Navigating Nonprofits
Managing not for profit Arts Organization or Higher Education institutions these days has never been more difficult. There are financial pressures, targets to meet with audiences or student enrollment, teams to build, staff and Faculty to recruit and retain, strategic plans to be created and huge amounts of money to be raised. I have 30 years of experience managing not for Profits in higher education and the performing arts and have faced all these challenges so I can bring to you the navigational tools you will need to create success. These will include: Honing your management skills; Developing innovative programming; Introducing Design thinking to your organization; Learning the essentials of the basics of Nonprofit Governance.
I can work with your team and Board on specific projects and issues either with special day visits or short residencies providing written reports reflecting an analysis of the keys issues and the best way to find and create solutions.
Management and Building Teams
Teams can be great fun and can provide exciting ideas and energy within an organization. They can also be difficult to manage; internal relationships can become frayed or even dysfunctional and individual performances less than optimal. How do you resolve these issues and create a team that is fully in alignment, empowered, collaborative and performing at the highest level? This program together with the program on Leadership provides the essential foundations for great team building.
Artistic Programming
This can relate to academic programs as well as performing arts programs and projects. It provides a platform for evaluating existing programs and for and for exploring new prototypes within the existing organization. It also provides formats for managing major change within an organization from developing new partnerships through to the demands of finding new Faculty or a new Music Director.
- Evaluations of existing programs
- Creating new Programs
- Innovation
- Education and Community Engagement
- Community Partnership Development
- Artistic Programming including:
- Season Planning
- Music Director Search
- Festivals
- Special Projects
Planning and Innovation
Make Design Thinking part of your organization’s everyday thinking and work. It allows the most creative ideas, the most challenging concepts and thoughts to permeate the orthodox and encourage boundless amounts of driving energy pumping oxygen into the system. This approach to planning is totally non-hierarchical using inclusivity and ideation as the foundations for getting the very best from creative minds, which in turn will galvanize success.
Institutional Development
Securing resources for the day-to-day operations of your organization, as well as the special investments you will need for new programs, innovation and capital campaigns, will engage everyone in the organization from the Board to the Development Team. Institutional Development requires tremendous intentional planning, testing the organization’s readiness to go to the next level, through to the all-important aspects of effective stewardship. This program will take you through the techniques that will maximize success and use resources effectively.
Governance
This is perhaps the most important area to consider for any organization because Board leadership will govern your success or steer you towards failure. It is essential to build a strong and effective Board, one that will provide leadership in terms of expertise, capacity and peer networking. Recruitment and succession planning are part of this process and building effective and supportive relationships with all Board members as well as their engagement and ownership of the work and mission.
- Board Management and engagement
- Relationship Building
- Working with the Board Chair and the Board Leadership
- Succession Planning
- Recruitment techniques and criteria for selection
- Committee Structures
- Setting expectations
- Board giving
- The importance of the Gala
- Board Handbook
- By-Laws