“Here we go, Rembrandt, here we go!” – Fans (who cheer) or audiences (who hear)?
“HOLD THAT NOTE! HOLD THAT NOTE!”
“PUSH ‘EM BACK! PUSH ‘EM BACK! NOW STEP, TOUCH, JETÉ AND HOLD!”
“S-C-E-N-E, SCEE-EEENE, SCEE-EEENE!”
Years ago, I sat in the third-to-top row of an NFL stadium with an artistic director friend. First game of the season. Even people behind us were screaming their heads off and waving their foam fingers. And the experience was more personally meaningful to them than many arts experiences I’ve loved.
Sports fans no more control the action of a game than arts fans do a play or concert. But they’re encouraged to be blitheringly engaged. And all too often, arts fans are encouraged to sit back and relax. Or shut up and listen. Like a lecture at school.
We wondered, can arts organizations find ways to encourage blithering? Or are we too clubby for that?
Cue the heavenly chorus…your nonprofit arts organization will never be hungry again!
Acting is not about performing; nor is painting about artistry; nor is music is about musicianship; nor is dancing about prowess.
Similarly, nonprofit arts organizations cannot be about exhibitions/performances.
The impact of the arts can be quantified. There are myriad studies. But the impact of any individual arts organization is not an equivalent discussion. Each organization must provide specific impact, or better, impact2.
Impact2 is the impact’s impact. As a food bank provides positive impact to a concrete number of families, its impact2 may be the number of households that escaped poverty from having had the gift of food in its worst times.
Many nonprofit arts organizations often define themselves by the quality of production. No surprise, then, that so many struggle to reach new donors. Quantify the impact2 of your nonprofit, and you’ll find your Grail.
How to Hire Great People (or, Don’t Buy a Dog and then Bark, Too)
A school of thought says you should hire people who are not as talented as you, want to be in the same job five years hence, and are cheap and green.
Nonsense. Don’t be an idiot.
Know your limitations. Hire to your weaknesses.
Hire smart, talented, overqualified people. Yes, overqualified. Pick those who can do your job. Or your boss’s job. They likely want the job because the essential tasks make them happy. If paid fairly and treated well, they will stay forever (lowering your HR costs) and constantly exceed your expectations.
After the hire, assist them in their work, not the other way around.
Empower them to make big honking mistakes. Mistakes aren’t fatal; covering them up is.
Embrace their joys. Embrace yours.
Convince them to go home. The planet spins, no matter what. Always has.
The Correlation Between Snowflakes and Nonprofits
What is the purpose of a snowflake? Just a type of precipitation, one of four phases of the water cycle?
What is the purpose of a nonprofit? To change the environment so that a heretofore unrelenting bad thing gets better or goes away?
One snowflake is different from all other snowflakes. An unprovable, but accepted theory. Akin to “no two fingerprints are exactly alike.”
Your nonprofit is different from all other nonprofits. A provably unacceptable theory. Akin to “if you build it, they will come.”
Differentiation is crucial for nonprofits to thrive. But if trivial differentiation exists among two or more, then collaborate. Or merge. Or close, if that disentangles the knotty societal issue. Survival of any nonprofit is irrelevant if the issue isn’t solved.
Finally, snowflakes are fun to catch on the tongue. Nonprofits really aren’t.
Hiring 101: Post. Respond. Inform. Interview. Inform. Interview. Inform. Hire. Inform. (PS: No Taleo necessary)
From O’Reilly/Pfeffer’s “Hidden Value:”
Hiring based solely on job skills can be short-sighted and expensive.
If someone doesn’t fit the culture, either the culture will change or the person will leave.
If your company’s hiring practices are “industry standard” (by definition, middling), then its values are equally unimportant, no matter what greatness your company ostensibly performs. “One chance at a first impression” and all that.
- Post job.
- IMMEDIATELY upon receipt, respond to email applicants with receipt; (mail or in-person applicants with postcard).
