Amanda McCormick
Amanda McCormick of The Film Society of Lincoln Center explains how the idea to invite students to
cover their New Directors/New Films festival for the filmlinc blog (http://filmlinc.com/blog) helped to inspire the public to see the festival with new eyes and perspectives.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center: giving “new voices” a home on our blog
What happens when you are able to give your audience a voice and an ability to play an active role in your mission as a nonprofit? In the case of The Film Society of Lincoln Center “New Voices” initiative, I think the results are inspiring.
A little background on our institution: we were founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, to recognize and support new filmmakers, and to enhance awareness, accessibility and understanding of the art among a broad and diverse film going audience.
Like any nonprofit organization, we are sometimes resource-challenged, and don’t boast the most state-of-the-art technology. Yet within the emergence of social media, I think we could see fantastic potential for grass roots empowerment of our very passionate and engaged audience. Using existing social media platforms like a Facebook fan page or a WordPress blog, we can not only begin a conversation with the public we serve but also hopefully harness their passion and affinity to help reinvigorate the basic mission of our organization and ultimately grow our constituent audience.
I am a huge believer in the power of social media to affect social change and general engagement with the mission of nonprofits, and during our New Directors/New Films festival, I wanted to raise our own bar on its use to reach new audiences. So with the “New Voices” campaign, I aimed to recruit young people (many of them college students) to help cover our New Directors/New Films festival for the filmlinc blog (http://filmlinc.com/blog) and also help inspire the public to see the festival with new eyes. My requirements were simple: I was looking for engaged, thoughtful and passionate people with diverse points of view. The response I received from motivated young people was huge and inspiring. After they qualified by completing a short writing assignment, I gave these “new voices” the ability to upload their posts to the filmlinc blog. I reviewed the posts and then published them to the web.
The posts came in fast and furious during the festival, and a surprising thing happened. You can promote your mission all day long, but somehow there’s just nothing like seeing new talent engage with what you’re trying to do and express your mission via their own point of view. With the 20 or so people involved with this volunteer initiative, we received thoughtful written pieces, analysis, interviews, photographs and video diaries—far more than I ever dreamed when I thought up the idea of giving our audience a voice through social media. These achievements are especially extraordinary, I think, when you consider we spent almost no money putting together the New Voices campaign besides the $20 or so dollars I spent on refreshments for the orientation meeting.
Our foray into social media has had measurable effects in the form of increased overall traffic to our gateway site (http://filmlinc.com), a host of new relationships with other institutions, and a whole portfolio of options that help us get news and information straight to our constituent audience. But I think the most exciting results we’ve received are the intangibles.
The power of social media to grow an institution lives in seeing a trio of college students inventively bringing our institution to life through a video diary in which they travel to the festival and interview experts for context.
The power of social media to reinvigorate the image of an institution lives in discovering talented young writers who see fresh details in a venerable institution.
The power of social media to help institutions move into the future lives in a versatile and collaborative set of tools that allow an unprecedented conversation to happen between institutions and the public they serve.
With a grant from the Jenzabar Foundation, I would certainly want to channel some resources back into cultivating and encouraging young people to contribute their talents and points of view to our mission.
To read more on the New Voices campaign, please visit our blog: http://filmlinc.wordpress.com/category/new-voices/
