Arts Organizations Share a Vision for Advancing the Arts in the Region

About 40 arts organizations came to the proverbial table together last Thursday and shared their thoughts and wisdom on how to leverage our grant and where to fund.

The group was asked two questions to think about:

1. How could the Sacramento Region Community Foundation (SRCF) leverage our grant dollars and help arts organizations build their donor base?
2. How would you, as an arts organization, spend the grantmaking dollars?

While many ideas were generated, several universal themes emerged on leveraging the grant and building the donor base:

• Fostering collaboration to break arts organizations out of their silos;

• Bringing art to people to touch and feel art; said Jioia Fonda of Tangent Gallery, "people are hungry for the arts, but don't know how to get there;"

• Appreciating and continuing to nurture our current donors, yet simultaneously cultivating new donors by facilitating the opportunity to give by utilizing the web and online giving as an empowering and democratizing tool;

• Spearheading a regional arts campaign to celebrate diversity and depth of the arts.

Ways to make grants also proved to echo these themes:

• Developing a viral mechanism like a central web portal where arts organizations can build networks and share information;

• Establishing an arts center that would serve as a bridge-building activity for the arts and the community;

• Supporting individual artists in pursuit of their passion; it was shared that JK Rowlings received a grant from the local arts agency to write Harry Potter, and the rest, as they say, is history;

• Capacity building along the lines of board governance, technology support, training and education, marketing, strategic planning, and sustainability for arts organizations.

With so many rich and valuable information resources within its reach, SRCF will begin the responsive and proactive steps to take advantage of the wonderful opportunity presented to Sacramento by the Communities Advancing the Arts grant.

Stay tuned…the Arts Advisory Committee will be convened this summer and the grantmaking efforts will launch this the Fall.

Next Arts Conversation

The next natural step in our start-up planning process for the arts initiative is to query arts organizations themselves.

Why? Because they have a different perspective and experience than donors, their environment is shaped by different factors that contribute to their success than those faced by traditional non profits. For example, arts organizations must market their products to generate operating revenue, whereas other non profits don't rely so much on product development and revenue generation. The role of arts organizations in the community is vital to our cultural prosperity and economic development. It is important to understand just how the greater non profit community can help support and sustain the arts sector.

So, we have 40 organizations participating this Thursday on June 26th, eager to tell their stories, based on two simple questions that will inform our grantmaking efforts:

1. Assume you have been granted $400K. How could SRCF help arts organizations build their donor base?

2. If you were in charge of making these grants, how would you spend the money?

Likewise, we wait with baited breath to listen.

Sacramento Region Community Foundation Hosts Arts Conversation

Forty Acres Art Gallery in Oak Park hosted the April 28th inaugural planning meeting to discuss how to leverage a $450,000 grant to enhance arts organizations in Sacramento. The Sacramento Region Community Foundation (SRCF) was selected by the James Irvine Foundation to implement the grant because of SRCF’s ability to create and manage endowment funds that sustain worthy programs. This grant is part of a larger Irvine-supported statewide effort among community foundations to increase giving to the arts.Attending the meeting were more than 35 of the region’s most influential and passionate supporters of the arts. “We were extremely encouraged and gratified to see the interest such experienced and knowledgeable people have in encouraging the vitality of the arts,” said Ruth Blank, SRCF’s Chief Executive Officer. “We had, in the gallery that day, the area’s most innovative and devoted advocates for the arts community. We are very grateful and humbled by their participation.”

Facilitated by Eric Douglas of Leading Resources, Inc., the group engaged in partnered discussions about how to bring new, long term resources to arts organizations in Sacramento. The one-on-one brainstorming led to identifying specific strategies to create a substantial, permanent funding stream for arts in Sacramento. Some of the ideas expressed in the meeting are outlined below.

The Big Picture

Participants suggested that SRCF must assume a more visible public role. For the SRCF arts initiative to succeed, knowledge of SRCF and trust in the organization must be more widespread. Moreover, it was echoed that making passion for the arts as a key driver in this initiative is critical for success.The Grass Roots ApproachPicking up on the success of recent political advocacy campaigns, it was suggested that leaders reach deeper into the community and invite nontraditional donors to participate. Use of the Internet and personal outreach to groups to generate excitement and support will increase participation and awareness.

Priscilla Enriquez, SRCF’s Chief Giving Officer, pointed out that a similar matching grant program by the San Francisco and East Bay Community Foundations raised more than $190,000 with an average donation of $237 from 808 donors, many of whom were new. This enabled people of modest financial means to be donors. The group also acknowledged the need to invite more arts organizations to the table as partners in this initiative, whether as grantees or advisors.

Saturday Success

There was also agreement that Second Saturday is an excellent model for exposing the visual arts to an ever increasing audience. This popular monthly event may be a platform for introducing new opportunities for artists and organizations in other arts – such as music, dance and theatre. It was also noted that some financial return for Second Saturday events would be appropriate.

Education Lost

With budget cuts in education, the arts have all but disappeared from public schools. Putting significant focus on filling this gap, it was suggested, would be an excellent vehicle for grant making and attracting widespread public support.

Tradition Still Holds

While there was animated discussion on moving towards social media approaches in fundraising to flatten the arts donor base, an overwhelming point was made that individual solicitations from influential people is still the most productive approach to raising money.

Next Steps

Because the group included organizations already working toward some shared goals, there is an opportunity to collaborate. In addition, many participants were seasoned veterans of previous efforts to foster arts programs and their observations about what worked – and didn’t work – were duly noted and will be used as the project moves ahead.A SRCF Conversation for artists and art organizations is planned for June 26th. A discover process similar to the Forty Acres discussion will be implemented. Priscilla said the goal is to find out what artists need and want to be successful and visible in Sacramento. “It’s not our job to assume what galleries and working artists need from a program,” she said. “We want to hear directly from them and plan appropriately, engaging them in the process as we move forward.”

According to Ruth Blank, an Advisory Committee is being formed and will meet sometime in July. Although there is a long journey ahead, the SRCF team is confident the road will be paved with creativity and optimism that brings measurable benefit to arts and artists in Sacramento.To keep track of the progress of the SRCF arts initiative, follow their progress on www.advancethearts.org, email info@sacregcf.org for more information, or RSS this blog.