Lewis Hyde

The Circle: Moving Forward by Giving Back

Maureen Carruthers Leave a comment

Please welcome Sally Peters, the founder of Speak Art Loud and  this week’s Summer of Small Voices guest blogger.  Thanks for sharing your passion with us, Sally!

It is an honor to be included in Low Hanging Fruit’s summer series showcasing small voices. I follow Maureen on Twitter and read her blog; I have always found her work to be helpful.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the gift economy. The gift economy is a social system where you give goods and services with no expectation of receiving anything in return, finding pride in your contribution to others rather than pride in your possessions.

My thinking about the gift economy has been inspired, in part, by the book I am currently reading, The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde and, even more so, by the support I have recently experienced.

You see, I am in midst of establishing a non-profit organization, SpeakArtLoud
Starting anything new has its challenges. I also have a day-job, home and family obligations, and a social life – all those things that keep us busy. To be
honest, it is not always easy to come home from work and spend the evening laboring on SpeakArtLoud tasks.

But there is something that helps keep me going. Continue reading →

Social Media Success Series: Become an Active Community Member

Maureen Carruthers 4 Comments

I’m starting a new series! The more work I do with non-profits around social media, the more I realize the biggest barrier between non-profits and social media success isn’t learning how to use the tech, it’s figuring out how to achieve traditional marketing goals in a new media culture.  The purpose of this series is to help nonprofit leaders like you make that leap.

Become an Active Community Member

In social media, giving comes before receiving

In social media, giving comes before receiving

I’m starting the series here because social media success is only possible after you integrate yourself into an existing community (or build your own).  The rest of my advice will fall flat if the community piece isn’t in place first.  Unfortunately, it’s also the piece of advice nonprofit leaders are most likely to skip. Continue reading →