Living in Sin - 026
Not appearing due to a scheduling conflict.
Hi y’all!
Chatting music festivals, Jalen Hurts, microdonors, and more below.
Pride
Spring PorchFest is back in Adams Morgan this Saturday* and not to toot my own horn, but the earned media is rolling in strong. With over 100+ acts, including a dedicated stage for School of Rock students, it’s not just a neighborhood event; it's a citywide celebration of community, creativity, and culture. Hope to see you cuties there. I’ve had so much fun working with this year’s headliner, Gangstagrass, on some custom promo on social.
Sloth
This week’s long read to luxurate into is New York Times’ reporting on the ripple effects of the Trump administration’s $1 billion cut to federal food aid programs. This administration is making us more food insecure. This administration is forcing the generous individuals who run our food access points to turn dried cranberries, crackers, and canned soup into full meals for seniors. Fig pieces being delivered in place of protein. Our safety nets are fraying in real time.
When you slash programs that feed people, you’re not “trimming the budget.” You’re gutting communities. This is why I’m so proud of the work FRESHFARM is doing in DC. They are not only feeding families, but building real infrastructure for local food access and bridging the gap between rural and urban communities via partnerships with local growers. PR pros, now is the time to tell the stories of community-rooted solutions that actually hold when the federal system doesn’t. It’s beyond just handing out produce; they’re reimagining the food system in a way that’s dignified, local, and sustainable.
Greed
The latest Fundraising Effectiveness Project report dropped. While total dollars are slightly up, the number of donors, especially microdonors, is steadily shrinking. Microdonors, defined as people giving under $100, are a majority of the donor base, but their retention rate is only 32%. PR teams should be working hand-in-hand with development teams to provide some extra love to these sectors.
Small donors don’t need a gala. They need to feel seen. Some low-lift, high-impact ways to re-engage microdonors:
Text-Only Updates - Skip the pretty HTML emails. Send microdonors a plain-text email from a real staffer with a quick note: “Hey, I wanted to thank you! This week, your $10 helped cover x, y, and z. We couldn’t do this work without you.”
"Pay It Forward" Chain - Invite small donors to write a short anonymous note (digital or physical) of encouragement to someone your org serves. Sharing that message in your community offers the emotional connection microdonors crave without the high-level infrastructure out of reach for many nonprofits.
“You’re the Plot Twist” Campaign - Create a storytelling campaign that highlights unexpected microdonor impact. For example, “243 of you gave $10 to power this”
Gluttony
I have personally been asking for this for years.
Lust
Let’s talk about Jalen Hurts. And his decision not to go to the White House due to a “scheduling conflict.“ Personally, I wish he had come out and said that he’s not down with Trump. But I understand that he may not have wanted to throw his teammates under the bus who did decide to go. What do we think?
Envy
I am deeply envious of whoever got to be in the car with Mayor Eric Adams’ team after this story dropped as they were all probably rapidly scrolling through public business records to come to the the slow realization that a stunt to flex small business support might’ve just tied the administration to the very unlicensed operators it claimed to crack down on. This was supposed to be a clean, tightly controlled campaign event: legal cannabis, social equity, veteran-owned business, photo op. Instead, it’s now a masterclass in due diligence failure. And while I do not envy the fielding of those follow-up questions, I absolutely envy the potential case study this just became.
Wrath
As always, I have no time for wrath, so instead you get a recent camera role gem: BTS from a lil shoot with Back Roads Granola.
okay bye, babes!
-M
*manifesting good weather