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Non-traditional fundraising ideas for audience development

Posted On March 4, 2011 By Shoshana

Part of audience development is building relationships to the point that your patrons will support your art and/or organization.  You want to have people in your individual community that will donate and sponsor your art.  In the past few years, I have seen some very good examples of fundraising ideas that not only builds relationships,… 

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Guest blog post: Top 10 Donor Don’ts to consider for audience development

Posted On March 3, 2011 By Shoshana

Today I am happy to present our first guest blogger, David Zoltan.  After seeing a few articles about treating your donors well, I thought it was time to chime in with a blog entry to highlight what not to do when relating with your donors.  Please enjoy the following blog, our first in many guest… 

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Big announcement for Audience Development for the Arts!

Posted On March 3, 2011 By Shoshana

I have been missing in action the past week in order to work on a project near and dear to my heart.  I have been seeing a need for an audience development for the arts conference,  a place to actually learn a few of the ins and outs while being able to exchange ideas with… 

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Audience development and your team

Posted On February 16, 2011 By Shoshana

I may have blogged about this before, but due to all the arts cuts scares and conversations, I felt that this topic needed to be resurrected.  Audience development can be the answer for obtaining support in challenging times.  In order for audience development to work its magic, you need these ingredients: A good plan The… 

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Audience development and quality

Posted On August 24, 2010 By Shoshana

Today I would like to focus on quality and how it affects audience development for the arts.  I will not name names, but over the weekend I did partake in a few art events in my town.  The marketing for these events grabbed my attention.  I also happened to be personally invited to one of… 

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Audience development and the name game

Posted On May 25, 2010 By Shoshana

Name (from dictionary.com): –noun 1.a word or a combination of words by which a person, place, or thing, a body or class, or any object of thought is designated, called, or known. When we are born, one of the first tasks of a parent is to name their newborn.  Parents usually put much consideration into… 

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Top 3 excuses I hear for not attempting audience development

Posted On May 18, 2010 By Shoshana

I have been hearing a variety of excuses why some organizations and artists are not using audience development.   In this blog, I would like to take the time to provide answers for the top three excuses. 1. I am an individual artist so I do not need audience development. Audience development is for anyone and… 

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Arts business structure and audience development…an evolution!

Posted On April 27, 2010 By Shoshana

I had the pleasure of meeting in person one of my twitter friends, Misha Penton, during her visit to Boulder, CO this week.  Misha is a mezzo soprano from Houston, TX that formed her own “Opera, Classical Vocal Music & Multidisciplinary Performance Arts” ensemble company. This mouthful became Divergence Vocal Theater. After many tweeted conversations… 

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A good resource for audience development!

Posted On August 19, 2009 By Shoshana

Dear Arts Community, I am straying from my regularly scheduled format to let you know about a great audience development resource.  It’s an audience development resource that has been around for almost 2 years, has been in the arts management business for over a decade, and has been in the non-profit trenches for over 15… 

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Shifting away from typical donation form letters is good audience development

Posted On June 29, 2009 By Shoshana

Happy Monday!  This will need to be a quick one due to a great deal of audience development work needing to be done today. Last week I was asked to look over a client’s set of donation ask letters for their annual fund drive.  One letter was for individual support and one was for corporate… 

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“Shoshana Fanizza proved invaluable to the Colorado Music Festival during her tenure as Interim Development Director. She’s a quick learner, extremely organized, and understands the importance of donor cultivation and communication. Shoshana helped us meet our development goals for 2008, and helped guide our board to a new level of engagement in fundraising.” —Catherine Underhill, Executive Director

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