In a book, titled “Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences”, Nancy Duarte uses Dr. King’s powerful I Have a Dream speech as a case study for how to create compelling and persuasive communications. She describes the speech’s “sparkline” in this video blog post.

I really like this book and had the good fortune to check it out from a public library. In this visually rich publication, Duarte describes powerful communication techniques that will benefit every nonprofit communicator and fundraiser.

If you are trying to raise money, create awareness or mobilize people for a cause, you will need to be ahead of the curve to be successful. Strong communications will keep people motivated and committed to moving forward. “Rallying stakeholders to move together in a common course of action is all part of the innovation and survival process,” writes Duarte.

“If you can communicate an idea well, you have, within you, the power to change the world.”

The book also asks you to question if your “call to action” resonates with all groups capable of taking action? Duarte describes those groups as:

• Doers – those who instigate activities
• Suppliers – those who get resources
• Influencers - those who change perceptions
• Innovators – those who generate ideas

In the nonprofit sector we are talking about all the “movers and shakers” from volunteers activists and board members to executive directors, donors and philanthropic leaders. Who will help you move your idea forward?

Key Takeaways:

• Stand out: Camouflage makes you blend in, and that is not what you want. Be bold. For your idea to gain traction you must stand out. “A great way to stand out is to be real.”

• Be clear and transparent: What you want your audience to do (your call to action) must be very clear. “The enemy of persuasion is obscurity.”

• Mix facts with emotion: With facts you also need emotional impact. When something resonates for you, what does that feel like?

• Create meaning and make it memorable: Stories can transform the information and data behind your ideas into meaningful, visual memories.

• Who is the hero? It’s not all about you. Your audience is the hero, and you are the mentor. Heroes help move your idea forward and bring the resources.

• Connect with your audience. Whether you are writing a letter to one person or speaking to a large audience, what shared experiences and common goals do you have?

• Where is the overlap? Find your common ground and communicate where there is overlap.

• What is the reward for your audience? When your heroes champion your cause, will they feel proud of the results? Will they receive recognition?

• Dream big. Everyone has the power to transform their world.

Painting of Mount Ritter by William Keith

The clearest way in the Universe is through a forest wilderness. -JM

In 1872 legendary naturalist John Muir returned from explorations in the High Sierra to Yosemite Valley, where he was greeted by two artists. They inquired about his recent trip and asked if he “had ever come upon a landscape suitable for a large painting.” Muir guided the artists east through Sierra landscapes, recording scientific and poetic descriptions of the natural world as well as comments by his companions: “All of this is huge and sublime, but we see nothing as yet at all available for effective pictures.” “Never mind,” said Muir, “only bide a wee, and I will show you something you will like.” In his book The Mountains of California, Muir details this first encounter with William Keith and his adventures to Mount Ritter. The iconic landscape of this Sierra peak inspired the painting above, now on view in the Oakland Museum’s first exhibit on the life and legend of John Muir.

Before arriving at this painting in the Action realm of the special exhibit, you will first journey through the realms of Wonder, Adventure and Discovery, where you will find objects that you might only see once in your lifetime.

A Walk in the Wild: Continuing John Muir’s Journey, opens tomorrow, August 6, 2011, through January 22, 2012, in the Oakland Museum’s Great Hall.

The exhibit’s creators hope that visitors, especially younger generations who might not know the story of John Muir, will discover what made him the “Father of the National Parks” and a legend who continues to inspire environmental stewardship in California today. Through video and displays, the exhibition connects Muir’s legacy to contemporary activists called “Modern Day Muirs.” Among them are Shelton Johnson, Yosemite National Park ranger; Tori Seher, Yosemite National Park bear biologist and Alcatraz bird biologist; Kemba Shakur, tree planter for Oakland Relief and six others. The museum plans to profile each Modern Day Muir on on their blog in the coming weeks.

After spending four years researching and preparing the exhibit, guest curator Dorris Welch became “obsessed” with the story of Muir. “I have an even more profound connection now,” said Welch. “What is very interesting is how many people share that connection, that this one man could have such an influence, that his legacy lives on in such a strong way. People are inspired by him, his writings to this day. If he had not been such a prolific writer, that probably would not be the case.”



