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 (“Won’t someone think of the children?!”), just … [Read more...] about “The Planet Will Be Fine. It’s the People Who Will Be F**ked.” — George Carlin
Community
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
Talking To or Talking At? Or Even Talking at All?
Nonprofit Arts Leaders: Don't tell them about your mission, show them how you are fulfilling it. Don't just present, discuss. Do you talk about what’s happening to other folks in your community? Or are you “too busy?” This is an exchange that happened during a recent “Town Hall” with Vice President Kamala Harris taking questions from “undecided” voters in Pennsylvania, … [Read more...] about Talking To or Talking At? Or Even Talking at All?
Breaking Free of Your Longtime Role Is Hard. But It’s the Key to Progress.
Just look at the US presidential election... and US nonprofit arts organizations. We have established roles for ourselves. We can’t help it. “In human life, social roles are ubiquitous. Historically, social and personality psychologists sought to understand the relation between social roles and psychological functioning. Contemporary social and personality … [Read more...] about Breaking Free of Your Longtime Role Is Hard. But It’s the Key to Progress.
Why Do Donors Ask for Irrelevant Data?
Could it be that you never talked to them about your nonprofit’s charitable goals and how they mesh with the donor’s? Whose fault is that? A few weeks ago, I participated in a discussion about the arts and measuring impact in the community. As every other author does, I believed that the message that the arts are not a tax-exempt activity had been spread far and wide among … [Read more...] about Why Do Donors Ask for Irrelevant Data?