Your Top 4 Most Asked Arts Management Questions for 2024
How do you motivate the Board to fundraise? How do you get your orchestra management to share budget numbers? How do you have a community presence when you don’t perform year-round? And one more.
Everywhere I go, I get asked a lot of questions about arts management practices. In previous articles, I’ve addressed several of the top themes, like how to grow your audience (here, here, and here), how to design experiences that center the audience and community (here and here), how to drive change (here and here), and case studies of audience growth success stories (see three of them here).
But there are still a few categories of questions I’ve seen again and again, especially over the last year or so, that have been asked enough times in enough ways by enough people, that I thought I’d share them here. And chances are, maybe one or more of these scenarios resonates with you too.
As you’re naturally setting goals this time of year, may these four questions below—your top most asked questions of the last 12 months—help you think through the path you want to forge for yourself in 2024. And if your burning question isn’t included here, I’ve got a resource for you at the end to help make sure you get the answers you need.
How do I as a player on the negotiating committee get an orchestra to share their budget numbers when it’s not been their habit in the past?
More and more, I’m hearing from players ranging from those at top tier symphonies and opera companies to regional orchestras, all who want to help advance their organization, want to foster open lines of communication with their management counterparts, and want to better understand the finances behind the work we’re all doing together. And more than anything, want to create a more collaborative approach to negotiations in order to generate agreements that work better for all parties.
The trouble is, as we know, a lot of times we go into negotiations like there’s a winner and a loser — because the negotiation itself sort of pits us against each other that way by very nature of it being a negotiation. So I find the biggest challenge isn’t so much reviewing the numbers or being transparent about what’s going on at the organization, but rather breaking down that old “us versus them” trope and reframing the whole negotiation as “this is a problem we are solving together.”
That means, when I get questions like this one from people on either side of the table, it’s not how do I share the numbers? It’s why I share them. If there is a problem we’re having to solve together, we need to be on the same financial page.
Because here’s the thing: A budget is a reflection of priorities.
I feel like if we have done our jobs on the administrative side, those priorities are clear. The bigger question than the budget then becomes more like, “Have I as a leader done a good job of facilitating a shared vision?” Because when we all know collectively, for example, that we are working towards building our audiences, or toward centering our community so that we are relevant in the marketplace— when we all know we are working toward X thing — then when we’re looking at the budget, there are fewer comments like, “Why is there so much money in this line? You could cut that community line and allocate it to wages,” and more comments like, “Okay, I see why that line is there. I understand.”
A byproduct of this type of mutual understanding is that it really helps us break out of scarcity mindset. It’s not we have to steal money from one place to give it to another. Instead it’s more about this is the reality of where we’re at.
“It’s not how do I share the numbers? It’s why I share them.”
I want to be clear, the truth is, sometimes we do have to make tradeoffs in negotiations, but shared understanding of the vision and priorities can still help us. For example, I remember one collective bargaining negotiation where the musicians were asking to perform more large scale symphonic works (like Mahler-sized repertoire on every program), and in that case, for a per service orchestra, that was going to cost a lot more money for subs and extra players.
So we went back to the idea of priorities: we can optimize for lots of bigger rep, or we can optimize for higher base salaries — which do you prefer to prioritize? (Side note: I like giving a choice in negotiations to share power with all involved…remember, we’re problem solving together here.)
We also went back to the shared vision: What if we didn’t have that kind of mega repertoire on every program in the season? What if we programmed some larger pieces in the season so the orchestra gets their musical development in that way — and because we’re also committing to some of the smaller, Mozart-sized rep, that then means some funds are freed up for the higher base salary and other kinds of things we want to do.
In the end, there is always some sort of “we can’t do it all” type of conversation. But the idea is that if we’re aligned on vision, it’s less about how to scrape, steel, and cut from other places, less about scarcity mindset, less about contentious talks, and more about we see the direction we’re headed. Maybe optimizing for this one fill-in-the-blank thing doesn’t get us there and I understand that.
This is just one example, but hopefully it helps to illustrate the direction I’m describing. Align on vision, and sharing the budget gets easier. Thank you to every musician who steps into these important leadership positions we need. I’m so grateful that more and more artists are asking questions like this so we can work together better for a long time to come.
