With the industry in a nationwide, existential crisis, leaders may have to choose one or the other. If so, the choice is easy. It’s 2025 and the nonprofit arts world is crumbling around us. In Seattle, ACT (A Contemporary Theatre) and Seattle Shakespeare are now part of the same company, a company that celebrates the 461-year-old Englishman performing the most … [Read more...] about Nonprofit Arts Leaders and Funders: What’s It Gonna Be? People or Buildings?
Philanthropy and Donors
A Strategic Plan for Your Flailing Nonprofit Arts Organization Is Just a Waste of Time
As Kate Larsen so brilliantly puts it, a strategic planning session is not the same thing as a strategic plan session. I’ve contributed to them. I’ve written them. I’ve defended them. And more than once, I’ve been burned by them. But still, it’s always the first thing every board chair tells every consultant that their company really needs one. A strategic … [Read more...] about A Strategic Plan for Your Flailing Nonprofit Arts Organization Is Just a Waste of Time
SUMMER RERUN: Advocacy for the Nonprofit Arts Sector is Currently Meaningless
Lost amid a string of inside-baseball phrases and ideologies, officials have little idea as to why they would possibly fund institutions that serve themselves first. This article was originally posted in April, but things have only managed to get worse. For further evidence of that, click here and read an article that came out about a month later: "NO. JUST NO." With … [Read more...] about SUMMER RERUN: Advocacy for the Nonprofit Arts Sector is Currently Meaningless
SUMMER RERUN: Art Doesn’t Need to Be Served. People Do.
From 2024: The Mellon Foundation almost got it right for nonprofit arts leadership in the 2020s. Why don't people subscribe to nonprofit arts organizations anymore? Because you can’t get good seats from inside a coffin. You may not have heard about this, mostly because the news has not been reported as much as it should have been, but the Mellon Foundation, the … [Read more...] about SUMMER RERUN: Art Doesn’t Need to Be Served. People Do.
SUMMER RERUN: “The Planet Will Be Fine. It’s the People Who Will Be F**ked.” — George Carlin
From December 2024 (just after the election): the comedian’s late-career epiphany and the nonprofit arts sector begs the question: what happens when you eliminate “hope?” We’re rounding the turn and heading into the home stretch of 2024. Your nonprofit arts organization is well into its year-end, give now while you can still get a tax deduction, do it for the children … [Read more...] about SUMMER RERUN: “The Planet Will Be Fine. It’s the People Who Will Be F**ked.” — George Carlin