Nvak Foundation

Music has the power to bring people together, offer healing, and broaden perspectives. Nvak is a 501c3 non-profit organization that discovers and teaches talented, underserved musicians and provides free, hyper-local, world-class music education and resources to help them create and distribute their own contemporary music worldwide. Nvak creates opportunities where there are none, using music as a tool for women and girls to find their voices and to amplify their stories beyond their countries borders. It also serves the Western world by bringing previously absent stories into mainstream music and offering a unique perspective on global issues.

Each region that we work in -- Armenia, Malawi, and Israel -- faces its own unique set of challenges. If we hyper-focus on Armenia, for example, we chose the country for the following reasons: 

• The national population is less than 3 million people and widespread poverty makes outside opportunity inaccessible for the creative community
• Local government corruption, state control of T.V. and radio outlets make it impossible for musicians to find exposure and commercial opportunities 
• Restrictive visa exit requirements make it hard for musicians to pursue educational and career opportunities in the Western market
• Gender bias and male dominant culture dissuades women from pursuing their own careers and encourages them marry young  
• In spite of this, Armenia has a thriving underground of young, passionate, and talented female musicians eager to make their voices heard

In years past, 80% of Nvak's education was done in-country, while 20% of the work was done remote. 2020's global pandemic, and reconfiguring to the new normal, made us realize that if we did 80% of our education remote, and 20% of our work in-person, we could impact more people for less money. 

In an effort to continue our work in these local communities that are in need, we’ve decided to create a free, online music education platform that is easy to use and that we’d be able to expand upon year-after-year.

Our solution offers free contemporary music education to a diverse group of passionate musicians, bolstering their confidence and elevating their voices globally. Through our locally tailored curriculum and A-list international producers and songwriters acting as mentors and coaches, we'd provide education to those who would otherwise not have this opportunity.

Nvak seeks to super-serve young female musicians living in under-served communities where education and self-expression are not prioritized. Prior to working in a region, Nvak spends approximately a year-and-a-half researching a potential market to understand local needs. Once the needs are understood, we hyper-localize our programming and education. We hire year-round Community Managers who spearhead student outreach and we partner with local organizations who share in our vision in empowering women and girls. 

Quality contemporary music education is not easily accessible. It is a global problem -- and it is nearly impossible to get in the regions that we're working in. Few institutions offer it, and if they do, each course can cost up to $1500 USD. 

We want to equalize the playfield.

We want to create courses that are free; that are easy to use; and that are practical. We want to create domestic (US) jobs by hiring recent music school graduates to teach our curriculum and offer remote one-on-one tutoring. We want women and girls to not only be able to write and produce their own original music, but we want to stimulate local economies by making Nvak markets attractive for other musicians to go and collaborate. 

Problem: lack of affordable, high-quality music education for women and girls in under-served communities. 

Solution: create a free online music education platform with videos teaching women and girls how to write, produce, and market their own original music. Then use Nvak's resources within the music business (our partnerships with Warner Chappell Publishing and Warner Music Group) to amplify their voices and unique stories beyond their country's borders. 

Nvak is innovative in the nonprofit and music space. 

In non-profit:

• We serve hard-to-reach crowds: most music education nonprofits serve populations that are easy to reach and that already have existing infrastructure and resources. Nvak operates in countries that lack infrastructure and have operational difficulties.
• We locally-tailor instruction: Other music education non-profits use a “copy and paste” approach in creating music education for different populations. We differentiate ourselves by writing our own curriculum and customizing it to the needs of each country we serve. We research music consumption in each country, incorporating popular local songs into our curriculum and integrating local sounds/instrumentation in all the work we do.

In the music industry:

• We address corruption and taking advantage of young talent: Around the world, there is a lack of genuine mentorship and people looking out for the best interest of young talent. Nvak gives musicians the business education and resources necessary to build their own careers and recognize what corrupt and unfavorable business deals look like. We also explain that Nvak’s staff, including legal team, are at their disposal to help them negotiate any business deals that they may be offered.
• Homogeneity in mainstream music: Pop music usually comes from one of two places: the US and UK. We believe that there are sounds and stories that are not represented in those two markets alone, especially from countries like Armenia, Israel, and Malawi, which face social, political, and/or cultural difficulties. 

Nvak's online education portal would be made available on either: 

• Teachable 
• YouTube (widely used in the countries that we're working in); exploring potential partnership with them
• or on a Nvak app -- we think that this idea has huge potential because it would allow for cross-cultural collaboration, an exchange of creative ideas; and it would be a space where creatives could connect globally 

We have been closely following the success of companies like Master Class. And now, in light of Covid, online teaching has become all the more important.

We believe that education is a catalyst for change. 

Giving women and girls education, resources, and training in technology increases self-worth, self-confidence, and self-reliance. By way of our curriculum, we also plan to find paid opportunities for our musicians in music -- whether it be as a). local community music teachers b). local Nvak interns and Community Managers c). paid songwriters by way of our joint venture with Warner Chappell Publishing d). paid producers by way of our partnerships with MTV, Netflix, Warner Music, and more.

Nvak currently serves over 1500 musicians globally. 

If we are able to convert the curriculum that we've developed to an online platform, in a year, we think we could serve over 15,000 musicians; and in 5 years, over 5 million. 

Our goal is to give every music school, every after school program, every art school, access to this education portal. We also plan to partner with organizations like the YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, School of Rock, and more., and give their student bodies access to this education as well. 

