If you’ve ever dined out at a remarkable restaurant with a significant other, you know how to raise money.

You’ve tasted the Cabernet, the risotto, the chocolate soufflé.  Inevitably (unless you’re an ass), you’ve offered a taste to your partner.  You’ve chosen to have less of the valuable thing you love, but the increased joy of your partner provides impact to an outcome that shows that “spending” that taste was worth the return.

It’s a somewhat simplistic metaphor, but it’s awfully close.  Joy in the works of nonprofit arts organizations is not an outcome, but the impact that leads to that joy is.  And when you are able to catalyze your impact into a persuasive story – with quantifiable outcomes – then you’re raising money.

But if your partner hates chocolate, there’s nothing you can do.  Remember that, too.