All posts by David

Setting Up a Nonprofit: A Resource Guide for Beginners

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If you’re a creative person, you know just how rewarding artistic hobbies can be. From music to painting, these pursuits allow people to tap into their emotions and find new ways to express themselves. A Spacious Place is a nonprofit that provides underserved communities with the resources they need to get creative. Interested in starting a charitable organization with a similarly creative slant? The below resource guide is here to help.

Select a Business Model and Set Up the Basic Structure

If you want to benefit from the tax breaks awarded to charitable organizations, you must register your company as an official nonprofit business entity.

  • Conduct a needs assessment to determine what unmet need your creative nonprofit can serve in your community.
  • Figure out what kind of legal entity to register your nonprofit as. Generally, the process is the same as starting a business in Texas.
  • Write out a nonprofit business plan to clarify how your nonprofit will be organized.
  • Research your nonprofit tax requirements with the IRS.

Figure Out How to Fund Your Nonprofit

Nonprofits need financial resources to maintain operations.

  • Determine your nonprofit startup costs.
  • Look into charitable grants to help pay for your nonprofit’s foundation.
  • Calculate your ongoing overhead expenses to see how much money you’ll have to fundraise to maintain operations moving forward.
  • Look into diverse ways to raise money for your nonprofit.

Ensure Transparent and Streamlined Nonprofit Operations

Efficient daily operations will help you make the most of your nonprofit’s resources going forward.

  • Map out a management structure for your nonprofit detailing the duties and obligations of managers, staff, and volunteers.
  • Simplify your daily operations with cutting-edge tools like email marketing technology and accounting software.
  • Broaden your network by connecting with other creatively oriented nonprofits.

Starting a nonprofit can be a deeply rewarding way to give back to your community while also pursuing your passion. By giving other people the tools and resources they need to tap into their inner creativity, you can help them live a more rewarding life.

~Amy Collett acollett@bizwell.org

Soul & Solace — September 2020

Creativity/Spirituality, , , ,

The Waiting Room

A houseplant, given by a child from last year’s camp, graces our kitchen table. This year, camp was online for the few who could attend, and while we were delighted to see our campers and their creations, it’s just not the same. We miss the folks we once chatted with, hugged, and created alongside. We wonder about the future. What will happen to them? What will happen to us?
 
We aren’t alone in our wonderings. We’re all hanging out in a global waiting room where, due to the virus, they’ve even removed the outdated magazines. We try not to breathe too deeply as we wait for our name to be called. We perch on uncomfortable chairs, wondering: What will the prognosis be? Will our business, our job, our marriage, our lives survive? Will there ever be a day when we can, again, breathe deep and free? What will our globe look like once the waiting room empties and it’s all over?
 
One of the hardest things we do as humans is to wait. And, oddly, that hard thing can remind us of our mutual connection. Past months have brought plenty to yank us apart. Could the global waiting room draw us together? Might we look at one another over our masks and nod, “Yeah. Me, too?”
 
After last year’s camp, I dutifully watered our plant gift. Even so, the brilliant, waxy red blossoms withered and died. Autumn came, and then winter. Then March with its ill news followed by months of more bad news. But today I look across this screen at two brilliant, waxy red blossoms worth waiting for.
 
And I hope…
 
How do you pass the time in the global waiting room? What gives you hope? Share your Soul & Solace thoughts with us at contact@aspaciousplace.com.

Halloween Creativity 2017

At A Spacious Place we believe in creating in community, because the sharing of ideas and feedback helps the creative process. Last Sunday night, friends of A Spacious Place gathered to carve pumpkins, decorate calaveras (sugar skulls), and share a meal. We cheered one another’s creations, laughed at the stories shared, and enjoyed the food offerings. Below are some of our calaveras and our pumpkins that lit the night on Halloween. Enjoy them as much as we enjoyed making them.

Gutting the pumpkin…                                          Time to carve your ideas into its skin

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the final results

           Woodstock singing                                                         Creepy face

Ghostly face                                                “Ruh-roh, Raggy!”

Snoopy howling “Aroooo”

 

And calveras galore

             

We hope that you had a fun, safe Halloween, and that your spooky creating time was enjoyable.

