#ChaChaCha and #52Causes Wrap Up: No Champagne (or Hashtags) Left Behind

Did you know Houston has over 18,000 nonprofits?

Did you know Houston has over 18,000 nonprofits? That’s a lot of causes, missions and visions, with each organization working tirelessly to instill change and make Houston the best city it can be. But yet, there are still so many people in Houston who do not know all of the good work that goes on behind the scenes.

Condensed

Houston—home of NASA, a crazy amount of bayous and, oh, like 20,000 nonprofits.

#ChaChaCha, No we aren’t dancing.

Houston—home of NASA, a crazy amount of bayous and, oh, like 20,000 nonprofits. Twenty. Thousand. Have you ever thought why? Because Houston is a giving city, people. We literally put our money where our mouths are and collectively help all kinds of organizations get what they need to thrive. But money is not the only way to support a worthy cause. Around the Black Sheep office, we’re always looking for ways to give back—whether that’s joining a nonprofit board, volunteering or learning about new causes.

SO. MUCH. HAPPENING. VidCon started, so we’ve got hordes of screaming adolescent girls obsessing over top Viners in California.

FINALLY. The Bacon Has Arrived.

SO. MUCH. HAPPENING.VidConstarted, so we’ve got hordes of screaming adolescent girls obsessing over top Viners in California. Sorry Mom—we can’t imagine what it’s like to chaperone a party that goes on for three days. YouTube Red launched their original seriesEscape The Night, which has the incredibly original “death at a dinner party” theme going on. We’re still trying to figure out how that will fit into our already-strenuous Netflix regime.

June 17-23 Is The Official National Week of Making. #ThanksObama.

“Makers and builders and doers—of all ages and backgrounds—have pushed our country forward, developing creative solutions to important challenges and proving that ordinary Americans are capable of achieving the extraordinary when they have access to the resources they need.

“Makers and builders and doers—of all ages and backgrounds—have pushed our country forward, developing creative solutions to important challenges and proving that ordinary Americans are capable of achieving the extraordinary when they have access to the resources they need. During National Week of Making, we celebrate the tinkerers and dreamers whose talent and drive have brought new ideas to life, and we recommit to cultivating the next generation of problem solvers.” -President Obama

Panning way out, Facebook just graced 1.5 billion people with 360 Video.

A Literal Facebook Ollie

If you were living under a rock this weekend (or not checking in on our #52 Causes), then you probably missed out on Houston’s annual Hackathon.

What The Hack We Did This Weekend

If you were living under a rock this weekend (or not checking in on our #52 Causes), then you probably missed out on Houston’s annual Hackathon. The good news is that we got you covered. The bad news is that you missed out on some serious cool points.

Regular

#52Causes and Champagne Charity Chats: We Have Only Just Begun

Houston organizations that fight for the quality of life of all people.

52 Causes We Support.

Why everyone who works needs a break at some point.

How to Take a Rest.

5 Reasons You Should Use Your Creative Powers for Good

5 Reasons To Use Creativity for Good

PAY ATTENTION! Facebook is changing. Again.

Facebook is Changing.

Facebook’s annual developer conference is a two-day event focused on telling the people about their new creations (that no one really asked for).

While the event is aimed at developers, it’s the perfect stage for Facebook to announce some of its larger initiatives and to provide insights into the future of the platform. Here at Black Sheep, our layered digital strategies leverage such platforms, producing new ways for our clients to reach and engage with audiences.

This is why we made sure to catch the important nuggets to share. Here’s the need-to-know breakdown:

All of your messages belong to Facebook.
Remember that time Facebook purchased WhatsApp and then forced users to download their Messenger app? It paid off. With messaging app use on the rise, Messenger will support more direct communication between people and brands. Through a new bot platform, bots can be deployed to act as virtual assistants, allowing people to make online orders for a variety of things, to schedule a day or to fetch the latest news.

Saving your content to Facebook for later might start working like it should.
With Facebook pushing their Instant Articles feature, they rolled out a web button companion that says “Save to Facebook.” While saving your content to your Facebook account for later reading has been around, it hasn’t been well utilized. Now, articles and content from across the web have an insta-save button and help content reach that much further.

Inspirational quotes are no longer an Instagram thing.
As you browse through content on other websites and in other apps, such as Kindle, you could be seeing the option to share selected text directly to Facebook. No more having to copy and then paste quotes into a new post like some sort of commoner. Could this be the beginning of us seeing micro-metrics around what specific content pieces are performing well? We hope so!

Videos for everyone!
A real-time live video feature being called Facebook Live rolled out earlier this week, right ahead of the announcement . It is believed that this new tool will challenge services like Periscope and SnapChat, but not directly (but totally directly). The big difference is that Facebook Live will allow for live video to connect to any camera—including equipped drones. The core of this technology is also added to the Messenger update, allowing for FaceTime communication that isn’t actually FaceTime.

Quickly log into just about anything.
Facebook wants your data, even if you don’t use Facebook. With the new Facebook Account Kit, developers will be able to allow (mainly mobile) users to log into web services and apps using only a phone number. These types of features and tools are why data security will continue to grow in importance over time. This is also why SMS spamming is the new email spam.  


There were a lot of other updates and reveals but, overall, our buddy Zuckerberg is taking his company to a bigger playground. Over the next five years, the Facebook team will focus on beefing up their tech arm by creating and facilitating the connectivity of everything—going to new places with artificial intelligence and extending their virtual and augmented reality tools.

