MTA Board member Nell Waltz, past President of the San Diego Historical Society, brought to our attention an article published by the National Association of Corporate Directors concerning nonprofit governance issues.

 

As pointed out in the article, "Clearly, the leading governance issues and concerns are similar for nonprofits and for profit organizations today. For both, the responsibilities and time commitments are substantial, with surveyed nonprofit trustees averaging 196.2 hours overall on board-related matters in 2007, a number that closely tracks for-profit director obligations."

To read the entire article CLICK HERE

 MTA Board Chair Aaron Milrad, Past Chair of the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto, brought to our attention an article from Canadian FundRaiser Enews.  It discusses how to leverage a gift from a major donor. It is something to think about as a Trustee as you go about your solicitation of major gifts for your museum.

"MAJOR GIFTS - Money is only the first thing major donors can give.
Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world. That comment from Archimedes should be a prime motivator for philanthropists according to Charles Bronfman and Jeffrey Solomon, Chairman and President respectively of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies. 

Writing in the Financial Times on July 12, they suggest that generous donors should not settle for only one dollar's social benefit in return for one dollar given. Rather, donors should be keen to leverage their gifts so that they can indeed move the world. As the relative value of every gift diminishes in the face of rising costs, there is even more reason for donors and fundraisers alike to seek leverage.  Leverage is more than just an eye-glazing buzzword. In the philanthropic sense, say Bronfman and Solomon, leverage is the donors' ability to impart social benefit greater than the dollar amount of their gift. Experience, insight, partnerships, networks-they are all gifts to be raised, and a fundraiser will want to address them all in case statements and impact reports.

Building the lever for your major donors
Your top donors have three kinds of philanthropic leverage to offer. As a fundraiser, you can and must become their partner in exerting that leverage.  The first is programmatic. Major donors want measurable results that meet their criteria and their areas of interest. In a slowing economy you can be sure that even your wealthiest donors are evaluating the effectiveness of each organization they support and considering reductions, if not some eliminations. That means you, the fundraiser, need to know what their criteria and areas of interest are and report to them on those successes that they find meaningful.  The second is communication. Help your top donors talk about your organization by spotlighting your key achievements. Generate attention about the issues for which you advocate. Tell your community about the role philanthropy plays. Bronfman and Solomon remind us that your donors will find it easier to engage other funders and partners when your work is visible to the public.  The third area to be leveraged is relationships. Through their networks of institutional, governmental and personal relationships, your donors can help you leverage early funding into the long-term capital you need. Your share of the leverage work in this area is to be aware of your donors' networks (boards and clubs, alumni associations, faith communities, cottage connections for example), and develop strategies with them to find further introductions, gifts and endorsements within those networks.

"Long term solutions," say Bronfman and Solomon, "require that philanthropists take strategic approaches to their work, leveraging the array of resources that only they can bring to the table. Living up to the high standards that we can and should set for ourselves results in fuller benefits to the societies we serve."

 

Toronto Object Factory: The Art of Industrial Ceramics
May 15 - Sept 7, 2008

 

This groundbreaking exhibition will both startle and delight you with the work of international artists and industrial designers re-imagining the possibilities of ceramics in the 21st century.  See more than 200 objects from eighteen countries, including work by artists Cindy Sherman and Arman, designers Ettore Sottsass and Masahiro Mori, and industrial manufacturers Rosenthal and Nymphenburg.

Curator Marek Cecula emphasizes the new relationship between artists, designers and industry that "has heralded a vitality and fresh orientation to ceramic material." The exhibition also includes sections devoted to recent advances in ceramic materials and technologies, and to the creative manipulation and re-use of industrial ceramics by studio artists. 

 

Guest curator Marek Cecula is a noted ceramic artist, designer and educator. He is the owner of Modus Design, a ceramics studio and shop with branches in New York and Kielce, Poland. Cecula's work can be found in museum collections around the world including the Smithsonian National Museum of Art and the American Craft Museum.

 

Listen to the podcasts for Object Factory.

www.dia.org
Kenro Izu: Sacred Places
July 9 - October 12, 2008

 

View the Sacred Places Gallery

Click here to learn more about the Detroit's Sacred Places Flickr Contest

 

Kenro Izu: Sacred Places features over 50 black-and-white photographs of spiritual landmarks located in Asia, the Pacific Islands, the Middle East, and Europe. Renowned for his stunningly beautiful photographs of the ancient temples in Angkor, Cambodia, Japanese-born artist Kenro Izu has traveled extensively since 1979, capturing images of religious sites and monuments across the world. A number of these sites have never been photographed before, while others are endangered from neglect, environmental challenges, or overexposure to human contact. Much more than merely documentary in nature, Izu's photographs convey the spiritual essence of these sites that have resonated over millennia with peoples of many faiths.

In addition to images of familiar sites such as the pyramids of Giza in Egypt and the stone statues on Easter Island, the exhibition also includes photographs of less well known sacred places in Syria, Jordan, Scotland, and New Mexico. A practicing Buddhist, Izu made captivating images of Buddhist and Hindu sites in India, the Himalayas, Cambodia, Burma, Indonesia, Thailand, and China, which comprise the majority of images in this exhibition. "The important thing is the spirituality of these monuments," he once told an interviewer. "The building has to be there to photograph but the atmosphere is what I'm interested in. The building is a representation of that spiritual side."

Kenro Izu: Sacred Places was organized and is circulated by the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. All photographs are lent by The Lane Collection, courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum. 

The Society's permanent exhibition on San Diego history is already at its halfway mark! Witness history in the making as we develop and build this four-phase project. Now is a great time to come for a visit as phases one and two are currently open!

 

Phase One: Walk on San Diego
 In the first completed gallery of this evolving core exhibition, visitors can literally walk on San Diego. A thirty by thirty foot map of the county extends from wall to wall across the floor. Also featured are two large 1930s murals artist Charles Reiffel, a San Diego streetcar from 1910, and various interactive components. As the rest of the exhibition is developed over the next two years, the stories of San Diego will be interpreted through images, artifacts, and oral histories from the Historical Society's collection.

The long awaited out-of-print guidebook and software template, Building Museum Boards, is off the press and now available for purchase!  Building Museum Boards includes nine templates to help build the most effective board possible for your museum-

Should your Board of Trustees be required to "give or get" a minimum amount of money each year as a part of their board duties? 

 

Let us know your thoughts and we will share them in next months E-Newsletter.  Send your comment to: president@mta-hq.org .