I’m a volunteer doing administrative work at a small ensemble/theater/chorus. How do your methods and advice differ for small budget or community organizations?
I often say that orchestras (and all arts organizations for that matter) don’t scale down very well. As one person put it, “When we rent a piano, that’s 5% of our 20k budget.”
We all have to do so many of the same things, whether you’re producing one concert a year or 20 concerts, or 300 concerts, or whatever the number is. We still have to do the marketing. We still have to get the sheet music. We still have to tune the piano. We still have to raise money. We still have to have a Board. We still have to have a presence on social media. I mean, some things are really not so different, right? It takes so much effort, even if you just produce one concert a year.
So what to do about it?
For community orchestras, the first place I usually recommend you start is to begin collecting patron data, especially if you want to grow the audience. If a lot of the audience is primarily friends and family, and/or if you offer free admission, the first step is to capture their email address — it’s the single most effective way you can invite them back again. That doesn’t mean you have to start charging though.
For example, if you offer free admission, you can still require a mandatory RSVP. You can make up a reason why they need to do this. Maybe you put their name on the seat, or maybe the public message is that you need patron info because you need to know more accurate attendance numbers for grant funding. Or you just need an accurate headcount. The point is, if you do nothing else, find a way you can capture the information to build the email list. Because as that pool of people expands, you can invite them to different performances in the future. And that type of diligence will separate you from so many other arts community organizations because you’ll be focused on this key, fundamental strategy.
Then when you’ve mastered email collection, ask yourself what is the next baby step the volunteer team can handle. Let me be the first to say and affirm that you don’t have to do it all, but you can, step-by-step and little by little, grow capacity to a lot over time. With that approach, even a volunteer orchestra can uplevel over time and make big strides.
“Imperfect progress is still progress.”
And maybe that’s the biggest piece of advice of all: start small. I actually think that piece of advice applies no matter the size of the organization. Rome wasn’t built in a day. No arts organization is either.
Whether it’s you or somebody else on the working board, think about what next step excites you the most. Of the strategies I often write and talk about, that could include things like improving your social media, building a slick website, engaging supporters with a great newsletter, or developing your first fundraising appeal as examples. Think about what gets your gears turning, or even what step just feels the most doable and practical — whatever in those categories jumps out to you. Because to be excited by a certain area of focus means you probably have the energy and motivation to tackle it.
Then ask yourself, what would be the smallest version of that thing that would be viable? Start there. Say, “we’ll do a version of it at this performance, or this month, or this season, and next time around, whether that’s next performance, next month, next year, whenever, we’re going to try to do it a little better.” And on and on. Iterate until you get exceptional at that thing.
Imperfect progress is still progress, and eventually, over time, it’ll be in your wheelhouse. I approach my work like this every day.
So there you go. Capture emails if you’re not already doing that. And as you build from there, start small and then make improvements as you go. That’s how you build organizational muscle for the approaches I recommend, no matter how many zeroes in your budget.
How can my orchestra/opera/chorus/arts organization have a presence if we’re not performing year-round but only a few times a year?
Even though the previous question was about how difficult it can be to implement several growth strategies at a smaller organization, I think there’s one strategy in particular where ensembles that perform only a few times a season have a real advantage over a full-time opera company or symphony orchestra that’s performing 52 weeks a year.
That strategy is in using your digital content to support your year-round presence. There are two main ways to do this, and they’re not mutually exclusive. There’s a whole chapter in my book about how digital content drives analog (in person) sales, but for now, the short version is the two ways to focus on digital content are 1) upping our game in terms of Instagram presence or any other online social platforms, and 2) dialing in our streaming content. More on the first point in a moment; the later is what I want to focus on here, because for streaming content in particular, so many organizations get this kind of backwards. I think the pandemic kind of made us get it backwards in fact.
What I mean is, during the pandemic, arts organizations had to use streaming as a product substitute. That was the only thing we could do then, especially during lockdown. However, now we’re not in lockdown mode, and streaming is not a product substitute. Streaming — for so many other brands outside the arts — is what drives people to that analog, physical purchase.
