Get On Board The Giving Program Train

Shoshana Fanizza from Audience Development Specialists (ADS) posted an article at her business blog on 9/27/2013 about the value of contributing to sources of free information, ideas, and data throughout the field of culture blogging. As a result, she decided to lead by example by means of “deciding on a person to donate or contribute to based on how often I visit and read their information.”

ADAPTISTRATION-GUY-031dI’m honored that Fanizza chose Adaptistration as the target of her very first contribution and I’ve decided to follow suit and not only adopt her Giving Program but recommend to all of Adaptistration’s readers.

If nothing else, the real value of the program is letting people know that what they do makes a difference.

“I am making sure to value the people that are making a difference and showing them my appreciation with this gift.” said Fanizza.

For October, 2013 I decided to make my first donation to SoundNotion.tv; the new music and music news podcast. I’ve watched the SN crew (Patrick, David, Sam, Nate, Timothy, Kevin, and William) grow from their early days when they were graduate students of “hey, this sounds like fun” campus based broadcasting to becoming a polished, high quality video podcast. Excellent production values, a dedication to content, and a seemingly bottomless limit of curiosity make the program one of the most refreshing additions to the culture blogging community.

If everyone already in the field took as much interest in what happens as these guys, we’d be in a much better place. I gave them a donation and nominated them in the Cultural/Arts category for the 2013 People’s Choice Podcast Awards.

I’ll be posting something each moth featuring the latest Giving Program target, although for obvious conflict of interest reasons, I’ll have to exclude what would otherwise be my shortlist of authors at Inside The Arts (plus I’m pretty sure they already know I love them).

I hope everyone considers giving the program a try; all you have to do is follow Fanizza’s four point guideline:

  1. I will keep track of the blogs and other free information sites that I have come to rely on.
  2. Every month I will decide on a person to donate or contribute to based on how often I visit and read their information.
  3. I am making sure to value the people that are making a difference and showing them my appreciation with this gift.
  4. I am making note of what happens to me during this program.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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