Taking Criticism and Moving Forward

Taking criticism is never easy. Your first reaction is always that this person is a moron and has no idea what your job is. But after your initial reaction, I hope that you take a second to really think about what the person said. I had a boss once who was full of criticism. I have to say that it wasn’t always constructive, many times, it was personal. It was an office politics situation where some of the boss’ subordinates were also good friends and I wasn’t one of them. Anything I did that made those people upset, was immediately a character flaw on my part. I have always prided myself on being a pretty easy-going, easy to get along with type of person. If nothing else, this boss taught me that there are people I can’t get along with. In fact, this person would make me furious and for people who know me, it is quite a task to make me furious. I think the fact that I was laid-back and easy going drove her nuts. I still get really worked up thinking about it even though this happened several years ago and I no longer work for that person. However, after my initial reaction, I tried to separate the personal criticism from the real professional criticism. I feel like I have grown from that and learned a lot about myself and my business style from that boss. She also taught me a lot of good techniques for organization and managing up that I still use.

Recently I observed the criticism-denying behavior in someone else. A consultant that criticized the way someone does business. This person says, the consultant doesn’t know what it is like to work in an arts organization and they are clearly unreasonable and have unrealistic expectations. Now, I can see that this is the initial defensive reaction, because clearly, I have had this before. However, I can’t help thinking that these people do this for a living. Their only job is to consult about how NPOs are doing their job and help them improve to reach seriously high goals. And, granted, this consultant doesn’t usually work with arts organizations, but it is hard to say that they have no idea what they are talking about. They clearly have a lot of success or they would not have been hired, right? I hope that this person can take a step back from personal feelings and take into account some of the criticism could be constructive. It seems like a waste of money to hire consultant to tell you how you could improve your business and then disregard all of their suggestions.

I feel that arts organizations go through this more than other NPOs, but maybe that’s because I have mostly worked in arts organizations. Some arts organizations have been around for a while and if it’s been working so far, why change it? It is interesting to me that arts organizations that are full of creative people who are looking for the next great thing for their art, don’t want to find the next great thing for running their business. I know that a lot of those things cost money, but there are some things that don’t cost a lot. I worked at an organization that just started taking online donations last year! Hello, this has been useable technology for close to a decade. A lot of time, it is because “our demographic doesn’t use that”. Then we wonder why we aren’t recruiting a younger demographic. I think a lot of this has to do with strategic planning. What are the goals for the next 5-10 years? What does our organization really need to do to be viable and relevant in the community? How can we be ahead of the curve on the next big thing? There is a lot of history with many arts organizations that I think we are afraid of moving into the future for fear of losing our past. If we don’t want our art form to become a lost art form, we need to find out how to move our art into the community’s current conscience while keeping our integrity.

Showing our Worth

So as much as I hate to say it, I feel that most people think that arts and nonprofit are not really that important to the economy. In fact, they are often the first things cut when budgets get tight and times get tough. Why is that? Do they think that the arts are not important? I would say maybe, but I think the main issue is that they don’t think they “bring in the money”. Any of us who work in the arts know that is a terrible falsehood. When I lived in Indianapolis, the city hired Next Generation Consulting to basically prove that people, especially young people, want to live in places where there are arts and culture.

I have so many links to go along with this blog that I don’t even know where to start. I’m just going to quote Meet the Press from about 3 months ago where Mayor Bloomberg (NYC) said that not investing in our cities is the worst thing we could do in tough economic times. “The taxpayers are going to have to decide do they want to have a future or not? If they don't want to have a future, then they're not going to have to pay as much now, but if they want to leave a better world for their kids, they're going to have to pay the bills up front.” Rock on, Mayor Bloomberg! I don’t know if he still feels that way now, since the economy has gotten worse since that statement, but I hope it hasn’t.

