Volunteers are a critical component of any arts organization. From ushers to fundraising, to pro-bono consulting and board service, volunteers expand the capacity of a nonprofit. Volunteers also create an entry point for establishing a relationship with businesses. While this tool-kit focuses on skills-based volunteering, much of the advice is applicable to all types of volunteers.
General
Audience Impact Study Literature Review
The National Endowment for the Arts announces a new literature review, Audience Impact Study Literature Review.
While there is ample qualitative and anecdotal data on how people and communities are transformed by the arts, there is little research that quantifies the emotional impact of the arts.
It’s a challenge to analyze this subtle topic. How do you define the way that art affects people? By the happiness they express? By the rewards they derive? By their physiological response?
Furthermore, how do you measure this emotional impact? This review looks at dozens of existing studies that attempt to answer these elusive questions. Ultimately, this review will help inform the design of a survey that will capture reliable data on this seemingly indefinable subject. The NEA is working with a research team from WolfBrown to develop and pilot survey instruments and protocols for a pilot study of audiences at NEA-funded events. As part of this study, WolfBrown developed this literature review of relevant research.
This literature review is one of the NEA’s latest efforts to conduct and commission research that examines evidence of the value and impact of the arts in other domains of American life, such as education, health and well-being, community livability, and economic prosperity.
2012 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report
The fourth annual report on nonprofits and social networks.
A sample of findings from the 2012 report:
- Social Communities Continue to Grow
- 2012 Facebook and Twitter communities grow year-over-year by 30% and 81% respectively to 8,317 Likes and 3,290 followers.
- Most Common Fundraising Tactics on Facebook
- The top tactics for raising money through giving on Facebook: An Individual Ask, followed by Event Fundraising.
- New in 2012 – Facebook ROI Insights
- Nonprofit respondents say that the average Facebook Like costs $3.50 and Twitter follower $2.05.
- Top Factors for Nonprofit Success on Social Networks:
Nonprofits were unequivocable about what it takes to be successful on social networks: Develop a strategy, Prioritize Social Network Program at Executive Level, and Dedicate Staff to the Program.
Arts Index
Interactive arts index – local and national. Consumers spend nearly $150 Billion annually entertainment and the arts. How do we better understand the breadth, depth and character of this industry? Learn more through our national measures at the National Arts Index or visit the county where you live at the Local Arts Index.
Nurturing California’s Next Generation of Arts and Cultural Leaders
Commissioned by the Center for Cultural Innovation with generous support from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation:
Over the past several years, the foundations have invested in research and programs that seek to understand, and address, the talent flight and leadership challenges confronting the arts sector in California. Leaders in the nonprofit arts world, many of them founders and builders of their organizations for decades, will be retiring in unprecedented numbers in the coming years. Organizations could become weaker and destabilized during this transition, a prospect that should be addressed with some urgency. Younger professionals should be able to take on these leadership roles and chart a new course in stressful and changing times. Yet an operational divide between the workplace needs and values of Next Geners and those currently in charge threatens this transition. Here’s a good look at this issue.
Artists and Arts Workers in the United States
There are 2.1 million artists in the United States workforce, and a large portion of them — designers — contribute to industries whose products Americans use every day, according to new research from the National Endowment for the Arts.
