{"id":4047,"date":"2015-04-29T06:34:40","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T10:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=4047"},"modified":"2015-04-29T06:34:40","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T10:34:40","slug":"cant-buy-me-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/04\/cant-buy-me-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Can&#8217;t Buy Me Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4053\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/The_Beatles_with_Jimmy_Nicol_1964_001-e1427127241863.png\" alt=\"The_Beatles_(with_Jimmy_Nicol)_1964_001\" width=\"304\" height=\"200\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/04\/give-or-get\/\" target=\"_blank\">In my last post<\/a> I ended part-way through a rant about the widely perceived incompatibility of a &#8220;fundraising board&#8221; with true commitment to community engagement or, more broadly, diversity in general. Without repeating that post, the principal concern was the assumption that money was the only or by far the most important resource that board members can bring to an organization. If that is the conscious or even unconscious view of the board, anyone who is serving the organization by bringing community connections will inevitably feel (and be) marginalized.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But what if we thought of this another way? <strong>If becoming important to new segments of the community were the main<\/strong> (or only) <strong>path to long-term health<\/strong> (via ticket sales and donations from new constituencies\u00a0 and public\u00a0 or private funding from new sources), <strong>then the people who can provide access to those new constituencies are <em>more<\/em> important than those who &#8220;merely&#8221; give money. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">No amount of money can buy trust. (Access, maybe. Trust, never.) And <strong>many arts organizations have a trust deficit among communities that must be addressed for the sake of their futures<\/strong>. The individuals willing to serve as liaisons to new communities put their own hard-earned reputations as trustworthy citizens on the line if they agree to be ambassadors for an arts organization. Arts organizations must work first to build trust with those individuals and then work even harder to be trustworthy as these people build bridges in communities on our behalf. (Mandatory caveat: No individual can by themselves represent an entire community. Nor should they be expected to do so. At best individuals can provide access to others who, with them, can together guide the relationship building process.)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Arts organizations must come to truly understand the nearly immeasurable value of community liaisons. The people who serve in those roles must never feel marginalized because they do not provide the kind of money that fundraising board members do. <strong>There is no amount of money that can buy<\/strong> the <strong>legitimacy<\/strong> that they can provide.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Engage!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Doug<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Photo: &#8220;The Beatles (with Jimmy Nicol) 1964 001&#8221; by VARA &#8211; Beeld en Geluidwiki &#8211; Gallery: The Beatles. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 nl via Wikimedia Commons &#8211; http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:The_Beatles_(with_Jimmy_Nicol)_1964_001.png#\/media\/File:The_Beatles_(with_Jimmy_Nicol)_1964_001.png<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If becoming important to new segments of the community is the main path to long-term health, those who provide access to new constituencies are *more* important than those who &#8220;merely&#8221; give money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Can't Buy Me Love\u2013No amount of money can buy trust: http:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-13h","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,10],"tags":[12,13,42,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-4047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-principles","8":"category-the-practice-of-engagement","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-community-engagement","11":"tag-diversity","12":"tag-governance","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/The_Beatles_with_Jimmy_Nicol_1964_001-e1427127241863.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-13h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4037,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/04\/give-or-get\/","url_meta":{"origin":4047,"position":0},"title":"Give 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Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/BoardOfDirs-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4993,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/08\/the-boards-role-in-community-engagement-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":4047,"position":2},"title":"The Board&#8217;s Role in Community Engagement: I","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The board of directors can and should be a supportive resource for community engagement.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Practice of Engagement&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/BoardOfDirs-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3612,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/05\/engagement-working-group\/","url_meta":{"origin":4047,"position":3},"title":"Engagement Working Group","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Assembling a core team and assessing readiness on the path to engagement.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Practice of Engagement&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"PenguinConspiracy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/PenguinConspiracy-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2643,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/03\/the-board-as-engagers\/","url_meta":{"origin":4047,"position":4},"title":"The Board as Engagers","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"March 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we consider nonprofit governance from a community engagement perspective, specifically the make-up and function of the nonprofit board of directors. Most arts administrators understand boards as resource engines. We have a history (understandably) of populating our boards with moneyed people or people who know moneyed people. They clearly represent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Introductions","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Introductions-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5729,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2019\/10\/doomed-to-fail\/","url_meta":{"origin":4047,"position":5},"title":"Doomed to Fail","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Diversity, equity, and inclusion are vital to the future of the arts. The commitment to community that community engagement requires is an essential foundation upon which to build efforts in DEI.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Fail.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4047"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4137,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4047\/revisions\/4137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}