The Networked Nonprofit

photo by the Smithsonian Institute

A funder recently said to me that unless they saw a pre existing funding base already in place and money in the bank, they would not support the project.   Another funder said they preferred funding projects that were collaborative among specific genres or geographic areas.  And yet another funder asked for numbers – headcount, exposure and attention from new audiences.

What everyone wants is a networked nonprofit.

A nonprofit that thinks of itself more as  a network of influences, common and unexpected goals, social capital and access.  This mindset will propel this sector towards undermining existing practices and structures in funding, in governance and in missions.  Do you generate income in providing your programs?  You may provide valuable access to a customer base that you have in common with a business community.  Are you respected in desirable voting districts?  This can be leveraged into public funding of programs for a common constituent base.  Do you attract or create media coverage?  People do the craziest things around a camera.

Think what the world could look like if funders of like minds and missions also networked around similar passions?  What would projects look like?

Here’s where my head is:

• I am thinking teams of artists commissioned by real estate developers to create mobile phone apps supported by tech start ups that invite the arts curious to stake out and share their cultural discoveries with their friends via online social networking sites.
• I am thinking of an awards ceremony of grants recipients funded by a groups of funders, underwritten by sponsors representing commercial, marketing or philanthropic interests, keynoted by political supporters and captured by press, bloggers and media.
• I am thinking that a nonprofit can become its own angel investor to an emergent sector of its field.

There is an excellent book out by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine, The Networked Nonprofit that I have just ordered, slightly disgruntled because it is not yet available for the iPad, but I will be a good sport about it.   The book explores the convergence of the nonprofit sector and technology.  This stuck with me:

Nonprofits must “reimagine” their relationship with supporters.

Those who can build those movements will often be more successful than the traditionally-prominent nonprofits. Kanter brought up Mark Horvath, who tweets as @hardlynormal. Formerly homeless, Horvath now films interviews across America with those still on the streets. While he doesn’t accept donations and is not a nonprofit entity, Horvath and others like him are what Kanter and Fine call “free agents.”

“Nonprofits who are really smart are going to be listening on social media channels and identify who these free agents are,” said Kanter.

She thinks the nonprofits that will have the greatest success are those that lead creatively and utilize free agents to catalyze their supporters.

Have I missed anything?  Do you have what it takes to be a networked nonprofit?  I’d love to know what you know.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Now is Wow

photo by zen

“Now is wow.”  said Diem.

Knowing he knew that I knew that he knew he was right is why I smiled.  It was the last thing I could do before I began to cry.

So many things to do,  a letter to answer, a room to clean, a son to feed.  And my writing, a daily ritual of teasing out a story on a keyboard.  How now?

Now.  Right now I am staring at another keyboard I have spent my entire life learning, traveling to Austria because of, and now somewhat afraid to approach.  There was a time where my days revolved around this keyboard, suspended in its power to enchant, determined to master its every nuance, challenged with every new work.

I also shared so many of these days with someone who is no longer here.

My sister and I were pianists.  Piano recital performers as little girls, four handed piano duet partners, chamber music and solo performers.  I cannot think of playing the piano without thinking of her.

I miss her every day.  By avoiding the piano in my living room, I thought I would avoid confronting her inevitable musical absence.  Her well worn book of Beethoven Sonatas, Book I lay unopened in  the piano bench where I could not see it.  The Schumann Papillons covered with her pencil markings,  the piano pieces by William Bergsma.  How foolish of me to think I would not hear them as they were not already recorded in my memory forever.

Now.

I walked away from my iPad, my laptop, turned off the desk computer.  I dusted off the keys of the piano and made a mental note to call the piano tuner.  Now.

Remy came out to the front porch, sitting, listening to me play for the first time since she died.  Such a hot evening, all the windows in the house were open, I wondered if people sitting by the bay wall could hear me.  I played as if I had been called to the principal’s office, tentatively, timidly, apologetically.

I played and I heard each note mourn.  As if the keys knew I had returned this time as a soloist.

How I wish I could say that I felt better, that the healing had begun, that music heals all wounds.  I only know that the time to play the piano again is now.

Thank you, Diem.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

How To Say “Fabulous!” in 8 Different Languages

from the Arts Bloggers session

What better way to spend a three hour drive from Baltimore, Maryland, to Rockaway Beach, New York, than to do dramatic readings from a travel phrase book for gay men, a souvenir from the American Visionary Art Museum, the host of a fabelhaft reception for the Americans for the Arts Convention this past weekend.

OK, now you know how to say “fabulous” in German - fabelhaft!

