Charlie Rose asked John Lassiter why animators and story tellers should come and work at Pixar. Keep in mind this was just after they released Toy Story and way before the saved Disney.

His Response:
1) Pixar is a place where people can get creative satisfaction. We give artists a project that they can be proud of the rest of their career.
2) We give them creative ownership. Let them figure out how to do things, not tell them.
3) We have a lot of fun.

I think this is a beautiful answer and a great standard for the experience we create for visiting designers.

From Mark Fletcher at Startupping

As an employee climbing the corporate ladder at a company, it's all about getting more. More responsibility, more control, a larger salary, a bigger title. However, the exact opposite is true when you start a company. A big part of starting and building a company is about giving up. A founder is in a weird position. When you first start a company, everything is yours. You own all the stock, you make all the decisions. This point of creation is the only time this will be the case, however. Forever after, the founder must give up more and more control to other people and more and more ownership to employees, investors, etc. The founder must do this for the company to be successful, but at the same time this is the opposite of what many people are used to doing.

After having some advisers read my first response to the rejection of New Beginnings, I decided to rewrite it.

The advisers helped my realize that I was making the same mistake again. I was stuck in my design bubble and I was reiterating the power of design, the potential of design, and the necessity of designers. This is primarily the reason my proposal was misunderstood and rejected.

I should be focusing on the nonprofit side of A Red & Gray Group. What we can do for organizations and how it fits into their world. I need to be more aware of my audience and tailor my language accordingly.

You can download the revised letter to see the changes. I've also been tweaking some of the language on the "What We Do" page.

Let me know what you think of the changes.

A Red & Gray Group was not admitted to the New Beginnings Nonprofit Incubator program. Bummer.

It's frustrating to see incredible opportunity and not be able to convince other people of it. I'm sure this won't be the first rejection letter I receive for A Red & Gray Group, but the first one stings a little worse.

Their response included some reasons why we didn't get in. They're all good questions, questions I thought I had answered in my application. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough.

Here's my response letter:

I would like to thank you again for reviewing my application and taking the time to write me a thoughtful response.

I would like to address the shortcomings you identified in my proposal. I foresee that the biggest hurdle facing the creation of A Red & Gray Group is the ability to concisely explain our programs and operation. Therefore, it is necessary for me to take this time to craft responses to your important concerns.

The scope of the program may not constitute a nonprofit organization
It is vital for A Red & Gray Group operate as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. This designation will position us as the charitable outlet for design conscious individuals, businesses, and trade groups to channel their financial and personnel resources. This reliance on donations from the untapped design world will empower us to collaborate with smaller nonprofit organizations that may not otherwise have the resources to pay for our services.

A Red & Gray Group serves a small niche of volunteers: designers
More people work in the arts, entertainment, and design industries than as lawyers, accountants, and auditors. And there are now ten times the number of graphic designers than a decade ago according to Daniel Pink in A Whole New Mind. Quantitatively there were 457,000 professionals working in the “Five Design Occupations” as defined by the US Department of Labor in 2004. Comparatively there were 567,000 people working as Physicians or Surgeons in that same period.

It will be difficult competing for funding with more established volunteer matching organizations such as Volunteer Match or Idealist.org
A Red & Gray Group is not comparable and will not compete with these volunteer matching services. These groups provide a forum for nonprofit organizations to post openings for paid and volunteer staff positions. A more appropriate comparison is Doctors Without Borders. This organization provides a meaningful experience for health professionals to use their skills and talents side by side with professional peers. A Red & Gray Group will provide this experience for designers. We allow them to serve people in need and network with other design professionals; sharing and practicing design theory, methodology, and techniques.

I do understand that that there are currently few (if any) organizations operating with the same vision as A Red & Gray Group. Its approach is outside the view of existing nonprofits. However, I see this as an emphatic testament that our programs are in desperate need. And my experience working within organizations gives me encouragement to continue the fight to make this organization happen.

I believe that the reform and revitalization of the nonprofit sector will continue to come from outsiders. Those educated, experienced, and disillusioned by commercial business. Passionate individuals who can provide a fresh perspective on ways we can address the complex, social problems facing our communities.

Again, I understand that acceptance to your program is competitive and I appreciate your consideration.

