Please join us for the
ACCA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Wednesday, October 10th, 2018 | 3:00 PM EDT
This year’s AGM will be conducted via Go To Meeting.
Please be sure to RSVP to receive instructions to connect.
Agenda
1. Minutes from the Previous Annual General Meeting, October 5, 2017
2. President’s Report
3. Treasurer’s Report
4. Nominating Committee Report
5. Other Business
6. Adjournment
Please RSVP to info@artsconsultants.ca
To see ACCA’s The Exchange, where this article is featured, click here.
The Ontario Nonprofit Network recently published Learning Together: Five Important Discussion Questions to Make Evaluation Useful in which they ask five questions:
This guide helps nonprofits articulate more clearly the purposes and processes of an evaluation, regardless of the size, mission, or location of the organization. It’s a conversation starter and a means to open a dialogue with your stakeholders in a subject area that can be complex and difficult.
The core of the guide revolves around five questions that can be used when talking with funders and other stakeholders. The goal is to find simple, yet powerful, ways to make evaluation more meaningful.
The outcomes and impacts of projects are the subject of much discussion in the non-profit sector. Organizations want to achieve the best possible results for their target groups and, at the same time, funders are calling for more evidence about the benefits yielded by the projects they have supported.
Nonprofits aim to achieve the best possible results through their work. This involves monitoring each phase of a project in order to ensure progress toward the intended objectives. However, many organizations have neither the expertise nor the instruments needed to systematically integrate impact orientation into their work. In a context of limited resources, impact orientation is regarded by many organizations as a desirable but difficult or “unrealistic” task.
PHINEO offers step-by-step explanations and practical examples in their free, online publication: Social Impact Navigator: The Practical Guide for Organizations Targeting Better Results.
“The nonprofit sector is large and robust, and our staff and volunteer leadership play a critical role in Canadian communities,” say the authors of An Overview and Trend Analysis for Volunteer Board of Directors of Community Organizations in Canada, published by the Ontario Nonprofit Network.
They continue: “However, these are times of change. The context and circumstances within which the sector does its work are changing… Is there a nonprofit that has not been affected? How can local organizations keep up? How do volunteer board members know where to start?”
Here are some of their findings:
The growing income inequality means those nonprofits “working to build social cohesion in our communities are finding our jobs increasingly difficult as more people find themselves at the margins of society.”
Government investment is declining or stagnant year on year; and, while the profile of those who donate is changing, charitable giving is stagnating.
While increases in membership fees and fees-for-service account for some increase to overall earned revenue, new social enterprises help nonprofits as they search for ways to earn revenues to fund their missions. But be forewarned, the Canada Revenue Agency has a narrow definition of related business,
Given all the challenges, nonprofits are increasingly seeking out compatible organizations to support them with governance and administrative support, sometimes referred to as shared platforms.
It’s a new world. Be brave.
If diversity is so high profile, and everyone knows it’s a social and economic necessity, why is it not uncommon to hear that nothing has changed in the past 30 years? Why have respondents to AP’s diversity survey, under the liberating cover of anonymity, said that in their organisation: “There is a tick box mentality rather than an enthusiasm for diversity. It is not intrinsic to our work; it is still being ‘added on’.” Or: “It is a constant struggle for companies with a diverse agenda to get funding, venues, or recognition.”
A survey of over 500 UK-based arts workers suggest the sector is “deeply conflicted about the best way to improve diversity in its workforce.”
The good news is 83% of the respondents indicate a strong commitment to improving diversity in the workplace. But, there is less unity on what action to take to improve diversity.
A major challenge may be the “shallow pool of diverse candidates for work opportunities’, as expressed by 61% of the respondents.
While most people disagreed senior management is a barrier, 28% of the junior respondents pointed fingers at their superiors. Only 8% of senior managers recognized a problem in their own ranks.
When asked about ways to increase diversity, more than eight out of ten respondents favoured staff training, targeted initiatives to boost diverse organizations and incentives to increase the diversity of those entering arts careers. But there was much less consensus around whether penalties, quotas and ‘naming and shaming’ should be introduced.
Quotas did not get a resounding endorsement with only 25% in support. However, 45% of those who identify as diverse expressed support for quotas.
Some respondents suggest setting quotas is a “simplistic” method that would lead to “suspicion and resentment on both sides.” Another respondent wrote: “It may be that a clumsy tool like [quotas] is needed to get the ball rolling.”
The Minister of Canadian Heritage announced a series of changes related to grants and contribution management. These will speed up the turnaround on applications and payments. They will also make multi-year grants more frequent.
“We are pleased with these improved service standards. Faster turnaround and predictable multi-year funding will allow better planning and will encourage innovation by arts organizations.” —Frédéric Julien, Director of Research and Development at the Canadian Arts Presenting Association (CAPACOA) and Co-Chair of the Canadian Arts Coalition
Canadian Heritage gives bureaucrats more power over arts funding
Do the words we choose help or hinder us? Can one word be so overburdened with meaning that it is essentially meaningless?
In a relatively short period of time, the word diversity has become one of our most used words. But, what exactly do we mean when we use that word? Do we share the same meaning? And are we actually addressing diversity—or are we simply bandying around a word, so that we feel have ticked that box?
These are some of the issues addressed by Rachel Grunwald in her article Words, Words… They’re all we have to go on.
It has often been said: “there has to be a better way”.
Shared platforms may be one such way.
The term shared platform is commonly used to describe a situation where an organization adopts and provides a legal home for a project or initiative that is unincorporated and does not have its own legal status. It offers an alternative to incorporating or obtaining charitable registration in the nonprofit sector and, perhaps more importantly, it offers efficient sharing of capacity and nurturing of emerging leadership.
Sound like a possible solution for a client? The Ontario Nonprofit Network comes to the rescue with the Shared Platform Guidebook. It’s free and can be found here.
Earlier in the year, Hill Strategies released its report: “Finances and Attendance of Arts Organizations”. Containing information that will be important for every arts consultant, it offers Canadian statistics on art museums and galleries, artist-run centres, and performing arts presenters, as well as an American report examining the sustainability of arts and culture organizations in select cities.
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