How’s your summer going? I hope it’s been full of memory-making, stories shared, adventure and joy. I for one, am grateful for the mild days, the clear blue skies, and the return to events. There is a lot to share this month, and reading should take about 4 minutes.

Creative Pulse Residency

Tell Us Something staff member and Executive Director Marc Moss [that’s me!] taught 18 participants in The Creative Pulse. “The Pulse” is a 4-week long summer intensive Masters of Arts in Integrated Arts and Education program. Marc taught for two of those weeks. The students who participate in The Pulse learn a variety of different arts disciplines that they can then take back into their classrooms to ensure that the children receive art education in the classroom. For the first time, The Pulse invited the public to watch a selection of the participants’ performances. This special Tell Us Something event was at Phyllis Washington Park in Missoula, MT, at the base of Mount Sentinal on July 14, 2022. It was a 100+° day, and listeners stuck to the shade.

Tell Us Something was in a unique position to run a small marketing experiment. How many people would attend if the event was only announced through Creative Pulse social media channels and both email lists for Tell Us Something and Creative Pulse? What happens if we don’t pay for advertising? What about if we don’t hang posters? The event was non-ticketed and free. It was outdoors and a bring-your-own chair-style performance.

So, what happened?

Though it’s difficult to quantify, I’d estimate about 10 people that were not affiliated with The Pulse or The University of Montana were there.

You can view photos from the event at our Instagram and Facebook pages.

All photos 📷by Bob Ciampa

501(c)3 – It’s official!

On July 15, 2022, Tell Us Something received in the mail a letter that we have been waiting for a very long time. The lawyer submitted the paperwork for becoming a 501(c)3 on August 24, 2021. Tell Us Something held our first official board meeting in October 2021, and the journey began! We still were under the fiscal sponsorship of our parent organization, Missoula Community Foundation. While fiscal sponsorship allows a child organization to accept tax-deductible donations for a nominal fee, it often does not qualify the child organization to compete for grants effectively.

Then, on July 15, 2022, we received a determination letter from the IRS granting us our own official 501(c)3 status!

I’ve been busy opening a non-profit bank account, registering as a non-profit with all of our various software providers (to qualify for any discounts that they may offer), and lots of other boring minutiae that are required when starting a new organization.

We’ve got a lot of exciting celebratory events in the planning stages and I can’t wait to share those with you once they are more solidified.

For now, thank you all so much for your love, support, encouragement, attendance, participation, donations, and joy over these past 11 years! I look forward to continuing to grow, be more inclusive, and hold space for the stories of our complex, beautiful, sometimes difficult, and always a little weird community that we call Missoula and beyond. It has been an honor to grow this organization with you and I am so grateful to you for helping to make Tell Us Something what it is.

501(c)3 Podcast listening opportunities

Board Member Sierra Tai-Brownlee, who terms out at the end of this month, interviewed all of the Tell Us Something Board members for her podcast Impactful Experiences.  I’ll be posting those interviews to the Tell Us Something podcast over the coming weeks so that you can get to know the Tell Us Something Board a little better. Please subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts!

Please, subscribe to the podcast and begin meeting our Board members.

“Letting Go” Live at The Dennison Theatre September 27, 2022

The pitch deadline has expired for the September 27 live storytelling event at The Dennison on the theme “Letting Go”. With 20 story pitches, narrowing selected storytellers down to 8 is proving quite challenging. The programming committee is making their final deliberations, and I can tell you, no matter what they decide, you’ll not want to miss this event.

Get your tickets today for the live storytelling event featuring 8 storytellers sharing their true personal stories.

Thanks again for your support of Tell Us Something, of live storytelling, and of each other.
In gratitude and stories,

Marc Moss
Executive Director
Tell Us Something