Resources for Organizations Working With Artists

Welcome! This is a resource for people who are invested in improving the lives of artists everywhere. We strive to uphold the following standards:

We have three pages for resources geared towards your work:

Advocacy

WebAIM - Empowers organizations to make their websites friendly for people with disabilities.
NEA's Section 504 Workbook - Workbook from the NEA that allows organizations to evaluate how accessible their programs are.
NEA's Civil Rights (External) Complaint Process - NEA's process for filing civil rights complaints.
Arts Action Fund - National arts advocacy group dedicating 100% of time to advancing the arts.
Americans for the Arts Advocacy Toolkit - A guide for organizations that politically advocate on behalf of artists.
National Association for the Visual Arts - Australian organization with examples of arts campaigns.
Supporting Individual Artists: Ten Years, Ten Lessons
Why Should Government Support the Arts?
Supporting Individual Artists: A Toolbox

Support for Individual Artists in the Folk and Traditional Arts Julie Dalgleish
Understanding Support for Individual Artists: Making a Case for National Standards, John Carnwath
Why Cities Can’t Afford to Lose Their Artists, Richard Florida, 2014.
Supporting Individual Artists—Preserving the Core of Humanity, GIA Support for Individual Artists Group Steering Committee, 2011
And the Winner is… Philanthropists and Governments Make Prizes Count McKinsey & Company, 2009.

Community Connections

Local Arts Network - Forum for leaders in local arts institutions to discuss barriers and success stories.
Private Sector Network - Network of businesses interested in partnering with arts organizations.
National Council of Nonprofits: Find Your State Association - Listings of nonprofits in your state.
Arts & Culture: Community Connections - An Urban Institute report on the benefits of engaging communities with art.
Writing a Grant Application for Funding - Step-by-step instructions on writing a grant application.
How Nonprofits Use Social Media to Engage with Communities - Using social media to assess the needs of your community.

Organizational Capacity

Strong Corporate Cultures Are “Self-Organizing” - Private sector organizing that is relevant in the social profit sector.
Succession Planning for Nonprofits - Managing Leadership Transitions - Some considerations for writing a succession plan.
Why and How to Hire an Interim Executive Director
The Nonprofit Leadership Development Deficit - On preparing homegrown leaders at nonprofits.
Exit Planning for Retiring Nonprofit CEOs - Balancing the "three jobs" of a leaving CEO.
Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool - A tool by McKinsey & Co to help nonprofits identify operational capacity, strengths, and weaknesses.
How to Develop Yourself as a Nonprofit Leader - Advice from six senior nonprofit leaders.
Nonprofit Leadership Strategies For Attracting And Retaining Talent - Retaining talent in order to by helping employees develop.
Strengthen Your Nonprofit with a Strategic Partnership - Benefits of partnership when working with budget constraints.
What is Capacity Building? - Investing in effectiveness and sustainability for your organization.
The Rainin Arts Real Estate Strategy - A collaborative strategy connecting resources in the community to the real estate needs of arts and cultural organizations.

Engaging with Artists

MASSCreative -Organization that supports arts organizations in Massachusetts
Cultural Collaborations: Building Partnerships for Arts Participation - A study about how to partner with artists and the benefits of creating alliances.
Arts & Planning Toolkit - Toolkit for community development workers through projects that engage arts, culture, and the creative community.
Toolkit: Engaging Your Community
Artists as Leaders - A talk by the president of RISD about appreciating the role of artists in society.

Paying Artists

W.A.G.E. - Focused on regulating the payment of artist fees and establishing sustainable labor relationships between artists and the institutions.
W.A.G.E. Certification - Certification for non-profits committed to paying artists equitably.
W.A.G.E. Fee Calculator - Calculates equitable pay rate for artists based on nonprofit's TAOE.
Are You Working Too Much? Post-Fordism, Precarity, and the Labor of Art - Collection of academic essays regarding the structures that contribute to low wages for artists.
Report: Researching Artists’ Working Lives - An introduction to understanding research around paying artists.
Exhibition Payment Guide - Guidelines for paying artists for exhibitions in nonprofit arts spaces.
Why Are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts - Understanding the "economy of the arts" as atypical.
How the National Endowment for the Arts Funds the Arts - A comprehensive overview of government arts funding.
Report: Americans Support Increases in Government Arts Funding - Facts and figures regarding public opinion of arts funding.

