I got involved in feminist and social justice organizing, making zines and playing in indie and punk bands as a teenager. As I grew up and became an “adult” in this community I realized the people around me were incredibly motivated and had great ideas for independent projects, but lacked the resources they needed to organize themselves and get started to build a sustainable project or, if they had started, were unsure of how to take the next step towards sustainability and profitability without compromising their creative ideals. I have worked for many years in arts education and administration and earned my degree Masters in Public Administration and I decided I wanted to translate the skills I learned about strategic planning, management, budgeting and marketing for organizations for creatives, like my friends and community members who were involved in independent music, art, publishing, social justice and food scenes.
Grow! from mackenzie katz on Vimeo.
Driving this project is my vision of an economy that supports creative people. I imagine a time when creatives feel they have access to the skills and resources to find what they need to help them make their vision for a project or business become a sustainable, satisfying part of their lives. While pursuing your creative vision and dream will always be a risk, I want to make sure that people know how to find and make a reward for taking that risk!
It’s really exciting and empowering to run a fundraising campaign for a project that is so close to my heart that I’ve worked on in private for quite a long time. I’m enjoying the opportunity to “go public” with Grow and using my RocketHub campaign as a platform to share and spread the word about the project.
Read more at the Rockethub Blog