Unfunded List evaluator Mahrinah von Schlegel approached us over the summer with a cool opportunity. Did we want to travel to Salt Lake City and manage a booth in the exhibition hall of the 68th annual United Nations Civil Society Conference (UNCSC)? Yes, we did.
We thought the opportunity would be useful for recruiting new and enthusiastic evaluators to our committee. We always need new evaluators. Anyone who attends a civil society conference like UNCSC is probably interested in civil society. They might also have skills, knowledge or networks to share with the unfunded proposals we review.
And we were right! Along with us was evaluator-photographer Andy DelGiudice and we were given a great location in the UNCSC event hall to set up our booth. We recruited over 20 new evaluators over the course of two days.
Mahrinah and Dave also spoke on a panel called “How Philanthropy and Innovative Technology Support Communities.”
When we onboard a new evaluator, we need to get to know them. What social issues do they care about? Where do they live? What do they do for work? Taking portraits at a conference like UNCSC is a great way to get to know someone. It gives us the opportunity to ask a lot of questions. Andy is not only a talented photographer but also a longtime friend of the Unfunded List who is great at asking questions. He has been the principal photographer for all of our previous artistic projects like Giving Stories and Evaluator Stories. Unfunded List photo booths are a great activity for a large or small civil society or social impact event. We always end up with a bunch of great new evaluators (and they end up with great portraits to use as headshots or profile pics).
Since this was a United Nations conference, we wanted to do something related to the UN’s work. Andy brought along a number of gels (colored light filters) so that we could light each subject according to their favorite United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Everyone loved the idea and we thought the results were spectacular. What do you think? Do you want Andy to take your picture? Find us the next time we’re at an event.
