In January 2016, I along with two other friends/colleagues that work in the nonprofit sector, had a late night discussion about our usual rants and gripes about working in our different organizations. From the typical “No one understands what I do!” to “White people don’t get it”, our conversations were unique in the sense that we were all women of color trying to navigate our careers in nonprofit work – a specific kind of work that is typically thankless and undeserving of recognition and higher salaries because we’re doing the “good work.”

I had been thinking for some time prior to that conversation about writing a novel that followed the life of someone that worked in nonprofits, but after that conversation and after agreeing about how funny it would be to see a TV show about nonprofits, that was when the idea of Nonprofit was born!

Watch the proof of concept here!

For the next few months afterward, I found every waking moment to write and develop a screenplay for a web series about a team of people that worked in one nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon. Drawing inspiration from shows like Insecure, Master of None, The Mindy Project, and Superstore among many others with people of color as the protagonist, I was determined to write a story that would add to the world of narratives that lifted up stories of people of color.

How you can help
Since starting this project last year, so many things have happened along the way that have challenged me as a writer and performer. It turns out there are a ton of moving parts in order to produce a show! From building a team to workshopping several drafts of the script to trying my hand at acting (I KNOW, RIGHT?), this project has truly been a labor of love.

So far, we’ve held a table reading back in October and in November we filmed one scene from the pilot on a very small budget. We now have a team of 10 who have signed onto the project with various roles from the director, producer, writers, music supervisor, and graphic design. And now we are ready to take it to the next level.

And if donating is a stretch right now (trust me, I get it!), there are also other ways you can help this campaign reach its goal. I am in need of a Digital Coordinator that can help me with our communications strategy as well as a Digital Street Team, a group of folks that can help me amplify on social media all things that are related to this campaign. The campaign will last 30 days and we’re going to need all the help we can get in order to successfully meet our goal! If you’re interested in donating something to the crowdfunding campaign in order for us to use as a perk, that would be AMAZING too! Since the campaign hasn’t launched yet, there’s still time in adding an art piece, service, or product to add as an incentive for folks to back the project.

Thanks so much for your support! Stay tuned for the launch of the campaign at the beginning of May!

– Luann