Video · Pivoting in practice: Fundraising for the arts
This fall, Aperio and the NYUSPS George H. Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising convened three conversations among nonprofit leaders to discuss what ‘pivoting’ looks like—in practice.
Months into the COVID crisis, we’ve all moved from talking (ad nauseum) about pivoting to doing it. In these panel discussions, we explored:
How does ‘pivoting’ play out in our daily lives as leaders and fundraisers?
How does it vary by sector?
What have we learned?
What has surprised us?
What will we carry forward?
We recognized early on that this crisis is not a ‘blip’—or a pause from reality. It is a fundamental shift in the landscape that affects how we deliver and fund our work.
Our October 21st panel, focused on the arts and culture sector, discussed how they’re seeing that shift play out in their organization. The panel was moderated by Lukas Haynes, Executive Director of The David Rockefeller Fund and included:
Randi Berry, Executive Director and Founding Partner, IndieSpace and the Indie Theatre Fund
Yolanda Johnson, Founder, Women of Color in Fundraising and Philanthropy
Shaunda McDill, Program Officer, Arts and Culture, The Heinz Endowments
Nathan Urbach, Director of Development, New York Philharmonic
Artists will make art—and find ways to fund it
The driving force for most artists is a need to connect. “People want to connect with other people. We are missing the shared experience,” says Nathan Urbach.
This panel highlighted that artists are by nature innovators and creators who are finding new ways to make those important connections. Shaunda McDill of The Heinz Endowments reminded us that one of life’s few truisms is that “artists are going to always make art.” It may not look the same as it did last year and we don’t know what 2021 holds in store, but we do know that the only path is forward.
In many ways, indie theater makers are better suited than most to adapt to the curve balls that 2020 threw at them because they have always had to create their own paths. Randi Berry of IndieSpace has first-hand experience with indie theater makers who are constantly evolving.
“During COVID theater venues have turned into food distributing hubs, sewing masks and delivering them with a performance as well as doing zoom performances and readings,” she says.
With indoor performances no longer an option, we saw artists take to other measures to perform. Instead of indoor stages in Midtown, actors found themselves on exquisitely art-directed Zooms and performing outdoors not to thunderous applause, but to appreciative horn honking.
Organizations such as The New York Philharmonic found that they needed to be responsive to what was happening in the moment—by being nimble and agile. According to Nathan, their Director of Development, they adapted quickly and creatively by implementing two new programs—NY Phil Bandwagon, a series of free outdoor performances, and Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK, an immersive audio experience that is free to the public made to enhance the experience of exploring Central Park.
The panel was unanimous in their agreement that the arts community has been finding inventive ways to stay engaged with donors, subscribers, and funders.
The real pivot needed is not in the arts, but in funding for the arts
The panel moved to a discussion about how at the beginning of the pandemic funders were truly showing up for the community. Funders had a sense of urgency and many provided relief in the form of unprecedented levels of unrestricted giving.
“Trust-based philanthropy is a really good thing, listening to the needs of the community is a great thing, and trying to minimize those barriers—most specifically, the budget minimums,” said Randi Berry. The budget minimums and lack of trust aren’t the only prohibitive measures in place in current funding structures.
“Another barrier is the relationships and the access and the ability to write the grant applications for example—without development personnel to finesse an application they are passed up,” she says.
The time it takes to fill out a grant application may not feel like much to an organization with a fundraising staff of ten, twenty or one hundred, but to an operation of one it can be an insurmountable obstacle. Even if you are financially eligible to apply your bandwidth availability to fill out the paperwork can be prohibitive.
The panel was in agreement that there needs to be changes in arts funding overall. Yolanda Johnson from Women of Color in Fundraising and Philanthropy encouraged all of the attendees to diversify their revenue streams as soon as possible and to be bold in their asks of funders. “Don’t be afraid to ask donors to unrestrict their funds due to evolving needs of the organization.”
As a representative of a funding organization and community member herself, Shaunda McDill understood what was necessary for them to adapt and move forward in the crisis.
“Decenter the organizations and artists from the pivot point and put philanthropy at the person that needs to be pivoting, so we have the ball and we need to be pivoting,” she said. She offered an example of a way in which The Heinz Foundation “pivoted” that was by awarding grants to all those who applied this year: Rather than one $40,000 grant they awarded $500 grants to every single applicant and ended up spending $42,000 total so that no one received a rejection letter in 2020.
2021 will be tough—but we’ll innovate, as always
Inevitably, the conversation moved towards what to do and how to plan for 2021. Shaunda started off by sharing a reality check, “It is going to be a much tougher year in 2021. Many organizations had some reserves, but the reality is that even the foundation funding is strained at this point.”
The first piece of insight that the panel offered up was to make your planning and outreach authentic and meaningful. Nathan Urbach encourages everyone to get, “‘out there,’ which in this environment means phone calls, emails and zoom meetings. But once fatigue sets in you start to think of other ways we can engage—sharing a vital piece of content or creating something new with two musicians.”
While there are so many variables that are unknown for us all, Randi Berry says she anticipated 2021 being tough having already “…seen eight venues in our sector that have closed permanently, without coalition building and merging and working together to share resources I am concerned.” But even amidst Randi’s concern, there is hope. While hopefully waiting on federal relief packages perhaps the best way forward for many artists is working together and sharing knowledge, resources, and time.
In the short-term, Yolanda Johnson offers some pragmatic advice: “Make sure your board finance committees are in touch with financial advisors—be conservative right now.”
Many factors about 2021 are beyond our control, but what we can control is the who, how, and what of our asks. Nathan says that he will use the “Asking with an ‘and” approach—‘Can you renew your gift and can you support us in this enhanced way so that you can help bridge this organization during this challenging year?’”
Shaunda McDill says, “You don’t know what the distance looks like—trying to strategize what the next year will be.” What we do know is that arts organizations are full of innovators.
Bottom line: We don’t need to pivot, we need to move forward
I will leave you one of my favorite moments of the conversation which came to us from Shaunda McDill. She described a conversation she was having with a friend of hers who is a dancer. The friend found it perplexing that so many people had chosen to describe their current path as a pivot. “Pivoting is actually staying in the same place. We need to move from just pivoting to also moving forward and being innovative and figuring out new ways—and not just put that on those that we serve, but on the institutions that far too long have been doing the same things and calling it reimagining.”
In 2021, I hope we all are able to stop pivoting and start moving forward together.