Sincerely yours,

Chap Ambrose

I'm applying to a program here in Philadelphia called New Beginnings Nonprofit Incubator. They assist people with starting nonprofits and provide office space, accounting services, fundraising advice and general guidance.

They would also allow us to operate as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit and accept tax-deductible donations before we are approved by the IRS. This is great news.

Currently I'm filing out the application for the program and one of the questions reads, "List your 5 primary goals for the program in the coming year"

My Answer:

1. Raise $20,000 from individual donors
2. Build a database of 25 volunteer designers and 5 organizations interested in our program
3. Give three public talks concerning the need for “design thinking” in nonprofit organizations
4. Facilitate one design project with a local organization
5. Develop one product to sell, generating reoccurring revenue with little maintenance

And the follow up question, "What activities will you engage in to achieve these goals (include information about who will be involved and where activities will take place)?"

• Goal 1: I am developing a packet that will include the status of our organization, example of our work, and a plan for the future and I have complied a list of personal contacts that have expressed interest in this project. These packets will be mailed to the potential donors. We will also be adding the capability to accept donations on our webpage. In addition, a small pin/brooch has been commissioned that will be sent to all supporters in appreciation of their contributions.
• Goal 2 and 3 are related in that the more frequently we are given a platform to share our mission the more interest we will generate in the nonprofit sector and the more volunteers we will have available. Possible venues for speeches include; Industrial Designers of America Northeast and Philadelphia chapter events, Design Philadelphia’s annual festival, the annual Computer – Human Interaction conference, and my alma mater Savannah College of Art and Design which frequently invites guest lecturers.
• Goal 4: I have attended several meetings of Philadelphia’s Young Nonprofit Leaders and I am a participating in one of their action committees on homelessness. Through these opportunities I have made personal contacts with several directors of small nonprofits that could benefit from our services. I also have numerous contacts with professional designers from a variety of previous jobs, internships, and projects.
• Goal 5: Currently I am working on a large format poster titled “Understanding Philadelphia Homelessness” that visually explains the complex connections and relationships of homelessness in Philadelphia. This piece will be printed locally and sold through our online store. I am also in the early stages of developing simple, effective web-based software for small nonprofit organizations.

Overall, filing out this application has helped me refine my pitch and think about some questions I hadn't.

I've noticed a lot of new social causes popping up lately. The interesting thing is that they're not supported by the big, blue-chip nonprofits (Red Cross, United Way, Goodwill, etc.) they're being created by young people with no previous experience or education in social work.

A few come to mind; To Write Love On Her Arms, Invisible Children, The Simple Way, and a new one I was just shown The Blind Project.

I'm curious about this trend. I wonder if young entrepreneurs have always existed, maybe even driven the nonprofit sector. Perhaps it's just now, with the global reach and relative ease of the internet, more people know about it. I'd like to know what the average age of nonprofit founders has been in the past and what it is now.

When we lose idealism, intimacy, and depth, we function at a cosmetic level, pushed along by fashion, out of touch with our center, and we react as if we are the effect of the culture, rather than its cause.

From The Answer to How is Yes by Peter Block

My good friend Evan Gale just sent me a link to Design for Africa. It is a project by a group of industrial designers that wish to harness the design process to positively impact the country of Africa.

My favorite part of the site so far:

"Much of the Western world considers design to be the creation of aesthetically pleasing products, appealing and available to the consumer. While this is one function of design, there are other functions far more important to local communities.

Design is problem solving – it’s a work in progress which requires non-conventional, abstract and creative thinking. A design arises from the application of an uncomplicated method that can be learnt by anyone with an open mind. This method applies to all products and services regardless of shape, size and function."

Lately I've been reading Stories from Below the Poverty Line a first hand account of what it means to be a servant to the urban poor written by George Beukema. He expresses his concern for government programs and professional service providers when he writes...

"Three disabling effects result from the way service professionals market needs. First, a need is depicted as a deficiency rather than a condition, a right, or an obligation of another. Second, rather than placing the problem in its full social context, the situation is depicted as a lack on the part of the client. Third, the deficiency is defined in such a way as to direct the response toward professionalized service and away from the resources of residents and their community."