As a lifelong music lover and sometimes performer, it was my pleasure to speak with another music aficionado, Nashua Community Music School Executive Director Lindsay Rinaldi. Lindsay has been a part of the Nashua community since she was 10 years old. After receiving advanced degrees in opera performance, she returned to New Hampshire to teach as an adjunct instructor of Voice & Music Education at Southern New Hampshire University. Having always been passionate about music and community service, Lindsay has also been a voice instructor at NCMS for the last six years, and two years ago she was invited to become Executive Director to help further the mission of NCMS.

For over 32 years, the nonprofit Nashua Community Music School has provided Greater Nashua and the Southern New Hampshire Region with high quality, affordable music education opportunities. The mission of NCMS is to provide a broad spectrum of learning, performing, and listening opportunities in music and to provide vocal and instrumental lessons with the finest teachers available.

read more

At ZipSprout, one of our catchphrases is “Welcome to the Neighborhood.” We are on a mission to dive into each city we cover and meet the neighbors just like a true local. If your neighborhood is in any way similar to mine, you know a great number of folks who are not native English speakers. I bet a large number of them are Spanish speakers, since people of Hispanic origin are the nation’s largest ethnic minority. For this reason, the ZipSprout team created a project that dipped into the Spanish-speaking niche of our melting pot to uncover local marketing opportunities among this community.

Why should brands want to learn about Spanish speakers? Well, the most recent US census in 2010 recorded 55 million Hispanics. Currently, Hispanics constitute 17% of the total US population and by 2060 will represent 29% of US population, ranging in numbers of 119 million(1). This is and will be good sized market for any brand.

read more

Marketing through sponsorships of local organizations and events provides an avenue to key audiences that otherwise may be difficult or costly to reach. In addition to the investment in the community, local marketing has the added benefit of establishing a connection with an organization that the audience trusts. Sponsorships can ignite relationships that are challenging to establish with traditional marketing or advertising.

ZipSprout collaborates with companies interested in investing in local communities so, we did some research on which companies are already focused and highly invested in our backyard, the Raleigh-Durham region of North Carolina. For this research, we analyzed of the frequency of corporate sponsors by counting how often various corporations were listed on sponsorship “thank you” pages for Raleigh-Durham community organizations.

Regarding methodology, this study identified the most commonly linked-to sites from pages that list corporate sponsors via associated hyperlinks. We eliminated false positives, such as Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress, to focus on the true local, frequent corporate sponsors in the Raleigh-Durham market.

And the most community oriented businesses in the Raleigh-Durham region are…

read more

Nerdier than the McConaissance and less jarring than certain recent political shakeups is the sharp change in podcast listening over just the past couple of years. Owing much to breakout hits like Serial and Welcome to Nightvale, the podcastaissance has affected the way we consume news, learn, and entertain ourselves. It has also affected the fate of today’s featured nonprofit, Atlanta Radio Theatre Company. Though the Company’s been around for 30 years, and has podcasted for more than 10, podcasts’ rising popularity has gone a long way toward building this Atlanta non-profit’s reputation on a national scale. Last week I spoke with David Benedict the full-time Vice President of ARTC (“artsy”), .  

a dragoncon meet cute

David has been in theatre since high school. After college, he left the stage moved to the “front of house” to manage local theatres. While he loved storytelling, his commitment to stage performing was lukewarm. Until Dragoncon 1994.

read more

While we don’t pick favorites, the ZipSprout team loves hearing about organizations and events that bring joy to people in pain. Kites Against Cancer is another such event. This annual spectacle, hosted by Exeter Hospital,  polka dots a New Hampshire beach with thousands of kites,  flying against cancer. Last month, I spoke with Carrie Shaw, who manages the event and oversees the fundraising efforts for The Beyond The Rainbow Fund at Exeter Hospital,  a fund providing financial assistance and support to patients in need at Exeter Hospital’s Center for Cancer Care. Carrie got involved after the passing of its founding member (and Carrie’s sister), Anne-Marie Viviano.

first there was cancer

When 30-year-old Anne-Marie Viviano began her fight against breast cancer, she learned that many fellow warriors were battling on multiple fronts. In addition to health issues, many patients face financial frustrations that add to their worries during an already difficult time.

read more