The Offstage Mic Aubrey Bergauer

Major gifts are critical for every arts organization. This episode features board member and major gift philanthropist Susan Bay Nimoy, wife of the late actor Leonard Nimoy (most known for his role as Spock on Star Trek, and yes, we talk about it!). We cover all things major gifts, including relationship building, how that takes time, and what the process is that compels her as a major donor to give generously.
Susan Bay Nimoy has served on the board of many arts organizations, including the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Symphony Space in New York, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Griffith Observatory. She recently endowed The Nimoy Theatre in LA, which is part of UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance.

Want to know what to say when building major donor relationships in the arts and ultimately soliciting a major gift? Download your free resource, the Major Donor Fast Track Guide.

The need for diversity in our audience and for the audience to reflect the community is a hot topic in the arts these days. And rightfully so.
There is a moral imperative to do this work at arts organizations, but I am also a fan of the business case for diversity. And in this episode, we are talking about what the numbers look like if and when the audience actually does look like the community — and wow, is there money on the table when the audience becomes more diverse.

This episode looks at just how many more tickets would be sold in a year if your audience makeup mirrored that of your community, or at least came close. We talk through the numbers, and I have a free download that does the math for you so you don’t have to.

Get your free Demographic Revenue Calculator and see the potential for sales growth in three easy steps.

How arts and culture organizations can use advocacy to drive awareness for your cause and brand, even when you’re not a global, visitor-based institution.
The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is known as an international nonprofit conservation organization with an annual budget over $400 million and thousands of staff and employees. They have two local front doors — the San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park — in addition several eco-regional “hubs” around the world.

The global work of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is helping the entire ecosystem, and this conversation with immediate past Board Chair Javade Chaudhri exemplifies that having a business mindset does not fly in the face of the mission driven work.

In fact, the data show that nonprofits of all sizes that advocate outperform their peers, and you do not have to be a $400M+ organization to engage in advocacy — it can happen small and locally. Chaudhri is candid about what separates organizations doing that well—having a business mindset being able to execute on that—versus those in his mind who aren’t.

We also talk about a few topics that have become near and dear to my heart in recent years, including company culture and staff compensation (as well as the need to pay staff competitively).

I am so grateful for Javade Chaudhri and him generously sharing his time, wisdom, and expertise. Enjoy his take on how the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and all kinds of arts and culture organizations can run it like a business, and get your free resource to help you start or uplevel your own advocacy work: the Advocacy Cheat Sheet.

The subscription model is thriving everywhere else besides the arts—to the tune of 20% of all consumer credit card transactions now go to subscriptions and memberships. So why then, are subscriptions and donations on the decline in the arts?
It turns out, there are three big things these successful brands are doing differently than arts organizations. This episode breaks it down, as well as offers ways to implement these ideas.
Get your free resource for this episode: 3 Reasons Your Subscriptions are Declining & 11 Ways to Combat It. 

00:00 Introduction to Season Three of The Offstage Mike
00:34 The Theme of Season Three: Running it Like a Business
01:43 The Importance of Subscriptions in the Cultural Sector
02:03 The Current State of the Subscription Economy
02:58 The Decline of Subscriptions in the Arts
03:05 The Discrepancy Between the Arts and Other Industries
06:58 The Three Big Differences in Subscription Models
07:50 The Importance of First Year Subscription Renewals
14:00 The Impact of Price Increases on Subscription Renewals
20:26 The Three Steps to Combat the First Year Cliff
29:13 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

This season on The Offstage Mic we are talking about strategies to combat the challenges in the cultural sector borrowed from the business world that have proven successful across patron retention, subscriptions, ecommerce, raising money, and digital content (to name a few).
And throughout the season, I’m occasionally bringing in some people who know the business world quite well to help me break it down: board members of our orchestras, operas, ballets, theaters, museums, zoos, and more.

These are the people governing our cultural institutions, who also have incredible professional experience outside the arts, and who are also among the most connected to and engaged with our mission-driven work.

All so that we can Run It Like a Business — without sacrificing the art we produce. Season 3 of the Offstage Mic is coming up right here. Hit “follow” or “subscribe” right now.

Yesterday was publication day for my new book, Run It Like A Business: Strategies for Arts Organizations to Increase Audiences, Remain Relevant, and Multiply Money—Without Losing the Art.
To celebrate, we put together something special for you: a live show we recorded just last night at the book launch party here in San Francisco. It’s a conversation with myself and Kelly Harris, Executive Director of Haight Street Art Center.

The book and our conversation is for people and arts organizations who want to:
Grow audiences and keep them coming back againMake our organizations more inclusiveGet younger attendees in the seats and on the donor rollsAnd generate millions more dollars in revenue, in order toContinue to create the art we love—without the stress of figuring out how to afford it

Book details and how to get your copy: https://www.aubreybergauer.com/book