by Colleen Hughes, Program Associate at Fractured Atlas After November 8, 2016, there were a lot of feelings circulating through the American arts sector: fear, confusion, anger, disappointment, sadness, lostness. Many people, myself included, were asking, “Where does my art and my identity as an artist fit into a USA run by our 45th president?” Well, luckily, Beth Pickens’s newest book, Your Art Will Save Your Life, is here to answer that question. I first discovered Pickens when I heard about her FREE Making Art During Fascism pamphlet, and once I learned of her book, I knew it would be an impactful one. Pickens is part counselor, part consultant for artists in Los Angeles. She began working on Your Art Will Save Your Life after November 8, 2016, as a way to support and encourage artists to keep doing what we do best: make art!

From time to time, we feature one of our fiscally sponsored projects who have been successful at using our program to advance their art/cause/career. Today, we’re featuring Liberation Theatre Company.

Twenty years ago, most thriving small businesses and nonprofits had one fabulous public relations person, one techie sorting out what emails and websites were all about, and one executive director who could solicit fundraising dollars by hosting a cocktail event. Fast forward to 2018, and everything is about real time, instant gratification and, more importantly, appreciation. Fractured Atlas has partnered with JMT Media to learn more about how for-profit entities can connect with the nonprofit sectors through visibility, partnerships, and strategic outreach.

The world of corporate giving and fundraising more broadly can be opaque, to say the least. Corporations, for instance, don’t always report on where their philanthropic dollars are going the way that a foundation does, and figuring out the right person to talk to at a corporation isn’t always as clear cut as identifying an individual prospective donor. You’ve probably even heard that there isn’t much corporate giving in the arts these days. All this means is that you just need to get a little creative, and that shouldn’t be a problem for you — as a Fractured Atlas member, creativity is what you do best.

Savvy arts entrepreneurs chase any and every funding opportunity under the sun. If this describes you, you’ve already got a robust plan to solicit individual giving and know which foundations best aligned with your work. So you’re probably also eyeing that yummy, yet problematic, buffet of corporate cash. Before you try to fill your tray with these dollars, it’s important for you to know the distinction between corporate sponsorship and advertising. Any support that you receive from a corporate funder will fall into one of these two categories.

Individual donor prospecting can be as easy as getting better acquainted with people you already know. Fundraising to support your work as an artist can be intimidating, especially if you’re thinking strictly in terms of who you know and whether you’re comfortable asking them for money (or in some cases, asking them for money yet again). But the truth is that you can do it! For decades, individual artists have raised the funds to make their careers as artists, and if you think and talk about yourself as a professional, we believe that you can, too. Of course, there are some best practices to consider as you formulate your plan for ensuring that you can sustainably bring your art to your community now and in the future.

When preparing a grant application, it can seem counterintuitive to think of the funder you’re applying to as a resource. However, no one can answer questions about an application better than the institution that made it! Calling the funder is one of the most effective tools in your grant-writing toolbox.

How many of you made New Years resolutions? How many of you have already given them up? I wouldn’t be too surprised if many of the resolution setters have already given them up, and we’re not even a full month into 2018. This is one of the reasons why I think there is a better solution to planning goals, and that solution is OKRs.

Back in September, we looked at some of the key principles of Ciara Pressler’s Game Plan. Pressler suggested that a good game plan must be measurable, because “if you can’t track it, you won’t hack it.” But what does it mean to have a measurable game plan?

From time to time, we feature one of our fiscally sponsored projects who have been successful at using our program to advance their art/cause/career. Today, we’re featuring Time to Tell.