- Managers: Compile three categories (Yes/No/Maybe).
Move “Maybe” into “No.”
Inform “Nos” of status. - Interview “Yeses.”
Inform “Nos” of status. - Final interviews.
Hire.
Inform “Nos” of status. - Hire qualified (better: overqualified) and creative, not skillful and capable.
Look for values, not education.
Hire to fit, not proficiency.
And whenever possible: hire someone better than you.
If I ignore you, then you don’t exist! Hey! Why are you still there, existing???
Recent impressions from an interview for a development director position at a well-known theatre.
Managing director picks me up at airport. Interviews me in car. First impression… he drives, in more ways than one.
Dinner for eight. Laughs, rowdiness, and Malbec. Second impression…an uninhibited group.
The play. Well-performed one-man show. Third impression…no money.
The interview marathon. 6½ hours, no breaks. Fourth impression: disorganized thinkers.
Complete silence. For over two months, despite leaving message for managing director on his cell. Fifth impression: brutal place to work.
Sent email taking myself out of the search. Direct quote from board president: “I don’t know the protocol in the nonprofit world. In the engineering world, where [we] are both from, you don’t hear anything unless you are hired.” Final impression: they’re horrible at human relations…must be why they have no money.
How to raise first time gifts (or any meaningful donations)
Step One: be a good person.
Gather information.
Discuss prospects.
Research history.
Decide who.
Decide whose.
Get introduction.
Meet prospect.
Discuss organization.
Change perspective.
Make friend.
Seek advice.
Send news.
Continue contact.
Explore potential.
Seek advice.
Send news.
Continue contact.
Select target.
Add 20%
Seek advice.
Discover favorites.
Send news.
Continue contact.
Select when.
Select who.
Select where.
Select why.
Schedule meeting.
Inform purpose.
Rehearse meeting.
Rehearse ask.
Refine ask.
Attend meeting.
Renew relationships.
Discuss challenges.
Embrace confidence.
Ask.
Hush.
Wait.
Listen.
Respect decision.
Accept donation.
Accept non-donation.
Thank donor.
Close meeting.
Conduct postmortem.
Discuss ramifications.
Contact donor.
Seek advice.
Send news.
Continue friendship.
Thank again.
Get referrals.
Repeat often.
People give to people – not buildings, causes, or database programs. First time gifts require relationship development. For best results on how to develop relationships, see Step One.
Which core is the real core?
Nonprofits are all experiments of arrogance. None are finished products, nor should they be.
Championing a cause is an onion-peeling exercise of conceit, intended to solve hard problems.
Conceits share a common trait. When closely-held, personally-motivated core values are involved, arrogances can serve as both driver and hindrance. And they can save or kill your nonprofit.
Let’s say that you have a colleague who believes that the intention of a program speaks to the heart of the mission. But the program is costly, inefficient, and glorifies the colleague more than the nonprofit.
Your colleague’s investment is in a program that isn’t serving the mission. But your colleague is a charismatic leader who believes that the program just needs more of the organization’s limited resources to work.
Attack the program (and your colleague’s values) or let it be?
Just putting it out there…
I’ve been working with nonprofit arts organizations (mostly theaters) for most of the last twenty-six years. Executive/Managing Director for ten. Marketing and Development Director, too. Consultant for nineteen, the last two full-time.
Raised several million dollars (not by myself, of course!). Increased attendance by hundreds of thousands, mostly by engaging young people.
I’m now looking to regroup. Enhance one brilliant mission. Make life better.
I’m currently based in Seattle, so the I-5 corridor from greater Portland-BC would be optimal. Additionally, I’m very interested in relocating – but to the right place: Chicago, San Diego, Eastern Michigan, NY/NJ/PA, or DC would be fantastic (personal networks in those regions).
I don’t come cheap. But I’ve proven that I’m worth it.
All I need is a company looking for greatness; more than the sum of its programming.
Interested? Click here.
