate to the topic.
With this approach, when your issue is suddenly making headlines, you can write an introduction that connects the news to your essay and e-mail it to the editor quickly.
Questions? Contact me at sb@sandrabeckwith.com.
by Nedra Weinreich | Jul 12, 2007 | Blog, Communication
Greetings from your guest blogger. I’m Sandy Beckwith, author of Publicity for Nonprofits: Generating Media Exposure That Leads to Awareness, Growth, and Contributions (Kaplan Publishing). Nedra asked me to contribute here while she was moving to the Los Angeles wilderness because she knows that I want to help nonprofit organizations learn how to work with the media in the most productive ways possible.
Today, I’d like to talk about message development because it’s one of the essential early steps of publicity planning – one that I think is frequently overlooked. It’s important to give careful thought to exactly what you want to say to your audiences not only through the media, but in all your organization’s written and spoken communications. What is it, exactly, that you need to get across to people?
Your message could vary, depending on the situation and circumstances. In some cases, your goal might be to communicate a message related to your organization’s mission or reputation. In other situations, you might want to communicate messages related only to a project or program you’re promoting, not the entire organization. Regardless, here’s the bottom line: If you aren’t clear on your message each time you communicate with the media, your publicity efforts will be less effective. Careful attention to messages allows you to get a little more control over the unpredictable – and generally uncontrollable – publicity process. Anything you can do to exert some control is good.
Message development is essentially a six-step process:
1. Defining the issue
2. Creating draft or preliminary messages
3. Testing the draft messages
4. Refining the messages
5. Testing the final messages
6. Adjusting the final messages
Here are a few tips to help prevent some of the more common mistakes in this process:
- Don’t make assumptions about what your constituents do and don’t know or do and don’t care about. Do some research instead. My book includes an anecdote about a foundation that assumed the group it was targeting with a communications campaign was familiar with – and understood – a key medical term. Wrong. Focus group research put a spotlight on this inaccurate assumption, forcing the communicators to change their strategy.
- Don’t get bogged down in the details of the issue. Craft a message that is clear, compelling and direct.
- Include emotion. And that emotion should come from your constituents’ concerns, not yours. Find a way to connect your cause to their feelings, and your message is more likely to resonate with them.
- It doesn’t matter what your colleagues or peers think of the messages you’ve developed. What counts is how the people you want to influence react – so test your messages with them.
Got a publicity question you’d like me to answer? Send a note to sb@sandrabeckwith.com and I’ll do my best to answer here.
by Nedra Weinreich | Jul 9, 2007 | Blog, Personal
Call it a reverse Green Acres or the second coming of the Beverly Hillbillies, but as of this weekend my family and office are moving from the semi-bucolic San Fernando Valley to the very citified Westside of Los Angeles. While it will be quite an adjustment for this Valley Girl, I’m looking forward to being able to walk to stores, restaurants and the local Coffee Bean (a good inducement to exercise). It will also be fun to be around the corner from Samuel Goldwyn Films, just down the street from Fox Studios and five minutes from the LA County Museum of Art.
Because of the logistics involved with the move, and uncertainties around when my office will be fully functioning, I will not be blogging for a week or two. But, luckily for you and me, I have a guest blogger who will be standing in for me while I’m out. Sandra Beckwith is a writer, speaker and coach who wrote the wonderful Publicity for Nonprofits: Generating Media Exposure that Leads to Awareness, Growth and Contributions. She sent me a copy and I found the book to be a perfect companion to my own Hands-On Social Marketing book. It’s full of step-by-step guidance, worksheets, tip lists, and sample materials, and is laid out in a framework similar to what I used in my book for the (much shorter) PR section. Sandy will be sharing her vast media knowledge and experience with us, and I’m looking forward to reading her posts. In the meantime, you can read a recent interview with her by Chris Forbes.
If you try to contact me in the next week or two, please be patient if I am slow to get back to you. Let’s hope I don’t have to make too many sacrifices to the utility gods to get back up and running quickly.
by Nedra Weinreich | Jul 3, 2007 | Blog, Resources
This week’s Tip Jar is full of bicentennial quarters and an occasional $2 bill:
- I’ve been playing around with Facebook lately, though I think LinkedIn is much more useful as a grown-up. If you want to learn more on what all the fuss is about, take a look at the Beginner’s Guide to Facebook. Wondering whether your audience is more likely on Facebook or MySpace? Danah Boyd discusses how class plays into self-selection onto the various social networking sites: Facebook attracts the popular, “good kid” crowd, while MySpacers are more likely to be the socially ostracized kids who don’t quite fit into the popular cliques. As Anastasia says, it sounds like the makings of a John Hughes movie (“Pretty in Pink Flashing Pixels”?)