Chad Bauman, Arena Stage

I am pretty tired from the trip and two days of session overload. This is an annual conference that occurs in a different city each year and brings together a microcosm of arts thinkers, administrators, bloggers and People Who Have a Vested Interest in the Arts Who C’est Divin.

Sacre bleu!  You have just learned how to say “fabulous” in French - c’est divin!

As an attendee, I find myself in between sessions with my hand in the snack bowl more often than I care to admit but I did attend a few of the workshops and conversations.  On Saturday, I sat in on a session with arts bloggers in a discussion about topics including:

• balancing the personal voice and the organizational voice
• how often should you blog
• how do you achieve gravitas as a blogger
• the intersection between journalism and blogging

Do any of you have any experience with the above that you think might help others who are bewildered by blogging?

Please post a comment if you have something to share.

Thanks to my handy dandy iPad, I was able to check out the blog of everyone who spoke.

from the Arts Bloggers session

And with my newest divina app delight, Sketchbook Pro, I could capture drawings of people.

Uno mas:

from the Arts Bloggers session

Divina! That is how you say “fabulous” in Spanish.

More later.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Golf as My Go-To Guru

Cigar break  on the front nine at the Mill River Club

“Mom, did you hear what I said?”

Something about a frog, I think.  “Of course I did.”

“I dissected a frog today and I named her Beatrice.”

Short game

OK.  Got it.  I need to make a quick mental note of this because somewhere else in my short term memory I remember Mikki bursting with pride as she showed us a picture of herself somewhere in Israel riding a camel that she named Mildred.  If I remembered Mildred, I better remember Beatrice.

Mildred.  Beatrice.

Long game

In another place not far from my short term memory is where my long range thinking goes on.  Sky’s tech auditions for LaGuardia High School.  Remy’s spring semester in Italy.  Running a half marathon.

There are days when I find it challenging to walk and chew gum at the same time.  To see the big picture and the small picture.

This is why I play golf

Today one of my board members invited me and another board member with his wife to play a round of golf on a hot humid June day that made every swing feel like a warm hug.  While I was hitting some practice shots, I noticed some things about my shots.

I don’t get much distance on my drives.  I have a pretty consistent chip shot off the green and I can get out of the sand.  Some lessons and a lot of time on the course would do wonders for my game and for my head.  You need to own these shots to be in the game: the long drives, the chip shots, the putts.  Putting them together is just the beginning.   Golf is a game that demands consistent mastery of your shots and it will reward focus,  mental toughness and grace under fire in a player.

“Drive for show, putt for dough.”

A saying you hear a lot around the golf course.  I take it very seriously, not only in my golf game but in my daily life.  Of course you need to get the ball on the green and a beautifully hit long drive is really a Wow! moment, but putting, or the short game, is the dealbreaker.

I am working on sharpening my short game in every game of life.  Sinking every shot from any point on the green.  Nailing every detail.  Remembering the names of Mildred and Beatrice.

What is your short game?  How can you become better at it?

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Creating More Success with Less

photo by Nick Carlson

At a recent board meeting, a trustee said, “You are doing a great job.  Now do less.”

“You took the family to Disneyland this year.  Next year, have super stay home vacation.  Just make sure everything you do fulfills your mission and builds your capacity.”   Everyone in the room nodded this direction into a directive and I was thrilled.

Now what?

What is that going to look like for Queens Council on the Arts after a very full and financially sound year?  What exactly are we going to do less of?

We are going to:

Focus on one fundraising goal:  building up organizational capacity by increasing our cash reserve.

Fold all programs under one unifying theme:  the Queens Art Express.

Follow what artists are telling us they want:  creative, connective community space – oh, and cash, of course.

Fine tune everything we do according to the above and do less of everything else.

One of my project directors told me he was surprised that one of the goals of his project was not realized in the way he had originally thought but other unexpected successes did occur.  What this tells me is that it is time to redesign our success according to what is really going on.

If you are in the business of creating a product to sell, you want to have a loyal and growing market base that loves your stuff.  They will tell you what they want.  You should listen to them, adjust your product and redefine your expectations.  Give them what they ask for and make them feel good about it.  Repeat as necessary.

If you are in the service business, this is even more important.

No matter how hard I try, there will always be an extra ten pounds on me.  No matter how lean you think your operations are, there will always be some fat you can cut.  Or ways to integrate complementary interests.  Can an awards ceremony be a fundraiser?  Can an artist mixer be a trade show?  How about  a chamber music performance as a commissioning club?  Before you decide to do any event, program or business initiative, ask yourself:  will this move my mission, my goal, my bottom line forward?

If yes, do less.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?