Alternately, are you just robotically giving the most money to previous beneficiaries? In a city in which I no longer live, I served on a local government arts panel evaluating capital requests from arts organizations in the community. We looked at a number of proposals from organizations with small, medium, and large budgets, but the money for such capital expenses came … [Read more...] about Funders: How Do You Hold Your Nonprofit Arts Organizations Accountable?
Nonprofit Arts Orgs and Sandcastles. Now That the Waves Have Hit, Maybe It’s Time to Swim Awhile
All the pandemic did was rush oblivion along. The end of this version of the nonprofit arts industry was coming relatively soon, even before the pandemic. It’s a system borne of privilege and elitism, forgetting that art all by itself is not a charitable mission, no matter whether it’s in the IRS code or not (it’s not). In the largest organizations, survival is based not … [Read more...] about Nonprofit Arts Orgs and Sandcastles. Now That the Waves Have Hit, Maybe It’s Time to Swim Awhile
Why DEI Fails When Anyone Gets Demonized
Do others have the right to force you to adjust your behavior? From whose vantage point? “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” George Galloway I wonder if this search for a “safe” space is all it’s cracked up to be. We’re halfway through 2023 and already in America, there have been over 200 mass shootings, defined as the killing of 4 or more … [Read more...] about Why DEI Fails When Anyone Gets Demonized
Nonprofit Arts Shared Leadership: The Buck Stops Over There. On That Desk.
Leaders are not “plug-and-play.” And a multi-headed model just makes it worse. Maybe you remember 1980s American history. Likely you didn’t because, hey, you weren’t born yet. And nothing of note ever happened before you were born. There was a moment during the republican convention of 1980 when the people who managed the presumptive nominee, Ronald Reagan, were mulling … [Read more...] about Nonprofit Arts Shared Leadership: The Buck Stops Over There. On That Desk.
Why Does Your Nonprofit Arts Organization Engage in the Myth of the Annual Fund?
Why disrespect donors with, at best, only a choice to opt-out? Aren’t donors kinda important? One year after a first-time donation, someone gets an unappealing appeal like the one pictured above. It may come as an email, as a letter in an envelope, or as a phone call. But sure as shootin’, it’s a-comin’. And you probably don’t see anything wrong with that, do you? Just … [Read more...] about Why Does Your Nonprofit Arts Organization Engage in the Myth of the Annual Fund?