Crowd-resourcing?
by: Alan Brown

Are we at the cusp of a new, more democratic model of funding the arts?  Several weeks ago, Joe Kluger wrote about Pepsi and other corporations that are using social media to crowd-source grantmaking.  Power to the people?  Not so fast, says our friend and colleague John Shibley. "I admire the faith you place in the masses.  I wish I shared it."  Shibley argues that crowd-sourcing might be good for rating restaurants, but might not be an effective approach to solving complex social problems.  "If popularity proved quality, then TV ought to be full of masterpieces."  Personally, I am less interested in the application of the American Idol principles of audience engagement to grantmaking than I am in exploiting the potential of web-based technologies to drive new approaches to fundraising.  Last year, I followed with interest several news stories about online fundraising initiatives.  The Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan's one-day Community Foundation Challenge-Arts and Culture on August 18 generated over $4.9 million for 75 arts groups, leveraging $1.6 million in matching funds from the foundation, well surpassing the original goal of $3 million.  With just $500,000 in matching funds, GiveMN, a Minnesota fundraising campaign, raised $14 million through a 24-hour "Give to the Max Day" event via the Internet, donated by 39,000 people.  Check out the next-generation fundraising site, www.GiveMN.org, funded by the Minnesota Community Foundation.  And The Pittsburgh Foundation through its Match Day in October, raised $1.5 million in online gifts in 22 minutes and 11 seconds. 

What fascinates me most about all this is the power of the 'limited-time' event to capture the attention of the public.  What would explain why tens of thousands of people flock to a website at the same moment in time to donate?  While I would like to think the matching incentive is a motivation, as well as the immutable deadline, this alone doesn't explain it.  Most certainly there are other, more subtle, psychological factors at play, both altruistic and selfish.  The emergence of community-wide online fundraising "events" underscores the critical importance to arts groups of being able to mobilize their constituents electronically.  New technologies are reshaping the giving patterns of ordinary people who understand that they can play a small, meaningful part in changing the world, or at least their own community.

A New Era of Philanthropic Transparency
by: Jane Culbert

Accountability...transparency...openness in communication... These are "buzz words" today in many sectors, both for-profit and nonprofit and the Foundation Center has offered a service to the nonprofit sector that provides all of this - and more - about leading foundations in America.  They call this service Glasspockets.  I visited the site and was astonished at what they have done.  They have identified 22 measures of transparency and accountability, and they have already collected information of all of these measures for 15 major foundations.  See their report on The Rockefeller Foundation, for example.  Glasspockets also provides key information on Web 2.0 communication tools (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn) that foundations are now using to increase their transparency to the public.  The immediacy of communication on the web provides us all with information that used to be nearly impossible to get.  Sometimes I find it overwhelming.

From Slides to Jpegs: ZAPPlication.org
by: Marc Goldring

Until recently, the typical way for visual artists to apply to juried exhibitions and craft shows has been by duplicating a myriad number of slides, labeling, and shipping them to multiple destinations.  As a studio craftsperson, I remember what a laborious process this was and so I can see what a huge benefit it is for artists to now be able to apply for many juried exhibitions online using a single digital interface.  Register once and you're done!  One such system, called ZAPPlication, has been up and running since 2004.  It is hosted by WESTAF (Western State Arts Foundation), a leader in digital services for artists.  WESTAF also offers an analogous system for applying for public art commissions called Café, which stands for Call for Entry.  What's interesting to me is not only the development of such new technology, but the growth of a community around the ZAPP site.  Their forum discussions include everything from advice on how to assemble booth displays to reports of sales at various art shows and festivals.  A soon-to-be-released iPhone application will allow visitors and patrons to access art show and festival information.  Among other things, the app will allow people to search show content by artist or medium (e.g., drawing), access event schedules, and link to the artists' websites.  Beyond simplifying life for artists, the power of these tools is their ability to build connections between artists and their audiences and to enhance the potential for more engaging dialogues.