Our goal in the next year: is to develop and execute the creation of 6 online courses; 72 lessons in total; for our online education portal and to launch the platform in early 2021. The 6 courses include: 

1. Writing Lyrics -- Tools and Strategies 
2. Writing Hit Songs -- The Importance of Melodic Hooks
3. Music Production 101 
4. Logic 101 
5. Music Marketing 101
6. Music Business 101

In 5 years: we aim to have a global footprint in over 20 countries and be running a multi-tier, multi-level education platform that serves millions of musicians globally. We also want to be making permanent investments in the local communities that we're working in. One way that we foresee doing this is by creating locally-run, easily-accessible recording studios so that our musicians have a safe space to collaborate with other like-minded people and  so that they have year-round access to the equipment needed to create their art. 

Our barriers are financial-- and they've been amplified because of Covid. Many of our donors have passed on donating to Nvak this year in order to donate to Covid-related causes. 

We plan to overcome these barriers by widening our search for potential funders and finding new organizations to partner with in order to keep serving communities in need. 

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Full-time: 

1. CEO / Founder -- Tamar Kaprelian 
2. Armenia Community Manager -- Yana Karapetyan 

Part-Time:

1. Malawi Community Manager -- Kimberly Kaunda
2. Intern -- Zeinab Thiam 

Tamar Kaprelian -- the company's CEO and Founder is an artist, activist, and music industry veteran. A Phi-Beta-Kappa graduate of Columbia University, she signed major recording contracts with RCA and Interscope Records, and honed in her craft with some of LA's top songwriters. 

Our Past and Present Partners Include:

1. Atlantic Records (donor)
2. Interscope Records (donor)
3. Def Jam (donor)
4. Spotify (partner / advisor)
5. Apple Music (partner / advisor) 
6. Raising Malawi (donor)
7. US State Department (donor)
8. Reverb (donor)
9. Gibson (donor)
10. Republic Records (donor)
11. The Infatuation (partner / advisor)
12. Warner Records (donor)
13. Schusterman Foundation (donor)
14. Live Nation (donor)

Nvak's business model implements a few formats: 

1. In-person Group Education: done in-country; 3 - 4 weeks of programming in each market; 30 - 40 young musicians participate (in each market) every year. Our application is easy to access, is available in multiple languages, and can be accessed at www.nvak.org/apply. During Nvak's programming, A-list instructors and mentors are flown from the US/EU/UK to teach hyper-localized lessons in songwriting and music production. Each musician records their own demo of an original song. To date, we have approximately 1500 musicians in our study body. 
2. Remote Group Education: in development. We hope to launch the online portal prototype early 2021. Our first round of content will include 6 courses; with 12 lessons in each course -- 72 lessons in all. Every year, we will add 6-10 new courses that will be taught by Berklee, Clive Davis School, Bandier School, and/or USC music graduates. 
3. One-on-one Remote Mentoring and Tutoring: Nvak currently employs local Community Managers and interns in each market that help with year-round, in-country programming. We also recently started to hire remote one-on-one tutor to help teach songwriting, production, and voice lessons. 

Our primary funding comes from corporate and individual donations. 

We have identified 3 paths towards financial sustainability: 

1. Through the release of original music. Nvak Foundation owns 50-90% of the Master Recordings of the original music that we release. Through various potential licensing opportunities, we aim to be self-funded by music royalties in 5 years time. 
2. With the launch of our online music education portal, and with the potential of large-scale scalability, we believe that we will be able to secure larger donations from entities such as banks and brand partners that align with our mission. 
3. We are launching a b-corp, female focused record label called Nvak Collective. Once the label is profitable, a percentage of the revenue will be donated back to Nvak Foundation. 

We are applying to Solve because: 

1. We want to be part of a greater network of innovative thinkers and doers. We believe that collaboration is the key to success and we want to find partners in spaces outside of the music business who focus on social impact and innovation. 
2. We want to be able to continue our work in under-served communities  and need the financial assistance this year to be able to scale and do so. Much of our 2020 funding has been suspended in light of Covid. 

Funding / Revenue Model - we want to continue to grow our donor network so that we can scale to new countries and impact more people in-need

Talent Recruitment - it is always difficult to find and source good talent. We would like to utilize MIT's smart, diverse network of people who want to work in the social impact space 

Board Members - We are in the midst of revising our board of directors and we would like to broaden our board to include people outside of the music business 

Marketing, Media, Exposure - smart marketing and media exposure creates brand awareness, which leads to more opportunity and funding

Potential Partners: 

1. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- we align with them around the work that they do in education and creating economic opportunity for women and girls 
2. The UN -- we admire the work that they do globally in helping amplify the voices of women and girls   
3. The Obama Foundation -- we would love to partner with them in our efforts to scale Nvak within the US 
4. The Gulbenkian Foundation -- they focus on art education in Armenia; we've been wanting to partner with them for a while now in order to have more sustainable funding for that region and beyond

We too believe that marginalized women and girls should have access to quality education and learning opportunities. Like the Andan Foundation, Nvak seeks to empower and help women and girls in areas of social, political, and/or cultural conflict. 

We too believe in mobilizing social good by analyzing the needs of a community, collaborating with expert partners, and creating vehicles of knowledge sharing and learning for women and girls. We aim to empower women by way of technology and making the education easy to access and use.

We, like GM, believe in the importance of digitalizing education. Our online music education platform will allow us to educate millions of aspiring female musicians globally. And while STEM is important, we strongly believe in the importance of STEAM, and want to be thought leaders in that space. 

We have been wanting to partner with the Gulbenkian Foundation for some time now. We believe that with their help, we will be able to amplify the voices of young Armenian voices globally. 

We, like the Patrick McGovern Foundation, believe in the importance of democratizing education and through this improving the human condition.