Leading by Design

There's no time like a recession to rethink your donor relationships.  Even if your institution has its financial back to the wall and all you can see is mounting debt, taking a few steps to deepen the conversation with donors about why what you do is important is never a wasted effort.  Your members, program sponsors, volunteers and funders help you when times are good and most appreciate hearing about your institution's challenges when times are tough. This is not say that it's time to write that desperation letter.  In fact, professional fundraisers will tell you never to fundraise with a message of desperation.  Donors want to help organizations with a future, not organizations with chronic financial problems or organizations with leadership that is continually in a "sky is falling" mentality.  So, if you've got one of these types of letters written to your donors, just tear it up. To me, rethinking the donor relationship in a time of economic crisis means...

It's been a very long time between posts.  I'm not off to a rousing start on my own New Year's resolution to write more, am I?  Part of the reason is that my optimism and resulting clear-headed-ness of the new year and a new president have been overshadowed by the quickening drumbeat of cultural institutions in trouble and their attempts to get themselves out of it.   Add to that the latest decisions in New York State and nationally to cut museums, art centers, theaters, etc. out of current year's arts funding and the federal stimulus package (at least for now) and it feels like one giant wallop to the side of the head.  One museum advocate said last week in regard to the stimulus language exempting arts and cultural organizations from funding that museums are misunderstood -- we haven't made the case for their economic and educational importance. Is this really true?  Since part of my life is spent trying to make that case, I find it difficult to believe that we --...