- Oxfam’s online advocacy campaign to help the Ethiopian farmers who grow coffee for Starbucks was a success, with 96,000 people participating in various ways. This campaign is a great case study for how to recruit and engage supporters via social media and email. I first learned of it through the Flickr petition in which people posted pictures of themselves holding a sign that said “I support Ethiopian coffee farmers.” But they also used YouTube, blogs, email networks, and more traditional methods like faxes, phone calls, postcards, an on-site protest and in-person visits to Starbucks. The resulting agreement will ensure that Ethiopian farmers get a fair share of the profits for their coffee.
- From the Communication Initiative comes an announcement of what sounds like a fascinating workshop called Sensing on Everyday Mobile Phones in Support of Participatory Research. The workshop will “focus on how mobile phones and other everyday devices can be employed as networkconnected, location-aware, human-in-the-loop sensors that enable participatory data collection, geotagged documentation, mapping and other case-making capabilities.” If anyone wants to send me to Sydney, I’d be happy to liveblog the session for you.
- If you are story-impaired like I am, you may be interested in the Center for Digital Storytelling’s Digital Storytelling Cookbook. The book helps people who want to mine stories from their own and others’ lives and personal media archives. You can download the first five chapters, which introduce how to find stories and tell them in a meaningful way. The rest of the book focuses on the technical aspects of digital media. Using stories to illustrate your points can be so effective, but the process of developing those stories is not always obvious. (via the same CommInit email as above)
- A new study found that teens engaging in web-based multi-player role-playing games are reaping benefits from opportunities to explore the world around them, albeit virtually. They can have conversations with people of different nationalities and races they would not normally come in contact with, they can become entrepreneurs with online businesses, they can experiment with their identities (aren’t virtual noserings so much better than the real thing?) and venture into interactions with members of the opposite sex. Sounds good, as long as the online time isn’t replacing hang-out time with real-life friends. (via MarketingVOX)
- A recent campaign from New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority in Australia takes a refreshing departure from the usual fear appeals to try to keep young men from speeding. It hits the perpetrators below the belt, with the tag line, “Speeding – No One Thinks Big of You” and hot girls wagging their pinkies in a gesture clearly meant to suggest that the speeders are trying to compensate for other inadequacies. I haven’t seen anyone here making this gesture before, so I wonder if it’s an Aussie-American cultural difference or a new thing. Watch the spot and tell me if you know.
- Speaking of fear appeals, Seth Godin writes about how some marketers use fear to sell their products. He gives social marketers a pass, saying that some items, like seatbelts, can’t be marketed without fear. I agree that fear appeals can be powerful when done right (though more often than not they backfire) but there are many other powerful values that could be tapped into to motivate safety-related behaviors (see item above).
- Knowing that the media would create a massive frenzy around the launch of the iPhone, a savvy nonprofit called Keep a Child Alive found a way to transfer some of that major media coverage to their own cause. Someone from the organization staked out the first spot in line at the Apple Store in Manhattan, thereby ensuring interviews with every media outlet around, and an open mic for their message. While they initially intended to auction just the iPhone to raise money for their organization, as a result of their widespread exposure they received a slew of additional items to auction off from celebrities and companies. This serves as a reminder to keep your eyes open for random opportunities to get your message out, which may net you more exposure than the rest of the marketing activities you’ve been planning for months.
Happily, Sadly, Ironically, the CDC’s wonderful Verb yellowball campaign to get 9 to 13 year olds physically active, which was discontinued by Congress last year, took several top honors at the Cannes Lions advertising awards. Arc Worldwide, who created the campaign, won Gold for “Best Integrated Direct Campaign,” Silver for “Best Direct – Charities, Public Health & Safety and Public Awareness Messages” and Bronze for “Best Media – Charities, Public Health & Safety and Public Awareness Messages.” The campaign also won a Clio this year. It was a well-done campaign, and found to be effective in bringing about behavior change, so of course the obvious thing to do was to get rid of it. Bring back Verb!!!
I wish a very happy and safe 4th of July to my American readers, and a great Wednesday to everyone else.
