{"id":1342,"date":"2025-03-25T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/?p=1342"},"modified":"2025-03-09T07:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-09T07:28:10","slug":"nonprofit-arts-success-in-a-changing-environment-tip-6-dont-talk-about-it-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2025\/03\/25\/nonprofit-arts-success-in-a-changing-environment-tip-6-dont-talk-about-it-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonprofit Arts Success in a Changing Environment, Tip 6 \u2014 Don\u2019t Talk About It; Do It."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Doing the right thing is always the right thing to do. It\u2019s right there in the phrase.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image by Anna Shvets on Pexels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the new\/old world order of Trumpian policy, your arts organization faces the real possibility that, in the face of anti-arts, anti-education, and anti-truth political muckraking euphemistically calling itself \u201cpopulism,\u201d it will be shut down. The most intelligent thing your nonprofit arts organization can do right now is concentrate on your community. Act hyper-local. No local nonprofit arts organization can win the day by taking on the national fascist zeitgeist, especially on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sixth tip exists not just because of the wave of resentment that has emanated from the right toward the intellectual power of the arts. It applies all the time. You and your organization need to stop proclaiming things, as though you were conquering the New World. That\u2019s how we got into a lot of this mess in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There’s nothing to conquer. Don’t plant a flag. Climb the mountain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


This might be the hardest task you have, given the kind of work you do and the tendency for arts organizations (both commercial and nonprofit) to create a set of activities based on funding and acclaim. It is the nature of a preponderance of artists to want a constancy of approval. With so much personal storytelling involved with the arts, it\u2019s no wonder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But forget about that. It\u2019s not important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonprofit arts organizations are charities, as we\u2019ve said many times before. Doing the best charitable work you can do requires your team to do it and get on with it, not take credit for it. And leaders, if you\u2019re taking credit for something you didn\u2019t do (which obsequious press people tend to take at face value), that\u2019s even worse.
There has been a lot of chatter about the elimination of DEI programs from the nonprofit sector. The arts portion, led by the news around the right-wing takeover of the Kennedy Center<\/a>, is not immune, but the perfunctory DEI manifestos that were omnipresent after the killing of George Floyd have been taken down, eliminated, or merely ignored by most of the larger arts charities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Call now. Operators are standing by.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Forget about the national issues now. Your organization can\u2019t solve national issues. However, it can solve local ones<\/em>. It\u2019s time to get seriously hyper-local.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doing the right thing doesn\u2019t require you to announce that you\u2019re doing the right thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know this isn\u2019t news, but you don\u2019t have to proclaim your every charitable activity and program before you do them. You don\u2019t. Just do them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n