The paint’s not going back in the tube.

Written by

Kevin Smith

Three keys to using digital disruption (and associated turmoil) to your cause's advantage.

For centuries, painters worked only in their studios. When painting landscapes, they began outside with charcoal sketches of the terrain. Then, they brought those sketches indoors where they recreated them on wood panels or canvas with color pigments ground by a mortar and pestle and mixed with walnut oil. This was the way it was always done until 1841 when an American named John Goffe Rand invented the paint tube. Over the next few decades, this technological innovation revolutionized painting.

It did so at a time of massive unrest. The industrial revolution was upending a centuries-old agrarian economy, displacing families from farmland to factories and urbanizing the country. All this occurred amidst the blood-soaked backdrop of the Civil War and the subsequent era of Reconstruction. While long-term outcomes proved for the better, the real-time pain nearly broke us as a people.

This bit of art and history seems pertinent as I contemplate how much, and how fast, our world is changing today.

For social impact marketers, the internet is our modern version of the paint tube. It has initiated a chain reaction stoked by social media, digital marketing, and now, AI. And it’s done so at a time of turmoil. Our intense political divide and racially motivated violence have intersected with a pandemic that fundamentally changed our workplaces. Meanwhile, income inequality and culture wars make our societal problems feel intractable.       

For nonprofit leaders working to change things for the better, the outcome has been grim. One-third of CEOs just queried by The Chronicle of Philanthropy said that they were likely to leave their job within two years. Flexibility and balance are at odds with the pace and immediacy of today’s business culture. The conflict is exhausting, and we can’t put down our damn phones.

What can we learn from the humble tube of paint?

It allowed painters to go outside, where light, wind and weather shifted constantly. Artists had to learn to paint fast, capturing the essence of their view without fussing over details. This mandated a tremendous departure from the smooth brushwork, realistic detail and formal composition favored for two hundred years prior. Twenty-two turbulent years after its invention, the paint tube gave us the most widely celebrated artistic movement in history – Impressionism.

So, what does late-19th century painting tell us about 21st-century nonprofit leadership? That good things can eventually come from disruption and discord if you cultivate the right mindset.

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1

Be a risk taker. Like any enterprise, nonprofits have their weaknesses. Among them is a tendency to be risk averse. Sticking with convention is a reflex, and that includes staffing structure and approaches to category-specific interventions. There’s much work being done, but I believe all of us agree that the impact, relative to the effort, is often a disappointment. I love that we keep trying, but if there were ever a moment to try to reach a different audience, to restructure your team, or to rethink approaches to fundraising, it’s right now. The same outcomes are inevitable with the same approaches. While change might seem scary, it can also be reinvigorating. Though the work of the Impressionists seems traditional by modern standards, it was radical at the time. Their use of bright colors, loose brushwork and unpolished compositions was first considered shocking and garish. Yet, more than 150 years later, Impressionist paintings offer a guaranteed way to sell out a museum exhibit.

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2

Reposition your cause. I’ve been inspired by those of you working to reframe your issue. As part of our interview series The Science of Good, my colleague Roshanda Pratt and I recently interviewed Akiera Gilbert, the CEO of Project HEAL, a nonprofit that connects people suffering from eating disorders with treatment providers. She’s working to reframe the perception that eating disorders are a disease impacting SWAG, “skinny, white, affluent, girls.” Given that everything else is changing, why not challenge the stereotypes and biases associated with your issue? The term impressionism is derived from a critic’s disparaging remarks on Monet’s paintings. He dubbed them an “impression” as opposed to a finished work. Talk about taking on your critics. After being rejected by the French Academy of Fine Arts, Monet and his peers’ work appeared in an “Exhibition of Rejects,” drawing crowds, creating controversy and advancing avant-garde art.

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3

Embrace collaboration. I’m struck by the duplication and overlap of so many nonprofits. I get it, on a more grassroots level, everyone’s competing for the same donors. But while some larger foundations coalesce around a shared interest in major issues, their operational silos still exist, and grantee reporting requirements and methodologies often vary. Our problems are getting bigger and more complex. Imagine the headway we could make if we stood side-by-side at the whiteboard with like-minded leaders. Nonprofits love a retreat. How about inviting some outsiders to your next one? None of us have a secret formula for someone else to steal. Many of the impressionists left Paris, moving to Giverny, a rural village an hour and a half outside of the city. They lived amongst one another, painted together and exhibited together. This improved their work, expanded the impact of their movement and increased the visibility of the collective.

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If you haven’t guessed, I’m a painter as well as a lover of history. I have a studio that’s such a refuge it’s where I go to write these articles. The studio allows for calm and patience and the ability to get things just right (and it’s air-conditioned). Painting outside on the other hand is a race against the elements and there’s oddly nowhere to put all your gear. Painting is challenging enough without the insect that inevitably lands on your wet canvas. But the forced spontaneity usually leads to a more authentic, alive and meaningful result.

My point is that challenges pay off.

I’m not suggesting that the troubles we face aren’t complex, dire, scary, or sometimes existential. I do however believe that the resettling that comes after the waves of change reside is usually better than what was before. It’s the decades in between that can unmoor even the most stalwart of organizations. Accepting that, and knowing it’s not just you or your organization, can ease the emotional burden a bit. And looking for a better way through is what we’re all about.

Hope for the best,

Kevin

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Kevin Smith, Principal   Kevin helps clients apply the principles of behavioral science to communications strategies that compel people to adopt life-changing behaviors. He has recently directed the largest statewide contraceptive access initiative in the US, resulting in a 44% reduction in the number of unwanted pregnancies.

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