Philadelphia DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards: nonprofits vie for $250K

Think of it as social entrepreneurs serving social entrepreneurs.

Organized by Center City socially-minded marketing agency Here’s My Chance, the Philadelphia DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards is an ambitious effort to help local nonprofits get better at “telling their stories” — essentially, getting the word out so they can rally support. Ninety nonprofits are competing in the video awards, vying for $250,000 worth of resources.

Watch the videos and vote for your favorite here. Voting ends Jan. 31. (Further below, we highlight some videos that are relevant to our community.)

But the video awards are simply a means to engage dozens of nonprofit organizations in the region. Just look at the free services that the program is offering:

• Video production: Out of the 90 nonprofits that submitted videos, 25 of them were part of DoGooder’s 10-day video hackathon, where DoGooder hooked up local nonprofits with volunteer videographers. Read more about the hackathon on 215 Mag here.
• Media training: DoGooder partners and communications agencies Chatterblast Media and Big Duck hosted a training session for nonprofits that taught them how to build and organize their audience in order to get their message out. Read more about the session on Generocity here.
• Needs assessment: Later this month, Generocity and United Way will conduct a review for 75 of the participating nonprofits to determine what kinds of “legal, accounting, marketing, general IT and other operational needs” they have. That way, the nonprofits know what kinds of partners to seek out and what exactly to ask for.

Like we said, it’s an ambitious, all-volunteer project. Here’s My Chance cofounder Dave Gloss calls it the “largest skilled volunteer program in Philly’s history,” which, considering the city’s history, may be just on one side of friendly hyperbole.

Gloss and his cofounder Kevin Colahan brought the national DoGooder brand to Philly in part because of their interest in the social entrepreneurship and community organizing space. The pair leveraged the help of sponsors like Wells Fargo, who donated $10,000 to the DoGooder Awards, and firms like Skai Blue Media and Chatterblast Media who donated their PR services and expertise. Gloss, who said Here’s My Chance hopes to make the DoGooder Awards an annual program, said it wasn’t terribly hard to find support for the effort.

“You just have to ask,” he said.

Gloss, 29, used to work at venture capital fund Artists & Instigators. He actually wrote the recommendation for investment for Ryzing, the local online bingo startup that was acquired by California’s RockYou for an undisclosed amount this summer.

Here are some nonprofits participating in the DoGooder Awards that are relevant to the local tech community:

• DreamIt Ventures cofounder Steve Welch is featured in this video about Eisenhower Fellowships.
• GoodCompany Group and its social entrepreneurship accelerator is featured in this video. Find more of our coverage on GoodCompany Group here.
• TechImpact (formerly NPower PA)’s ITWorks program is featured in this video. Find more of our coverage on ITWorks here.