In the wake of grim news from Indianapolis last week I enjoyed a fascinating email conversation with a colleague that produced one of the best anecdotes I’ve come across that balances the rising tide of defeatism. Given that is all too easy for orchestra leaders feeling beat down by the economic downturn to succumb to pessimism, and with his permission, I wanted to share what he had to say with everyone.
Development
An Adults Only Event
The 6/14/212 edition of cnews.canoe.ca reports that Sault Symphony Orchestra supporters discovered food and silent auction items purchased via credit card during a recent orchestra fundraising event appeared on their statements as a Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario adult retail store.
Identifying Problems Is Great, But You Still Need Solutions
The Huffington Post published an article by Michael Kaiser on 5/21/2012 where he examines a well worn problem within arts groups: board atrophy during fundraising campaigns. Everything Kaiser identifies is spot on but the article comes up short in with any suggestions on how to solve the problem. As such, let’s see about picking up some of Kaiser’s slack with some nuts-and-bolts tools you can use to bolster board members.
Why You Should Be Thinking About Round-Up Donations
Over the last few months, I’ve noticed an uptick in the frequency of round-up donation functionality at a number of online retailers. If you’re not already familiar with how round-up donations work, it’s a fairly straightforward micro-fundraising method; during the checkout process, buyers are asked if they want to round-up their purchase to the nearest dollar and donate that difference to a participating charity.
Harassment? Really?
It was easy to miss and if you did, you should take a moment to check out the 10/4/2011 blog post from Peter Dobrin which reports on the ongoing court battle between the Philadelphia Orchestra Association (POA) and the American Federation of Musicians’ (AFM) national pension fund. If you haven’t been following that dispute, here’s a quick overview.