Amazon streams because they want us to stay Prime members. Apple streams because they want us to buy more MacBooks, watches, AirPods, and iPhones. Disney streams because they want us to go to the parks, buy more Disney princess outfits and superhero costumes, and go to the box office and watch their movies. With the exception of Netflix, for almost every single one of these streaming brands that wasn’t already first a media company, it’s because they have an analog physical product. And that’s the strategy: streaming drives physical sales.
Now hear me on this: I’m not saying orchestras/operas/choruses/arts organizations need to stream everything everywhere you go. That’s expensive. So please don’t hear me saying you have to do some big, heavy lift that’s out of reach (see previous question about starting small and keeping things viable). Instead, consider, could you have some kind of setup that maybe you stream the first 10 minutes of each concert, or maybe the first piece of music on the program (remember this question is about organizations that perform only a few times a year, so we’re not talking a ton of streaming). You don’t even have to stream it live. The goal is to capture the ensemble and have a library of content that you’re promoting throughout the year to maintain that consistency of presence you’re seeking, whether that’s on YouTube, your website, social media, newsletters, or any combination of the above.
Digital content drives analog desire. And if you are reading all this and still wanting more tips, especially on the first idea I promised we’d come back to — upping your game on Instagram or other social platforms — I have a session coming up in my Changing the Narrative Community next week on this very topic: Stop Using #ClassicalMusic: A Guide to Growing Your Social Media Following 🤳, led by Johanna Laney, Social Media Manager at the New York Philharmonic.
Now we’re not in lockdown mode, and streaming is not a product substitute.
How do I get my board motivated to fundraise?
This is a perennial question for sure. Regardless of if you work at an orchestra, opera, museum, theater, ballet, or any other arts organization (any nonprofit really), bringing the board along for fundraising is sometimes a tough nut to crack, but here are a few things coming to mind.
First, a lot of fundraising is not asking for money. But when it comes to the board, so often we expect them to have all these solicitation skills when they have little or sometimes no training in that area. Instead, what board members do have, and are most qualified to talk about, is their own lived experience — true for any person, board member or not — and that’s what I try to help them utilize. Because when we speak of our own experience, it’s the most effective in relationship building (a required precursor to becoming a donor), because it’s our truth. It’s what we know.
I have noticed that sometimes board members, especially when I’m recruiting someone to the board, think I have to ask for money, and that sounds terrifying to them (they’re not wrong). But instead, when I’m training or recruiting board members, I’m almost always telling them there are three things we need in terms of tapping into their own lived experience for involvement in fundraising:
1.They have to bring their network. As the CEO, or as any development professional, I/we don’t know everyone in the community, and often don’t have pre-existing relationships with every corporate or civic decision maker, potential gala attendee, or donor prospect. You know who does though? Our board members…thanks to their lived experience. I’m very clear with board members, especially during recruitment, that the team and I can do a lot of the heavy lifting, but we need an introduction first. Their job is tap into their network and help make those connections. We can make the touchdown, but the board member needs to first complete the pass.
(Side note: if a board member doesn’t want to open their contacts, better to find out during that cultivation period and part ways in my opinion; that’s how important their network is to me — pretty much as important, if not more important than, their annual gift. Second side note: especially as there’s a growing conversation about equity on the board and expanding the definition of contributions board members can make besides a giant check when that’s not financially possible for everyone. To me, a big part of the value board members of all backgrounds bring is their network. When relationship building, whether with the VP of the corporation you’re hoping will sponsor the season, or a well-respected organizer in a community, or anyone else, networks of all kinds are needed.)
2. They must to be ready to talk about their experience with the organization. I give board members prompts for this: How did you originally start getting involved with the museum/orchestra/theater/opera/chorus? How did you first discover it? How did you come to know more about the art we present/produce/display? It’s just storytelling at that point.