Funding Individual Artists

Fiscal Sponsorship for Nonprofits - Information regarding the benefits of adopting the model of fiscal sponsorship.
Fiscal Sponsorship: Six Ways to Do It Wrong - Avoiding legal complications in a fiscal sponsorship program.
11 Experts on How to Get New Donors - Advice on creating a donor network and using it effectively.
Fiscal Sponsorship: A Valuable Option for Grantmakers and Grantees - Quick legal information on ensuring a fiscal sponsor is eligible to give.
Also visit our page Resources for Grantmakers.

Services & Programs

Creating an Artist-Friendly Community
Report: Measuring Program Success - Academic report on guidelines for measuring program success.
How to Develop a Community Arts Council - Structuring an arts council for success.
Arts Projects: Charitable or Not? - Understanding which programs may legally qualify for tax exemptions.
Emerging Leaders Network - Organization that helps young people in arts administration reach their full potential
Review of Scholarly Research on Artist Support - Surveys of the literature on individual artists’ sources of support and related

topics.

Power

Nonprofits, You Are the Champions for Diversity, Inclusion and Equity - Moving on from conversation about diversity to meaningfuk action.
7 Tips on How Nonprofits can Attract Corporate Funding: Part Two - Advice from social profit sector veterans on raising money from corporations.
7 Tips on How Nonprofits can Attract Corporate Funding: Part One - Advice from social profit sector veterans on raising money from corporations.
Building Culturally Competent Organizations - Case study in working with diverse communities and maximizing efficiency in periods of change.
Embracing a More Diverse Audience in Arts and Culture - Making organizational changes to capture more diverse audiences.
What's Your Feedback Loop? - Incentivizing feedback.
Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter for Nonprofits - Prioritizing diversity in order to build more effective organizations.
Implicit Bias and Its Role in Philanthropy and Grantmaking - Understanding the science of implicit bias.
5 Charts that Illustrate the Racial Bias in the Nonprofit World - Facts and figures depicting inequality at all levels of the nonprofit world.

Blogs & News

Jumper - Diane Ragsdale on what the arts do and why.
Artivate - Organization committed to expanding access to arts, with blog posts.
The Artful Manager - Andrew Taylor on the business of arts and culture.
Createquity - Think tank investigating issues in the arts.
Barry's Blog - News, advice, and opinion for the arts administrator.
Harvard Business Review - Ideas and Advice for leaders.
Artrepreneur - Entrepreneurship, technology, law, and conversation in the arts.
Bridgespan Group Highlights - News and advice from top nonprofit consultants.
ArtsJournal - Source for arts and cultural journalism.
Non Profit Quarterly - News about innovations in the nonprofit sector.
Classy - Fundraising platform with social profit sector blog.
Nonprofit Law Blog - Legal news and advice for nonprofits by category.

Books

Organizations

The Social Profit Handbook, David Grant, 2015 ($15.95) - A guide for assessing impact in a mission-driven organization.
When Leaders Leave: A New Perspective on Leadership Change - Priscilla Rosenwald & Lesley Mallow Wendell, 2013 ($9.99) - Steps for organizations to thrive during a leadership change.
Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits, Leslie Crutchfield & Heather Grant, 2007 ($29.95) -
The Executive Director's Guide to Thriving as a Nonprofit Leader, Mim Carlson & Mararet Donohoe, 2010 ($32.30)

Art World

9.5 These on Art and Class, Ben Davis, 2013 ($12.58) - Writings on the direction of contemporary art.
A Short Life of Trouble, Marcia Tucker, 2010 ($16.59) - Memoir about facing barriers in the art world by the first female curator at the Whitney.