The other night as we were discussing the potential funding for a documentary we’re beginning to work on, it was suggested (by someone outside of LGH) that we make our situation as an organization look more desperate, more needy and more vocal regarding our “desperateness.” That unless we begin to communicate how needy our organization is for donations or specific donors, we cannot expect people to get behind our organization or cause. Needless to say, I was a little disheartened and here’s the weird thing: It wasn’t for Light Gives Heat (LGH), or myself but for the very limited and boxed-in view of nonprofit work that most people tend to have.

Faced with recent events, we may easily understand the pangs of compassion, concern and confusion that are felt within the wake of such tragedies that befall mankind. News reporters speak of the urgency and fear felt by those closest to the situations. Televisions and computer monitors, like the panes of glass in a window, are all that seem to separate us from the victims of tragedy. Marshall McLuhan, the 1960s futurist, termed this “the global village,” the inevitable culmination of connection technology that would cause mankind to bear witness to all the goings-on of the planet.