Rainmakers at all levels of the pyramid
A rainmaker is a person or an organization who has special qualities to make something happen. A rainmaker is one who donates funds. A rainmaker is also a group that works together to help others overcome a hardship. A rainmaker is someone at the bottom of the economic pyramid who has the inner drive to make change become a reality.
The Rainmakers team brings you conversations with global leaders and local people who strive to eliminate extreme poverty, hunger, disease, and face the world’s most difficult challenges. Often, all that is needed is opportunity.
Rainmakers has interviewed key change agents as Kathy Calvin, President & CEO of the United Nations Foundation, Reeta Roy, President and CEO of the Mastercard Foundation, Maria Eitel, President/CEO of NIKE Foundation, Steven Solomon, author of WATER: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power & Civilization, Susan Davis, President & CEO of BRAC, and many more.
Click on an image below for special featured content. You can also search by topic by clicking on the Video tab to watch and hear ideas that will help you learn, be inspired, and act.
ORGANIZATION
Rainmakers is in development on one of the most exciting documentary series ever produced in our region. Our distribution partner is KBTC, a public broadcasting station affiliate serving markets in the Northwest. Rainmakers TV is an original documentary television series that showcases both the heroic efforts made by impoverished people around the world who every day strive to lift themselves out of dire circumstances, and those philanthropic individuals and organizations that reach out and provide strategic support. Focused not on aid – but on comprehensive strategies that have sustainable outcomes, such as education, health, rule of law, engaging governments, empowering women and girls, clean water resources and micro-credit – Rainmakers tells stories that inspire global transformation.
Our production company is a Washington state limited liability company (LLC) with a non-profit foundation in formation. The three principals are Stan Emert, Gail Romero and Greg Walsh.While each brings different experiences, skills and perspectives, they share a common bond: totell compelling stories of the great work being accomplished by people and organizations of the Pacific Northwest to transform the lives of people around the globe.
HERE’S THE SCOOP
The Pacific Northwest has emerged as a national leader of worldwide philanthropy, the culmination of a long history of generosity that spans almost 100 years. Today, the region has more than 79,000 non-profits, and more than 24,000 501(c)(3)s, representing total assets of $106.8 billion.
Rainmakers’ four, one-hour episodes center on telling stories that incorporate three key components:
- Individuals around the world who face enormous challenges in their daily lives;
- The Pacific Northwest individuals and/or non-profit organizations who have the vision and mission to bring about strategic support and collaborations; and,
- Those individuals, corporations and foundations in the region dedicated to funding programs that work in concert with individuals, families and NGOs to make transformational changes associated with achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) due in 2015.
This three-tiered focus will enable Rainmakers to tell the complete story about social entrepreneurship. Our unique conceptual approach is the inspirational difference of Rainmakers. The series will engage today’s socially conscious viewers who demand more substantive content and relevant issues-oriented television.
The Northwest’s 24,500 non-profits concentrate on being the safety net that government and business cannot be, alleviating or ameliorating human strife, locally and globally. While there is enough story content available for a daily Rainmakers episode, the first year we will produce four, one-hour documentary-style episodes, culminating the year with a live, one-hourRainmakers Social Entrepreneurship Awards Event show.
Each of the four main episodes will feature two international stories of transformation, stories that illustrate critical global issues, key players both here and abroad, and the seemingly insurmountable obstacles they face. The needs are great and Pacific Northwest people and organizations are reaching out and helping to make great things happen. We will highlight individual success stories that depict positive outcomes and that inspire viewers to watch and to get involved.
Rainmakers stories will be global in scope, and yet focus on personal lives. For example, in our episode on Owning Land, we tell the story of a program implemented by the Rural Development Institute (RDI) and specifically its help for people like Padma in the village of Theeta in India. With RDI’s help, this mother of three girls overcame untold generations of the crushing weight of abject poverty.
In our Global Health episode we focus on PATH, an organization based in the Pacific Northwest that helps create multi-tiered solutions for communities ridden with HIV AIDS and other infectious diseases. One such benefactor of PATH’s involvement in Africa, and featured in our Health episode, is Malehloa, a vibrant young woman who daily visits the grave of her parents and sister who died of AIDS. Malehloa will describe the impact of having the power to prevent HIV AIDS as a woman in sub-Saharan Africa.
