Business planning books are generally linear things, stepping you through the motions of starting or extending a business from insight to implementation. But we all know that reality is not like that, particularly in artistic enterprise. When artists and creative individuals consider starting their own business or profit-generating activity, vision, business, purpose, life, passion, and […]
Archives for May 2009
The urge to merge
In a tight economy, there has been increasing chatter about the potential for mergers in the nonprofit world. The social service sector has seen a slew of them. But the arts have seemed more talk than action. While not specifically promoting merger, the Lodestar Foundation recently encouraged collaboration more broadly through their Collaboration Prize (winners […]
Does this make me a twitterer or just a twit?
I decided to finally dive into Twitter this past month, since it seemed to be getting serious traction as a tool. You can follow me if you like. I was wary of the step, as I couldn’t identify a tangible benefit to knowing short bursts of facts about strangers — buying coffee, eating pickles, tweeting […]
Nonprofit economics
I’m attending a Nonprofit Economic Summit for Dane County, Wisconsin, this morning, co-sponsored by our county’s United Way. Lots of experts — including state, county, and Madison city officials — exploring the economy and the unique need and role for nonprofits. The sessions have been front-loaded with bleak information, as you might expect, tracing the […]
Credit where credit is due
Over in his Diacritical blog, Doug McLennan reminds us to continually reconsider the ways we recognize the many people who support our arts organizations — not just the ones who do so through contributions. Says he: Who’s the more valuable member of your community? The person who gives you money but otherwise doesn’t have much […]