Read about it at:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/yale-repertory-theater-receives-950000-gift/
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Non-profit Ethics
I've been gathering information on non-profit ethics lately. I know, I know..."what a girl scout," you're thinking. But here we non-profit employees are, in a rough economy, fortunate to have work thanks to the generosity of our donors. So we owe them our respect.
A few questions have come up lately in conversations I've had with colleagues (you know--those riveting, roaring fundraising discussions...):
-What do you do when a coworker shares somewhat personal information that will negatively affect the organzation? (For example, the events manager confides that she's leaving the organization right before the big gala.) Do you have to protect the coworker or the organization?
-How about when you've decided to change a program, or a production, and you're still working out the plan to announce the change. At what point does it start becoming dishonest to not tell your donors (even if their donations aren't restricted to that program)?
I'm not asking about legality issues here. I'm saying within the confines of what's legal, how do you choose what's right?
I'm starting to gather resources on fundraising ethics and I've started with those provided by the Association of Fundraising Professionals: http://www.afpnet.org/Ethics/EnforcementDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=4013
Have any points of view on the questions posed or any good ethics resources? Share below!
A few questions have come up lately in conversations I've had with colleagues (you know--those riveting, roaring fundraising discussions...):
-What do you do when a coworker shares somewhat personal information that will negatively affect the organzation? (For example, the events manager confides that she's leaving the organization right before the big gala.) Do you have to protect the coworker or the organization?
-How about when you've decided to change a program, or a production, and you're still working out the plan to announce the change. At what point does it start becoming dishonest to not tell your donors (even if their donations aren't restricted to that program)?
I'm not asking about legality issues here. I'm saying within the confines of what's legal, how do you choose what's right?
I'm starting to gather resources on fundraising ethics and I've started with those provided by the Association of Fundraising Professionals: http://www.afpnet.org/Ethics/EnforcementDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=4013
Have any points of view on the questions posed or any good ethics resources? Share below!
Monday, May 3, 2010
What the Arts Can Learn from a Surfshop (or, are we marketing to the right people?)
A woman owns a store called Bonfire Beach. It specializes in the latest styles in surf fashion and has a loyal customer base, consisting of 75% male and 25% female clients, mostly aged 16 to 21, who live within a six mile radius.
One day the store owner decides to expand her business. She does some research and learns the demographic group in her area that spends the most on clothing is professional women, ages 25 through 40.
She spends a lot of dough on fancy marketing materials and plans a splashy event, welcoming this demographic group to her store. The turnout isn’t as large as she hoped, but she’s determined to sell, sell, sell!
The 25 to 40-year-old women take a free mat tai and poke through the clothing for a while. Most don’t end up buying anything, and the store owner overhears a few customers comment that there isn’t anything they’d wear. A few women buy swimsuits, and one woman buys a pair of shorts for her 16-year-old son.
A few weeks pass. There are no new 25 to 40-year-old female customers. The women who bought swimsuits don’t return – they are busy professionals, so they only need one swimsuit. The woman who bought the shorts for her son comes back to return them. (Apparently, Bonfire Beach isn’t a trendy store for 16 year old boys anymore, now that all their marketing is aimed at 25 to 40-year-old women.)
The plan totally failed because, well, this is a transparently ridiculous story. No intelligent store owner would ever do any of this.
So why do we do it all the time in theatre? We know our core audience but we convince ourselves that the way to grow our audience is to reach new kinds of buyers. We neglect the fact that we haven’t tapped out our target buyer group yet. Theatre professionals spend a lot of time fretting that “only well-to-do individuals in their 60s and up buy tickets these days,” and our solution is to spend time and money marketing to “new audiences” so someone is there to replace these aging audiences. Never mind that theatre audiences have swayed older for decades and manage to replace themselves year after year with a new supply of older adults who are excited to finally have time to go to a show. Never mind that common sense tells us a retired 65-year-old couple, with no kids left to support and plenty of spare time, will clearly have a logistically easier time getting to a $65 per ticket show on a Tuesday night than a 35-year-old working couple with two young kids and a mortgage. We ignore the profile of our most likely buyer in favor of marketing to, you know, “the public, in general.”
What’s worse is that we sometimes even change our programming to appeal to a new crowd. We make artistic choices based not on the merit of a piece of theatre, but on a poorly designed marketing scheme that doesn’t even have a chance of attracting new audiences. We worry that unless we get new audiences, theatre will see its demise. And we respond to that worry by ensuring its demise by not even producing the shows that mean something to us, in favor of work chosen just because it might appeal to a group who doesn’t even seem interested in coming.
My wish for not-for-profit theatre is that it would concentrate on marketing to its built-in audience. If sales are not going well, focus on a clearly identified target buyer, just like for-profit companies in all industries do. There is no way theatre has tapped out that target market, at least not in Los Angeles. We should embrace those buyers, not make them feel like we'd rather have someone younger, hipper, and newer to theatre in that seat.
And certainly theatre companies should try to reach new audiences. We should be creative and find ways to attract and engage younger and more diverse crowds. We should figure out what within our art form speaks to us so deeply that we want to share it and preserve it and keep it thriving. And then we should bottle up that passion and figure out a way to spread it around to all sorts of new types of audience members. But we should call that outreach, not marketing.
