TV's Gerald Kolpan outwits F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tracy Chapman

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD wrote, "There are no second acts in American lives." Tracy Chapman sang, "Now love's the only thing that's free."

Gerald Kolpan is making a liar out of both of them.

The "first act" of his life was as a golden (eight Emmys) TV features reporter with Fox 29, a job he talked himself into in 1987 and from which he was separated in 2009. It was a long, productive run.

With the pancake makeup and bright lights off, Kolpan's creative energy focused elsewhere. (Did you know he started out as a newspaper and magazine illustrator after his graduation from the Philadelphia College of Art in 1974? He moved here from New Rochelle, N.Y., to attend school.)

The first scene in his "second act" was a long-delayed plan to write a couple of historical novels. (Sorry, Scott.) In the second scene, serendipity led him to the Philo Project.

What's the Philo Project? First, it's free. (Sorry, Tracy.)

In Philo, Kolpan, 63, uses his media skills to create professionally shot, written and edited videos free of charge.

He does them, however, only for small Philadelphia nonprofits that can't afford to make such videos for fundraising or promotion.

And since nothing's really free, if the nonprofits don't pay for Kolpan's services (even though he takes no salary), someone else must. That someone else is a small group of contributors who see the benefits of offering "a helping hand, not a handout" to nonprofits doing good work, he says.

If Kolpan is Philo's father, former Philadelphia Weekly editor Tim Whitaker was the midwife.

Whitaker created and runs Mighty Writers, a program concentrated in South and West Philly offering free classes and mentoring to kids ages 7 to 17 to teach them how to think and write with clarity.

A couple of years ago, Whitaker asked his friend Kolpan to do a video that Mighty Writers could use for fundraising. Kolpan grabbed his Canon Vixia and shot a sportswriting class. When he had finished editing five days later, a cartoon bulb lighted above his head.

"Wait a minute," he thought to himself (because no one else was there). "There must be hundreds of nonprofits who need this. If I can find the fundraising, I can get to make a difference."

Fundraising remains a stubborn problem, but "I'm not a person who can leave a good idea on the table."

Kolpan and I are talking in the library/media room on the second-floor of his three-story Queen Village home. He's in a brown sweater over tan slacks with his feet on his computer keyboard. His longish gray hair frames his face like snow on a window overhang.

Even without full financial backing, he launched the nonprofit Philo Project in late 2013 and so far has produced 23 high-quality, four-minute videos for a variety of nonprofits.

He did one for the West Philly Tool Library, which lends tools to homeowners doing repairs. Tool Library board member Ben White tells me Kolpan's 2014 video resulted in "the highest number of loans and new and renewed memberships."

Art Sanctuary, a black arts and letters organization, "could never have afforded the video," says executive director Valerie Gay.

Speaking of costs, I ask about Philo's annual budget. Kolpan tells me $90,000.

"Do you have that?" I ask.

He shakes his head, followed by a smile that escalates into a belly laugh.

"If we had 90, I'd be paying myself," which he is not. Philo is underfunded. He does it all with the help of volunteers, chiefly his son Ned, 28, and a couple of others who come in to "schlep the camera equipment" and help out in other ways.

Why take on this burden?

All his life he's gotten to do things he wanted to do - everything from a rock band (lead singer in the Moving Target Band) to radio and newspaper commentaries - and been successful more often than not. He feels more than lucky. He feels fulfilled.

So, why?

Kolpan takes the long way around the question, circling like a dog following a scent. He's a wordsmith and doesn't want to come off "corny" or narcissistic.

In his world, not everything is done for the bucks.

"I meet these nonprofit people all the time who are different races, ages, who come from different cultural backgrounds," he says. "I meet people who make me proud to be a human being."

Doesn't sound that corny to me.

Phone: 215-854-5977

On Twitter: @StuBykofsky

Blog: ph.ly/Byko

Columns: ph.ly/StuBykofsky