[Applause]
[Music]
good afternoon everyone
colleagues and dwellers in the rare and
magical community of the Arts I am so
happy to have the opportunity to speak
to you today
so I’ve titled my talk the agony and
ecstasy of fundraising and you will soon
see why and I am using the podium here
because when you have this topic support
furniture actually helps in any case as
this is a Broadway theatrical type crowd
I say let’s go historical musical and
topical therefore has one famous
landmark piece of musical theatre
declares I tell you my friends we got
trouble we got trouble right here in New
York City with a capital T and that
rhymes with C and that stands for cash
oh yes we got trouble right here in New
York City right here that godly Green is
unseen and harder to find than a smash
oh yes we got trouble terrible terrible
trouble with a capital T and that rhymes
with C and that stands for cash okay
okay that’s enough you get my point but
as I said if I’m going to stand up here
and talk about fundraising for 12 whole
minutes I needed to do something drastic
to get your attention all joking aside
we really do have trouble the
not-for-profit arts sector in America is
struggling we are marginalized often
miscast as elitist dismissed as a frill
sometimes being misunderstood as being
too avant-garde and incomprehensible and
believe me after 36 years at BAM I could
write a book on that point alone we are
overshadowed and influenced by the cult
of celebrity worshipped by the public
and if that’s not enough we are
dramatically desperately under-resourced
so let’s look at the facts according to
the 2017 American for the Arts annual
sir
the arts our field generates a hundred
and sixty six point three billion
dollars in direct expenditure and tax
revenue for the United States of America
yet
combined local state and federal
government appropriation back to the
arts only amounted to five million
dollars public arts funding is fifteen
percent lower today than it was twenty
years ago but aside from the public
investment we know that in the u.s.
funding for cultures dominated by
private charitable giving and yet arts
culture and the humanities received only
5% of all charitable giving in the
United States in 2016 here are two
large-scale examples of the public
aspect of the situation
the first one is shockingly right here
in our own New York State
it’s called Buffalo billion and this is
the state’s funding at one point five
billion dollars of a revitalization plan
for Buffalo New York just the last five
hundred million was dedicated to
redevelopment and Smart Growth
innovation and entrepreneurship
Workforce Development advanced
manufacturing tourism health life
sciences and regional and economic
development Arts and Culture barely
mentioned go a little further west
consider prosper Portland in Oregon a
five-year strategic plan for an
equitable economy Portland is one of the
most globally healthy and equitable
cities in the world
the plans components include healthy
complete neighborhoods equitable wealth
creation civic networks and access to
employment arts and culture not
mentioned once the Mayor of London Sadiq
Khan on the opposite end of the spectrum
has made culture one of his top policy
priorities along with real estate
development transportation fairness and
inclusion recently he initiated a
strategy to form creative enterprise
zones across the city which will allow
artists and create
of businesses to put down roots in an
area and not be displaced by rising
prices and on top of this struggle for
public and private funding as well as
the additional struggle to be recognized
by many important huge city
revitalization initiatives our
not-for-profits try to reflect the
values inherent in good citizenship and
community leadership by keeping ticket
prices affordable in order to welcome
large diverse audiences this is
admirable and necessary but it deepens
our financial predicament even further
and yet of course a broad-based
audience is exactly what we want not
only because it’s the right thing to do
but because diversity is the most
interesting thing to do no one comes to
visit or lives in New York to drink
coffee at Starbucks they come for the
variety and for what is unique and
special they come for culture and they
stay for culture but let’s get back to
fundraising we need resources how will
we manage in such an environment not
only was we continued to grind out the
best product from Hamilton at the public
theater to an avant-garde Opera at BAM
to unique exhibition of Latino painters
at the Bronx Museum and so on and so on
for all of this we need fundraising
talent we need a lot of it and it’s in
short supply
literally I get about ten calls a day
asking do I know anyone who can do this
work well in fact recently I was told
about an organization that had two
simultaneous searches underway they
received a hundred and twenty resumes
for an associate programmer and three
for a development director why is it
harder today to find a brilliant
fundraiser than an honest politician
it’s not salary that’s for sure
no matter how dire the situation is that
many organizations chronicle of
philanthropy reported in January that
fundraisers
large organizations got raises of 10% or
more and in any given year Chronicle
