Philanthropy and civil society

Originally posted to this blog: 3/4/08 While preparing a talk to faculty and students of the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University recently, I ran across a 2004 issue of the journal The READER. The journal is published by Grantmakers in the Arts, a national association of professional arts...

So you think you can run an arts organization

Too often I hear from those outside the nonprofit sector complaining that arts organizations are always in trouble because they don’t know how to run things like a business. I would challenge any businessperson to stay in business if: Every year you must invent and produce a whole new product line that has not been market-tested (five...

#SummerOfPurpose: Caitlin Matthews

Our #SummerOfPurpose blog series followed this year’s Cleveland Foundation Summer Interns as they spent 11 weeks working with Cleveland-area nonprofit and public sector organizations. In today’s blog we hear from Caitlin Matthews, who spent her summer working with The Trust for Public Land where she supported the planning and hosting...

Renting audiences

It was not until I read the latest issue of the Wolf-Brown consulting firm’s newsletter that I encountered the concept of “renting an audience.” But according to Matt Lehrman, executive director of Alliance for Audience of Phoenix, this is what so many arts organizations are trying to do when they use advertising to attract new...

#BlackFuturesFundCLE: Embracing the Faith in our Communities

By Cameron Aloway, Cleveland Foundation Marketing & Communications Intern The past year demonstrated the power faith holds in binding our communities together. We at the Cleveland Foundation acknowledge that faith is integral in instilling hope within our neighborhoods, and many faith-based organizations deliver vital services and...

The disease of nostalgia

On Feb. 24 at the Idea Center, Mohsin Hamid, a Pakistani writer and 2008 winner of an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, came back to Cleveland to speak on "Literature, Pakistan and 'The West.'" The lecture was part of the annual series co-sponsored by the Cleveland Foundation and the Baker-Nord Center for Humanities at Case Western Reserve...