In 2012, TRG bloggers are taking a fresh look at data and trends that inform risks worth taking, best practices worth hanging onto, and assumptions worth challenging – each in time for action to be taken.
Competition for patron’s dollars is a subject that’s back in the industry dialog again, sometimes with negative overtones. Can we really still think that sharing a marketplace with other successful arts and entertainment organizations is a bad thing? Even with foundations willing to invest in collaborations? I find that disturbing, especially in view of the opportunities being mined daily by members of community collaborations nationwide.
A couple of weeks ago, I spoke about the power of technology and data collaboration at an INTIX conference session. You can view the presentation here:
I was reflecting in this discussion on the 18 data-sharing networks (also known as consortia, co-ops) that TRG manages. Each network brings together disparate groups of patron records from all different kinds of organizations and their different ticketing and fundraising software systems. The network allows each and every member to see their own and all patron connections across an entire community—to discover all the other ways a member’s patrons engage in the arts.
Showing posts with label arts advocacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arts advocacy. Show all posts
Monday, February 13, 2012
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Arts Patrons are Frequent Voters!
Both houses of Congress are back in session and their work on budget resolutions will determine whether and how much federal funding will go to important American arts institutions, including the National Endowment for the Arts, PBS, and National Public Radio. At the state level, arts agencies are up against a rapidly devolving scenario of proposed measures that would radically restructure or eliminate them. All of us who care deeply about sustaining arts and culture in America are looking for the best ways and means of advocating for government support. The need for ever-better practices will not end with the current threat of cuts or this round of budget debate. Making the case for public funding for the arts has become an ongoing imperative.
In late January, I attended the Biennial Conference of The Broadway League, the trade organization that represents the interests of those engaged in the business of theatre. The primary topic for this Washington, DC conference was advocacy. The immediate League goal was to meet with the very members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives who now are determining the fate of funding for America’s arts and culture.
Over the years I’ve sat in on countess national service organization meetings talking about need of improved advocacy programs. I must say that this Broadway League meeting was the best I’ve ever seen – period. The focus on specific outcomes, the member training before making the trips to Capitol Hill and the explanation of the specific issues were first rate. Perhaps our best session was a meeting with a Broadway-friendly panel of senators and U.S. representatives, who discussed with League members the finer points of successful advocacy and the practice of real politics today. Key points that hit home with me in January now feel even more urgent, given the current debate:
Power in the national legislature is incredibly diffused. Long gone are the days when a handful of elected officials could exercise influence over the legislation that makes it to the floor for consideration. Advocacy today must be broader and specific to individual lawmakers because it takes many more of them to make anything happen.
The need is critical for a clear message, delivered well, and with validation from sources outside the arts and culture industry. It was surprising what this excellent panel assumed – incorrectly – about seemingly clear facts such as the differences of mission between commercial and nonprofit arts. However, there was no mistaking that any message – particularly a politically difficult one like maintaining public funding for the arts – is best voiced by passionately interested third-parties – VOTERS, that is, who can both articulate and endorse a value message.
Elected officials don’t buy the argument that the arts are good for us. Privately, individual legislators may believe in the value of arts and culture. But, the politics of the moment make government support of the arts, as one senator unambiguously stated, “not popular.” Arts and culture organizations are critical local businesses that collectively employ and engage large numbers of VOTERS.
Against this backdrop, advocacy efforts in Pennsylvania by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (GCPA) and its statewide colleagues are a beacon of hope.
Eighteen months ago, our firm played a small role in helping to defeat a proposed sales tax in Pennsylvania on arts tickets -- not tickets to sporting events, mind you – just arts tickets! I posted a blog on that success last May (21st Century Tools for Arts Advocacy). Having rallied to stop the tax initiative, the collective leadership of the Pennsylvania’s arts community decided that the better course going forward was to become proactive in telling their story. This plan included an effort to identify and inform arts patrons across the state. The goal: start immediately to win the next debate.
Again, our firm provided data analysis – this time gleaning information from matching voter records from primary and general, municipal, state, and Presidential elections in 2006-2008 with arts and culture patrons of member organizations in the GPCA List Co-op. Our objectives: identify the proportion of voting population that are arts buyers, and leverage that information in two ways: Educate elected officials about the proportion of their districts’ voters who are arts patrons, and notify politically active or “tuned in” arts patrons about upcoming arts policy decisions.
The Pennsylvania Secretary of State’s office was the source for voter records. GPCA’s research and advocacy team developed the criteria for measuring levels of voter activity, ranging from those who voted only in the 2008 general (Presidential) election to those who voted in every primary and general contest during the study period. The key finding?
