Staff Blog: Tell Your Story at the Second Annual Philly DoGooder This Spring

For those of you old enough to remember the TV series Dragnet, you’re familiar with the old adage that the city has a thousand stories.

Well, that was such 20th Century thinking.

In the new millennium our city now has tens of thousands of stories; stories about creative approaches to improving the lives of marginalized people in our community; stories about unexpected partnerships; stories about people doing good, not as an afterthought, but as an integral part of living their lives.

At Impact HUB Philly, a small group of these DoGooders are organizing a celebration of social impact storytelling along with a very specific process for helping DoGooders join forces with the creative community in the region to tell more of these stories. It is all happening as part of the Second Annual Philly DoGooder Video Awards, with a filmmaker hackathon taking place on January 20, 2014 and an Awards Evening at Hamilton Hall on the campus of the University of the Arts on March 12, 2014. The Awards Evening will feature prizes for the best of impact videos submitted by social impact organizations.

This year, we’ve opened up the submissions to include not just nonprofits, but also social enterprises. Team Philly DoGooder realizes that it is a combination of nonprofits and for-profits that are forging the way in this new era of social impact. Both sectors have started to learn from each other to become more effective, and we are interested in hearing the dynamic stories of those organizations.

Winners will be selected through a combined process of public voting on the Philly in Focus channel of Comcast and an expert panel of judges. In addition, we will recognize individuals and organizations for the impact of their work in the community through the Community Leader Awards.

Generocity is the proud producer of the Philly DoGooder Video Awards. We are partnering this year with creative agency Here’s My Chance, as well as See3 Communications, Impact HUB Philly, the Knight Foundation, Wells Fargo Bank, and the Philadelphia Foundation to bring an entertaining and exciting evening celebrating the social impact community here in Philly.

Organizations wishing to apply for free filmmaking services through the Hackathon on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Januray 20th, 2014) or to enter their original video to this year’s contest should visit phillydogooder.com to register, as well as filmmakers who are interested in participating in the hackathon.

Generocity will continue to provide coverage of the social impact community in Philadelphia and this project will provide yet another impactful medium through which to tell the stories of the people and organizations at the center of this community.