Are We Being Nudged Toward Partnerships by Joe Patti

I have started to wonder if there is going to be an increased emphasis on partnerships and perhaps even mergers in the non-profit arts. I often read about mergers by non-profits outside of t…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:23am on October 18, 2011☆⚑

Remember, You Have A Date With Us by Joe Patti

Okay, a topic seemed to beg me to write on it today– Keeping connected with those who purchase tickets in advance. There were a couple of incidents today that demanded I give some thou…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:27am on October 13, 2011☆⚑

Possible To Cultivate New Funders Motivated By New Mandates? by Joe Patti

You may have read about the report the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy released at the Grantmakers in the Arts conference noting the disparity in foundation support for arts o…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:07am on October 12, 2011☆⚑

Are Gov't Caps of Non-Profit Salaries On Horizon? by Joe Patti

The Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) notes that the governor of New Jersey has placed salary caps on non profit executives who do business with the state and the governor of New York…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:22am on October 11, 2011☆⚑

Arts For What They Are, As Opposed To What They Are Opposed To by Joe Patti

Back in April, Peter Linett posted about the development of arts organizations during the 50s and 60s, commenting: This was a negative identity, premised on oppositions rather than intrinsic…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:14am on October 6, 2011☆⚑

Info You Can Use: Expertise As Entertainment by Joe Patti

So much to do and so little time to do it! I am a little short on time for my post today but I wanted to direct attention to Eric Ziegenhagen’s TEDxMichiganAve talk, Expertise as Enter…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:18am on October 5, 2011☆⚑

The Little Things Are More Engaging Than You Think by Joe Patti

If you are like me, the changes in the economy and people’s expectations about their interactions with the arts probably has you avidly watching for the new theories, techniques and te…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:14am on October 4, 2011☆⚑

Better ROI Than Thou by Joe Patti

The Los Angeles Times has a video of the change over process between the LA Opera productions of Cosi fan Tutte and Eugene Onegin. My first reaction was how cool the magic of theatre is that…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:15am on September 29, 2011☆⚑

Info You Can Use: Does Friending A Candidate Endanger Your Non-Profit Status by Joe Patti

The Non Profit Law blog linked to a really great publication put out by the Alliance for Justice that explains whether your online activity might run afoul prohibitions in your 501 (c) 3 sta…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:59am on September 28, 2011☆⚑

Can Devotion To The Arts Be Considered An Addiction? by Joe Patti

Since I tend to travel to China every other year or so, I have started taking a class in Chinese. The class has taken over my life. It used to be that the rule of thumb for college classes w…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:39am on September 27, 2011☆⚑

Info You Can Use: Emergency Planning Tools For The Arts by Joe Patti

Two entries today you lucky readers. My list of things to blog on is getting longer than I handle and still have the subjects remain relevant. Technology in the Arts blog had a very cool too…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:39am on September 22, 2011☆⚑

Info You Can Use: Board Action In The Age of Technology by Joe Patti

Hat tip to the Non-Profit Law Blog for providing a link to a piece on the Charity Lawyer blog about board votes by unanimous written consent. An organization upon whose board I sit was recen…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:37am on September 22, 2011☆⚑

I Liked Your Ideas Better When We Were Being Repressed by Joe Patti

A recent book review gave a fascinating look at how the value of ideas has declined in post-communist Czechoslovakia. In the wake of the Velvet Revolution, playwright Václav Havel became …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:06am on September 21, 2011☆⚑

Criticizing The Performance, Not The Audience That Enjoyed It by Joe Patti

This weekend I went to see a show with some friends. I enjoyed most of it, except for the lead actor. It was clear to me that while the rest of the actors were invested in the reality of the…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:49am on September 20, 2011☆⚑

Creativity To The Left Of Me, Creativity To The Right by Joe Patti

I am just getting around to reading a piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Stephen Tepper and George Kuh (subscription required) about the need to get serious about teaching creativ…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 1:28am on September 15, 2011☆⚑

Info You Can Use: Dynamic Pricing That Doesn't Alienate by Joe Patti

Last week I was reading about some interesting ticketing structures being used by theatre groups in Chicago. Theatre Wit offers what is described as a Netflix subscription model where they p…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:11am on September 14, 2011☆⚑

Will Buffet Family Foundation Influence Other Funders? by Joe Patti

Non-Profit Quarterly linked to an interview in Fast Company in which Warren Buffet’s grandson talks about his approach to philanthropy as he takes up the reins of the family foundation…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:21am on September 13, 2011☆⚑

Info You Can Use: Talk About Someone Else by Joe Patti

One of the biggest dating no-nos is monopolizing the conversation and talking only about yourself. Most of us are probably pretty good at recognizing when we are personally committing this f…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:20am on September 8, 2011☆⚑

Brains, Rather Than Butts, In The Seats by Joe Patti

Ever since it was announced back in July, I have been waiting for Arts MidWest to post their video from the talk given by Andrew McIntyre provocatively titled, Arts Marketing is Dead: Long L…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 5:30pm on September 6, 2011☆⚑

Intersection of Artist And Audience Engagement by Joe Patti

Via Andrew Taylor’s Twitter feed last week, I became aware of an entry on Nina Simon’s Museum 2.0 blog about use of space to engage arts attendees in different ways. What was rea…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 2:46am on September 1, 2011☆⚑

Fund Making Long Term Investment In Performing Arts Orgs by Joe Patti

For a few years now people have been calling for foundations and other funders to provide more long term capital investment in non-profit organizations. The Social Velocity blog has an inter…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:06am on August 31, 2011☆⚑

Info You Can Use: You Tweeted What About Me?! by Joe Patti

So after my post a couple weeks ago about why it is bad in a legal sense to have a restrictive social media policy, I am sure some of you have been wondering under what circumstances you can…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:56am on August 30, 2011☆⚑

Info You Can Use: Tools To Chart Your Organizational Impact by Joe Patti

A partnership of GuideStar USA, Independent Sector and BBB Wise Giving Alliance has created a free online tool, Charting Impact, which non-profits and foundations can use to assess themselve…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:53am on August 25, 2011☆⚑

Stand By Your Non-Profit Until The Bitter End by Joe Patti

Interesting piece on the Chronicle of Philanthropy about the responsibilities of non-profit boards to attend to the dissolution of their organizations. Janet Kleinfelter, a deputy attorney g…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 4:02am on August 24, 2011☆⚑

Not Necessarily 10,000 Hours by Joe Patti

Since the publication of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, the idea that you need 10,000 hours of practice to master a discipline/skill has started to become something of an article of fait…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 3:56am on August 23, 2011☆⚑