We found that arts and culture patrons in Greater Philadelphia:
Make up a substantial proportion of the voter base –
One Third of voters in the 2008 Presidential Election were arts patrons
One Half of voters participating in ALL elections (Municipal, Primary, and General) between 2006 and 2008 were arts patrons
Vote and patronize the arts frequently: Two-thirds of Greater Philadelphia’s Arts Patrons/Voters attend programs at more than one arts organization. In most communities only 25% or less of all arts patrons are active with multiple organizations. In Philadelphia, a huge proportion of the voters are those multi-organization supporters.
The findings in Philadelphia and the Broadway League meeting with lawmakers suggest a new playing field for advocacy. Arts and culture patrons are a formidable “third party” force to be reckoned with in the ongoing public funding debate. Patrons support our organizations, and, as voters, they can determine the future of the elected officials who now are deliberating our industry’s. Whenever we can inform patrons – directly and individually – and direct them toward specific elected decision-makers, contending for public funding of arts and culture will be a whole new ballgame.
In late January, I attended the Biennial Conference of The Broadway League, the trade organization that represents the interests of those engaged in the business of theatre. The primary topic for this Washington, DC conference was advocacy. The immediate League goal was to meet with the very members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives who now are determining the fate of funding for America’s arts and culture.
Over the years I’ve sat in on countess national service organization meetings talking about need of improved advocacy programs. I must say that this Broadway League meeting was the best I’ve ever seen – period. The focus on specific outcomes, the member training before making the trips to Capitol Hill and the explanation of the specific issues were first rate. Perhaps our best session was a meeting with a Broadway-friendly panel of senators and U.S. representatives, who discussed with League members the finer points of successful advocacy and the practice of real politics today. Key points that hit home with me in January now feel even more urgent, given the current debate:
Power in the national legislature is incredibly diffused. Long gone are the days when a handful of elected officials could exercise influence over the legislation that makes it to the floor for consideration. Advocacy today must be broader and specific to individual lawmakers because it takes many more of them to make anything happen.
The need is critical for a clear message, delivered well, and with validation from sources outside the arts and culture industry. It was surprising what this excellent panel assumed – incorrectly – about seemingly clear facts such as the differences of mission between commercial and nonprofit arts. However, there was no mistaking that any message – particularly a politically difficult one like maintaining public funding for the arts – is best voiced by passionately interested third-parties – VOTERS, that is, who can both articulate and endorse a value message.
Elected officials don’t buy the argument that the arts are good for us. Privately, individual legislators may believe in the value of arts and culture. But, the politics of the moment make government support of the arts, as one senator unambiguously stated, “not popular.” Arts and culture organizations are critical local businesses that collectively employ and engage large numbers of VOTERS.
Against this backdrop, advocacy efforts in Pennsylvania by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (GCPA) and its statewide colleagues are a beacon of hope.
Eighteen months ago, our firm played a small role in helping to defeat a proposed sales tax in Pennsylvania on arts tickets -- not tickets to sporting events, mind you – just arts tickets! I posted a blog on that success last May (21st Century Tools for Arts Advocacy). Having rallied to stop the tax initiative, the collective leadership of the Pennsylvania’s arts community decided that the better course going forward was to become proactive in telling their story. This plan included an effort to identify and inform arts patrons across the state. The goal: start immediately to win the next debate.
Again, our firm provided data analysis – this time gleaning information from matching voter records from primary and general, municipal, state, and Presidential elections in 2006-2008 with arts and culture patrons of member organizations in the GPCA List Co-op. Our objectives: identify the proportion of voting population that are arts buyers, and leverage that information in two ways: Educate elected officials about the proportion of their districts’ voters who are arts patrons, and notify politically active or “tuned in” arts patrons about upcoming arts policy decisions.
The Pennsylvania Secretary of State’s office was the source for voter records. GPCA’s research and advocacy team developed the criteria for measuring levels of voter activity, ranging from those who voted only in the 2008 general (Presidential) election to those who voted in every primary and general contest during the study period. The key finding?
Highly engaged arts and culture patrons also are highly engaged voters.
We found that arts and culture patrons in Greater Philadelphia:
Make up a substantial proportion of the voter base –
One Third of voters in the 2008 Presidential Election were arts patrons
One Half of voters participating in ALL elections (Municipal, Primary, and General) between 2006 and 2008 were arts patrons
Vote and patronize the arts frequently: Two-thirds of Greater Philadelphia’s Arts Patrons/Voters attend programs at more than one arts organization. In most communities only 25% or less of all arts patrons are active with multiple organizations. In Philadelphia, a huge proportion of the voters are those multi-organization supporters.
