HAIKU CONTEST

2024 Haiku Contest Rules

We are excited to announce the 2024 Haiku contest is now open!  This contest always serves to educate and inform as we learn about your organizations.  Entries will be accepted from January 16th – March 15th, 2024; more details and rules are below.

As in the past, all entries become property of the Nonprofit Leaders Conference for Coastal & SW Washington with author permission to be used as examples in the Storytelling and/or the Advanced Grant Writing workshops. One winning organization will receive $500.

Participation in the Haiku Contest will help you learn two key concepts for writing more compelling grants:

  • How to order your writing about your organization
  • Show how you can be compelling in just a few words

How to Format Entries

Your Haiku must follow this format:

Title of poem = The name of your organization (in CAPS).
1st Line (5 syllables): What your organization does.
2nd Line (7 syllables): What need does your project address?
3rd Line (5 syllables): What do you propose to do about it?

Example

NORTH COAST FRIENDS OF THE VETERANS
We serve homeless vets
No one can find our building
We need a new sign

(credit for the example goes to the Oregon Community Foundation as we could not write a better example)

How To Enter

You enter by posting your haiku to the Nonprofit Leaders Conference for Coastal & SW
Washington Facebook page or emailed to info@nonprofitleaders.info (if you do not have a Facebook page). Entries may be posted from January 16th – March 15th, 2024.
The winner will be announced during the conference, a member of the winning team must be present at the conference.

Eligibility

  • Only one entry per organization
    • The first entry from each organization will be deemed its official entry.
  • Organizations must have 501(c)(3) public charity status or an ongoing fiscal sponsorship with such an organization. You may not create a new fiscal sponsorship just to enter this contest.
  • Non-taxable entities such as school districts may also apply.
  • Individuals may not apply.
  • Organizations must serve communities which have traditionally been reached by the Conference. This includes the entire Olympic Peninsula, Kitsap, Mason, and Thurston counties; and all areas south of Thurston County to the Columbia River and west of the Cascade Crest.

2019 Haiku Contest Winner

STUDENT ORCHESTRAS OF GREATER OLYMPIA
Kids learn to love Bach
Some are left in sticker shock
Drop instrument costs