Economic Turmoil and Change

Do Wall Street executives deserve big bonuses during hard times? Does increased arts funding have a place in an economic stimulus package? I’ll leave it to others to debate these controversies. Meanwhile I’d like to make a modest proposal to … Continue reading →

The first thing we need to do is reposition the role of arts + culture in society. For many reasons the arts have moved to the fringes of cultural conversation. We need to reintroduce the idea of the arts as … Continue reading →

The Low-Profit Limilted Liability Company (aka, the L3C) works to balance the nimbleness and clarity of a small business with the alternate income and capital opportunities of a nonprofit. As a refresher, corporate forms are creatures of the tax code … Continue reading →

With a tumbling economy, declining attendance and tapped-out donors, things are hard enough for the arts, historical museums and other cultural institutions. That’s why it’s all the more disturbing to see Oregon lawmakers rummaging for money in the only statewide … Continue reading →

For-profit executives use business models—such as “low-cost provider” or “the razor and the razor blade”—as a shorthand way to describe and understand the way companies are built and sustained. Nonprofit executives, to their detriment, are not as explicit about their … Continue reading →

The good folks at Wolf Brown have some long experience on these topics, and share information on their Web site regularly. Mergers and Strategic Alliances discusses a number of the barriers to successful mergers,  both real and perceived, and offers … Continue reading →

The Met Opera’s recent admission that their famed Chagall murals are now providing collateral against existing debt raises anew a fundamental business question: is art an asset for a cultural institution? Read more.

The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, 4Culture, the Seattle Foundation and the Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs commissioned Helicon Collaborative to interview leaders of diverse cultural organizations in the Northwest to determine the impacts the economy is … Continue reading →

…An examination of plans for foundation and corporate support in response to the current economic crisis. It is part of an ongoing Foundation Center research series intended to shed light on the impact of the economic downturn on the nonprofit … Continue reading →

Corporations and wealthy individuals are donating less to nonprofits, with arts groups taking the biggest hit, according to two new studies. Read more.