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If you haven’t yet read the terrific news about the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, then click here.  RSC is proud to have played a small role in the DSO’s success and we congratulate the orchestra for these wonderful achievements!

Robert Swaney Consulting (RSC) is a national provider of revenue growth strategies and hands-on interim management for arts and cultural institutions. The firm has Midwest offices in both Indiana and Missouri.

I’m going to go out on a limb here by saying that developing a highly-active, energetic, responsible and productive board is absolutely the most important element for the long-term success of a non-profit organization. Mission, vision, and excellence – they all grow through dedicated leaders.  In short, leadership makes or breaks the place.  Period.

Board responsibilities go ‘way beyond “governance” of a non-profit organization.  Great boards lead.  Not-so-great boards manage.  Great boards set vision.  Not-so-great boards only set policy.  Great boards raise money well and share success.  Not-so-great boards raise your blood pressure and blame others when things fall short.

So, how great is your board?

Take time to examine how your organization approaches board development. Being strategic with your approach makes it easier to attract the right people at the right time and end up with an extremely effective board – which is exactly what you want.

But on the converse, what makes us stumble and go the wrong way?  What mistakes lead an organization down the path of building an ineffective board?  Here are some ideas:

• Establishing Weak Expectations.  Approaching a potential board member based solely on his / her local status (i.e. someone with influence, money, connections, etc.) and then glazing over the serious service expectations simply to get a “yes” from a top-level person is a bad move.  Everyone likes to have well-known community members on their board but a “letterhead board” doesn’t much help in today’s world.  Recruiting members by setting low expectations and then ramping-up those expectations after they have agreed to sign on doesn’t lay the groundwork for a satisfactory volunteer experience, either.  You didn’t prepare them to work hard – and they feel hoodwinked.  Nobody wins.

• Ignoring Bylaws.  Most organization’s bylaws specify term limits for board tenure, but hey, who wants to let go of a really good board member, right?  So the term-limit bylaw gets ignored and we keep that person on — forever.  Then that situation is repeated with two, three, ten board members, and before you know it, we’ve effectively forgotten about the term limits altogether.  Terrible move.  Although using this method initially seems smart, it really chokes off the expansion of new leadership and the associated influence of that growth.  Each board member comes with limited resources – his/her relationships can only bring in so many donors, patrons and other critical relationships before they have exhausted their “black book”.  Along with that, keeping board members for an extended period exhausts them personally, which can have terrible consequences. Rotating a board member off for a year or two provides an opportunity for them to rejuvenate, volunteer in other places and return refreshed and ready to serve again.

• Allowing the Board to “manage” the Organization: When a non-profit organization launches there is no (or few) paid staff, so the board has to do everything, including the day-to-day work needed to fulfill the mission. At some point, staff is hired and the board needs to change its leadership focus from managing to governance.  This includes leading the charge of goal setting, strategic planning, high-level-fundraising and in-depth relationship-building. This may be a huge change for some board members and might not be a comfortable transition for every person.  Some board members may be great at managing day-to-day activities but are totally ill-fitted for board leadership at this new level.  Don’t give up on them, though, because the transition could be a great opportunity for them to volunteer for important hands-on activities.

• Allowing the board to focus on the “report card”:  The board’s job is to effectively lead the organization and that can’t happen if someone has to “keep score” on each member’s commitments. Keeping score focuses the board on doing “the least” they can do, not the most.  It also wastes valuable time and keeps the board focused on checklists rather than substance.  Instead of report card, gauge board performance by having the CEO or Board Chair meet with each board member twice per year to talk about how s/he feels about the board, his / her participation, new ideas, etc.  Dissatisfaction, problems and new suggestions often surface in these intimate discussions, ultimately making each person’s experience most satisfactory and mutually beneficial.

In the next article we’ll look at a strategic approach to board development.

Bob Swaney is a successful 25-year veteran of fundraising for arts & cultural institutions and is the founder of Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc.  For more information, you can email Bob at rsc@rrsconsult.net or visit www.rrsconsult.net You can also become a Facebook fan by searching under “Robert Swaney Consulting”.

In the previous article we touched on ‘orchestras and relevancy’. Today’s article ties that relevancy to growing your Annual Fund.

What does relevance have to do with the Annual Fund?  Stay with me and you’ll get the idea.

