What’s Your Nonprofit’s Soundtrack?
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed Beth Ann Spiegel’s status update on Facebook:
“Beth Ann Spiegel needs your help finding hip songs (rock/alternative/punk/indie/folk/bluegrass/reggae, etc) related to disability/ability, respect, achievement, dignity, friendship, etc. –basically a soundtrack for The Arc of Atlantic County — to play on Stockton’s radio station…we’ll be on 91.7 WLFR talking about The Arc and playing songs connected to our work. Thanks for your help, all!!”
Beth Ann is a fund development and communications associate with The Arc of Atlantic County (New Jersey). The Arc is the world’s largest community-based organization of and for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, with more than 780 state and local chapters across the nation, including Beth Ann’s. This sounded like a perfect way to procrastinate on book writing and still help a nonprofit out, so I spent some time scrolling through iTunes and offered some suggestions: Beautiful (Christina Aguilera), Unwritten (Natasha Bedingfield), New Soul (Yael Naim), Everyday (Dave Matthews Band), Waiting (Green Day), and Shine (Collective Soul).
The more time I spent thinking about it, the more I was intrigued by ways that other nonprofits could use this soundtrack concept. How about collecting song suggestions from your supporters, or even iTunes playlists, and then having your fans vote on the best ones? You could use the winning soundtrack during a DJ’d event or get on a local radio show like Beth Ann is doing this afternoon.
Beth Ann explained how this opportunity came about:
“My colleague and I went to a business mixer and met a radio show host, Joe Molineaux, from the local college’s station–he also runs their small business development department. He hosts a radio program called Money, Management, Marketing and Music. He invites people from small businesses and nonprofits to talk about their work for a whole two hours–but must say something about each of the first 3 M’s. Last night he booked us instantly, on the spot, for September 1st. We’ll get to play a selection of music over those two hours that reflects what we do. Absolutely brilliant, and a way to really engage listeners. We’re promoting an October walk-a-thon to the college students through the radio show so we want them to be able to relate to the music and really get what we do. It’s been such fun thinking of songs and helps us consider our work in a different way. Would be a good exercise for any nonprofit, I think.”
Want to hear Beth Ann’s playlist for The Arc live? Tune in today at 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. ET (1:00-3:00 p.m. PT) to 91.7 WLFR or listen online at www.wlfr.fm, the radio station of Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. I’m on my way out to the Charlotte airport in just a few, but I’m going to try to catch some of it on my netbook.
Listen in and let me know what you think by leaving a comment. Or tell us what songs would be on your organization’s playlist. Happy mixing!
Good morning, Kivi! Our radio debut was last night and all in all, it was an awesome experience! One thing we realized is that two hours can fly by really fast. We were only able to play 9 of our 26 songs between our conversation with the host and explaining our programs and services—we had to leave out some real gems, too!
We started off with Will.i.Am’s (of Black Eyed Peas) “Yes We Can” which many people may have heard during Obama’s campaign. It has a wonderful message of hope. Other songs we played included Old Crow Medicine Show’s “I Hear Them All”, about class and power struggles and ultimately, setting aside our differences and uniting; and Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” (because a lot of the people we support LOVE Elvis, and the lyrics are appropriate for our population). We also included Iz Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, The Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends” (refers to both community support and the staff who support our clients), and Xavier Rudd’s “Better People” which is about how we can all do our part to change the world. We closed with Yael Naim’s “New Soul”–and a shout out to you, Kivi, for the suggestion
We were bummed we didn’t have time to play a cover of Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful”, also suggested by Kivi, but like I said—time flew by!
“New Soul” happens to be one of our CEO’s favorite songs, and it also describes some of the people we support in a way. Many people with developmental disabilities that come into our program for the first time were quite sheltered prior to joining The Arc. We’ve seen so many people blossom thanks to the support they receive and the experiences they’re offered, so this one was perfect.
If anyone did tune in, you may have noticed we were having technical difficulties with the music—a lot of the songs skipped because of an incompatibility between how the CD was burned and the CD player. When we tried to improvise and connect the iPod to the computer and play our list through iTunes, there was a problem with the operating system! It was a little distracting to say the least, so if you do get an opportunity to submit your play list to a radio station, make sure you have backups and alternatives and do a test run if you can.
Thanks again. This opportunity also offered proof that business networking—and social networking (or social NOT-working as our CEO likes to refer to it…although she’s quickly changing her tune!) —is really beneficial to nonprofits. Meeting the radio host at the local mixer and then using Facebook for song suggestions really paid off for The Arc!
I’m curious to know what soundtrack songs other nonprofit marketers come up with for their specific cause. Feel free to email me at bspiegel@arcatlantic.org.
This is a wonderful idea! As a music lover and a nonprofit marketer, I would love to do this. Beth Ann, I think we are local to the radio station you mentioned. Would you be willing to put us in touch with your contact? I will send you an email.
We do drug and alcohol treatment and HIV prevention in Delaware. My playlist would start with Neil Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done,” and k.d. lang’s version of “My Old Addiction.” Then I would need to mix in some upbeat stuff, hmmm…
Matt followed up with a blog post of his own here:
http://www.brandywinecounseling.org/2009/09/whats-on-your-recovery-playlist.html
It includes a playlist player by http://www.imeem.com/ that lets you share 30-second snippets of the songs on your soundtrack. Love it!