Joe Castro Brevoort - Creative Partner Highlight

Joe Castro Brevoort is a Philadelphia-based graphic designer, artist and musician. Following a 9 year stint as Art Director for Please Touch Museum, he founded Red Attic Studios in 2007, building up a diverse client base of non-profits, renegade start-ups, pharmaceutical companies and concert promoters. He has won numerous awards for his design and illustration work, which has been featured in Graphic Design USA and Color Magazine. As an artist, his paintings and collages have been shown in galleries and art spaces across the United States and Canada.

For more information, please visit redatticstudios.com

editor's note: Joe was the art director at Please Touch Museum when we had them as a CreateAThon client over 5 years ago, and has since joined us every year on the creative side for our annual CreateAthon event. The work he's created over the years for nonprofits is top of the line, and we always look forward to seeing what he will create.

Scheduling is done!

Marci and Richard worked on scheduling the meetings on Friday and the schedules will be posted here and go out by email to the nonprofits and volunteers on Tuesday. We're still anticipating a few last-minute RSVPs from nonprofits and are holding a few spaces available for them until the last minute. We're super-excited about the lineup of talented pros and worthy organizations they will be working with, and also the cool seminars that will be taking place. It's going to be a great day! So psyched!

Joe Fisher - Creative Partner Highlight

Due to what he describes as an unusual genetic sequencing, Joe is somewhat of an oddity with talents that span both the business and creative sides. He began his career working in some of Philadelphia’s largest ad agencies, including spending 7 years as President of Domus Advertising. His clients at one time or another have included ARAMARK, Butterball, Okidata, ALPO, Mannington Floors, Invisible Fence and Campbell’s Soup. For the last 7 years he has worked as an independent marketing consultant helping a number of customers, both large and small, hone their marketing programs and new business presentations.

What is he best at? His answer is “positioning” – meaning finding the best way for a company to present itself to its target audience. While he does not have a lot of back ground with non-profits, he does hope his talents will translate perfectly to the CPR Program. We will see.

extra special editor's note: Joe came up with the idea of having a team of creative pros meet with the nonprofits instead of one-on-one specialists, and we think that idea is brilliant, and will allow greater flexibility and better results from a wider pool of experts. Good thinking Joe!

3 Seminars for CPR lined up!

We are very excited about the 3 seminars that nonprofits can attend as part of Creative Partners Roundtable taking place on May 21st.

10 am and 2 pm: (presented at two times)

Direct Mail Projects - Getting Results.

by Rich Lewis, Burlington Press.

Direct Mail campaigns are proven to be one of the most effective tools for nonprofit's when fundraising, promoting volunteering, and increasing awareness. Learn how to get the most out of your direct mail. Some of the topics to be discussed will be

· Who are you talking to? No one if your mailing list isn’t any good.

· Is your message compelling enough to make them read it?

· How personalization can yield big results or create terrible failures

· Production tricks you should know about.

· Little tricks that save big on postage costs.

Learn from this seasoned printing and mail-house pro about the pitfalls of direct mail to avoid, and some smart ways to stretch your direct mail campaign dollars for increasing your return on investment.

. . . . .

11 am

Internet Marketing on a Dime*

by Howard Yermish

It is 2011 and the promise of Social Media has infected the business world. What used to require a web developer and piles of cash can now be done in minutes by anyone with a web browser. Learn how Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and Foursquare can be used to promote your business online.

*Dime not required. Guaranteed to upset most Internet development companies. Some assembly required.

. . . . .

12 pm

Best Practices in Board Governance

by Laura Otten, Ph.D., director of The Nonprofit Center at La Salle University’s School of Business.

Dr. Otten will discuss what nonprofit professionals need to know about meaningful board membership –from the perspective of working well with your board as well as how board participation can be used as a training ground for future nonprofit leadership.

Any local area NONPROFIT can register to attend these free seminars - click here now

Hala Al-Shawaf - Creative Partner Highlight

Hala Al-Shawaf holds a B.F.A. in Art History and Studio Art (Metalsmithing and Textiles) from Moore College of Art and Design. She maintains an active studio practice in Moorestown, NJ, and shows her work through Philadelphia-area galleries and the Moorestown ArtWalk—a monthly event that connects local businesses, artists, and non-profits. Hala channels her passion for finding creative ways to bring business and finance together with the creative and non-profit worlds by focusing on Business and Community Development in her role as Assistant Branch Manager at a regional bank. To that end, she serves on several boards and committees, including Moorestown Improvement Association, Moorestown Business Association, and one of her bank’s Corporate Philanthropy committees. Additionally, she recently co-chaired her fifth major annual fundraiser for the regional chapter of a national youth mentoring organization. Hala is particularly interested in Social Media and its impact on fundraising, marketing, and donor communication in the non-profit world.

editor's note: We're looking forward to the energy and positive vibe Hala will bring to the event!

Richard Lewis - Creative Partner Highlight

Rich and his wife own Burlington Press, a full service printing and direct mail company. He brings to printing a lot of marketing experience that can help clients increase results and succeed with direct mail and other forms of marketing. He also built a company that provides professional, friendly services and makes sure every client gets a lot of value for the dollars spent. Everyone at Burlington Press is most proud of working with the good folks at Hypno Design and CreateAthon.

Rich is a big believer in giving back to the community. He is currently the marketing chair of the YMCA of Burlington and Camden Counties and serves on the Board of the Burlington County Boy Scouts and the Rotary Club of Burlington.

Rich and his wife, Vivian, have three grown children and enjoy cycling, kayaking, hiking and just about anything outdoors.

Please visit burlingtonpress.com

Editor's note: Rich will be presenting a seminar at CPR about how a nonprofit can get the best results from their direct mail campaigns. Stay tuned for seminar schedule and synopsis. Rich and Vivian have been very generous with their time and in providing printing for our CreateAthon event for the past 5 years. They're good people.

Editors note: Howard is presenting one of our seminars, open to any nonprofit to attend at 11am: Internet Marketing on a Dime

Nonprofits still can REGISTER TO ATTEND free Seminars.

Adrian Aguirre - Creative Partner Highlight

Adrian Aguirre is an artist and designer who was born and raised in Juarez, Mexico. He has an MFA in painting from the College of Visual Arts, University of North Texas and a BFA in graphic design from New Mexico State University. He has taught studio arts at the University of North Texas, and worked as a graphic designer for New Mexico State University’s Media Productions Department.

As a graphic designer for the media productions department at New Mexico State University, he helped to create award winning educational websites and games. He worked on primarily on grant-funded projects for non-profits to develop television motion graphics, DVD menu interfaces, DVD and CD-ROM packages, print material, bilingual websites, and animated music videos for children.

Recently, he partnered with Projects Gallery in Philadelphia to provide web and print design services to creative professionals and small businesses.


For more information go to
www.projectsgraphic.com
www.adrianaguirre.com (fine art)

Editor's Note: Please leave a comment for Adrian below.