Every Challenge is an Opportunity

I have had discussions with senior executives at two financial services firms recently and a common thread emerged: they have sustained and in some cases grown their support for arts & culture over the past three very difficult years; they are facing unprecedented public pushback over entrenched problems and past mistakes; they can’t figure out how to tell the story of their philanthropy to the angry public and government officials.

This is a very sticky wicket for all of us. Carrie Perloff’s eloquent Huffington Post story, below, raises so many relevant points.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carey-perloff/arts-bank-funding_b_1194141.html

But we should connect the dots. No, we do not want to impair our own integrity and public service role by seeming to be shills for major contributors. But are we looking for appropriate, targeted opportunities to sustain our relationship with these long term, committed supporters by letting the story of our relationship be told?

I remember a public utility once relating how a local community center had generously offered them use of their facilities during a black out so that the utility had a place to help its customers deal with the outage. That was one grantee the utility remembers well every time renewals come around.  Not only did the nonprofit help a key supporter, but like our theatres, together these two organizations helped their community.

No one at the financial services firms I spoke to tacitly asked for us to help. Rather, like a good friend, they were sharing a frustration they were trying to solve themselves.

This is our opportunity: to be grown ups, to retain our integrity, and also to build these critical relationships even further so that together we can serve our communities better. No one is served if we are clumsy or unskillful in doing this, but the right time, the right story, and our staunchest, most committed supporters will be helped to survive, and their teams will understand why we are partners worthy of their loyalty.

Isn’t that the best thing we can do for our community?