“Development Best Practices” may not sound flashy, but mastering Annual Fund fundamentals is absolutely necessary for a healthy, growing organization. The Annual Fund will continue to grow in importance for your orchestra over the next decade, so you’d better be ready to grow it.  Face that fact and adapt, or keep the status quo and fail — your choice.

I am looking forward to presenting at the League of American Orchestras conference to discuss how to apply fundraising fundamentals and grow an Annual Fund program.  I’ll touch on a number of related things that I think will help, but we’ll certainly stick to the basics.  Fundamentals.  Leadership.  (and a dash of) Innovation.  There’s your future.

Click here to see a description of my League session.  Tell your friends and wake the kids….I hope to see you there.

Bob Swaney is a successful 25 year veteran of fundraising for arts & cultural institutions and is the founder of Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc.  For more information, you can email Bob at rsc@rrsconsult.net or visit www.rrsconsult.net You can also become a Facebook fan by searching under “Robert Swaney Consulting”.

The sky is falling – many orchestras are going bankrupt while others teeter on the edge, trying to radically re-size their organizations.  For the most part, we are seeing audiences decline and not rebound in significant ways, while the associated costs continue to rise. Dramatic spending cuts are only a temporary solution that rarely provides a long-term benefit. Well, I don’t believe that the sky is falling, but I do think there are some adjustments that need to be made in how we position our priorities.  But before someone cries, “innovation” (ugh) can we get back to perfecting the fundamentals that produce results? Just a little bit?  Please?

The number one thing to do right now to enhance an orchestra’s mission is to be more community centric.  Your organization has to be (and be known as) highly-relevant to and highly-accessible in its community. The price for a ticket isn’t the only barrier to attending but it’s an important one. I’m not going to debate the lowering of ticket prices.  Many orchestras are doing it – some are seeing results. It seems counterintuitive to lower ticket prices when you need the money most but it actually sets you up to raise more money from your community because there’s greater access to the music. There is an upside to increasing access…it’s called relevance.  The broader and deeper we make the reach in the community, the more we can quantify it, talk about it and sell it…which takes us back to — you guessed it — the Annual Fund.

In the next article we’ll tie orchestra relevancy to the Annual Fund.

Bob Swaney is a successful 25 year veteran of fundraising for arts & cultural institutions and is the founder of Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc.  For more information, you can email Bob at rsc@rrsconsult.net or visit www.rrsconsult.net You can also become a Facebook fan by searching under “Robert Swaney Consulting”.

The big sponsorships may not be what they once were but that doesn’t mean the money is gone. You are, however, now in a larger sponsorship community – that of other arts organizations, sporting events, pop concerts, local events and conventions. How can your organization compete with these organizations – some of which have huge event audiences? You likely can’t do it based on quantity – but you can compete with quality. Never forget you can deliver in bulk the target demographic (highly-educated people with disposable income) that corporate sponsors are looking for…and your sponsors will find real value in that!

As you approach and work with sponsors, keep your approach “relationship-based”. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Change your mindset by not thinking like a charity. If you go to a corporation and ask them to give because you are “needy”, they will show you the door. Nobody needs another mouth to feed in this day and age. Present your organization as a vibrant part of the community and worthy of sponsorship support – you’ll get it.

2. Create a benefits “ menu” but be ready to adapt. A basic benefits package will likely include tickets / event admission, recognition and mailing list access, and a few other perks but beyond those norms you’ll need to find out what the sponsor really wants out of their sponsorship. Sponsors have goals “business goals”, “community goals”, “employee goals”, etc. and you need to help them meet those goals. Create a great experience that does all that, and come renewal time, it will be easier to say ‘yes’ again and again.

3. Leverage your board of directors. Your board should have a handful of people who are well connected in the business community and who will help open doors on your behalf. Your board members should be forging relationships with new businesses and deepening existing businesses to get them involved as sponsors. Peer-to-peer encouragement will win over potential sponsors faster than nearly any other strategy. Even small gifts will set the stage for giving and bring them into the organization. And with a great experience, they will keep coming back.

So, sponsorships are a long-way from “dead”. You might have to continue to think more “relationally” than ever before and you might have to settle on securing more sponsors at smaller levels to meet your goals. Neither should be a big deal – and in fact you’ll find rewards you never knew you had by immersing yourself more deeply in the corporate community. Strong corporate relationships can strengthen your bottom line, help you develop new audiences and strengthen your organization’s value to the entire community. Certainly not a “dead man walking”.

