Sunday, April 10, 2011

Websurfing

Good morning.
"And the beat goes on...................................."

Random Stuff of Interest:
People send me links to interesting sites, and I spend a fair amount of time surfing and looking for sites, research, articles etc. germane to the nonprofit arts field.  Often times, this stuff piles up in my favorites box and though I mean to pass it on quickly - but somehow............. - well you know how that goes. 

So here are some things I've found in the past few months that may be of interest to you:
  • From the LA Times (back in November) a story that while philanthropy declined in 2009, it remained constant for the arts - at least for the really wealthy donors.  Very likely, the contributions of the well heeled went to the large cultural institutions - the operas, and symphonies and big museums.  It would be interesting to verify that fact and also know if at the other end of the spectrum, less wealthy people gave to mid sized, smaller or ethnic specific organizations.
  • Another article on philanthropy which caught my eye, this piece, cross posted on the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog, offers 14 insights on what will shape philanthropy in the coming decade.  Some very interesting thoughts here. 
  • Yet more on philanthropy, here's some research from the James Irvine Foundation site - Advance the Arts.org on donor motivation.
  • With increasing talk in the last few months on the Slow Food Movement and its parallels to the arts, here's a piece from Drew McManus (from his Adaptistration blog on the orchestra business) commenting on Diane Ragsdale's blog on the Slow Food Movement as a model for the arts (maybe?)
  • Here's Amelia Northrup commenting from the National Arts Marketing Project site on the Top Technology trends that will impact arts marketing in 2011.
  • More on marketing, this piece from David Dombrosky on the Technology in the Arts website about SF Playhouse's use of Twitter.
  • And here's some data from the Pew Research Center on the social side of the net.
  • Here's an article from the Harvard Business Review advising the business community that if they want to hire innovative thinkers, they should hire from the Humanities  (hey what about the arts you guys?)
  • Finally, there's a little humor and a little truth in this piece on 10 Signs It's Time to Quit Your Job.
Have a good week.

Don't Quit.
Barry