Photo Credit: Tip Jar Dan
by Nedra Weinreich | Jun 28, 2007 | Blog, Marketing
I recently came across an article called I Would Rather Be A Jazz Programmer. The article distinguishes between rockstar programmers (which are apparently what companies are looking for these days) and jazz programmers. Before I even read the content, the title got me thinking about what being a jazz marketer might mean.
Far better, I think, to be a jazz marketer, as opposed to a rockstar marketer, who may only have one or two hits that they play over and over again unchanged, even twenty years later. Sure, some people might still want to hear Men Without Hats singing “Safety Dance,” but if that’s all the group can do, they’re not very relevant for today’s listeners. Rockstars may shine brightly, but they can also crash and burn quickly when their audience decides to move on to the next big thing.
On the other hand, jazz marketers have staying power and can quickly change what they are doing to be where the audience is. Jazz marketers…
- …can improvise on a central theme. They may somewhat change the melody, harmonies or time signature, but the song (or brand) stays recognizable.
- …know the musical rules and are able to innovate within the traditional structure, as well as break the rules when necessary.
- …stay on their toes so that when something in the piece starts going in an unexpected direction, they can either go with the flow and make it look like that’s what was supposed to happen all along, or rein it back in if needed.
- …incorporate influences from many different styles of music. Social marketers particularly draw on disparate fields, from marketing to medicine to anthropology to epidemiology.
- …let their music come from the grassroots. Rather than originating with royalty or record companies, jazz came straight from self-taught former slaves who were playing what the people wanted to hear. Jazz marketers take their cue from what resonates with the people they are trying to reach, not from what the top brass likes.
- …can make do with whatever musicians are available. A jazz band can be as effective with two different instruments as with ten. Jazz marketers are able to use many different types of tools, choosing the right ones to suit their audience, budget and objectives.
- …are too cool to worry about being cool. They are much more interested in doing what works than in what the current fashion happens to be. Both style and substance are important, but substance should win out every time.
So, as you think about what kind of marketer you want to be, try to model yourself more after Dixieland and Chick Corea than the Dixie Chicks.
[If you are more of a classical music buff, you might like this post I wrote back in February on the music of marketing.]
Photo Credit: Fixed Image
Technorati Tags: jazz, marketing, rockstar
by Nedra Weinreich | Jun 26, 2007 | Blog, Social Media
This week on the HHS Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog, I indulge my rich fantasy life and crown myself the Queen of Pandemic Communications. In my final post for that blog, I lay out what my ideal pandemic flu preparedness campaign would look like.
Coincidentally, today Craig wrote about how to extend Mack Collier’s brand evangelist framework to social marketing. This is an approach that I have previously advocated for how to harness the energies already being directed toward pandemic preparedness by scores of well-informed citizens who have organized themselves into online communities. Craig’s post helps to think through what would need to happen to create the Citizen Pandemic Preparedness Corps I propose in my post.
I just want to share a few resources for those who are interested in finding out more about how to communicate about pandemic flu:
- The Communication Initiative has a pageful of descriptions of campaigns, how-to guides and other resources specifically about avian flu.
- Minnesota’s Code Ready website offers a customizable tool to help you put together your preparedness supplies, including the numbers of servings of each type of food you will need to have on hand for periods ranging from 3 days to one year. Many pandemic flu experts recommend having a 3-month supply of food and water for each person in your household. This website helps you figure out what that means in practical terms for a shopping list.
And, of course, lots more information at pandemicflu.gov and the Flu Wiki. Now that the HHS blog is winding down, I suppose I’ll have to abdicate the crown. I still do have to fill the royal storehouses though, just in case.
Technorati Tags: pandemic flu, hhs
by Nedra Weinreich | Jun 23, 2007 | Blog, Resources
Translation from Hebrew: “Another tip and I’m in India”
- I have mixed feelings about Israel’s latest anti-drug commercial, which features an Israeli teen saying goodbye to his family in a video styled after a suicide bomber’s last testament. It’s certainly shocking and would grab attention, but I haven’t decided whether it’s in poor taste or an effective approach. I would love to know whether they tested it with teens. Its in-your-face aesthetic is nearly diametrically opposite of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy’s current campaign (in which a cartoon dog tells its pot-smoking owner “You disappoint me.”) In any case, it will definitely get people talking. What do you think, Israeli readers?
- The New York Times had a fascinating slideshow with photos of people next to pictures of their online avatars. My favorite was this man
boy who is hooked up to various medical devices with his very sleek and strong armored Star Wars Galaxies avatar. It’s just another reminder of how freeing virtual worlds can be for people with disabilities, who can have superhuman abilities and still be no different from everyone else online.
