September 8, 2004
TIME TO GET CREATIVE: HELP NAME A NOT-FOR-PROFIT
Ford Church's mind is experiencing perpetual brain freeze. He's attempting to come up with a name for a non-profit organization whose purpose would be to implement the Community Adventure Program. As some of you may recall from a previous post, the Community Adventure Program is designed to blend adventure and service to connect students with their communities. Ford wants to know what we think about the following names:
Cottonwood Institute
Cottonwood Initiative
Cottonwood Project
Cottonwood Ventures
Adventures in Service
Community Adventures
Community Ventures
Community Endeavors
Civic Awareness Initiative
Civic Endeavors
Civic Quest
Civic Adventures
Civic Network
Altruistic Endeavors
Altruistic Adventures
If none of those are inspiring, perhaps the following brainstorm will juke something else.
Non-Profit Name Characteristics:
* Short (2-3 words max).
* Catchy, fun, exciting, and relevant to potential donors and the students it will ultimately serve.
* Words to run a thesaurus check on: Outdoor, adventure, explore, wild, natural, wilderness, survival, camping, community, civic, service, volunteer, altruism, engagement, awareness, environment, environmental, earth, ecological, local, citizen, activist, grassroots, empowerment, transform, project, program, initiative, institute, association, etc.
* Results: Al Fresco, Quest, Venture, Journey, Voyage, Discover, Organic, Backcountry, Base camp, Advocate, Innovative.
* Ecology words: Cottonwood, Yucca, Riparian, Alpine, Community, Glacier, Gully, Scree, Tundra, Grassland, Prairie.
* What about using a person's name: Paul Petzoldt, Everett Reuss, Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, Roosevelt, Robert Service, Wendell Berry, Edward Abbey, permission issues? How about a literary reference from one of these works?
* Cottonwoods are in just about every Western community and are an excellent survival tool for water location, bow-drill fire sets, etc.
Help Ford out by suggesting a name today. Please leave a comment below if anything comes to mind.
Posted by Mikal at September 8, 2004 6:56 AM
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* I STRONGLY advise against 'Altruistic Adventures.' Your abbreviation would be AA, BAD connotations for an youth outdoor program.
* I like 'Altruistic Endeavors,' but I fear that 'altruistic' has poor marketability.
* My top two are Cottonwood Ventures and Adventures in Service. However, my concern with Cottonwood Ventures is the name doesn't necessarily capture the service component. The latter of the two seemed to strike a chord of familiarty, so...I searched and found: http://www.sandiego.edu/careers/version/advinservrev.htm . Granted, the term is used to describe a job fair-like event, not an organization. However, I believe that many colleges may have similar programs; I think that UF did and that's why the term jogged my memory. Again, I liked both of these names...they were my faves.
* 'Community Adventures' was my third place choice. But, it continues to grow on me.
* You could go with an acronym:
-- AID - Adventures In Doing
-- ORCA - Outdoor Recreaton Community Adventures
-- TRIPS - Teens Recreating In Public Service