One day the store owner decides to expand her business. She does some research and learns the demographic group in her area that spends the most on clothing is professional women, ages 25 through 40.
She spends a lot of dough on fancy marketing materials and plans a splashy event, welcoming this demographic group to her store. The turnout isn’t as large as she hoped, but she’s determined to sell, sell, sell!
The 25 to 40-year-old women take a free mat tai and poke through the clothing for a while. Most don’t end up buying anything, and the store owner overhears a few customers comment that there isn’t anything they’d wear. A few women buy swimsuits, and one woman buys a pair of shorts for her 16-year-old son.
A few weeks pass. There are no new 25 to 40-year-old female customers. The women who bought swimsuits don’t return – they are busy professionals, so they only need one swimsuit. The woman who bought the shorts for her son comes back to return them. (Apparently, Bonfire Beach isn’t a trendy store for 16 year old boys anymore, now that all their marketing is aimed at 25 to 40-year-old women.)
The plan totally failed because, well, this is a transparently ridiculous story. No intelligent store owner would ever do any of this.
So why do we do it all the time in theatre? We know our core audience but we convince ourselves that the way to grow our audience is to reach new kinds of buyers. We neglect the fact that we haven’t tapped out our target buyer group yet. Theatre professionals spend a lot of time fretting that “only well-to-do individuals in their 60s and up buy tickets these days,” and our solution is to spend time and money marketing to “new audiences” so someone is there to replace these aging audiences. Never mind that theatre audiences have swayed older for decades and manage to replace themselves year after year with a new supply of older adults who are excited to finally have time to go to a show. Never mind that common sense tells us a retired 65-year-old couple, with no kids left to support and plenty of spare time, will clearly have a logistically easier time getting to a $65 per ticket show on a Tuesday night than a 35-year-old working couple with two young kids and a mortgage. We ignore the profile of our most likely buyer in favor of marketing to, you know, “the public, in general.”
What’s worse is that we sometimes even change our programming to appeal to a new crowd. We make artistic choices based not on the merit of a piece of theatre, but on a poorly designed marketing scheme that doesn’t even have a chance of attracting new audiences. We worry that unless we get new audiences, theatre will see its demise. And we respond to that worry by ensuring its demise by not even producing the shows that mean something to us, in favor of work chosen just because it might appeal to a group who doesn’t even seem interested in coming.
My wish for not-for-profit theatre is that it would concentrate on marketing to its built-in audience. If sales are not going well, focus on a clearly identified target buyer, just like for-profit companies in all industries do. There is no way theatre has tapped out that target market, at least not in Los Angeles. We should embrace those buyers, not make them feel like we'd rather have someone younger, hipper, and newer to theatre in that seat.
And certainly theatre companies should try to reach new audiences. We should be creative and find ways to attract and engage younger and more diverse crowds. We should figure out what within our art form speaks to us so deeply that we want to share it and preserve it and keep it thriving. And then we should bottle up that passion and figure out a way to spread it around to all sorts of new types of audience members. But we should call that outreach, not marketing.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department funding crisis
The City of Los Angeles Budget and Finance Committee has put forward a motion to eliminate the Department of Cultural Affairs' dedicated source of revenue. The motion will go before the City Council on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at City Hall, from 9 am to 1 pm.
Please take a moment to visit http://www.artsforla.org/ to learn more about this issue and to find out how you can voice your thoughts.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Nine lessons from 2009
For my last post of the year, I wanted to share nine (not necessarily related) truths about fundraising that I’ll bring with me into 2010.
1. Solicit frequently. The more you solicit, the more donations you will receive—even if each individual solicitation is not as successful as you might hope.
2. Read through the entire grant instructions before you begin writing – and do this long before the grant’s due date.
3. A supply of black tablecloths for your events is more useful than a supply of white ones.
4. Plan ahead. Tell yourself your deadlines are earlier than they really are. Schedule solicitations as if your timeline ends a month before it actually does.
5. Donors enjoy fun, personal thank you letters. Informative does not necessarily equal formal.
6. Take inspiration from sales tools and marketing devices from for-profit companies, especially the big ones that spend a lot more on design and research than your non-profit most likely does.
7. Stay organized.
8. Don’t be afraid to keep your organization’s leaders fully informed, even if you have bad news to share. They’ll appreciate your honesty and will likely be able to help you!
9. Above all else, arts fundraising relies on your ability to spread the joy, value, and richness your art form gives to society.
Happy new year everyone.
1. Solicit frequently. The more you solicit, the more donations you will receive—even if each individual solicitation is not as successful as you might hope.
2. Read through the entire grant instructions before you begin writing – and do this long before the grant’s due date.
3. A supply of black tablecloths for your events is more useful than a supply of white ones.
4. Plan ahead. Tell yourself your deadlines are earlier than they really are. Schedule solicitations as if your timeline ends a month before it actually does.
5. Donors enjoy fun, personal thank you letters. Informative does not necessarily equal formal.
6. Take inspiration from sales tools and marketing devices from for-profit companies, especially the big ones that spend a lot more on design and research than your non-profit most likely does.
7. Stay organized.
8. Don’t be afraid to keep your organization’s leaders fully informed, even if you have bad news to share. They’ll appreciate your honesty and will likely be able to help you!
9. Above all else, arts fundraising relies on your ability to spread the joy, value, and richness your art form gives to society.
Happy new year everyone.
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