In response to yesterday’s entry about airing our mistakes as well as our successes, weblog reader Tiffany Wilhelm forwarded this link to Ben Cameron’s latest editorial in American Theater. Titled ‘The Anti-Annual Report,’ the reflection on Theater Communications Group’s past year does all the things I felt were lacking in such public discussions. It highlights achievements, but also underscores hard lessons and missed opportunities, explores where the organization helps its members, and where it continues to come up short. Writes Ben:
Annual reports, precisely because they give such a complete organizational overview, increasingly double as a tool for financial solicitation from potential donors. But, as a result, annual reports tend to depict an organization in its Sunday best. More rarely do these reports offer a more candid disclosure.In a moment of potentially supreme folly, we have decided to dedicate this month¹s editorial to a more reflective discussion of our year, warts and all, in the hopes that the piece will be of greater interest, value and relevance to readers and members of our community and, at the same time, will promote greater mutual candor in the philanthropic exchange.
Here’s to ‘greater mutual candor in the philanthropic exchange’! Thanks to Ben (and Tiffany).