Americans for the Arts

Valerie Beaman

Here we all are, still in the trenches despite the recession, still searching for sustainable solutions.

Some say the 501(c)(3) model is broken while others claim it’s the economy, not the nonprofit business model, that’s broken. One thing is certain: change is the only constant. The lines between nonprofit and for-profit are definitely blurring. What do you think?

Is the 501(c)(3) model still working well for your organization? And for emerging artists, is the 501(c)(3) model  still viable for what you hope to achieve or might another model better serve your vision?

Let’s take a look at some of the newer options that our experts will be debating in this week’s private sector blog salon. 

Jeanie Duncan

The Challenge: Assessing the Organization’s Relevance

According to the latest statistics maintained by Americans for the Arts, there are about 5,000 local arts agencies in the United States. Many of these agencies take the form of a United Arts Council. And while there are some common structural and operational similarities, I like to say that, “If you’ve seen one United Arts Council, you’ve seen one United Arts Council.” At its best, a United Arts Council is specifically designed to serve its particular regional community through a distinctive and unique blend of programs and services.

The United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro’s (UAC) portfolio of services and programs includes fundraising, grantmaking, marketing, and advocacy. The UAC was established in 1961 by the business community as a united fundraising effort for a core group of arts organizations. For more than 40 years, the UAC has operated an annual campaign (known within the industry as a “United Arts Fund,” or UAF), which at its fundraising peak in 2008 raised $1.62 million. In this regard, Greensboro’s UAC is like most across the country: It’s both a fundraising engine, cultivating and securing contributed revenue largely from the local private sector, and a chief grantmaker to the local arts sector, investing approximately 90 percent of funds granted into a small, defined group of member agencies. 

Claudia Bach

I was at a civic leadership gathering yesterday that focused on issues of community. A couple of things mentioned got me trying to connect ideas I’ve not thought of as being interconnected and trying to imagine how they might play out in support of smaller arts organizations. Since these are just percolating ideas – or really questions – bear with me.

Cooperatives, as a business model, have been around for over 150 years. Here in the Northwest we have a nurtured a number of interesting cooperatives including the hugely successful REI, Group Health (one of the first health care cooperatives), as well as a strong array of food co-ops, some apartments that use that structure, and a smattering of artists’ co-ops including the stalwart Soil Gallery. 

Janet Brown

The issue of new business models is a topic with which I am losing patience. To me it’s a “red herring” actually, when we should be discussing new product delivery models that engage more audiences, both young and old, utilize technologies, and update the organizational structures and attitudes that may have worked forty years ago but are not working today. These are huge issues of leadership, boards of directors, management, community relevance, and understanding audience trends.

“Money follows good ideas” is a mantra I’ve used most of my career. What we need are leaders who are seriously challenging programming, marketing, and governance protocols put in place years ago. Whether the legal pot the money goes into is a 501(c)(3), L3c, fiscal sponsorship, or sole proprietorship is best determined by what gives the artist or organization the greatest flexibility to raise funds, reach audiences, and fulfill their missions. 

Rebecca Novick

In the chapter I contributed to 20under40: Reinventing the Arts & Arts Education for the 21st Century, I highlighted a theater company called 13P, a group of 13 playwrights who came together with the intention of producing one play by each of them and then disbanding. In that context, I was celebrating their interest in a mission that could be accomplished in a limited timespan, but they also serve as an astoundingly successful example of an organization centered on artists and driven by the agenda of its founding artists.

The 13P model relies on placing its resources in the hands of each playwright in turn, and hiring administrative and producing help show by show, depending on the needs of a particular project. In Minneapolis, the Workhaus Collective is exploring a similar model while in residence at the Playwrights Center (also a good example of a larger organization offering umbrella services to a smaller one). 

Valerie Beaman

What an astonishingly great group of bloggers and commentators!

Thanks to bloggers Rebecca Novick, Colin Tweedy, James Undercofler, Marc Vogl, Margy Waller, Claudia Bach, Adam Huttler, Janet Brown, Christy Bolingbroke, Helena Fruscio, Scott Provancher, Paul Miller, Kate Marquez, Patricia Martin, Diane Ragsdale, Jeanie Duncan, and Maud Lyon for writing such thoughtful and provocative pieces!

Thanks are also due to Andrew Taylor and The Artful Manager, and all the other commentators, Tweeters, and Facebook friends.

It seems to me that the focus on new entities actually represents growing pains; a wake-up call to re-examine what you really want to accomplish – not what your funders want, not the areas your business entity mandates.