Plus: a bonus, non-hypothetical question for you! Now that the end of the fiscal year has passed, and while you're busy toting up the red ink and how you'll hide it from the board and your funders, let's all try not to make the same mistakes regarding your marketing budget for the coming year, okay? This one’s not for the marketing folks. They know what they’re doing. … [Read more...] about Nonprofit Arts Leaders: Just Like the Overhead Myth, Ratios are Ridiculous
Nonprofit Management
Nonprofit Arts Leaders: To Change Your Organization for the Better, You Actually Have to Change
Don’t let your dominant response default you into driving into that wall. Let’s say you’re driving to an important meeting. There are a lot of complex issues to be discussed. Short-term problems. Long-term problems. Your company, no matter what kind of company it is, utilizes an overabundance of processes, even when things are running smoothly. But you have tasks to do, … [Read more...] about Nonprofit Arts Leaders: To Change Your Organization for the Better, You Actually Have to Change
Sometimes There’s a Pretty Good Reason to Swim Upstream
For nonprofit arts organizations, the choice to use the art as a final product is the easiest way to swim downstream. Oh, before I forget. If June 30 is a special date for your company and you need/want/are being forced to raise a bunch of money before then with a big campaign, here’s an email to print out and show your various bosses: Don’t force people to give … [Read more...] about Sometimes There’s a Pretty Good Reason to Swim Upstream
For Live, Functioning Artists, The End Comes Not With a Bang, But an Email
In the never-ending, fruitless search for economy, actors are being replaced by algorithms The “race to the bottom” in today’s economy is well-documented. It has always been well-documented, railed against, and ultimately won the day. From the obscenity of 400 years of enslaving Black people to prop up a weak economy in the United States to a smaller vulgarity of … [Read more...] about For Live, Functioning Artists, The End Comes Not With a Bang, But an Email
Nonprofit Arts Organizations: Water Is Wet. And Cultural Crossover Doesn’t Work Unless You Center Your Full-Time Intent Downstage of the Footlights.
Incidentally, it’s my birthday today. So, hey – I have the perfect gift all figured out. Just click on any image you see… You had a nifty idea. Combine hip-hop with one show this season. Then they’ll subscribe to your theater, symphony, or ballet forever more. Neato. Nifty ideas that come from a place of desperation and vainglory never turn out very well. I know. … [Read more...] about Nonprofit Arts Organizations: Water Is Wet. And Cultural Crossover Doesn’t Work Unless You Center Your Full-Time Intent Downstage of the Footlights.