Nonprofit organizations were able to showcase their publications and printed materials at this representative professional exhibition for the first time with support from the Civic Initiatives Program. Now we too had a display stand of our own, entitled "The Third Sector Press"--as it turned out, many people unaware of nonprofit activities found this name very intriguing. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of the visitors did not have any idea what it stood for. Pessimists had predicted that the show would be bleak and dull. Skeptics echoed: "you are going to be put in the shade by the big-name commercial information agencies with their colorful ads and arrays of computer monitors running glitzy presentations." All the same, we at the Focus Nonprofit Partnership and the Social Information Agency were determined to give it a try. Now we can say with confidence that it was worth it. Why? The simple matter is that no one drew so many curious visitors to their displays as we did. The Finansovaya Gazeta people were bored sick at their displays for lack of interest from the public. France Press didn't get all that many subscriptions during the show either, while our exhibitors on duty at the stand were explaining tirelessly to scores of visitors what the third sector was and why it had such an impressive variety of its newspapers, information bulletins and magazines.

Let's see why our display drew such lively public attention. To begin with, the layout and innovative design whetted the people's interest. It would appear unusual that there were no eye-catching and expensive gimmicks but only cardboard and colored paper. Still, in contrast to the unexciting black and white displays of other participants, which looked too official and stuffy, I believe the multicolored walls of our display and the pyramid constructed from toy building blocks of different colors had a cheerful and optimistic look. Visitors looked, came closer and smiled. Of course our people at the stand were very amiable and easy-going, which also added to our popularity. Two or three exhibitors from nonprofit organizations whose publications were on display were always on hand and willing to talk with visitors. Incidentally, seventeen such organizations took part in the exhibition: the Glasnost Defense Foundation, the Moscow Research Center for Human Rights, the Socio-Ecological Union, Wildlife Conservation Fund, the Charitable Libraries Foundation, the Information Center of the Independent Women's Forum and many others.

Many people were drawn to the display by simple curiosity: the unfamiliar term of "the third sector," coupled with various hand-out materials--books, newsletters and magazines--provided additional attractions. In fact there is a lot we can feel proud of, because the 200 different publications featured at the exhibition were just a small fraction of the large number of books, magazines, etc., published by Russian nonprofit organizations. The most keenly interested guests left notes in our visitors' book. Some of them wanted to buy one or more books they liked while others entered their names because they wanted to subscribe to a newsletter or to cooperate with one third-sector organization or another.

The most important conclusion that we drew from the results of this exhibition is that the third sector is now strong enough, and has the necessary professionalism to make its voice heard in such serious public relations events which give us a very good opportunity to inform broad sections of the public about this new social phenomenon and the work of nonprofit organizations.

It is a welcome sign that we are able to pool our resources and mobilize our organizations for a concerted effort. It is also very encouraging that we can work together in coordination. I am certain that if each individual organization had its separate display stand at the exhibition, the visitors would give them a wide berth and the activists at the stands would be as bored as the exhibitors from Finansovaya Gazeta--no offense meant, really, because it's a commercial newspaper, and this makes a lot of difference.

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Last updated: 6/5/96
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