How do you determine the difference between your company’s suspected real issues and the actual real issues? What happens when you’re wrong?
Presenting problem: Our nonprofit arts organization is broke.
Real problem: Our nonprofit arts organization chooses to continue to provide art and nothing more, believing that the production of our version of art is a universal good. We’re doing what we’ve always done, over and over, and are somehow expecting a different result.
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Presenting problem: Our artistic director (AD) is the leader of our community efforts, but disappears for weeks at a time to direct their own project.
Real problem: We didn’t put anyone in charge of the mission, including the AD. AD reports to no one but an awestruck board, so they have cobbled together a freedom from mission. Adding an executive director (ED) would only have been acceptable to AD if ED reported to AD, or if both reported equally to the BOD. We believe it is more important to produce excellent art than to become experts on what our community really needs.
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Presenting problem: Our BOD discusses financial issues with an eye toward cuts because they believe there is no more money to be raised on any front, especially with audience size reducing because of COVID.
Real problem: Many members of our BOD have little to no idea what their responsibilities are. As such, they choose not to raise money, mostly because they don’t want to spend personal capital by “begging” for money. We do not even have 100% giving support from our BOD, and some members believe that their company’s gift and their in-kind time spent relieves them of their personal, from-the-pocket donation. Also, without knowing their own responsibilities as nonprofit arts BOD members, they don’t have any idea who to recruit. Often, some members of the BOD ask for and receive special favors from the company, over and over, leading to a toxic relationship between board member and company.
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Presenting problem: Members of the staff, including the leadership team, are either experiencing, have experienced, or have quit/were terminated due to burnout.
Real problem: We expect our leaders (even when we are the leaders) to buy into an unsustainable lifestyle where their work is the most important thing. As such, lavishly praise those who work 60-hour workweeks. We are annoyed when they take their vacation time. Our top staff members (AD and ED) are on-call 168 hours per week. And when we do hire, we break the law by enforcing ageism; we let qualified people over 50 go by the wayside because our 30-year-old staff members are “uncomfortable” with managing an older worker. We then tell the candidate, if we bother sending any communication at all to them, that it wasn’t a “cultural fit,” which is code for illegal HR behavior. We also accept explanations such as, “We’ve always done it this way,” “We tried that and it didn’t work,” and “I’m too busy” to stop us from doing potentially impactful work, which is our task as a charity.
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Presenting problem: We’re not achieving our goals.
Real problem: We have put the wrong goal in front of us. We’re not doing anything that effectively helps the underserved or unserved people in our community – which is, of course, what the community wants us to do and will help fund those activities, just as they did during and after the initial years of the pandemic.
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Presenting problem: We set specific goals for our contracts with consultants but somehow, their solutions never work, so we end up wasting money and junking them.
Real problem: The goals we set for our consultants are not even in the same zip code as our actual issues. Some are ridiculous. But after informing the consultant, we dismiss any further analysis. Nobody knows the trouble we’ve seen. Nobody knows our sorrow. 2 x 2 has to equal Newark, or our dear nonprofit arts organization will ultimately go belly-up.
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Presenting problem: The problems we present to ourselves and our communities never seem to even approximate the real problems with our nonprofit arts organization. All we really want to do is present art. Is that so wrong?
Real problem: How do we present and produce art without being held responsible to make our community better—as we have been charged to do by garnering 501(C)(3) status? Have we been brainwashed to believe that there’s some sort of moral high ground in producing as a struggling nonprofit company rather than as an entrepreneurial for-profit entity? Should we investigate what it would mean for our company to utilize investments as revenue instead of donations? Would a donor like to buy exclusive access by becoming an investor instead? How would that change what we do? More importantly, how would that change why we do it?
Maybe it’s not a bad idea to investigate. Maybe our goals don’t fit with the nonprofit sector. Maybe we can form an LLC that creates wealth for investors instead of requiring wealth from donors. Maybe we don’t have to present nonprofit problems when we become a for-profit entity. How would all that work? And why haven’t we thought of that before now?
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Based in Kirkland, Washington, Alan Harrison is a writer and speaker specializing in nonprofit organizations, strategy, the arts, and life politics. His columns appear regularly in ArtsJournal and other major publications. Contact him directly at alan@501c3.guru.
If you’re feeling generous or inspired, just click on the coffee cup. You don’t have to, of course, but if you can afford it and find some value here, please provide the desperate need for caffeine.
Alan is always looking for good opportunities to write and consult for nonprofits that need a hand. And, of course, that elusive Perfect Opportunity™.
Alan’s new book, “Scene Change: Why Today’s Nonprofit Arts Organizations Have to Stop Producing Art and Start Producing Impact” will be published in late January. CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER IN THE UNITED STATES. If you live in the UK, CLICK HERE.
Recruit your local bookstore, conference panel, or boardroom to get a visit from Alan. Advance copies may be made available for those booking conferences, reading engagements, and speaking engagements. So get on it! (Please.)
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