Operating Support Grant

Tofte Lake Center requests Operating Support from Arrowhead Regional Arts Council to help our organization increase its fundraising capacity and operational sustainability, including greater outreach to and access for diverse artists. A primary goal of the proposed project is to work with development consultant Louise McKay to create a strategic fundraising and related communications plan for the short and long terms. A primary outcome of the project will be said plan, complete with fundraising targets and detailed strategies to achieve them. This will include analyses of historic income sources, potentials for future growth, and our identified core constituencies. We will determine dollar goals for artist residency subsidies and for the director’s and staff salaries, with annual benchmarks. We will also create a value proposition/case statement, outline our three-year vision and trajectory, and then finalize the new plan and begin implementation action steps. A primary measure of success for the project will be the creation of a detailed fundraising and related communications plan that includes specific dollar goals based on the completed analyses of core constituencies and historic/potential income sources. While those analyses would be conducted as part of the grant activities, we estimate $7,000-$10,000 in new revenues to support artist subsidies in 2019, towards building the needed $32,600 in additional annual revenue to fully fund the director’s annual salary. We will monitor growth in the number and type of donors, total contributions, and average individual gift amount. We will also track new and returning donors in each year of the grant, in part to determine success in generating new and recurring support. Lastly, we will track our progress towards achieving the long-term goals for artist subsidies, diverse artist engagement, and funding the director’s position, to realize the artistic vision of Tofte Lake Center and establish a more durable organization.