Non-profit management

It is very unusual for any urban renewal plan not to include reference to the role that arts organizations and arts buildings can potentially play in regeneration. Most recently, in Hurricane Katrina's wake, both have figured prominently in discussions about the future of New Orleans and Biloxi. But the discussions about arts organizations and those about arts buildings are curiously and uncomfortably divorced.

When I mentioned to an arts funder that I was reading a book called Integrating Mission and Strategy for Nonprofit Organizations she sighed and said we needed to stop using words like strategy. I asked why and she said, "Funders got arts organizations to start using these business words years ago, but nothing has changed. They are not in better shape." The author of the book, James A. Phills, Jr., might suggest the problem was not so much the concept of strategy, but rather a general misunderstanding and misuse of the word itself.

2004, 119 pages. The Global Business Network, 5900-X Hollis Street, Emeryville, CA, 94608, 510-547-6822,

PDF available for download at: The Global Business Network

Welcome to the future! This book aims to better prepare nonprofit leaders by familiarizing them with scenario thinking, a tool formerly in the exclusive domain of the business world. An offshoot of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation's Organizational Effectiveness Program, this guide can be downloaded either in its entirety or in independent sections.

2005, 139 pages. Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Fieldstone Alliance Publishing Center, Saint Paul, MN, 55107

In this guide, York promotes the concept of "evaluative learning" to help funders use evaluation to build capacity and increased effectiveness in their grantees' organizations. Examinations of capacity building, organizational effectiveness, current and typical uses of evaluations, and the philosophy of evaluations lead to a step-by-step, soup-to-nuts guide to planning for and implementing evaluative learning.

2004, 171 pages. Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Washington, DC, 20063

The summer 2005 issue of the GIA Reader contained an article consisting of excerpts from a group blog discussion on ArtsJournal.com titled, "Is There a Better Case for the Arts?"² The blog was inspired by Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate about the Benefits of the Arts, a study commissioned by the Wallace Foundation "to improve the current understanding of the arts' full range of effects in order to inform public debate and policy."³ Twelve individuals participated in the online d

2004, 16 pages. The Urban Institute, 2100 M Street NW, Washington, DC, 20037, 202-833-7200

Download pdf: www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/311028_partnerships.pdf

2004, 119 pages, ISBN 0-9759241-1-7. Global Business Network, 5900-X Hollis Street, Emeryville, CA, 94608, 510-547-6822

Download pdf: www.gbn.com/ArticleDisplayServlet.srv?aid=32655

The fall 2002 issue of the Reader (volume 13, number 3) introduced an ongoing feature, "Why Art?" as a response to GIA's goal to strengthen the role of arts and culture in philanthropy and in society as a whole. This Reader feature aims to help members and others make stronger arguments for the support of arts and culture by sharing examples of arguments, case statements, insights, and stories that convey the multifaceted role that culture, the arts, and artists play in our society, neighborhoods, and individual lives.

I believe it is time to begin a conversation about a new model for building a vibrant arts landscape. Since I left federal service in the fall of 2001, I have had an opportunity rare for former chairmen of the National Endowment for the Arts—the chance to create a research center engaging the very issues that fascinated me during my tenure with the endowment.