Neighboring Productions was an initiative I created during my time at NeighborLink Fort Wayne. It was an opportunity to go deeper into our mission and help humanize our work so others could better understand how great an opportunity serving your neighbors really is. It was also an entrepreneurial effort to generate enough revenue to sustain the investment of resources it took to run and even generate additional income for the nonprofit.
A variation of Neighboring Productions still exists and is run by NeighborLink Fort Wayne.
Neighboring Productions
Humanizing the work of NeighborLink through storytelling and effective communication was always vital to the success of helping vulnerable neighbors find the help they needed. There would always be a solution when there was a clearer understanding of what was needed. Unfortunately, nonprofits historically struggle to find the resources required to create marketing content, let alone have it be any good or with the frequency needed to be effective.
The vision behind Neighboring Productions was to create a media production company that could help enough other nonprofits and small businesses to underwrite the operating expenses so we could have full-time staff dedicated to telling the NeighborLink story. We strived to only work on paid work 30% of the time to dedicate 70% towards our own projects. There is more to this story, but it was a growing success when I left in 2021, and it continues today with the current NeighborLink leadership.
Neighboring Productions create short films, podcasts, and creative content for nonprofits, small businesses, and community organizations looking to humanize their work in a digital age. They believe a story is best told by the person living it, and what better way than a video to share that story?
Neighboring Podcast
Neighboring Podcast celebrates what it means to be a neighbor in today’s society. We do this by exploring in-depth conversations with residents of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and beyond who are good neighbors in various ways.
Each episode features at least one of these neighbors living life with intention and thoughtfulness while doing the little things that change neighborhoods from the ground up. In the process, we’ll explore what it means to be a good neighbor in their workplace, culture, community, or circle of influence and what events helped shape each guest’s worldview.
The podcast was put on hold upon my departure as Executive Director in 2021 and is currently having its future evaluated. I left hoping the team would continue the format in a way that made sense for their new leadership.
