Operating Support Grant - Renewal

We're trying to accomplish a continued tradition of celebrating quality, community filmmaking. DSFF is the place for regional filmmakers, and we need funding to keep going strong. This means funding to improve our venues, our tech, or the manner in which we treat our filmmakers. We've gotten so many compliments from attending filmmakers that we treat them like VIPs and we want them to keep feeling that way. Independent and art-house cinema need all the help they can to keep going strong. Without a strong local film festival like ours - that caters to the region - there would be no place left for the film community and the Duluth community as a whole to connect. We will measure both attendance and how people feel about the festival as a whole. Filmmakers are also included in these measurable outcomes, but we view that in a different way from how we talk to the general audience. Monitoring staff hire through board oversight via a 5-point performance management evaluation matrix tool that assesses staff strength in the following categories and subcategories: 1. Organizational Wide Financial Understanding -Financial understanding of organization and ability to constrain this understanding 2. Organization Wide Competencies -Initiative -Sense of Urgency -Teamwork -Work Environment/Safety 3. Job Based Competencies -Communication -Audience Focus -Dependability -Job Knowledge -Planning -Productivity -Results Focus -Technical Skills Marketing and promotional goals will be measured through the use of website analytics and visitor tracking, social networking insight tools which measure page actions, page views, page likes, reach, and post engagements. DSFF will also solicit feedback, measure enjoyment, evaluate programming and address the needs of our audience via surveys at all events.