Also, check out this awesome study that talks about the economic impact of nonprofits, produced by Philanthropic Collaborative. It states that nonprofits contribute roughly $42.9 billion to the economy, with the arts making up 12% of that (4th on the list of nonprofits).

I came across that information when I was checking out Robert Egger’s blog. Robert Egger is this amazing guy who started a nonprofit in Washington D.C. and is now working to raise the profile of nonprofits in the United States. He created the V3 campaign. I think it is amazing that the nonprofit sector is getting together to make things happen and make sure we are not forgotten. People don’t realize how much of an impact we have on the communities we belong to. I also found a great proposal on the League of American Orchestra’s website to ask the incoming administration to change some things about how they contribute to the arts and culture in America. I think it is amazing that all of these organizations are banding together because most of the time, I feel like we are in competition. No one wants to share their secrets or donors with each other, but we can make greater impact working together.

Whew! So many links, but I think they are all important and useful for anyone trying to make their case.

Giving

The New York Times had a special Giving section in the paper last week. There were several good articles about fundraising and making gifts in “lean times”. I thought this one geared towards the arts was particularly interesting, especially since it offers solutions.

The Nonprofits Guide to Surviving a Downturn

Celebrating Philanthropy

Yesterday I celebrated, with close to 1,000 other San Diegans, National Philanthropy Day. I’ve got to say that with all the negativity out there right now, this was a great opportunity to celebrate what the nonprofit sector is doing and what amazing philanthropists there are in our city. It was also an opportunity to meet people and have some great conversations about what people are doing in these “economically challenging times”.

I had an excellent conversation with some people at my table about how a manager can really affect the attitude of an organization, especially in tough times. There is the “the sky is falling”manager, who basically inspires the sending of resumes. However, there are some organizations doing some amazing things. Some people shared some fantastic stories of how their supervisors were inspiring their team to continue their work and remember the value of their organization. One told me that the entire company is meeting at 9:30 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to share mission-inspired stories. Great stories about how their organization affected someone’s life. How cool is that? She said it is a stimulating way to start the day and really gets people excited about what they can accomplish. Someone else told me that their supervisor does a something similar in a daily email. They also had a brainstorming session one afternoon and had everyone write down the top 5 things that they think make the organization great. Awesome! These stories were really inspiring and it seems to be motivating their staffs too.

I’m not saying you should ignore that times are tough and things are much more challenging than they were six months ago. If you cannot inspire staff to stay and fight for the importance of your mission, you cannot expect donors to stick with you either. What is your organization doing to keep moral high and get your staff excited about their jobs?

The Sky is Falling?

Is anyone else tired of the doom and gloom of the economy? Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t know how many more articles I can read about “Chicago/New York/ Philadelphia Non-profits Concerned about Economic Downturn”. Is that really news? Really?

It would be nice if someone could write about something we can do in this time of economic crisis. How do you rally people in hard times? How do you encourage giving when we are concerned about our economic future?

Non profits have bills just like the rest of us. However, they are reliant on the kindness of others to pay their bills. What can each of our nonprofits do to make ends meet and get the money in the door? People want to slash their expenses and cancel events and cut back on marketing. Is that helping your cause? Is making your presence less known helping you meet your budget? How about celebrating your accomplishments and what you do for your community. Don’t let them forget the important work that you do.

Maybe cutting costs means teaming up with another nonprofit to combine forces for marketing or events. Create a monthly city arts mailing to promote events for all arts organizations that chip in for the costs. You may also find that funders are very willing to donate to “collaborative” projects. Updating a website usually costs little money and including your website information on all printed information is a great way to get people to see your website.

Think grassroots. How did you do things before you had the budget to do what you do now? Even combining efforts within our own organization can be a great way to save money. Why can’t a marketing piece have information about how to make a donation? Work smarter.

And donations? Who says donors have to pay them all today? Most people don’t anyway. Remind people they can pay over the course of the year, monthly even, because some money is better than no money. Ten dollars a month sure sounds less intimidating that $120 right now.