The Artful Ask: How Arts Organizations Can Build Better Partnerships & Lifelong Sponsors

By Henry Kurkowski

Arts and cultural organizations need successful relationships with businesses in order to thrive. This how-to guide provides arts councils, arts administrators and their organizations' board members with indispensable tools to help them build strong, sustainable corporate partnerships. 

The Artful Ask offers innovative talking points, interviews and research that will help convince businesses of both the tangible and the intangible benefits of sponsoring arts events, performances and programs. This easy-to-read handbook takes a frank look at today's business environment, social responsibility and cause marketing, offering concrete ideas on how to enhance fundraising and friendraising. It includes examples of successful partnerships, as well as discussions with business executives who have taken their partnerships with arts organizations to the next level.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Henry Kurkowski
• Release date: Oct 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393552833

Henry Kurkowski

 Author Henry Kurkowski is a business owner, entrepreneur and arts advocate whose articles have been featured on Forbes.com. Henry started his career in marketing and entrepreneurism early on as a nightclub promoter in New York. During that time he gained real world experience by booking, promoting and working with top Billboard Artists such as Martha Wash & RuPaul as well as disco divas like France Joli and Vicki Sue Robinson.     Henry's leadership and expertise have resulted in the creation of innovative arts partnerships that have gained national attention and benefited both businesses and cultural organizations, as well as their entire community.  He has spent the better part of two decades working with arts & cultural non-profit organizations as well as professional non-profit associations as a board member, committee member and corporate sponsor. Henry feels that there is no higher calling than to serve and give back to the community. Henry was born and raised on Long Island, NY with the benefit of experiencing world travel as a military brat and a father who worked in the airline industry.  He currently resides in Indianapolis, Indiana but tries to retreat often to Key West.  That's where a third generation family vacation home is and it's also where he tries to tap his inner Hemingway to create and work on his writings.

Book preview

Introduction

The arts are big business. Does that sound contradictory? It’s not— in spite of the fact that arts and cultural organizations are not-for-profits, they’re not only businesses, but businesses that make significant contributions to the economy. In fact, they contribute far more than most people might imagine. As a result, they have the opportunity to leverage synergies with for-profit businesses.

This book describes in detail why many companies—ranging from Fortune 500 businesses to small, locally owned enterprises —find a business benefit in partnering with the arts. It also provides countless examples that help to position your arts and cultural organizations to create the corporate partnerships you need in order to thrive.

As a business owner, I have had extremely fulfilling experiences helping to promote the arts and cultural scene in my city. I have worked on numerous committees and have had the privilege of serving as the president of the board of trustees of an outstanding Indianapolis-based nonprofit arts organization. Not only are there indirect benefits from such work, there also are many direct benefits for the professionals and businesses that support the arts. The Artful Ask helps arts organizations take a look at today’s business world from the point of view of owners and the C-Level executives—providing a perspective that’s key when speaking with companies about potential sponsorships.

The Artful Ask will arm you with the knowledge arts organizations need to create great corporate partnerships. Within these pages you’ll find talking points and data, as well as countless tips on how to engage businesses and corporations with your organization to build a better financial future for the arts.

This book will not, however, tell you what types of partnerships you should establish. That’s going to be entirely up to you: Rely on your own creativity, mission and goals to help guide you to success. The companies you choose to partner with will likely have their own highly creative and innovative ideas. Together, you can develop a partnership that is unique, brilliant and helps both organizations reach their goals.

If you’re ready to develop lifelong relationships with your sponsors and create strong corporate partnerships, I invite you to dive right in to The Artful Ask.

Chapter 1

The Economic Impact of the Arts

If you were to hazard a guess as to the financial impact that Broadway theater has on New York City’s annual economy, how much would you estimate? Stop and take a moment to think of a dollar amount before you read the next sentence to see how close you were.

The actual economic impact of Broadway on the NYC economy is more than $12 billion each year—and rising.

The population of Manhattan is estimated at 1.7 million. That means a huge chunk of the money being spent on Broadway shows originates from people who come from out of town. It’s part of the city’s arts and cultural tourism product, a topic we’ll cover in more detail in a later chapter.

In March 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Data Analysis (BEA) published a report showing that U.S. arts and cultural economic activity continued to have steady growth in 2016. The three-year growth rate for the arts from 2014-2016 was impressive: It increased by 4.2%, while the U.S. economy as a whole grew at a rate of only 2.2%.

Think about that for a moment: The annual growth rate of the arts was close to double the growth rate of the entire American economy. In fact, the economic impact of the arts and cultural activity represented 4.3% of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) for 2016. That equates to more than $804 billion in economic activity for that year alone. Whether you are an arts administrator or a board member for an arts organization, you are well aware of the impact your organization has on your community. But are you prepared with the facts, figures and examples that will convince a business to support you? This guidebook will help you to effectively grow your organization and build strong corporate partnerships that will ensure everyone benefits from the experience.

Numbers That Make Great Talking Points

If at first glance you aren’t impressed by the significance of the figures mentioned above, it may help to take a look at some comparative figures. The arts added about $60 billion more to the U.S. economy than the construction industry in 2016. In the same year, the arts industry contributed nearly five times more to the American economy than the agricultural sector. Those facts alone should be eye-openers, but add to that the realization that the $804 billion the arts contributed to the U.S. GDP in 2016 is more than half of the entire GDP of Canada or Russia. The GDP for Canada was $1.536 trillion in 2016, while in Russia it stood at $1.3 trillion.

What’s more, the impact of the arts on the U.S. economy is more than the entire 2016 GDP for countries such as Saudi Arabia ($645 billion), Switzerland ($669 billion) or the Netherlands ($784 billion). It’s been said that the arts mean big business, but the facts show that the arts mean huge business.

The Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account (ACPSA) released by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that arts and cultural economic activity, adjusted for inflation, increased 2.9 percent in 2016 and 5.4 percent in 2015. Arts and cultural economic activity accounted for 4.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), or $804.2 billion, in 2016. 2016 GDP by country data gathered from Knoema database

The Arts Measure the Strength of the Economy

Believe it or not, statistics even show that ticket sales for arts and cultural events are a great economic indicator. Arts councils at both regional and state levels review and measure audience expenditures for arts events. According to the BEA, consumers spent $32.7 billion on admission to performing arts events in 2016—double the amount