At Catalyst Dallas, Jeff Shinabarger interviewed Shaun King of TwitChange and Courageous Church, Tyler Merrick of Project 7, and Jenny White of Art House America on the future of philanthropy.
Art House America was founded in 1991 to connect artists’ faith to their art.
Project 7 is a for-profit company that exists to help nonprofits by selling lifestyle branded products. Their mantra is don’t buy more stuff, change what you buy.
TwitChange brings celebrities, fans, and causes all together by auctioning off tweets by celebrities.
What have you learned by starting something out of nothing?
TM: It is always harder than you think it will be.
SK: Two small lessons that I learned are: (1) I made the mistake assuming that my wife would be on board just because it was my idea. If you want a loved one to believe in your idea, you must still sell it to them. (2) I am learning the difficulties of mixing of business and church relationships. It is difficult to have people see me as their pastor and CEO.
JW: You need to be okay with asking for help. And be okay with not having it all together. Be patient.
How to you improve an idea that you have launched and identify what works and what doesn’t?
SK: I try to surround myself with people who don’t always blow smoke up my butt. We have outside consultants advise TwitChange. Because TwitChange exists to raise money for causes, we judge the quality of an idea by how much money it makes.
TM: We sat down with nonprofits we work with to get insightful feedback and criticism about how we do things. If we don’t adapt and make changes, we would get lost. We stay mobile and agile and willing to change our message.
What are your team’s creative spaces like?
JW: As a startup, our office isn’t very creative, so we will go to coffee shops to fill that need.
TM: We stock our company kitchen with free food that our team likes because we want them to feel comfortable and want to be there. We leave are doors open and let music play.
SK: Most of our team works remotely. For me, a creative space is about having the time and place to focus on thinking clearly and creatively. The physical space doesn’t mean that much to me, but the experience matters. You can have an amazing physical space, but if you go in there burdened down mentally and emotionally, it will not do anything for you. Having sacred hours during your day where you do something specific is important.
What social media advice would you give on how to engage an audience?
TM: It has been important for us to find some good social media talent. Customer service is important. People are way more likely to reach out to us via social media than to pick up the phone.
SK: We get a ton of volunteers online, and they are always strangers. It is a new frontier because they definitely know me and then expect me to know them. People who are very friendly with me online actually see me as their friend. So when we ask for volunteers, people often think, “That is Shaun, my friend, asking for help.” I also love and don’t love the real time criticism. It is beautiful because you get to respond to people right away, but it is also nagging. And how you handle that is difficult. You don’t need amazing technology to change the world for good or evil.
What would you say to a church leader about how they can serve someone like you?
TM: The church always is battling trying to serve all needs for all people. The opportunity that I have seen is prayer. Having prayer support from the church is a huge part. You don’t really need another book or a podcast. You need relationship and support.
JW: See our nonprofit as a resource and not something that will take people from your church. recognize that we are trying to serve all people who are called to a lifestyle of creativity.
