...Re-Re-Invention...

This is very personal for me but no less real. It's time to reinvent myself at work. It's not welcome, it's not wanted. Internally, I'm struggling. This is not a complete thought, but it's what I'm feeling at the moment.

Yesterday my boss casually mentioned that he'll be taking "a few" special projects from me and giving them to other staff members as we're expecting a downturn in monies from grants and foundations. The expectation, as I see it, is that by taking away the special projects I will be able to focus more time and energy into earned income in order to make up the budget shortfall. I have two points to share...

I. One of the failures of some non-profits is their ability to plan effectively for grant, foundation or corporate income to sustain projects beyond their original conception. With out sustainability in funding the organization is more likely to see their service/outreach numbers fluctuate severely. Without sustained or constant grant and foundation monies, primary sources of funding disappear. This will affect the organization in many ways.

a. The organization's Board will take notice. I don't think I need to go into detail about the doubt that will arise on the organization's staff at that point.

b. Partners will feel that they are doing the majority of the work if they are the only ones bringing money to the table and may begin looking for other organizations to form sustainable partnerships.

c. If an organization fails to garner monies from foundations, corporations and grants then they are less likely to continue to collect monies from existing and new sources. It reflects poorly when applying for new monies, appearing as if the organization is more interested in "your money in the moment" rather than the long lasting social impact that extended and strategic grant, corporate and foundation giving can provide.

II. With the organizations failure to strategically invest in grant, foundation or corporate income their becomes a budget shortfall, which then then becomes a burden to the organization. Upper management will often shift this burden to the 'earned income' side of the business compounding the hardship of those managing earned income (who often have already inflated budget goals). When this burden is shifted it often does NOT come with additional support in the form marketing materials, strategic planning or personnel. This "patchwork fix" lacks planning and strategies for growth. With the lack of support in materials, personnel and planning it's often hard to grow far beyond what is already sustainable. That being said, it helps to give it ones all regardless of being overworked, underpaid, understaffed.

To put it mildly, no one can replace my primary job function. No one can do that voodoo that I do so well. However, I've been looking for someone to do that voodoo that I do just as well as I do. I have been sorely (and repeatedly) disappointed.

I didn't return any statement to my boss. Actually, I just nodded until he was done talking and then walked away. He knows what I love to do and he knows I'm good at it. He still can't justify me doing those jobs without someone as good as me in my primary job function.

Non-Profit Marketing & Advocacy

Started in 1999, SurveyMonkey is an online survey tool that enables people of all experience levels to create their own surveys quickly and easily. Every day, SurveyMonkey gives thousands of people the feedback they need to make more informed decisions, including more than 80% of the Fortune 100. SurveyMonkey’s offices are located in Portland, Oregon USA.

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SurveyMonkey offers a basic free service and you can certainly pay for more bells and whistles. Really, USE this - it's an amazing tool for non-profits everywhere. I will be using it several times in the upcoming year along with focus groups and pushing my ED for YAV's very own version 'Creative Conversations*'.

*Started in 2004, some of these local convenings have grown into cohesive, organized emerging leader networks. This local tool empowers emerging leaders to take a leadership role in their own community by both designing programming and galvanizing their peers to connect professionally. Feedback and ideas from these Creative Conversations help assist Americans for the Arts in planning for 2009 events, such as Arts Advocacy Day, peer group meetings, and other emerging leader activities taking place at Americans for the Arts 2009 Annual Convention, June 17–20 in Seattle, Renewable Resources: The Arts and Sustainable Communities.

09-10 Catalog/Program ??

Focus groups are expensive, questionnaires are easier. This is a questionnaire I developed bouncing ideas off of Michael. Our program chairperson was asking me what kind of programs we needed... I decided to put it to the people instead of me guessing.

I love basing work on actual facts instead of perceived facts.

