Pandemic Update
Hello friends!
The board, staff and ensemble of Bright Invention hope you’ve been safe during the COVID-19 crisis. Like you, we are sheltering, disinfecting, distancing, zooming, uncovering old hobbies, learning new skills and new ways to stay connected. We're also finding new ways to tell those around us we love them and to laugh together.
BOARD MEMBER APRIL COHEN
I want to take a moment to thank our board of directors who have been steadfast in their support of me and Bright Invention in these uncertain times; our staff including Finance Director Bob Stineman - juggling new numbers and making new projections in response to this “new normal”; Development Consultant Allison Pokras - donating her time to support our strategic initiatives and assisting in marketing content; Executive Assistant Francine Brocious - champion note-taker and social media engineer. Lastly, I wish to thank our ensemble, who have dived directly into the deep end with me as we co-create online content and offer new programs, working for the love of this organization, each other, and in the belief that we will again generate meaningful income for them in the future.
Since the quarantine began mid-March we have been moving a lot of our programming online. Here are some highlights!
We have been holding Zoom rehearsals with the ensemble each Monday night. The Inventors and I have come up with some great online formats for fun improv shows. And we are continuing to hold each other up with emotional and practical support. A few lucky ones remain at work, but most of the ensemble work in the performing arts “gig economy” and so have been especially vulnerable to the delayed unemployment benefits and loss of work.
We maintained our spring show schedule and are offering online improv shows we call Improvademic! These are fun, hour-long shows with some opportunity for audience play-ins, and also function as fundraisers for causes the ensemble cares about. At our April show we raised over $1,000 to feed frontline healthcare workers at Temple University Hospital, and supplied them with 100 meals from a local restaurant, the West Avenue Grille. For our May 2nd show, we are raising money for MANNA, which feeds those who are homebound by age, sickness or disability.
Our classes have been meeting once a week tuition-free with our actors with disabilities and our adult improv class. These are Zoom meetings with the instructors to play games, do some improv and check in with each other.
New online programs:
FINANCE DIRECTOR BOB STINEMAN
Our Creative Corporate Training program has created three new online offerings:
Games with Bright Invention! Do your online socials or Zoom happy hours need a boost?
Virtual Meeting Bootcamp. Basic training for effective online participation.
People Not Products. For managers who want to lead online teams with humanity and clarity.
You can learn more about these workshops here. We will be featured by L&D of Greater Philadelphia for their online happy hour May 13th!
We have launched our Improv Playgrounds - hour-long, gently facilitated improv classes with me plus a member of the ensemble. These too are free/pay what you can. These meet on Zoom Wednesday night at 7 pm and bring the kids to our Saturday morning playground at 10 am!
We will face many challenges in 2020. Like other nonprofits, we have applied for grants and loans (we are waiting on the much ballyhooed PPP loan). We understand and respect that many philanthropies formerly supporting arts and culture are now bending their efforts to essential services.
I continue to deepen my skills in developing online content by taking workshops through our affiliation with the Applied Improvisation Network, Yes And Brain, L&D Philly and other groups. However, our primary revenue generator, Creative Corporate Training, is a deeply “in-person” program, bringing groups of people indoors, to learn, laugh and explore complex interpersonal dynamics together in close quarters. It’s a pretty tough sell these days - a non-starter, really - made even harder by the contraction of our clients’ budgets. Luckily, one of our biggest clients Merck Pharmaceuticals is working with us to see how we can move the workshop we were designing for them into virtual space.
ZOOM ENSEMBLE REHEARSAL . . .
How will the summer and fall play out? There’s no way of knowing right now. When it’s safe, we will again offer our fun and meaningful in-person workshops, classes and shows. But here are a couple of things I’m sure of:
There will be a Bright Invention in 2021. Our nonprofit was designed to be economically nimble. We have few expenses. One of our mottos is “People, Not Products” a slogan which reminds us to bend all our efforts to supporting the people we serve and the people who work for us. So much of what we do - our shows, our playgrounds - we offer for the satisfaction of sharing our gifts with new friends. We ask our audiences to place their own value on what we create. So all of that will continue.
We will ask you for help. Getting to 2021 will be a group effort. Our ensemble, staff and board have already begun the work of creating innovative strategies for remaining a vital and attractive organization for entertainment, education and corporate training into 2021 and beyond. One of the benefits of meeting much of our budget through earned income is that when we do fundraise, we’re often doing so to benefit others (see our Improvademic shows above!) However - like everything else in these strange times - that has to change this year, in a “put your own facemask on first” kind of way. It’s not an ideal time to launch a campaign, but in order to respond to the challenges we’re facing we’re developing strategic fundraising for Bright Invention . . . and we will be inviting you to “play-in” be to be a part of it.
THE ENSEMBLE IN MARCH - PRE-SOCIAL DISTANCING . . .
It’s become a cliche, but it’s true: this crisis has exposed our strengths, and our weaknesses. As an arts nonprofit, we have accomplished the “big ask” funders make to arts nonprofits: diversify your funding streams and find a new ways to generate revenue. We innovated. We invented. We used our creative foundation - improvisation - to create a dynamic program in Creative Corporate Training that empowers organizations to navigate sticky professional, interpersonal situations and create more stable work cultures . . . and we get paid well to do it. And we use that income to subsidize our creative work and stabilize our work with the disability community.
On the downside, our dependence on a single program with specific application makes us vulnerable to a disruption in that marketplace. On the upside, we have discovered that we are ideally positioned to energetically serve our mission in this difficult time. We designed our creative work to serve diverse communities independent of financial constraints, and we are committed to ensuring that will continue.
We’re excited about our new programs and invite you to join in. Here are some links to to discover your potential with us!
Bright Invention uses improvisation to empower people and organizations to unlock their potential.
Many times during the past several weeks, I have been grateful for the essential skill improvisation has taught me: to say yes, this is happening; and to say and, let’s build a story about it together . . .
Stay safe,
Ben
Benjamin Lloyd, Executive Director, Bright Invention