We’re still waiting to know whether or not the poke feature is going to get an upgrade.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: IT’S GIVE A DAMN DAY

Give A Damn Day.

No matter what you decide to do this Valentine’s Day, just remember: As long as you care and put in some effort, you’ll do just fine. 

Valentine’s Day For Rebels

Scott Pilgrim took on the world. Han Solo? Encased in Carbonite. That one dude from the Proclaimers even walked 500 miles for love.

Making room at the tables in our offices, in our communities and in our cities for all voices to be heard

Why We Worked on MLK Day

Making you New Years resolution to do better

BED HEAD: Thoughts for 2016

Different impact causes and ways you can get involved.

Beyond #GivingTuesday: 52 Causes

Black Sheep + Bun B Present Holiday Jam | December 2

Black Sheep celebrates the holidays with Bun B

Saying Things Out Loud Makes Them Happen: Introducing Better Make Room

Black Sheep's journey with Better Make Room Campaign

DC Diaries 2: YOFO

There’s a particular kind of project that doesn’t feel like a project.

It feels like something else entirely. Over Black Sheep’s 16 years, we’ve learned to recognize these engagements — the ones where the stakes are real, where the mission is load-bearing, where getting the story right genuinely changes what’s possible for the people an organization serves. We’ve also learned that these are the projects we want to fill our days with.

Right now, our roster is full of them. I want to talk about that — not as a highlight reel, but as a reflection of what we believe this work is for. And if you’re leading one of these organizations right now and it feels heavy or uncertain or like your story isn’t keeping pace with your mission, this is for you too.


Some projects aren’t a single scope — they’re a relationship, built over time, through the kind of trust that only comes from doing hard things together.

Houston Arts Alliance is in one of the most pivotal moments in its history. A new CEO — the first woman and person of color to lead the organization — has stepped into a role that carries both enormous expectation and extraordinary possibility. We are building alongside them from the ground up: immediate messaging and leadership transition tools, a mission and vision refresh, a public education campaign, a community engagement process and a full brand foundation. Long, layered, listening-first work. Some of our favorite kind.

Houston Parks Board is marking its 50th anniversary at the start of an exciting new chapter — bold new leadership, a visionary strategic plan and a future that has been a century in the making. We’re evolving their brand to match the scale of that moment. Being trusted when the foundation is strong and the future is wide open is its own kind of honor.

Good Reason Houston is an organization we know well — we built their original brand in 2018, and they’ve called on us at several points of strategic inflection since. This is one of those moments. The world these leaders are navigating looks almost nothing like it did seven years ago, and our work together right now is about finding language that tells their story with clarity and confidence for where things are today.

Civic Builders finances and develops school facilities across the country, making excellent schools possible in communities where the need is greatest. We completed a full messaging and positioning strategy with them, and we’re now deep into their visual identity system — in genuine collaboration with their extraordinary internal team. This partnership is the kind we aspire to: the work belongs to all of us.

The Greater Houston Partnership is building an AI-powered tool to connect educators, employers and community partners in ways that expand workforce opportunity. We’re building the brand that makes it accessible and credible from day one.

Fervo Energy is redefining what clean energy looks like. We are their strategic design agency — giving visual and creative form to the complexity of what they’re building, because a breakthrough technology deserves a story told with equal craft.

The University of Nevada, Reno trusted us to direct a digital campaign for their Black Youth Mental Health Initiative — designed to reach young people at the right moment, in the right channels and keep them connected to support that can change the trajectory of their lives. This follows our branding and strategy work for their CDC-sponsored Safer Nights opioid overdose prevention campaign last year.

The Center for Civic and Tech Life is now publishing a magazine for local election officials — the people who make democracy function at the ground level. We named and developed the publication’s visual identity, because this community deserves tools that reflect the seriousness of their work.

In collaboration with January Advisors, we’re working with the League of Women Voters Houston on a set of core values and a strategic plan built for what comes next. The League has been doing this work longer than most organizations have existed. Helping them articulate where they’re headed is not something we take lightly.

Much of this work is happening in Houston — the city where Black Sheep was founded, where many of us live and where we feel the stakes of these institutions personally. When you’re a Houstonian working on Houston, it stops being a client list and starts being something else.

It takes something to make this call. The leaders we work with aren’t doing it because things are easy — they’re doing it because they’ve decided that a story that can’t carry the mission is a liability they can’t afford. That takes clarity about what’s actually at stake. It takes a willingness to look honestly at the gap between where you are and how you’re being perceived. And it takes the kind of courage that doesn’t always get named as courage — the quiet decision to invest in something foundational when there are a hundred urgent things competing for the same resources.

But the thread running through all of it — local and national — is the same: find the organizations doing the most necessary work, and make sure their story is strong enough to carry their mission forward.

If your organization is in a moment that demands more clarity, more confidence or a story that finally matches where you’re headed — we’d love to be in that room with you.

A reflection on 16 years of learning which projects are worth our days — and the mission-driven organizations we're building alongside right now.

The Work That Doesn't Feel Like Work | Black Sheep Agency

What it takes to build a story strong enough to carry a mission forward.

A reflection on the partnerships filling our roster right now — and what it takes for mission-driven organizations to build a story strong enough to carry their work forward.

The Black Sheep blog is turning up the volume on community engagement, social media strategy, Houston happenings and what it means to lead a purpose-driven life.

The Black Sheep Agency | Social impact and nonprofit blog

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The Work That Doesn’t Feel Like Work