As promised, some more of my random ramblings as I sort through the whirling Boot Camp-induced tornado that is my brain.

When we last left our free-range dreamers, they were pondering this topic:

Find ways that doing what you do can help other people

Everyone always says that the best way to improve your own situation is to help others improve theirs - it’s sort of like networking karma.

Boot Camp was no different - in the welcome speech and the morning keynote, Darian Rodriguez Heyman and Ami Dar both talked about how using your resources to help the people around you will foster an attitude of cooperation and inspire others to help you with your own work. Darien even challenged everyone at Boot Camp to find two people they could help in some way over the course of the day - either by making connections, suggesting resources, or just sharing ideas. (I found my two!)

The thing that struck me the most about helping others, though, was in the Social Entrepreneurship workshop I went to. Rather than just helping other organizations in hopes of good karma bringing something back to them, Room to Read and GOOD Magazine have actually found a way to use what they’re already doing to help both their own organizations and each other’s.

When GOOD was ready to launch their magazine, they didn’t have the resources (or the desire) to conduct a $12 million direct mail campaign to find subscribers. Instead, they found some organizations with worthwhile causes - like Room to Read - and made a deal with them: Subscribers to the magazine would be given a choice of which of GOOD’s 12 nonprofit partners their subscription fee would be donated to in its entirety; in return for these donations, Room to Read (and the other nonprofit partners) would spread the word about the magazine to their existing base of supporters, encouraging them to subscribe to GOOD - in effect, getting a magazine subscription and giving a donation to Room to Read at the same time.

It’s a win-win situation: GOOD boosts their subscription base, thereby increasing their ad revenue (which is where they make their money), without spending $12 million to do it. At the same time, Room to Read gets even more donations, because their contributors are getting something tangible - a magazine subscription - rather than just a thank-you from the organization. By thinking about how what they were already doing could benefit other organizations, Room to Read and GOOD Magazine were able to join forces and make the most out of their combined resources.

So now I’m thinking, how could we do that with the Drama Farm? What would we be providing that might be of use to someone else? I’m still mulling over the possibilities - if you’ve got any thoughts on the matter, leave a comment - I’d love to hear your ideas!