Arts Organization Development

“The infrastructure of arts organizations is strengthened through access to operating funds, professional development and best practices sharing.” Our Board of Directors will gain the skills and knowledge needed to successfully oversee our financial operations. Our Program Director will gain the professional development skills needed consistently manage our organization financial operations, pull reports for the BOD and funders, and articulate our organizations financial needs and projections. “Minnesota’s Arts Sector grows in reach and impact through programs and strategies that improve the health and operations of regional arts organizations.” The foundation, health and sustainability of our organization will be improved by providing systems support and training to those individuals that manage our organization; this will ensure that our organization is able to thrive in our region, offer more comprehensive programming and models for successfully building and growing a rural non-profit arts organization. We will conduct pre and post Board Development training surveys with our 20-person Board of Directors. These survey questions were developed with support from our Board Member, Rachel Engh, who works with a national arts evaluation organization, Metris Arts. The results will be compiled and shared with the Board to measure the increase in skills, knowledge and capacity of our Board and Director post Development Project and Trainings. We will have a successful and operation QuickBooks online system that our Director and Treasurer feel comfortable navigating, entering data, pulling reports, etc. We increase the amount of time we dedicate to finances at Executive Committee and BOD meetings. Our Director will show an increase of confidence in organizational financial management and reporting on finances to our Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors will gain confidence and have an increased understanding of how to read and understand our budget reports at Board Meetings, ensuring proper financial oversight and governance of our organization. These indicators will be measured through a pre- and post-development project survey, in conversations with our Executive Committee, and annual performance reports of our Director conducted by our Board. The results will be compiled and reported in our grant report and shared with our Board of Directors.