Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
It’s been awhile since personally going through the process of filing for nonprofit status and on one hand, it’s pretty much the same as its always been. At the same time, it’s so nice to have so many readily available resources; even state and federal documentation is much better than it was a decade ago. Speaking of resources, the Legal category alone at ArtsHacker has a number of great posts (quite …
Recently, I spoke with David Hendricks from the San Antonio Express-News about some current issues at the San Antonio Symphony (SAS) and one fascinating topic that came up touched on something we’ve never discussed here. Specifically, should an orchestra be willing to accept a fee for fee based services that is lower than their out-of-pocket costs. In the SAS’ case, Hendrick’s article reports the musicians assert that the orchestra is losing …
Unless you plan on making it your career path, you should not expect to become an expert on legal agreements; at the same time, that doesn’t mean you should be unaware either. Fortunately, Joe Patti authored a pair of articles at Arts Hacker this week that go a long way toward a healthy indoctrination on contracts. As a big proponent of good contracts are the cornerstone of a healthy working relationship, …
If your organization is about to embark on updating board governance materials, be sure to take a long look at your existing ethics and compliance programs. If you don’t have much along those lines, fear not, there are some excellent resources at your fingertips to help understand how your organization can reduce risk and improve efficiency. And in an environment where may groups feel they’ve already tapped out all potential cost …
Joe Patti published an intriguing article at ArtsHacker.com yesterday that examines a 2009 Stanford Social Innovation Review about ten different nonprofit funding models. It’s a fascinating read, especially in light of the time period it was written, just after the economic downturn when many nonprofits were scrambling to reassure their funding identity. The orchestra field was no different at that time and internal discussions surrounding revenue models juxtaposed with the information …