Muir’s adventures in California, Alaska and beyond are brought to life though a blend of paintings and photography like large-scale photographic murals by Steven Joseph, historical research, journals, plant collections, ecology displays and interactive digital technology. The exhibit creators want you to interact with it, so they built it to stimulate all of your senses. Of course, you will probably feel the urge to get out and see, hear and smell the real treasures that Muir fought hard to protect.



Exhibition Supporters and Collaborators
Supporters of the exhibition include the Oakland Museum Women’s Board, The Bernard Osher Foundation, the J.M. Long Foundation and the University of the Pacific Library, John Muir Papers, Holt Atherton Collections/Muir-Hanna Trust.
Additional exhibition partners and collaborators include: Bonnie Gisel, Muir scholar and author; Jerry Pentin, videographer with Spring Street Studios; Dr. Bill Swagerty and Shan Sutton, University of the Pacific, Holt Atherton Special Collections, John Muir Papers; Carola DeRooy and Isabel Jenkins Ziegler, John Muir Historic Site National Park Service; and Malcolm Margolin, Heyday Books.

Images credits in order as they appear:

1. William Keith. Mount Ritter (Crown of the Sierras). Oakland Museum of California, Gift of the Keith Art Association. Courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California.
2. Early Portrait of John Muir. Courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California.
3. Journal. Yosemite Journal, 1872. John Muir Papers, Holt- Anderson Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. ©1984, Muir-Hanna Trust. Courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California.
4. Model of Muir’s cabin in Yosemite Valley called the “Hang Nest” including replicas of his journals and views he had from the cabin’s window. On view in the exhibition. Photo by Christine Sculati.

• Edward Tufte is widely known as the guru of information design and informational graphics. His website links to a feature story about his work titled, “The Minister of Information” in New York Magazine (June 18, 2007)
• Watch for interactive graphics in news articles. Many news organizations and journalists are experimenting with ways to use new tools for creating interactive graphics for online readers. Take, for example, Mission Local, a news site run by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. According to this article, they created a map of restaurant health inspections that generated over 8,700 page views the day it was posted.
• A picture’s worth 1,000 words – An article on information graphics for nonprofits by Big Duck.
• GOOD displays a gallery of infographic samples including this one: How to Build a Small Army of Volunteers.
• Data Visualization and Infographics Resources by Smashing Magazine
• Interactive Timeline by Dipity
• Google Public Data Explorer – Create visualizations of public data, link to them or embed them on your website.
• Wordle – Word clouds you generate online (like the one above).
• Take a 3-Minute Vacation and Make Art! -Blue Avocado magazine has a little fun in this article.

Amid the staggering losses of traditional news outlets and the layoffs of journalists reporting on local culture and public affairs issues, new nonprofit journalism organizations are emerging rapidly to fill the gaps. They are leveraging new digital technologies and community support to get there.

In an article published in the relatively new Bay Area section of the New York Times (published in print on Fridays and Sundays, online and on some mobile applications), Frances Dinkelspiel calls nonprofit journalism the “Bay Area’s new growth industry.” Yet, as she points out, nonprofit news organizations are not new in the Bay Area.

Well-established Bay Area nonprofit news outlets include KQED public media (founded in the 1950s), Mother Jones magazine (founded in the 1970s), the Center for Investigative Reporting (founded in 1977) and New America Media (founded by the nonprofit Pacific News Service in 1996). The nonprofit Bay Nature magazine, based in Berkeley, debuted in 2001. One of the founders of Bay Nature was Malcom Margolin, a recognized community leader and publisher of Heyday books (founded in 1974) and News from Native California.

While some of the established organizations have covered broader geographical areas, some of the newest nonprofit news organizations emerging in the Bay Area are focusing on community and civic news.

In the Bay Area, new ventures include the San Francisco Public Press and The Bay Citizen, which is set to launch on May 26, 2010 with a celebration at the Great American Music Hall for founding members. Built on a what is called a “crowd-financing model,” Spot.us is replicating its nonprofit model in other metropolitan areas including Seattle and Los Angeles. According to the project’s Web site, Spot.us “allows an individual or group to take control of news by sharing the cost (crowdfunding) to commission freelance journalists.”

