A Community of Action
November 2025
NoCo Family!
The Novelty Collective Music & Arts Festival came to a close on Saturday evening, & we are so pleased with its success. The whole thing was a peak experience from kick-off to conclusion. We hosted more performing artists than ever & filled our space from wall to wall with incredible visual artists. Over the next several weeks, we will be writing the story from our perspective, as well as asking others to share their thoughts about the festival so we can paint an accurate picture for you all to enjoy! We would also like to update you on what’s happening next at The COVE Art Center as we move into the holidays, but we are saving all of that for our next full-edition newsletter.
In the meantime, we are here to bring a very special opportunity to your attention. There has never been a better time to pray & consider how you might step deeper into the mission of The Novelty Collective to join us in making a positive impact, in our community & yours.
Giving Tuesday is one week away, on December 2, & it’s a significant holiday for nonprofits around the world, but especially for those of us here in the United States, as it always falls on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. If you have been personally impacted by our programs & events, moved by our stories & devotionals, or shared our passion for building community, we humbly ask that you take some time to read through the following ways you can give back, & choose an avenue that you can commit to. Thank you for being a part of The Novelty Collective family!
REEL Impact
We are crazy about storytelling. We are especially excited to tell true stories about what happens in our creative community. One of our greatest disappointments is never having enough time or the ability to tell them all, but even if we could, we realise our own perspective is still limited.
That is why we want to hear your story! Over the next week, record a short video of yourself describing your impression of The Novelty Collective & how we carry out our mission on a practical level. We’d also love to hear about specific features you’ve enjoyed at The COVE, encounters with other artists, etc. The folder linked below already contains a Google Doc with a few short questions to answer in your video. When you’re happy with the video, you can drop it into the same folder!
We see massive potential in this REEL Impact project because we know our people. The Novelty Collective community is bursting with kind, generous, caring, & gifted folks who light up the room. You make it easy for this team to get up each & every day, ready to serve & move this thing forward. Your voice not only has the power to encourage others to check out The Novelty Collective for themselves, but also to bring new mission partners to the table. We know getting in front of a camera can be daunting, but we would be thrilled to have a piece of your story to cherish & share with others. It’s one small way you can make a huge difference!
Core Components
The Novelty Collective has been in operation for nine years, & its continual existence has always been a collaborative effort by hundreds of artists, philanthropists, nonprofits, & Christian ministries. NoCo is a HUGE community of people who care about creating space for artistic expression, sharing resources, & making meaningful connections. At its core is a very small team—just two people—who work very hard at holding all these threads together.
While our focus on Giving Tuesday has always been about funding NoCo programs, there’s another donation page that we’d like to highlight. Beginning this January, a major source of our funding will no longer be sending any help. That source has been the single greatest contributor to our Executive Director’s income, & our other Director’s income has already been cut off. We would gladly keep doing this for free (& have, at times, already), but this is a full-time job, & the bills keep coming.
The COVE Afterschool, Open Studios, Home of the Nomad, The Novelty Collective Music & Arts Festival, & all the other work we do depend on the health of this team, so we really need your help. This Giving Tuesday, we are asking our community to consider a monthly or quarterly commitment to fill the gap. We aim to reach $2,500 per month by the end of December. It’s a lofty goal, but nothing is impossible with God. True is the old adage, “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.” Even truer are the words of Jesus:
“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, & your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God & His righteousness, & all these things will be added to you.”
– Matthew 6:31-33
Please tap the button above to learn more about the team & make a monthly commitment to help us stay on mission.
NoCo Insiders
The NoCo Team has written more cards, sent out more text messages, & composed more emails to thank people than ever this year. We have felt extremely blessed by the kindness & generosity of all our supporters, especially since this has been a particularly tough year in terms of health & finance. It warms our hearts to know that so many folks not only care about this organization & its mission, but also the two of us.
As Thanksgiving is upon us, it seems the appropriate time to introduce our new way of saying “thank you” to all our amazing mission partners (what we call our donors).
GIVING TUESDAY — This Giving Tuesday, December 2, every mission partner who gives a one-time gift of $100 or more to either of our main fundraising campaigns (Restore Creation to its Creator; Missionary Support Fund) will receive a personalized video message from the Directors. This message will include things like personal life updates & insider details about the impact you make when you give!
ONGOING — Mission Partners who commit to giving as little as $10 per month will become “NoCo Insiders.” Once a month, you’ll be included in a special message with heart-warming stories from the NoCo community. Your support is what brings these stories to life, so we want to share them with you!
BONUS — Mission Partners who give consistently will receive a video message from members of our team every three months. These videos could be anything from personal stories to project plans, studio tours, & more!
NoCo Insiders is not so much an incentive program, but rather a level-up to thank you cards! We are very excited to be more connected with all of you fantastic folks who give from your resources to make what we do possible. We already love serving our community, but it makes our job so much more fulfilling when we get to do so along with you!
Check out the “Ways to Give” page here on the website, where you can always find our ongoing campaigns, as well as short-term fundraisers & product wish lists.
Thank you so much for reading. We sincerely hope you will pray & ponder on partnering with us, starting this Giving Tuesday & moving forward into the New Year. The Novelty Collective is a diverse community, & we recognize that not all of you believe in the God of the Bible like we do, but we are confident in the words of Jesus, quoted by Paul the Apostle in the Book of Acts, because we have experienced the truth in them first-hand:
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Jesus also says that when you give, it will be returned to you in good measure, pressed down & shaken together, running over, & placed into your lap. “For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” We’re asking for financial help so that we can continue to do the good work God called us to, & we are asking in faith that our loving God will open up the gates of heaven to pour out the goodness of His grace & mercy into your life in beautiful & indescribable ways.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving, & we will be in touch soon!
Blessings,
The NoCo Team