“Ahh, Bach!” — Creative Guitar Playing

Creativity/Spirituality, ,

“Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.” (William Congreve)

I mentioned in a previous blog Hawkeye’s comment that when you said “Bach” that you’ve said everything (“I think once you’ve said that, you’ve said it all.”). For me there are “Ah, Bach!” moments that occur when musicians challenge my mind and soul. The literary references in Led Zeppelin, along with the music, soar above so many songs that I hear today; The Beatles wove stories through their music; U2 speaks for social justice.  Classical music is not the only genre that inspires and moves.

So, the other day I discovered—well, actually, I was sent this link (http://www.mikerayburn.com/flv/comicallyderailed.html) to—Mike Rayburn, who bills himself as The World’s Funniest Guitar Virtuoso. His artistic presentation, Comically Derailed, showcases creativity and performance that provided me with a lift to my soul and spirit. The range of music is amazing. Check him out. “Ahh, music!!! I’m charmed.”

September Soul and Solace

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A taste of autumn is in the air—it’s a great time to be outside! What transitions do you experience as you walk outside? Evenings racing up on afternoons earlier every day? School buses replacing tour buses? Apples replacing watermelon? Working up to a sweat instead of starting out with one?

September’s Soul & Solace invites you to express a transition in creation through poetry: NO NOT FEAR—YOU CAN DO THIS! Choose a transition that intrigues you or start with one of the suggestions above. If you can, go out and sit with the transition and allow it to bless you. Then create a diamante poem (from If You’re Trying the Teach Kids How to Write, You’ve Gotta Have This Book! By Marjorie Frank).

Line 1: Name the initial experience (for instance, tour bus)

Line 2: Name two adjectives that describe the experience (sleek, sparkling)

Line 3: Name three participles (-ing verbs) that describe the experience (blaring, racing, soaring)

Line 4: Name two nouns for the first experience (travel, highways) and two that describe the experience it transitions into (travel, byways)

Line 5: Name three participles (-ing verbs) that describe the second experience (yelling, waving, yielding)

Line 6: Name two adjectives that describe the second experience (homey, yellow)

Line 7: Name the transition experience (school bus)

You now have a gem of a poem!

tour bus

sleek, sparkling

blaring, racing, soaring

travel highways travel byways

yelling, waving, yielding

homey, yellow

school bus

You can even play with words the can serve as two parts of speech, as with “travel” in this poem: it is written as a noun, and can also be read as a verb.

“Ahh, Bach!” Moments

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In the TV series M*A*S*H—one of my all-time television favorites—, Season 1, Episode 14 (“Love Story”) Radar has fallen for Nurse Louise Anderson. They are from opposite worlds: his unschooled and earthy, hers scholarly and sophisticated. In trying to impress her, we hear the following conversation about music:

Radar: Ahh, Bach!
Louise: What does that mean? “Ahh, Bach”?
Radar: Uh, just that. Ahh, Bach.
Hawkeye: I think once you’ve said that, you’ve said it all.
Radar: Ahh, Bach.

I’ve begun thinking about “Ahh, Bach” concepts and moments in different venues, such as food, literature, art, music, etc. This is the beginning of a series of “Ahh, Bach” ideas. Each one will feature an exposition of an idea or object that is an “Ahh, Bach!” concept: an idea so obvious that you’ve said it all.

So, as we begin, let’s think about classical music. Is “Ahh, Bach” definitive of the genre? I am moved by all of his works in ways that few other composers have done, but that is not to disparage Beethoven or Handel or Mozart. Hey, Tchaikovsky? Even as I write this, I’m thinking of Beethoven’s 5th and 9th symphonies. They rock! Maybe classical music doesn’t have just one “Ahh, Bach” moment. Maybe it’s filled with “Ahh, Bach,” “Ahh, Beethoven,” “Ahh, Tchaikovsky,” and more (this is only the big names).

What do you think? Do we have any modern classical composers in this realm? Who’s a contemporary “Ahh, Bach” and why?

Welcome to A Spacious Place: Creativity and Spirituality Center

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Welcome to the A Spacious Place blog. We invite you to join us on a creative and spiritual journey. This blog is not a place to argue viewpoints, but, rather, a place spacious enough to both hear and be heard. Since persons of all ages could be reading the blog, we do ask that contributors employ respect in both language and tone.

We welcome your comments, questions, ramblings, or art work. Also, each month will feature a creative/spiritual practice for your exploration. If you try it out, we’d love to hear your experience. So fingers to keyboards, everyone—let’s create together!