We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jill Naponelli . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jill below.

Jill, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Project May Day is a registered nonprofit based in Historic Springfield, in Jacksonville, FL. Our mission is to support local nonprofits through creative fundraising events. We just hosted our inaugural Wandering Cocktail Party, an upscale, interactive guided tour of homes featuring signature cocktails, small bites, and lots of surprises. It’s essentially a murder mystery game hiding inside a property tour all wrapped up in a party! And the best part is that it was also a fundraising event with all profits donated to Hubbard House.

Project May Day is a totally volunteer-run organization, and on a very short timeline, we managed to organize and stage a very complicated cocktail party as well as secure multiple high-profile sponsorships. This truly is a testament to our stakeholders: our dedicated volunteers and local businesses who support our mission.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

From the beginning, the vision for Project May Day has been to build an impactful, community-minded social club to shine a spotlight on Jacksonville nonprofits, while promoting small businesses in the area. Project May Day came together as an organization just before the COVID-19 pandemic, and it became a vehicle for us to find ways to be of service during an incredibly uncertain time. One of our first projects was a month-long bake sale. The proceeds from the bake sale were used to purchase face masks and hand sanitizer that were produced by locally-owned businesses, and those supplies were then donated to a local shelter. The aim was to raise funds, keep those funds inside the local economy, and for those funds to benefit as many people as possible.

With each proceeding project, our mission and goals remain the same while the events have become increasingly bigger and bolder and more ambitious. Our most recent event was a Wandering Cocktail Party, where ticketed guests enjoyed signature cocktails, small bites, and entertainment at a rotating set of private residences. The neighborhood of Springfield has had wandering cocktail parties for many years, but this is an unusual concept for Jacksonville as a whole. We added a lot of elevated, fun layers to the event, and combined with the fundraising element for Hubbard House, we really hoped to get the word out far and wide. We had a great turnout, and most of our guests were not from Springfield and were not previously acquainted with Project May Day. This became a welcome opportunity to talk about the work that we do, as well as share what makes Springfield a really special, quirky community in Jacksonville.

What sets Project May Day apart is our value proposition. We align ourselves with established, well-respected charities to benefit from our fundraisers. We establish and maintain strong , mutually-beneficial working relationships with small businesses. We offer our volunteers the opportunity to step into decision-making roles, further developing their leadership and organizational skills. And we can throw a truly unique, one-of-a-kind fundraising party that is unlike anything in Jacksonville, offering our guests a memorable experience.

How did you build your audience on social media?

To be honest, our social media presence is not strong, While social media is certainly a necessity for promotional reasons, I’ve not had to use it in my professional life and so am somewhat behind the curve. My experience in growing the base of support for Project May Day is similar to how we grew our book of investors in our real estate business: by cultivating relationships, sharing our mission and vision and plan, and by relying on word-of-mouth. That being said, social media can be an accelerant if used correctly, and I look forward to learning from other business owners on their experiences and best practices.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The bulk of my professional experience can be boiled down to project management, whether it was working as a line cook, or pitching investors a real estate opportunity, or coordinating contractors for a rehab. These are three disparate jobs that require a similar set of skills. You need an extremely detailed plan of action, complete with a pro forma analysis and multiple back up plans. You also need a lot of flexibility and patience. There will come a time, or multiple times, in every project, that everything is going wrong with no end in sight. The way to push through that moment is with preparation, trusting your ability to pivot and change tack if needed, and remaining loose and calm throughout.     

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/project_mayday/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectmaidez

Image Credits
Hannah Joy Photography – North Florida Portrait and Branding Photographer