THRIVE

A consultancy for non-profit arts, culture, education, and heritage organizations worldwide

Accepting registrations for 2024 consultancies

As the worst of the pandemic subsides, non-profits worldwide face several vexing questions:

1. The world has changed. Does our mission need to, as well? Our programming? Our team?
2. How can we regain the trust and interest of pre-pandemic audiences, a substantial percentage of whom say they are not ready to, or will not, return to live events? Will we ever get them back, and how hard should we try to do so?
3. Simultaneously, how can we build new audiences at a moment of peak competition for attention and loyalty?
4. What should we do, in the meantime, to address the resulting earned income gap? Now that pandemic-era government subsidies have ended, how will we replace the role they played?
5. How should we budget in this new era?
6. Should we still be planning and announcing full seasons? Is long-term planning possible or even preferred?
7. How can we motivate board members fatigued by service during the pandemic? How can we find new board members at a moment when everyone seems to be facing the same question?
8. Now that everyone is “back” – including our for-profit peers with bigger budgets – how can we break through the communications clutter?
9. On relatively modest marketing budgets, how will we reach and persuade reluctant audiences that we are right for them?
10. As recession looms, how should we be thinking about fundraising? What will keep our individual, foundation, and corporate partners close if and when they are faced with tough decisions about who to support?
11. Our people have gone through a lot; how can we attract, motivate and retain the best team members? How can we ensure an equitable and sustainable work environment?
12. Are we best positioned to serve our communities in an inclusive, accessible, and equitable manner?
13. In this unprecedented labor market, in which all businesses face pressure to improve salaries, benefits and flexibility, what is the right balance for us?

If you and your teams are facing these questions, you are not alone.

In our discussions with peers around the world, we face these questions every day.

While our specific circumstances differ, solutions are being found. Those solutions hold lessons for us all.

In response, we are launching THRIVE, a high-touch, one-on-one consultancy for a limited number of non-profits in the United States and around the world.

THRIVE is designed to provide your team with supportive, specialized support to navigate these and other complex questions. THRIVE functions as both an everyday resource for your management and board – helping navigate the big questions on a day-to-day basis – and as a supportive burst of capacity at critical points in the annual cycle of every non-profit.

The program, which is structured as a monthly retainer with both formal touch-points and ad hoc communication, offers the following:

• Monthly, hour-long, one-on-one consultations with a senior Institute consultant, who will function as your primary point of contact throughout the program. These consultations, which follow an agenda prescribed by your team, are designed to support your management and board leadership in day-to-day decision-making as well as to keep longer-term planning discussions front of mind. Once we get to know your business, we will play a more active role in helping you look out for risks and opportunities on the horizon. Your senior consultant will also serve as your case manager and assist in the procurement of other services throughout the consultancy.

• Ongoing, ad hoc email correspondence with your consultant, as needed.

• At the outset of the engagement, a review of progress against your strategic plan’s objectives. If your organization does not have a strategic plan, your consultant will work with you to establish goals in key management areas to govern the consultancy. In dialogue, your consultant will work with you to update and/or recalibrate your plan as appropriate.
  
  
• Access to the Institute’s senior consultants for education, marketing, fundraising, strategic planning, public art administration, business planning, and infrastructure operations. (Monthly consultancies in these areas may be taken instead of monthly calls with your consultant.)

• Upon request, virtual attendance by your consultant at one board meeting each year. (In lieu of one monthly consultation).

• Upon request, a mid-year financial review and support in recalibration or reprojection as appropriate. (In lieu of one monthly consultation).

• Access to the Institute’s library of planning tools, environmental research, instructional videos, and city-specific data sets. As an additional benefit, the Institute will provide THRIVE members preferred rates for specialized research.

• Access to the Institute’s list of preferred vendors in key management areas including wealth screening, CRM/Database, financial administration/accountancy, legal services, and infrastructure planning. (Preferred vendors may not be available in all geographies).

• Preferred pricing for other Institute services such as strategic planning, capital campaign planning and implementation, executive search, board and staff retreats, and planning for the expansion or development of new cultural infrastructure.

In short: THRIVE is designed to provide you and your team with a supportive, wrap-around support network – helping navigate time-sensitive issues and scan the horizon for long-term risks and opportunities. THRIVE is designed to support you and your team in the maintenance of sustainable, aspirational, and joyful operations during this unprecedented time, as well as to support you in taking that next big leap on the horizon.

ELIGIBILITY

The service is open to any non-profit arts, culture, education, or heritage organization worldwide.

TERM

The term of service is one year, with the option to renew. Organizations beginning after January 2024 will be prorated. 

BUDGET

The annual fee is 1% of your organization’s prior year expenses and is billed in monthly increments, with a minimum fee of $1,000 per month and a maximum of $7,500 per month.

QUESTIONS

For more information on THRIVE, please email thrive@devosinstitute.net