In San Diego, one nonprofit arts organization has taken it upon itself to provide paths to success for a community whose lives exist below the sightline of typical arts audiences: the unhoused. There is a lazy maxim about unhoused people in San Diego, California. It is the idea that if people were to choose to be homeless, they might as well be homeless in San … [Read more...] about The Case for Support: Voices of Our City Choir Uses Art to Succeed Where Other Arts Organizations Fear to Tread
Nonprofit
Measuring the Arts is Impossible – Which Is Why Funders Should Measure Charitable Impact Instead
Imagine what would happen if foundations and corporate donors funded not by grantee promises or relationships, but by their deeds and impact instead. Ah well, a man can dream, can’t he? Imagine a world in which nonprofit arts organizations are given every tool they need to succeed. Or, in lieu of that, enough money to care for their communities, provide needed services, … [Read more...] about Measuring the Arts is Impossible – Which Is Why Funders Should Measure Charitable Impact Instead
The 2024 Carol for Nonprofit Arts Organizations
The holiday tradition continues because we know you won’t read it. Each year, we attempt a rather bad parody of a famous holiday poem or song to run on the Tuesday before US Thanksgiving, the least likely time you’ll read it. Let alone sing it. This year, we butchered the famous Welsh carol, “The First Noël” (complete with diaeresis). It’s pretty cringe-worthy, but no … [Read more...] about The 2024 Carol for Nonprofit Arts Organizations
The Case for Support: Arts Capacity Walks the Walk Among Nonprofit Arts Organizations
First, they define the community. Then ask what they need, not what they want. Finally, they don’t confuse it with some irrelevant “artistic vision.” Why isn’t yours doing that? One of the great bugaboos of the nonprofit arts industry is that, while it must be responsive and responsible to the communities in which each individual charity operates, the definition of … [Read more...] about The Case for Support: Arts Capacity Walks the Walk Among Nonprofit Arts Organizations
So. THAT Happened. Now What?
Regardless of the elections, the issues haven’t changed for US nonprofit arts organizations. But the stakes are higher than ever. It’s been a week since election day, and rather than discussing that process, let’s take a moment to congratulate whichever ones of us survived the last couple of years. We may not last through the next four, but at least we’ve gotten this … [Read more...] about So. THAT Happened. Now What?