Ask someone to share their own lived experience — their our own story — and usually they light up. When do they use these prompts? Just about every time we’re doing something related to point number one above (i.e. tapping their network). Such as when they’re sitting next to their friends or coworkers at the gala dinner, when I bring them to lunch with me and the prospective donor/sponsor/future board member they’re connecting me with, and when they’re doing the final thing on this list below. Which brings us to the last way I ask board members to share their lived experience and get involved with and motivated by fundraising.
“When somebody is volunteering their time to say ‘I see your generosity and I’m really grateful for it,’ that goes such a long way into securing that next gift, that renewal donation.”
3. They need to help with thanking donors. In terms of board engagement, I’ve found this to be really effective at rallying the board. It’s also a win for the donors, too, because they’re connecting with someone else at the organization who didn’t thank them because it was their job they were paid to do, but because someone volunteered their time to reach out. And it’s a win for the organization because research shows the number one reason donors don’t renew their gift is because they didn’t feel sufficiently thanked.
If you want the how-to, what I have done in the past — and you can do this at whatever cadence works for you, every board meeting, once a quarter, or whatever feels manageable — is bring the list to the board meeting of all the donors I’m going to ask the board to help me thank since the last time we did this exercise (since last meeting, last quarter, etc.). It could be all new donors, or all donors at a certain level (such as $1,000 and higher, or whatever threshold you want). I give the board the list of names and phone numbers and say all they need to do is make thank you calls, no asking for money. I also give them a simple script (here’s your free template, folks): “Hi, I’m so-and-so. I’m on the board of ABC Organization, and we’re thanking our donors. We saw you made a gift recently, and I just wanted to be one of the first to say on behalf of the board, thank you so much for making that contribution, and here’s our next donor event coming up [insert event details]. I would love to see you there, and hope I get to say hi to you in person.”
To share some of my own lived experience, the things that started happening next when I first introduced this to the board were kind of bananas. Board members that did their assigned calls would then either call me back or report out at the next board meeting and say things like, “Wow, I had the nicest conversation with Ms. So-and-so! Do you know her and her dogs, Cinnamon and Spice? [Or insert other seemingly random factoid that demonstrates how the board member connected with that person.] I hadn’t met her before, but we said we were going to find each other at the next intermission reception.” That then becomes social proof for all the other board members to see and hear that this thanking exercise is a good idea. Sure enough, more and more board members started making their thank you calls too.
We can call donors all day long and thank them as CEO or development staff (and sometimes we do!), and of course that’s part of the job. But when somebody else calls, like a board member, it just changes things. When somebody is volunteering their time to say “I see your generosity and I’m really grateful for it,” that goes such a long way into securing that next gift, that renewal donation.
And at the same time, the board member has undertaken very purposeful, intentional, and strategic work, which hopefully helps make their role more fulfilling, motivating, and engaging for them too.
So how do we get the board more involved in fundraising? Don’t ask board members to ask for money. Ask them to tell their story and experience.
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About the Author
Hailed as “the Steve Jobs of classical music” (Observer) and “Sheryl Sandberg of the symphony” (LA Review of Books), Aubrey Bergauer is known for her results-driven, customer-centric, data-obsessed pursuit of changing the narrative for the performing arts. A “dynamic administrator” with an “unquenchable drive for canny innovation” (San Francisco Chronicle), she’s held offstage roles managing millions in revenue at major institutions including the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As chief executive of the California Symphony, Bergauer propelled the organization to double the size of its audience and nearly quadruple the donor base.
Bergauer helps organizations and individuals transform from scarcity to opportunity, make money, and grow their base of fans and supporters. Her ability to cast and communicate vision moves large teams forward and brings stakeholders together, earning “a reputation for coming up with great ideas and then realizing them” (San Francisco Classical Voice). With a track record for strategically increasing revenue and relevance, leveraging digital content and technology, and prioritizing diversity and inclusion on stage and off, Bergauer sees a better way forward for classical music and knows how to achieve it.
Aubrey’s first book, Run It Like A Business, published in February 2024.
A graduate of Rice University, her work and leadership have been covered in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Thrive Global, and Southwest Airlines magazines, and she is a frequent speaker spanning TEDx, Adobe’s Magento, universities, and industry conferences in the U.S. and abroad.
