Connect for impact: Mural for nonprofits webinar recap

Written by 
Emma Schnee
 and 
  —  
October 28, 2020

How to use tech for good to generate ideas quickly and brainstorm actionable solutions

Big questions. Global cohort. Little time. How can we accomplish meaningful connection to foster an innovative environment when we can’t be in the same room?

A perk of the virtual work environment is that meetings, workshops, and events can be expanded to stakeholders around the globe. But when you have a diverse group of people gathered to work together, the challenge then becomes how to engage everyone in the conversation. This is what motivates Pedro Michepud Rizzo of Avanade to bring technology to nonprofits so that when working on grand challenges the diversity of thought in the room (or these days, Zoom) can be captured and celebrated.

In this MURAL for Nonprofits webinar, Pedro Michepud Rizzo, strategy advisor at Avanade, joined MURAL’s Ward Bullard and Emma Schnee to share inspiration and engage the MURAL social impact community in a live ideation session.

About Avanade: Avanade transforms the way enterprises and organizations use technology. Avanade has an established corporate citizenship program to assist in technology enablement in the social sector. 

#HumanImpact: Using MURAL to spark and connect ideas

Pedro started by sharing how he uses MURAL to amplify #HumanImpact in his workshops. #HumanImpact is a hashtag Avanade embraces and is their purpose in the work that they do. Pedro shared a mural from a design thinking session he led with the UW Evans School of Public Policy and Governance Accelerating Social Transformation program. Explore the mural from the AST design thinking session Pedro led where a cohort from five continents used purpose-driven design to collaborate and bridge networks.

What to look out for: 

  • The use of affinity clustering
  • The emojis, images, and drawings to add a fun personal touch to the session
  • The concept poster for participants to work on individually and share for feedback
Affinity Clustering

Concept Posters

Framing questions to guide the conversation

After sharing some inspiration, Pedro invited audience members to collaborate in MURAL and brainstorm ways to personally enact positive impact on nonprofit organizations. With a timer set for five minutes, panelists added their thoughts and emphasized others’ ideas with icons. Pedro allowed participants to guide where the conversation went next by running a voting session on the ideas they thought to be most promising. Check out the winners below.


Ideas into action

Pedro challenged the participants to add action items to achieve each idea that they had voted on. They brainstormed how we can:

  • Strive for community connection
  • Listen to the wisdom of those you wish to benefit
  • Create networks among similar nonprofits as well as those served
  • Learn to speak the languages of others


For each of these topics, they were able to generate 12+ ideas in less than one and a half minutes. Participants from around the world who had never met before collaborated towards a common goal.

Watch the full replay or dive into the presentation MURAL to gain a deeper understanding of how MURAL can assist in connecting your networks to collaborate and advance your mission.

Replay the webinar


Access the presentation mural


Additional resources to explore

🙌 Visit the MURAL for Nonprofits webpage to see if your organization qualifies for a free workspace

🕒 For quick tips on remote work check out our MURAL Minute YouTube Series

Upcoming events

Have a MURAL story you would like to share? Contact emmas@mural.co

About the authors

About the authors

Emma Schnee

Emma Schnee

Integrated Marketing Manager
Emma is a a marketing manager at MURAL where she champions the stories of educators, students, and nonprofits to highlight the creative and impactful ways they incorporate visual collaboration into their work. She is passionate about the intersection of social impact, business, and design.

white x icon

Get the Free 2023 Collaboration Trends Report

Extraordinary teamwork isn't an accident

By continuing, I agree to receive news, offers, collaboration tips, and invitations to surveys, webinars and events from Mural and the event sponsors. I can unsubscribe at any time. For more information, please see our Privacy Statement.
We are sorry, something went wrong while submitting the form. Please try again.