says about 45% of all fund raisers
surveyed received bonuses so if it’s not
the money and it certainly isn’t a dead
end job
fundraisers because of their connections
to program and board members are on a
direct path to the executive suite if
they have talent I can name at least
eight great organizations that are
headed by former fund raisers so if
there are real job opportunities and
often lots of perks like going to great
restaurants and traveling with your
donors what’s the problem I firmly
believe that it comes down to the fact
that this work is only for those that
can handle rejection on a daily basis it
is a career for the rare person who can
tolerate delayed gratification rather
than instant reward and it was ready to
provide impeccable service to donors and
I mean both the good and benevolent
donors as well as the prickly and
difficult you know what I’m saying an
annual fundraising campaign is like a
military operation you must have a
detailed strategic plan for each of your
flanks foundations corporations high net
worth individuals lower level members
government agencies and then of course
there is the heavy manual lifting of
producing a gala each step of the path
is fraught and there are many mishaps
along the way causing you to marshal
your forces regroup and try something
new it’s hard endurance and fortitude
are required fundraising necessitates
good interpersonal skills think about
dinner party conversation the ability to
write well and fast perfect
record-keeping solid research and
organizational qualities relentless
follow-up tenacity good manners common
sense and some knowledge of the art when
you say it it sounds pretty manageable
and yet brain surgery appears to be a
gentler career path
now I know the donors complain about
their seeds they complain about the
coat-check lines and did I mention food
New Yorkers are seriously obsessed about
food at BAM we would sell opera tickets
for $100 people hated it I never heard
from them they didn’t like their
appetizer at the pre performance dinner
and I would get a death threat in the
anyway this work is not for the faint of
heart and truthfully young people today
may simply not be interested in
providing this level of service or is it
possible that we their devoted parents
made them less able to handle rejection
and regular disappointment is that the
problem or is it that today’s
professionals prefer to start their own
businesses and be their own bosses
actually I don’t know all of the
psychological or sociological reasons
but despite the misery I do want to make
a pitch that at the end of the day if
you have the chops this can be a great
and worthy career if you can do
fundraising I promise you you can do
anything as a fund raiser you are a
central player at the core of your
organization’s success and when you
bring in a grant for the most thrilling
artistic work of the decade at BAM I
think of Peter Brooks Mahabharata or
Wilson and glasses Einstein on the beach
or Kate Blanchet in streetcar named
desire
this is achievement at the highest level
or feel the magic when your
organizations work and the resources you
have helped generate help to revitalize
your entire community moving it from
desolate to robust filled with diversity
and 24/7 cultural energy and doing this
you touch greatness having the money to
make amazing things happen is liberating
because only then can you really do what
you want and when you can pay the bill
and invest in the best art makers trust
me you are doing the Lord’s work so
let’s take this theme all the way to the
red white and blue
fund-raising like broadway itself is a
particularly american entity since in
other parts of the world governments
actually support their artists and
cultural institutions here as i stated
previously we are dependent on a broad
base of contributors but somehow the
obsessive need for money across all of
these sectors works for us why because
it forces us to be the very best we can
be in order to deliver the bottom line
and the result is that our American
organizations have a deeply engaged
long-term vital relationship with their
public this connection is dynamic
resulting not only in names on buildings
but also in the ongoing glory of many of
the greatest cultural enterprises in the
world despite the challenges we face the
facts are undeniable
art inspires love of learning generates
the maximum tourism dollars houses our
greatest treasures in our most splendid
buildings builds community and after all
is said and done art is the only thing
that endures from generation to
generation to generation it was because
of this noble purpose and despite the
hardship every day for 36 years I woke
up looked in the mirror and said Karen
today you were going to raise a million
dollars then I left for another
interesting day at BAM fired up and
ready for action so if you hear me out
there and are quiet and reflective for
just a moment I think you can actually
hear seventy-six trombones playing in
the background young people are lining
up and getting in formation from bones
let them they are accepting the
challenge they are considering this
profound difficult yet worthy career
path
the music may be faint but it’s there
for sure and it’s getting louder and
louder are you ready to join the band
thank you
[Applause] [Music]