Anna

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Programming / Marketing Questionnaire Draft 1:

1. For what reason would you schedule an in-school program?
A. Enhance Classroom Learning
B. Emphasize SOL Objectives
C. Character Education
D. Reward / Entertainment (Students)
E. Increased Parental Involvement (PTA Night)
F. Other, Please Explain

2. Of core curriculum subjects, what content area would you like to see expanded in YAV’s catalog?
A. History / Social Studies
B. English / Literature
C. Foreign Language
D. Math
E. Science

3. In YAV’s catalog, of which art forms would you like to see more diversified representation?
A. Dance
B. Theatre
C. Music
D. Visual Arts
E. Creative Writing

4. What are the greatest curriculum challenges you face in your classroom?
Essay Response

5. How frequently should an artist offer new programs?
A. Every year?
B. Every two years?
C. Every three years?
D. Other, Please Explain

6. What enhancements to the YAV’s printed catalog would you recommend YAV consider making for next year or for future years?
Essay Response

7. Please describe how satisfied you are with YAV’s current offerings.
A. Very satisfied
B. Satisfied
C. Somewhat satisfied.
D. Not satisfied at all.
E. Other; Please explain

8. Who is responsible for funding for arts programming in school / school system?
A. PTA
B. School
C. School System
D. Community Partner
E. Grants / Foundations
F. Project Initiatives

9. Based on your school scenario, how likely are are you to schedule a YAV program?
A. Very likely.
B. Likely.
C. Somewhat likely.
D. Not likely.
E. Not familiar enough with YAV to comment.

10. How often in a year do you utilize Young Audiences of Virginia?
A. 0-1
B. 2-3
C. 4-5
D. 6+

11. Please check your affiliation:
A. Principal
B. PTA Affiliate
C. Teacher
D. Other; Please Explain:

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GrantsAlert.com

Includes some helpful information on tracking down grants. Some of the ones listed are old but if you look for the foundation or corporation's website then you might find they are still doing the project or something similar.

The Non-Profit Times

I've been reading the Non-Profit Times for, gosh, for awhile now. What I've learned has come from a personal immersion study of non-profit arts management for which, my mother sadly reminds me, I don't get college credit.

I respect and even understand where she's coming from; I love you Mom. After 12 years of working in non-profit arts (8 years in management, HI MOM!), I've found myself lucky enough to work for an organization (going on 5 years in January) that now has the potential to become even more than it is and help shape it through it's planning and growing. It's funny, 54 years after it's birth - this organization finally has wings. Flexing those wings now, we are strategically planning (and funding) our organization's transformation. I attribute my boss to the vision and most (98%) of the staff to embracing his ideas and finding a way to make them possible.

Baby Steps.

Shortly after I first arrived I thought I'd jumped from one sinking ship to another. Thankfully, almost 4 years later, the right man is in the job to lead the staff forward. Instead of micromanaging our daily lives, he gave us encouragement. Instead of pitting staff member against staff member, he made us a team. We were able to prove this this past weekend for co-presenting a festival for 15,000 people.

You should know, we're small. We have a full-time staff of only 6 people, 2 part-timers and 1 consultant. Only 3 of us worked directly on the project until crunch time before we added another person. Mostly, we planned, we planned and we planned. We never said; this isn't going to work but rather how are we going to make this work. Sure, we could have done some things better. Can't everyone improve?

However, ask anyone else and we rocked. Not only did our artists have fun and the organization we worked with to present the festival loved us but... WE had fun! We had fun working together and people had fun working with us. The last day, people from the other organization were hugging me liked they'd worked with me for years. We had also done something for them that they couldn't have done for themselves. Success!

What does this have to do with The Non-Profit Times? I was thinking... because it helped me while I was planning this big, huge project with my co-workers. Thankfully, I wasn't lead on the project but I did a lot of advising. Some of the things I found myself saying and talking about I had once read in the old publications of The Non-Profit Times.

Regardless, ignore my babel if you wish but at least click the title. It's a link to The Non-Profit Times' How To section. It's worth it.