- Vigilante bike activists in Toronto have taken matters into their own hands, with the city two years behind schedule in installing bike lanes on busy streets. Armed with hot pink spray paint, the Other Urban Repair Squad is painting in its own ad hoc bike lanes around the city, which the city then removes. The transportation department claims it will complete 30 km of the 1,000 km bicycle network planned by the end of the year, but in the meantime why don’t they just work with these activist groups to get it done quickly and efficiently?
- Nokia and Vodafone have launched a wiki-based website for NGOs to share ideas on how to use mobile communications for social change. The site, www.shareideas.org, includes case studies and how-to’s that can be expanded by other organizations over time.
- There’s a lot of social marketing going on down under in Australia and New Zealand. The New Zealand Herald ran a thoughtful story on social marketing, calling us “behavior engineers.” Sounds nice and scientific – maybe I’ll put that on my business card.
- Via MarketingVox, Google just launched a public policy blog, which will cover US legislation and regulation issues related to its business. Their intention is to open a window into their policy positions and advocacy strategies to get input and ideas from their users. Andrew McLaughlin, Google’s director of public policy and government affairs, says they want to do public policy advocacy “in a Googley way.” It will be interesting to see whether other companies follow suit to make their lobbying activities more transparent. Or should I say “Googley”?
- New York City will be trying a new approach to bring residents out of poverty — bribing them. Piloting a program that has been used effectively in countries like Brazil and Mexico, poor residents will be rewarded with cash for engaging in good behaviors. For example, possible rewards include $25 for attending parent-teacher conferences, $25 per month for a child who maintains a 95 percent school attendance record, $400 for graduating high school, $100 for each family member who sees the dentist every six months and $150 a month for adults who work full time. While it makes sense to use the incentive that will best get people to act, it goes against everything I’ve learned as a parent about the effectiveness of bribes. If the external rewards stop coming, will people continue their positive behavior, or will the program have to go on indefinitely? And if people continue to be paid for years and years, is that okay and worth it if we get the behaviors we want from them?
- Finally, I just wanted to share my favorite new online tool. Jott is a free service that lets you call a number from your mobile phone, leave a voice message, and have it transcribed and sent to your own or someone else’s e-mail. I have it preprogrammed in my cell phone, so whenever I’m driving and suddenly remember something for my to-do list or have a flash of brilliance, I can just leave myself a message and have it waiting in my email when I return to my computer. It’s a lot safer than fishing around for a pen and paper to write myself a note in the car. (Sorry, it’s only in the US and Canada now.)
Photo Credit: miss pupik
by Nedra Weinreich | Jun 19, 2007 | Behavior Change, Blog, Personal
Can I tell you a secret? I hate exercise. I go through phases where I do it because I know it’s good for me. Then I stop for a while and start up again months later. I just have a really hard time motivating myself.
You would think as a social marketer, I would have some special insight into what would make me want to exercise. What benefits do I value? What barriers need to be taken away to make it happen? But no, I’m just like every other shlub whom the physical activity social marketing programs are trying to get to budge from their desks. I’m the shoemaker who has no shoes.
This time, the thing that got me moving is what works with just about every mother at some point in her life — worrying about what might happen to my family if, God forbid, I had a catastrophic health event because I didn’t take care of myself well enough. (If all else fails, using maternal guilt for motivation is bringing out the big guns.)
So, I dug out my old Walkman and went for a walk last week for the first time in a couple of months. I always like to listen to the radio while I walk, but I had a hard time finding music with a good beat for walking. It was after trying to walk to 30 Seconds to Mars’ song Bury Me and finding myself feeling like I was limping along to try to keep up with the 6/8 beat (a Souza march it wasn’t) that I decided to get an iPod and some optimized exercise music. My deal with myself was that I could buy a used iPod on eBay if I promised to use it to exercise.
The iPod arrived today, so I loaded it up with my music and downloaded some exercise music podcasts. I found a couple of places where you can choose the workout music based on the number of beats per minute, so you can find exactly the pace that works for your stride and type of exercise (Podrunner is one source, and fitPod is another).
This evening I took the iPod and the selected 1-hour workout mix on their inaugural walk. And wow – what a difference it makes to have a beat that matches my stride. My feet just automatically keep pace with the music. But the downside of using these free downloads is that they are all centered around horrid techno music that sounds basically the same from song to song. One song had a breathy Scandinavian woman singing vapid lyrics like “express your emotions.” Another song featured a deep voice saying the word “cee-crisp” over and over to the beat. Yeah, I was wondering what that meant too. At least it took my mind off of the exercise.