The findings in Philadelphia and the Broadway League meeting with lawmakers suggest a new playing field for advocacy. Arts and culture patrons are a formidable “third party” force to be reckoned with in the ongoing public funding debate. Patrons support our organizations, and, as voters, they can determine the future of the elected officials who now are deliberating our industry’s. Whenever we can inform patrons – directly and individually – and direct them toward specific elected decision-makers, contending for public funding of arts and culture will be a whole new ballgame.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
21st Century Tools for Arts Advocacy
For the past decade, TRG has partnered with arts and culture communities to develop and manage shared patron data services. These community databases, often called cooperatives or coops for short, are typically built to help organizations save money through shared services. Coops also develop new patronage and revenues using smarter and more efficient communication tools. This new generation of community databases has become America’s largest single repository of information about arts and culture consumers and their behavior. Savvy arts leaders across the country are learning new ways to use coops as a resource to advance the arts agenda in their communities. Specifically, they want to match arts consumers with voter registration files. Why? Facts win cases when advocating before public officials and voters. In this post, we offer our thoughts to the current online dialog on advocacy nationwide, including on the Americans for the Arts blog and its green paper, The Future of the Public Voice in Arts Advocacy.
The mid-term elections in the U.S. are only six months away, but already forces of all sorts are lining up to make the case for the candidates they want – or, this year especially, don’t want. Points of view on must-win issues at the federal, state and local level vary wildly among Democrats, the GOP, Tea Party, incumbents and those positioning themselves as government “outsiders” Making a case that will win over politicians and voters is a lot like direct marketing success. It requires putting the right message in front of the right person at the right time.
What about the case for supporting arts and culture?
Can we find any reason to hope that a successful arts message can cut through the “clutter” of a national discourse dominated by war and peace, terrorism and financial upheaval? How can we possibly make our case amid the most toxic political environment in decades? Recently, I’ve found reason for optimism. Why? In preparation for a recent conference presentation we compiled a small list of new ways that smart community organizers are using TRG’s data coop information. The outcomes we’ve witnessed are pretty remarkable, particularly given the current national mood.
Anyone working in the arts knows that arts patrons are a very diverse group – they come in many shapes and sizes. This is always a surprise to our critics and detractors. While not as diverse as the total population of most cities, the number of organizations and their diverse target markets creates a surprisingly varied group of patrons. (I’m planning a post on this topic in the near future.). Demographic and psychographic diversity aside, there is one immediately important attribute that arts patrons have in common - arts patrons vote. They vote regularly and often. They vote in off-year elections, primaries and special elections. This common behavioral thread creates power for those who take the time to look. This fact is what is driving an entirely new use for community database resources - Advocacy.
Take, for example, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and their colleagues’ successful (emergency) campaign to fight back a proposed new state sales tax on arts and culture tickets. Legislators assumed that the proposed tax would only impact a narrow slice of Pennsylvania’s wealthiest consumers. The facts residing in GPCA’s community database proved otherwise. Two-thirds of ticket buyers TRG studied for this case had annual household income under $70,000, and only about 8% fit the preconception lawmakers had about arts consumers. Presenting that point was helpful, but why should a state representative or senator care? Well, GPCA used their database information to show each legislator exactly where those ticket-buying arts lovers lived – on a map. There’s nothing subtle about politicians seeing “arts consumers” as registered voters living in their district. Were these district maps the case cincher in this advocacy campaign? It’s arguable, I suppose. What isn’t arguable is: there is no tax on arts and culture tickets in Pennsylvania.
[Another big Pennsylvania database, the Cultural Data Project, also weighed in on this effort. They were able to prove that the state’s estimated revenues from the new tax were wildly optimistic. Again, a fact-based argument made the art case compelling and unambiguous.]
A very large TRG arts consumer map hangs in the offices of the Cultural Affairs Division of Santa Monica, California. In this case, TRG helped the city develop the map to support their case for the location of a new art museum that Santa Monica is vying for. Using patron data from a Los Angeles market segmentation study, Santa Monica found that 67% of its residents were active attendees and donors to local arts and cultural organizations, representing the highest concentration of arts consumers of any LA County municipality. The Santa Monica patron map shows where arts and cultural patrons live in proximity to the prospective museum site and in comparison to other location’s resident pool of arts patrons. The map also shows each city council member how many of their constituents/voters are also arts patrons! The map is tangible evidence that Santa Monica is uniquely well located for the new museum, and has the additional benefit of informing other city decisions such as where its arts events should be staged.
Over the past decade, arts patron coop data has helped Denver’s Scientific and Cultural Facilities District win reauthorization of tax funding. It has helped organizations in Philadelphia convince local authorities to expand public transportation options for patrons attending post-rush hour evening events. More recently, we’ve joined an effort with several organizations in Pennsylvania to build a statewide case resource to advocate for public policy on the arts.
At TRG, we’ve begun to think about how data coops can play a greater role in influencing public policy on issues related to the arts. Increasingly, we see our data coops as providing Census-type information that can prove the case, rather than hoping that the “arts is good for us” message will ever find traction with our elected officials. As each new data coop comes online, we learn more about the power that arts and cultural patrons can have in our communities and our society. By illuminating the very presence this huge force - arts patrons who vote – we can be a positive force for influence in the political arena.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
