Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

Development

#TBT Donor Advised Funds Are Still A Bad Thing

Thu, Jun 6, 2022
I wish I could say Donor Advised Funds are less of a problem now than they were several years ago, but the reality is they are much worse. H/T to Joe Patti for pointing out the article from inequitable.org by Chuck Collins and Helen Flannery that reports Donor Advised Funds are now the largest cumulative

Not All Data From The Pandemic Was Negative

Thu, May 5, 2022
There’s a fascinating report from SMU Data Arts on the Fundraising Performance over the first half of the pandemic. Spoiler: the arts sector saw a sizeable increase in their Return on Fundraising. For the purposes of the report, Return on Fundraising is determined by dividing Total Contributed Revenue but total Fundraising Expenses. Based on the

Words Matter

Wed, May 5, 2022
Joe Patti published a fantastic article on 5/3/22 that examines labels attached to common nonprofit circumstances, like using “give” when communicating with patrons about donations. We’ve all encountered this at one point or another; retail stores frequently call customers “guests” and to a large degree, those changes are driven by expectations. Patti presents a few

Due Diligence On Your Donors

Tue, Mar 3, 2022
There’s a thought-provoking article by Peter Whoriskey in the 3/7/2022 edition of the Washington Post that examines the extent Russian oligarchs have contributed to US nonprofits, including those in the arts and culture sector. According to the article, the Anti-Corruption Data Collective has been uncovering the depth oligarch money has been funding arts and culture.

Turn Of The Screw, Politics And Fundraising Edition

Thu, Jan 1, 2022
While balancing political ideology across stakeholders has always been a core task for executives and fundraisers, that world has fundamentally changed over the past several years. It’s a topic we’ve examined across several articles. And the orchestra field certainly isn’t alone. To that end, Drew Lindsay published a pair of articles at The Chronicle of
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