So the opening night of the iPod walking tour was a success. But I need to find some listenable music. Anyone have suggestions for rock-based workout compilations?
I’m not going to start exerblogging (a la fatblogging (LA Times free registration req.)), but if anyone wants to be my virtual exercise partner or share what motivates you to exercise, let me know!
Photo Credit: auntnanny
Technorati Tags: exercise, ipod
by Nedra Weinreich | Jun 18, 2007 | Blog, Social Media, Technology
This afternoon I had the pleasure of meeting Steven Starr, founder (and CEO turned Chairman) of Revver.com. In case you are not familiar with Revver, it’s a video sharing site that tracks and monetizes videos and shares the ad revenue with the content creators (unlike sites like YouTube and Google Video). We were lucky to get Steven to come speak to our Entertainment Resource Professionals Association group, and it was a nice intimate setting in which to pummel Steven with our questions and pick his brain. Steven took it all with good humor, and his do-gooder ethos (apparently developed while working with Bob Marley) fit right in with our group.
If you are reading this blog, you probably already know about how the entertainment environment is shifting from being dominated by media conglorporations towards a more democratic model where anyone with a camera and some creativity can become a producer or a star. Power to the people and all that. Revver is contributing toward this shift, with a mission of empowering and rewarding creators of great content.
We had a lively discussion about how nonprofits can jump into the world of online video, and here are some of the ideas that Steven and others offered:
- Don’t forget that online videos need to be SHORT (under 3 minutes). If you have more to say, do it with a series of episodes of 3 minutes each. Each one should advance a story, be entertaining and have some sort of “cliffhanger” at the end so that people will want to watch the next one.
- Authenticity is key. Anything that looks like it was created by a PR agency will not be of as much interest as something made by a “real person.”
- Look for your favorite online video creators (especially those who already have a following) and contract with them to make a bunch of videos for your organization to post online. The cost per video will be a fraction of a standard PSA, and the video creators will be thrilled to get money to do what they already love and are good at. “Create your own celebrities.”
- Run a contest for the best video on your topic, with a prize of some sort.
- Find existing content that matches up well with your message or organization and buy ads on those videos via Revver.
- Bring in your own sponsor for your videos and get an additional 20% of the revenue, or at some point down the line, Revver may be able to match up causes with interested sponsors.
- Ask people in your own network (e.g., your organization’s members and supporters) to take your videos and put them on their websites, blogs, social networking pages and send them via email to syndicate the content as much as possible.
- Ask people to make videos around a common theme, then use excerpts from each to make a movie. Steven gave the example of people from all over trying to get to CBGB for its final closing night making videos about their experiences, which could then be made into a longer length movie that weaves the different storylines together.
Steven is now putting the finishing touches on a documentary he’s been making about water mentoring about the global water crisis (correction per Steven), called “For Love of Water.” It’s been a labor of love over several years, and hopefully it will be coming out soon, so watch for it.
When I came home after the meeting I was flipping through an old Far Side book I’d gotten from the library for my son (who is now discovering the joys of Larson). One of the cartoons resonated exactly with what we had just been talking about:
I then saw, while poking around in my feed reader, that Ashley Cecil had a new time-lapse video of her latest painting, which is hosted on Revver. I clicked on the ad at the end (because, as I learned today, the artists do not receive any money unless people click on the ads), which turned out to be linked to a site called What Kind of World Do You Want.com. Taking off on the Five for Fighting (careful – link has audio!) song “World,” the site encourages people to “tell the world what kind of world you want and raise money for charity by making and uploading a video of yourself, your friends or your family answering the question, “What Kind Of World Do You Want”.” Or by watching the clips posted by others and clicking on the sponsor’s ad, a donation of up to 49 cents will go to one of six selected charities. While the contest seems to be over, it’s an interesting example of how a nonprofit might structure a similar contest.
For organizations that don’t have a lot of money or the ability to create and run TV commercials, the opportunity that online video offers to get your message out is enormous. But remember that no matter how “worthy” your organization may be of attention, you will not get noticed unless your content is engaging and entertaining. It’s a true meritocracy out there (at least as judged by the whims of the audience), so find the people who know what they are doing and join forces. Dip a toe into the water and come on in!
Technorati Tags: revver, steven starr, nonprofit, video, media