With National Nonprofit day (August 17) in mind, Irvington resident and nonprofit expert Genevieve Piturro has decided to initiate the first ever Nonprofit Business Intensive & Pitch Contest. Designed to give founders a jump start on building a successful nonprofit, Piturro is calling all nonprofit founders looking to take their organizations to the next level.
The contest will take place on September 14, 2019 at 130 Mercer Street in Manhattan, at the SOHO offices of Scholastic, Inc. Only 25 applicants will be chosen to attend the event — announced in mid-August — and applications are open now through August 5. (Note: You must have a 501(c)3 to apply.) The contest is free and is also open to nonprofit founders outside of New York, as Piturro welcomes anyone looking for knowledge on how to grow their boards.
The event itself is a one-day, in-depth series of workshops and panels led by nonprofit influencers planning to share their stories and offer advice on how to achieve and retain success in the field. There will be guest speakers from United Way, girls inc, NAF, and Billion Oyster Project who will share their experience and expertise on how to fundraise and build a successful board for nonprofit organizations.
After workshopping and presenting their pitches, one winner will be selected to receive a generous subscription package to industry-leading business and marking tools, PR, and legal help. They will also receive free registration to the upcoming inaugural cohort of the Genaccelerator, a 12-week online training program for nonprofit founders by nonprofit founders, as well as a free one-on-one coaching session with Piturro.
Photo courtesy of PressWell pr
As founder of the national nonprofit Pajama Program, an organization aimed at empowering caregivers to provide a comforting bedtime routine to children, Piturro is experienced in the art of an accomplished nonprofit. However, she did not always plan to take this path for her life. “It was just such a different life that I had before, climbing the corporate ladder. It was just this traditional route of making money and working nine to five,” Piturro says. After “more and more people were interested in what I was doing and wanted to help,” her nonprofit emerged as a result. She says it has been the most rewarding and fulfilling experience in her life.
“Over the years I learned so much about what makes a nonprofit run and succeed,” she says. Her idea for the Business Intensive & Pitch Contest combines her own knowledge and skills with a novel way at urging up-and-coming organizations to grow their own expertise. “There is so much that these new nonprofit founders and early stage nonprofits need. I wanted to give them a day of experts, to let them hear, talk, and participate in an intimate setting to get answers they need.”
As for what types of pitches are likely to catch her ear at the event, Piturro says, “You want someone who lights up when they tell their story,” because those are the stories that truly resonate with an audience. The Pitch Contest taps into this idea, while giving nonprofits with existing 501(c)3s tips on how to utilize marketing tools to boost the number of volunteers they receive in the future.
The Nonprofit Business Intensive & Pitch Contest is designed to ease the stress of the struggle and assure new nonprofit founders that they are far from alone in this process of changing the world. “This is a very special group of people who need support and deserve support,” says Piturro.
