Well, it’s a sunny 84 degrees outside and we seriously just got chills. With the pandemic spiking and the election only days away we needed a lift and our good friends at inspiremore.com were happy to give our spirits a good heft in the upward direction. Gotta be honest here, another virtual “experience” of multi-voice choirs with individuals’ heads in boxes with bad lighting didn’t sound exhilarating at first. But these aren’t your ordinary sing-alongs. These classics – like Bacharach’s What the World Needs Now & Close to You – and renditions of West Side Story’s Somewhere and Godspell’s Beautiful City  absolutely SOAR. The fun of Close to You is the fact that it features 1,000 people from 18 countries dubbed Couch Choir. We are all over that and are signing up for the next sing. We hope you sign up, too!

Can’t Touch This. And if the return of football (hell yay!) and inspire choirs aren’t enough – dance and football together should raise our collective spirits as high as the top of the goal post. Watch Coach Carter of San Jose State Football break it down like the old days as part of MC Hammer’s dance squad.

Feel better? Us, too.

LOOK WHO’S BOLD AF

You wouldn’t expect to see the glow of neon on the 1932 and 1933 Matheson History Museum buildings in Gainesville, Florida. But their outdoor installment, Lights of Conversation, by artist Sylvi Herrick is timely for a public coping with a pandemic and addressing a social conversation about race. In public space weaving luminous colorful lights with poetry by Janessa Martin, the artist’s work builds on current activism about racism and inequalities in America. The exhibition hopes to evoke new discussion and clarity about underlying prejudices and nurture a new and equal future for everyone.

READY. SET. REIMAGINE.

We just delivered a great webinar series on research, messaging, and design for fundraising with our digital partner, Achieve. We enjoyed hearing from organizations across the nation (and had Nigeria on the line, too!). If you missed it, you also missed a chance to sign up for our special:

A FREE Happy Half-Hour session to ask us questions and get expert advice. Seriously. It’s free! Email us and we’re yours for thirty minutes. You can talk about the weather, new games you invented under quarantine, or try out your stand-up routine on us. But we suggest you pick our brains with burning fundraising questions. It’s fun. Really!

Just email us and we’ll schedule your H.H.H. a.s.a.p.

Stay well and keep smiling under that mask. We like the way it makes your eyes crinkle.

Keep it DRMY ’til next week,

Surale + Laura + Cheryl
Research + Messaging + Design

If you don’t want different, you don’t want DRMTM.

thedrmtm.com

Sometimes we need a little change. Maybe not 2020’s kind of change, but we’re all trying to make the best of it. If you didn’t see last spring’s video of little Edward and Annie all gussied up and enjoying a promenade around the Shedd Aquarium outside their glassed-in glacier you missed a real treat. (Here’s the link. We’d never tease you with penguins and not deliver.) The sight of the pair of rockhopper penguins waddling around the visitor’s side of the center reminds us of what we are missing, but also gives us a fresh perspective. We’re happy for E & A’s chance to roam free and safely explore new surroundings while we wait to press our faces to the glass again and escape into their world.

In South Florida, the animals at Busch Wildlife Sanctuary just endured a muggy, lonely summer season. During pre-Covid days, the natives would tend to go off and hide when they tired of the multitude of staring eyes, talk-talk-talking, and weird human smells. But after reopening, the animals are happy – dare we say eager? – to engage with their visiting people. They missed us! Not only has the visitor experience improved, but the animals’ level of happiness did, too. It all seems to say they need some healing and a mental health lift as much as we do. Thank you, zoos, aquariums, and sanctuaries – from all of us.

LOOK WHO’S BOLD AF

LIVE ENTERTAINMENT at your dining room table. The Gallo Center of Modesto, CA, is celebrating a sold-out performance: a 500 piece puzzle that keeps the Center in the center of things and is raising some serious coin. Old school fun saves the day again. Can we all steal this idea? On it.

READY. SET. REIMAGINE.

We’ve been hard at work strategizing the best way to raise money in these “wtf times.”  We have a ready-to-go plan for you. It’s not hard and it costs less than you think.

Our Fall Fundraising Package includes EVERYTHING! You’ll get coaching, strategy and deliverables to launch your next campaign.

Time is ticking and our schedule is almost full.  For a full list of deliverables click here and we’ll be in touch right away.

Show us how you’re staying positive and creative. Post your Insta photos with the hashtag #drmtmsilverlining and we’ll share the love.

Keep it DRMY ’til next week,

Surale + Laura + Cheryl
Research + Messaging + Design

If you don’t want different, you don’t want DRMTM.

thedrmtm.com