Bob Swaney is a successful 25 year veteran of fundraising for arts & cultural institutions and is the founder of Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc. For more information, you can email Bob at rsc@rrsconsult.net or visit www.rrsconsult.net You can also become a Facebook fan by clicking here.

I feel for the NMSO and other struggling orchestras big and small, but really, when are they going to stop blaming their problems exclusively on external factors? I’ll admit, there are certainly uncontrollable outside factors that can have an effect, but what about the factors that you can control? If you are affiliated with an orchestra, just look in the mirror because maybe it’s not about the community’s failings….maybe failure rests at the feet of your organization.

Communities don’t force orchestras to repeatedly develop unsustainable operating budgets. Communities don’t insist that underperforming staff leadership be allowed to stay so that they can “keep on trying”. Communities don’t encourage their orchestras to financially ‘over-leverage’ their best patrons so that the loss of a handful of major donors spells doom for the organization. No, these decisions are driven by orchestra leadership, specifically at the board and executive staff levels.

Arguably, the board is a representation of the community, and therefore it’s easy to discount the previous paragraph. In part, I can get behind the idea that the board represents their community – but a main asset of a board member is to bring business and leadership skills to the organization. This means going well beyond checking off all of the boxes of the “Trustee Agreement” by making a gift, buying a Gala table and attending concerts. Your job should far exceed “setting a good example” for other patrons to follow. Among your most important responsibilities is making sure that the staff leadership is focused on the right things and can competently design and execute the business plans necessary for stability and growth. If they worked at your place of business, you would expect no less, right?

And management, stop thinking that your problems are “money” problems. Money is the symptom, not the disease (nor the cure). Having money is, among other things, the result of a clear long-term organizational vision, proper fiscal management, and aggressive patron development. Well-designed and properly executed fundraising and ticket sales programs are certainly part of the equation. But if the public isn’t interested in giving and attending, that’s a relevancy problem, not a money problem – and no marketing plan is going to address such a fundamental organizational flaw.

So, have some guts and stop blaming the community for your struggles and instead, fix what’s really broken. Set a leadership-driven vision for your orchestra that will create true relevancy in the community, then design your case and all of your plans around it. Likely, you will be changing a lot of rules about how your orchestra operates, and it will ruffle some feathers. Tough luck–be bold and make the changes anyway. Align your vision so that it matches the overall goals and needs of your community. Get your musicians, your board and your staff behind it all, too. Then, get to work and stay the course. Start today – and in five years your orchestra could be fully transformed.

Bob Swaney is a successful 25 year veteran of fundraising for arts & cultural institutions and is the founder of Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc. For more information, you can email Bob at rsc@rrsconsult.net or visit www.rrsconsult.net You can also become a Facebook fan by searching under “Robert Swaney Consulting”.

You might have some objections going through your mind right now, such as:

• Big corporations have shut off the ‘giving spigot’.  Not true, it’s just that their motivation has changed.  As they have for the past several years, corporate sponsorship dollars come from the company’s marketing department so we have to think with a marketing-value mindset. Arts and cultural organizations bring value to the market place, albeit differently than a for-profit company. Nonetheless, your organization does have a value that is worth supporting!

• The headquarters moved to a different state, so bye-bye sponsorship.  Not so fast, chances are good that the company didn’t pull up stakes overnight (unless it was a circus!) and is still doing business in your town in some form or fashion – perhaps even over an extended period of time. Keep the relationship open and you might just see continued involvement at some level.  And remember, companies come and companies go, so always be on the lookout for those newcomers to your community.

• Small business owners don’t give money. Believe it or not, small businesses can actually be more involved sponsors than larger corporations.  Small business leaders live in your city and are often more deeply-connected…and these folks are most often in it for the long haul, being less likely to relocate.  You might not get the huge dollar amounts that national corporations give, but if cultivated more like an ‘individual gift’ donor, you’ll be building a secure pipeline for future giving.

In the next article we’ll look at how to make sponsorships more relationship-based.

Bob Swaney is a successful 25 year veteran of fundraising for arts & cultural institutions and is the founder of Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc.  For more information, you can email Bob at rsc@rrsconsult.net or visit www.rrsconsult.net You can also become a Facebook fan by clicking here.