When Showing Your Work Tells Your Story

There is an inherent relationship between your event program and the work of your organization. Or at least there should be. It’s an opportunity for the form and function of what you do to help tell your story at the event.

The easiest way to do that is to look at who is on stage and look at what they say about your work. For example, if you champion women in leadership, put women who lead and can speak to how your organization got them there on your stage. If you are a youth mentorship organization, think about pairing youth and adults on stage to reinforce that idea as a constant visual.

Ethos believes that all kids should have access to music education and provides music lessons, classes, camps and workshops for students. This work creates a dynamic opportunity to showcase their impact by putting those students in their music education programs on stage.

The program of their annual gala this year was filled with student performances as the perfect examples of the impact of their work.

They didn’t have to talk about the programs. They didn’t showcase a lot of statistics. They turned the spotlight on their biggest resource, the literal and figurative voices their work and used them to drive their event content.

They selected a range of performances to show that they provide education in jazz, classical, voice and good old rock ‘n’ roll. They showed them why their work is so important instead of trying to tell them. Those moments connected the room in a way that no amount of talking could have and put the spotlight on the student performers instead of the organization and created a compelling case for donors.

Photos by Nina Lee Johnson