Write, speak out, enact your own scene change. That would be the best birthday present ever.
Question everything, including what seems to be obvious.
The nonprofit arts sector is evolving, ever so slowly, into a new paradigm in which charitable acts measure success. Scrape off the old “sell the most tickets” barnacles; they’ll only hinder progress.
Remember what “news” is and you’ll have a better chance of making your nonprofit newsworthy. In case you’ve forgotten, the Encyclopedia Brittanica calls news, “new information or a report about something that has happened recently.” You can’t hype something into being newsworthy. You have to do something.
Equity is seen as a zero-sum game; gaining it for those who’ve never had it will always be a struggle. But it’s a struggle worth fighting for. Risk getting fired on this particular hill; don’t accept anything less, including “equality.” Doing the right thing is always the right thing to do.
Buy the books at the bottom of this page. It’s not about the sales or the royalties; I won’t make a dime off these books. It’s about the message and making sure your nonprofit has the ammunition to make the changes you need in order to succeed. Click here for more on that.
It’s my birthday today, May 14. My announcement for the day is simply this: I’m done writing this particular blog. However, and this is important: I ain’t dead yet. What did Steinbeck write in The Grapes of Wrath?
“Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’ I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry n’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build — why, I’ll be there.”
It’s time for you to take my place.
I took it upon myself to create a platform and somehow found a way to reach over 6,000 people every week. I saw a key problem and a key solution and ran with it. Some liked what they read, some hated it. Some sent damning messages to my personal message folder; some sent praise. But if it weren’t for the forward-thinking mastermind that is Douglas McLennan, none of this would have been possible. Thanks for the gift, Doug.
(I never thank enough people, so I’m going to stop at Doug for now. Except this: for the dozens of you who saw fit to buy me a cup of coffee through https://ko-fi.com/alanharrison, thank you, too. It meant the world to me.)
Take my place. Report the news. Keep nonprofit arts leaders accountable to their communities instead of their egos. Have them lean on the nonprofit instead of the art. Art is essential and is around whether you want it or not. Nonprofit arts organizations are not essential, so they have to prove worth by measurements of charitable impact, not butts in seats.
No one attempts to create anything but excellent art. That’s the baseline, not the goal. And if the art helps no one in measurable ways, then it does not qualify as nonprofit arts organization material. Make all the noise in the world about that. Find the nonprofit arts organizations that get it. Donate to them. Urge others to do so, too. For some ideas on what just some of those organizations do, read this book.
As for my future, I’ll be writing a new kind of book, at least for me. It’s autobiographical fiction, which should be fun. Look for it in the 99¢ aisle or get it for free at the library sometime in the next year or so. It’s tentatively titled Bubbe Meises, which I’ll let you look up on your own if you don’t speak Yiddish.
So this is the last entry, unless and until something outrageous happens. Again. Which means I’ll probably write a guest article next week, right?
I’m still doing consulting with boards on how to right their particular ship and teaching guest classes wherever and whenever possible. And still having cups of coffee with just about anyone who asks. As long as people want their companies to be great — and isn’t that what every nonprofit leader wants? — why, I’ll be there.
Thank you for reading all the way to the end. Give me a call.
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