Finding partners that pay

PARTNERSHIPS THAT MAKE MONEY

This weekend, I went to see my friend Rajni Perera’s exhibition and artist talk. We’ve known each other for years and I’ve watched her become an internationally renowned artist and thinker. It’s been beautiful to witness.

During Rajni’s talk, she spoke about the need for more STEM programs to engage artists. She mentioned NASA having an artist-in-residence program that bridges art and science in a very real way, but that there needs to be more because artists add tangible value to the tech community in ways we aren’t acknowledging.

Her talk was brilliant and got me thinking about what kind of partners we can use as writers. And I don’t mean exposure partners, I mean partners that pay us to create in collaboration with the intent of impact.

We’ve created these partnerships at CRY. Earlier this year, we partnered with The Wealthsimple Foundation. Wealthsimple is an online investment management service here in Canada. They were founded in 2014 so they’re relatively new, but they’ve grown to become one of the most successful and significant companies across the country.

The foundation section that we partnered with had a mandate of helping young people access financial resources for post-secondary. CRY wanted to create a platform for teens to share their stories through a newsletter/magazine type medium. When we pitched The Wealthsimple Foundation, they responded immediately because our values lined up.

They sponsored our platform with a five-figure investment that allowed us to run what we called Teens Love Lit. The project was successful and we helped a dozen teens from all over the world—from Jamaica to the middle east to the U.S and in Canada—share heartfelt stories (we paid these kids to write their stories, which was important for us and empowering for them).

I’m telling you this because as writers, we need to open our minds as to what’s possible. On paper, it doesn’t make sense for what is essentially a financial company to partner with writers. But we found alignment and created something magical. You can do the same.

There may not be built-in opportunities right now that you can tap into, but that’s not what this is about. You need to create these opportunities yourself. Think about your mission, find companies or individuals who align, and put together a killer pitch deck (I thank my business partner every day. She’s incredible at putting together decks).

Awareness is great, but I’m also trying to put some money in your pockets. We always lament about writing not being a high-paying industry for the majority of us, but what are we doing to change that? I’m not going to sit here and wait for the system to change. I’m going to make moves to benefit myself and my vision and I encourage you to do the same.