
Clients are asking consultants to get to the bottomline as fast as possible. Is it the economic climate or the new state of mind of non-profits needing to be sustainable?
Visioning and discovery, necessary steps for determining direction and getting buy-in, especially from the Board of Directors, are essential for actually setting the priority objectives. As Executive Directors feel the pressure of sustainability and accountability, which are necessary but perhaps overwhelming when you have 15 bosses, the need for conclusions and tactics is pushing its way to the forefront.
In response our team is honing in more quickly on the top issues. Frequently it is a loss of the founding vision of the organization that is at the core of "what we should do next?" questioning. Behind that is the leadership dance - who is driving this ship? Is it the Board, staff or artistic visionary who sets the direction as an organization moves from ground and grow to maturity or, perhaps even into decline.
Determining who you serve, the organization's community, becomes equally important as the artistic vision. Once you know who you serve and identify how you serve them, organizations then need to determine if the "served" actually need what you are offering. Need is subjective, as all good marketers know. Who is the competition for your service or programming? From here priority objectives can be articulated and strategies developed. Only at this phase can tactics and operations be identified. Bottomlining these options runs in parallel and is based on a financial health check that assesses the organization's current state of financial management and cash flow.
Increasingly organizations are in need of organizational development consulting and professional development support in combination with strategic planning. Finding a balance of these requests in the consultancy scope of work is becoming a priority for clients and consultants. This is necessary trend in best practice shift across the arts non-profit field and not a cyclical situation in response to the challenging economic climate.