Technology, isolation, live theater, community, hope, and Vin Scully
Technology is not new. Nor is its ability to isolate. Man’s choice is to buy it and do so.
On a 1960s-era transistor radio, while there was an earphone jack, few used it. Sandy Koufax’ 1965 perfect game was accompanied by the hum of 29,139 transistors all tuned to Vin Scully, as if he were sitting in the adjacent seat.
Many people buy into that latest-thingamabob fervor and complain that they can’t meet people. And when they do, the people they meet seem incapable of a simple conversation. IMHO, peeps b txtg 511 & CBB w/PLU.
Live theaters have the wonderful capacity to bring people together. To share a purpose. To provide the capacity for strangers to personally interact. Not merely to entertain us, but to foment optimism. Do they? Or do they just put on plays?
Really bad ideas for nonprofit arts boards!
- Be the “idea” person. Provide valuable insight. Have employees carry out those ideas in addition to their jobs. Give continual feedback at every board meeting.
- Eschew fundraising. It’s begging for money. You don’t beg.
- Make sure that your annual gala is the organization’s primary activity… above all else.
- Play “Pick Your Favorite Line Item” at the board meeting where the budget is approved. Spend forty-five minutes on depreciation, for example.
- Bring in consultants. Find ones with a single patented technique that works for every organization.
- Build a hierarchy. Successful corporations build hierarchies.
- Do not read anything sent to you before attending meetings. You’re there as the “idea” person, remember?
- Ensure that the company’s activities define the mission, not the other way around. Make sure that the mission contains the words, “fiscal responsibility.”
For success, do the opposite.
Related articles
When HR was H
If you’ve applied for a job in the last eight years or so, you’ve sent your resume to a bot. The bot sends you a disingenuous message thanking you for your interest, scans your resume for certain keywords, and decides in a blink of an eye whether to advance your candidacy.
Then, silence.
Often, you’ll never hear from that potential employer. Or you’ll hear something months later, after the job has been awarded (even if you were never in the running). As a final insult, you may even receive a happy letter exclaiming the virtues of the person that the company hired.
HR used to be “Personnel” and was only part of large corporations. Then it became an industry. Now, people are overwhelmed with responses. Hence the bot.
It’s not that hard to be human.
Is it?
Moribund companies value success. Great companies value happiness.
At four, it’s about happiness.
At fourteen, it’s all about responsibility.
At twenty-four, it’s all about ambition.
At thirty-four, it’s all about success.
At forty-four, it’s all about ambition.
At fifty-four, it’s all about responsibility.
At sixty-four, it’s all about happiness.
At seventy-four, it’s all about happiness.
At eighty-four, it’s all about happiness.
At ninety-four, it’s all about happiness.
Happiness trumps everything. Leadership is all about recognizing that. We have a better idea what it takes to be happy than what it takes to be successful. Understandably, those who achieve their own personal happiness only in success do not recognize that perfect, long-lasting happiness is found only when providing happiness to others. Never underestimate happiness as a motivator.
When you value happiness, you will lead a great company. Until then, all you are doing is managing one.
What defines success? Playing well? Or winning?
The Seattle Mariners have tickets, ushers, and concessions.
They entertain a dwindling number of fans.
Season tickets are down. Attendance is down.
They’ve never been to the World Series.
Seattle’s nonprofit theaters have tickets, ushers, and concessions.
They entertain a dwindling number of fans.
Season tickets are down. Attendance is down.
The remaining Tony Award winning theater won in 1990.
Whether the Mariners play well is immaterial.
Success is in the winning, not just the playing.
“Butts in seats” is immaterial.
“Financial impact on neighboring businesses” is immaterial.
Just wins.
Are the Mariners capable of success?
Whether the nonprofit theaters put on good plays is immaterial.
Success is in the measurable impact, not the production quality.
“Butts in seats” is immaterial.
“Financial impact on neighboring businesses” is immaterial.
Just impact.
Are Seattle’s nonprofit theaters capable of success?
