Write to Change the World

“Whoever tells the story … writes history.”

Maine’s nonprofit community has incredible stories and voices, many of which are not included in public dialogue. To help people own their power and expertise and to amplify voices within our community that are too often unheard, Maine Association of Nonprofits is sponsoring members to take part in virtual “Write to Change the World” workshops organized and facilitated by The OpEd Project.

Write to Change the World Workshops challenge participants to think in new and bigger ways about what they know, why it matters, and how to use it. They use op-eds as an action step, but the framework and curriculum can apply to any place where someone seeks to have an impact - on TV, at a PTA meeting, before a board of directors, to potential funders, or on the steps of Congress. 

Throughout these workshops, participants will:

• Reflect on their expertise, the value of seeing their story as part of a bigger picture—and themselves as part of a larger public conversation
• Explore how to establish credibility, present ideas under pressure and differentiate between being “right” and being effective
• Leave with concrete results, including a draft outline of an op-ed and the opportunity to tap into a national network of journalist mentors for individual feedback on their draft
• Be invited to remain in community and dialogue with other members of MANP’s community who take part in this opportunity!

Intended Audience

We seek to over-represent the traditionally underrepresented. People of all identities, backgrounds, genders, and positions are welcome. No publishing experience is necessary.

Register here!

Format

These highly interactive, multimedia sessions are designed with varied learning styles in mind. They provide closed captioning and additional accessibility support when needed.

To maximize everyone’s experience, The OpEd Project requires that each participant commits to participating continuously and in full (without skipping segments), and, as much as possible, to keeping their camera on throughout. Recordings will not be available.

Schedule

Participants will choose one of the following options:

• Tuesday, October 3 & Wednesday October 4: 2-Day Intensive (2:00pm to 5:30pm ET)
• Saturdays, October 7, 14, 21, 28: 4-Part Series (2:00pm to 4:00pm ET)
• Wednesday, October 25 & Thursday, October 26: 2-Day Intensive (10:00am to 1:30pm ET)

Cost + Financial Assistance

• The full price is $400 to participate in the workshop. 
• MANP has a minimum of 15 full scholarships as well as additional partial scholarships to help eliminate financial barriers:
  • To qualify for a full scholarship, individuals must be an employee, board member or volunteer of a member organization with a budget under $750,000.
  • Scholarship priority will be given to nonprofit leaders whose work has been consistently under-resourced—specifically Black, Indigenous, Latino/a/x, API/A, low-income, undocumented, persons with disabilities, LGBQTI2S+, and rural-based communities—so they can tap into their full power and resilience.

Registration

Whether or not you are requesting a scholarship, please complete this brief registration form by Friday, September 15th to be part of the MANP cohort participating in this pilot.

Qualifying individuals will be able to choose the date(s) that work best for them.

Register here!

About The OpEd Project

The OpEd Project is a global thought leadership organization that accelerates the ideas and public impact of underrepresented voices to change who writes history. They believe the best ideas, regardless of where they come from, should have a chance to be heard and to change the world. They focus their work around five pillars—gender justice, racial justice, climate justice, public health justice and media & democracy—issues where a diversity of voices is needed and can have disproportionate impact.

“After years of being ignored, people now listen to what I say, mostly because I learned how to perfect an evidence-based argument through The OpEd Project. I have a new sense of what it’s like to matter to the world, and my experience has infused me with a sense of duty that I fulfill through thought leadership, oped-style. There’s power in my pen and I know it.” 

^{— Chandra Bozelko, New York City Alum. Chandra has published more than 70 op-eds since attending Write to Change the World in major national outlets including, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and more, and three of these pieces have caused identifiable policy reversals. Chandra is now a Facilitator and Mentor-Editor.}