My Own Project & Program Ideas.

Start a nonprofit myself? Or create a community project myself?

I love helping other people realize their dreams for creating a nonprofit or program or event they have dreamed up, and I've directed oh-so-many projects created by others, and loved it all. But creating and leading such myself? While I know how to write a business plan, how to recruit volunteers for tasks, how to publicize a project and how to fundraise, the idea of getting a core group of people to marry an idea with me, for at least a couple of years, and to make it their part-time unpaid job to make it happen - that I've never done. And I've no interest in leading one of those nonprofits that's really created just so a person, the founder, can have a job.

I think a key for the legitimacy of a nonprofit is getting a diversity of people working together to pursue a nonprofit's mission, and being a leader that's so dynamic, supportive, welcoming and inspiring you attract others that want to participate in pursuing that nonprofit's mission. I'm not sure I really have it in me for that.

But I do toy now and again with the idea of starting a nonprofit or leading a project I dreamed up - my dream usually requires that I win the lottery. Otherwise, I just wish someone else would do one of these projects and let me help.

And it might surprise some of you to see just how many have nothing to do with technology, or virtual volunteering.

The ideas I have toyed with that I would love to lead, co-organize, or just help someone else with are below. And I'm posting these here in case someone out there has a similar idea, or wants to steal any of these:

• Online knowledge base, with an online community, focused solely on the communications needs of nonprofits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In a way, it would be the nonprofit version of my own web site, particularly this section, but with resources from others, not just mine.
  
  
• Edit-a-thons to improve the volunteerism-related information on Wikipedia.
  
  
• Nonprofit traveler's Hostel in Louisville, Kentucky.
   
  
• Nonprofit wilderness hostel in Tillamook Forest, Oregon.
   
  
• National movement to create hostels across the USA - wilderness hostels like in Canada and regular hostels like in England and Germany. With a web site that outlines how a community can build support for a nonprofit traveler's hostel, how to form a nonprofit for the effort, what the different roles for volunteers are in building support, an outline of a business plan, the variety of ways a hostel can look and what it can offer, etc.
   
  
• Community radio station wherever I'm living - and a movement to create these across the USA. As local newspapers continue to die, and as more and more people get their information from podcasts and social media, and as we become more and more divided socially, the need for community radio has never been greater.
   
  
• Once a month living room play readings.
  45-minute readings, mostly from Shakespeare, but maybe from Moliere, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson as well.
   
• My dream campground in Kentucky.
  Emphasizes quiet. Plenty of space for tent camping. Shelter for cooking by tent campers. Limited time for generators to run. 3 - 6 insulated, small, one-room cabins, no facilities to cook inside, just bunk beds, a table, a few power outlets, heating unit. Area completely surrounded by forests. Safe foot path to a gas station convenience store or town with at least a small grocery. Maybe a simple shelter, in the style of a small country church or small grange hall, with very limited kitchen facilities, for weddings and other social gatherings.
   
  
• Women's Retreat in Kentucky, Oregon and/or Idaho.
  A female-only space. For-profit or nonprofit, I don't care. Beautiful, somewhat isolated place, with beautiful, natural vistas and lots of opportunities to just sit alone and read (or think), or to talk in small or large groups. A one-room library full of a variety of books. Smart phones checked upon check-in - residents can go to a special room and spend up to one hour - no more - with their smart phone. Single room and dorm rooms available. Laundry facilities (but not laundry services) provided. Horse-back riding, hiking, tai chi, yoga, secular meditation, massage, drumming/percussion, delicious healthy food options (including MEAT), workshops on astronomy, history, cooking, keeping a journal, safety and protecting mental health online, how to relax (especially to fall asleep), how to recognize depression, and how to get involved in your community (how to find and test out volunteering options, how to find arts-related activities). Featured after lunch and evening movie showing or podcast-presentation followed by a guided discussion. No essential oils, no anti-science information, no lectures to carnivores regarding the evils of eating meat, no makeovers, no beauty tips. Alcohol-free. Facilities available for group rentals.
   
  
• A working farm retreat in Kentucky, Oregon and/or Idaho.
  For-profit or nonprofit, I don't care. Beautiful, somewhat isolated place. Comfortable rooms that sleep two-four people each, and plenty of free ear plugs. Same-sex dorm rooms available. No electronics in the dorm rooms (no smart phones, tablets, iPods, etc.). Three meals provided (could be entirely vegetarian or with a vegetarian option). Residents guided by knowledgeable staff in working in gardens, in preparing CSA boxes, in preparing meals for residents, in attending farm animals: cows, pigs, chickens, goats, sheep, horses, donkeys, etc. Residents will gain knowledge and skills for after their farm-work experience. Maybe classes in wood working and using power tools. Opportunities for people who know how to use power tools or with plumbing skills to help with repairs. Residents expected to work at least three full hours a day. Laundry facilities provided. Plenty of free time each day for residents to read, sit by themselves and think, etc. Residents are invited to, on their own time, lead other residents in tai chi, yoga, secular meditation, drumming/percussion or singing. No essential oils, no anti-science information, no lectures to carnivores regarding the evils of eating meat. Available for groups to attend together.
  

I also would love to see many, many more footpaths between communities like what they have in England or in Germany, that wind their way in between different farms and ranches. I believe that footpaths between towns and villages, as well as between wineries - doesn't have to be a full hike and bike trail, could just be a simple, dirt footpath - would be absolutely transformative: wineries, restaurants and B & Bs would all see an uptick in sustainable business, and people would get to know their communities on a level they never, ever will from a car. Three I would love to help with:

• Hike and bike trail from Atkinson Park in Henderson, Kentucky to Spottsville (Kentucky). It would require a pedestrian bridge over Highway 41 to Barrett Blvd., and then the trail would be on the South side of Highway 60.
   
  
• Hike and bike trail from Forest Grove to Gaston (in fact, if a road and bridge were added from the Southern most tip of SW Dilley Road, across Dilly Creek, to the start of SW Old Highway 47, there would be at least a bike route that avoids Highway 47 completely from Forest Grove to Gaston).
   
  
• Walking trails/foot paths between most of the wineries in Forest Grove, Oregon.