Nonprofit sustainability
All of these nonprofit news organizations, old and new, rely on foundation funding, individual donors and diverse revenue streams, the goal of most nonprofit organizations. A few are membership-based organizations, a familiar concept to viewers and listeners of public broadcasting.

You may have already noticed that collaborations for content generation and distribution are becoming ubiquitous among nonprofit and commercial media. Just the other day, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article on gray whale migration by Jane Kay, a former Chronicle staff writer. The article was produced for DailyClimate.org, a nonprofit news service that covers climate change. I also recently read a San Francisco Public Press article published in the New York Times. And California Watch lists over 50 distribution partners on its website.

Community blogs are also rising rapidly. One good resource for finding locally-focused blogs here in the Bay Area is the BayNewsNetwork run by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and its Knight Digital Media Center. The site serves as a directory and aggregator of over 244 blogs and sites focusing on specific communities in the Bay Area region (called “hyperlocal”).

If you want to find out more about new initiatives and local projects working to reinvent journalism and public-interest news, this weekend you can attend the “Journalism Innovations” conference, produced by Independent Arts and Media, The University of San Francisco, G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism and the Society for Professional Journalists. On Twitter, follow the conversations with the #JI3 hashtag.

Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite

More and more, parks and partnering nonprofits are hosting field seminars that explore the lesser-known history of people of color in the national parks. In addition to being a social equity issue, park leaders are realizing that our national parks need an informed, diverse and supportive constituency to ensure the long-term stewardship of these treasures.

In Burns’ “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” scheduled to air on PBS this September, one of the leading storytellers is African American Yosemite Park Ranger Shelton Johnson, who shares these ideals: “There is nothing more democratic than a national park. You are going into a wonderland. You are going into a different world… So why should only one part of the population have that sense of wonder and that experience of discovery? Why can’t African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and everybody have that experience? Because that is part of the experience of being an American, it belongs to everyone.”

In the documentary, Burns reveals “untold stories” of our national parks and the contributions by people of color in their conservation and preservation. Recently called “a rising star” by one reporter, Johnson is profiled in today’s San Francisco Chronicle. Johnson grew up in Detroit, where the national parks seemed like unreachable places. Four years ago, co-producers of the new documentary, WETA and Florentine Films, received support from the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund to launch the “Untold Stories project,” in which Johnson brings to light the story of the Buffalo Soldiers and the role of African Americans early in the history of the national parks. The purpose of the project is to engage new and traditionally underserved audiences in the “educational richness of the national parks.”

The film series weaves together stories of people transformed and inspired by the parks today, like Johnson, as well as historical accounts. Chiura Obata, a Japanese artist who moved from Tokyo to San Francisco in 1903, also gained inspiration from Yosemite and the High Sierra. Obata’s studio in Berkeley was recently named a historic landmark. Through his art he also promoted cross-cultural understanding and offered new perspectives on nature, including many Yosemite landmarks. His 1930 color wood block prints titled, “Evening Glow of Yosemite Waterfall;” “Lake Basin in High Sierra” and “Evening Glow of Mono Lake and Before Thunderstorm, Tuolumne Meadows;” are among my favorite works of Yosemite landscapes.

The National Parks: America’s Best Idea is a six-episode series directed by Ken Burns and written and co-produced by Dayton Duncan. You can view film clips on the PBS Web site and also share a story of your own experiences in the national parks. The film series will air on PBS beginning September 27, 2009.

How do you engage people in your organization’s mission?
Tell an engaging story. And tell that story many times, in many places, and to many people.

Your story – or idea – must be “concrete, credible, and emotional,” says Chip Heath, a professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and presenter of “What Makes Ideas Stick” on The Conversations Network.

One “concrete, credible, and emotional” story, a documentary film about the global coffee industry, might make you think differently about your next latte.

This Wednesday, March 7th, the Oakland Museum of California is hosting a free screening and panel discussion about BLACK GOLD – a documentary film about the global coffee industry, an $80 billion dollar industry, which makes “coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil,” according to the filmmakers. Last month I viewed it at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, and I have not forgotten about it.

Wednesday | March 7th | 2007
6:00 pm Reception | 6:30 pm Screening
Oakland Museum of California
10th and Oak Streets / One block from
Lake Merritt Bart Station Oakland, California 94607
Panel Discussion Following the Film
Flyer