From Blog Director Jill Randall:
I am pleased to add another component to the blog. Once a month, a post will share ideas and details for dancers interested in arts administration. Dancers interested in working for a dance company, nonprofit arts organization, community center, studio, or arts council will find practical and important details as you explore this career option.
Many dancers, including myself, frequently find themselves in arts administration roles with no formal training in finance, management, public relations, and marketing. Whether you opt for a career in arts administration or not, understanding the work and its role in supporting the arts is of value.
The goal of these posts is to help you on your way, inspire you, and offer you resources.
I have two wonderful advisors for this blog feature. Rebecca Johnson is a long-time arts administrator residing in the San Francisco Bay Area with experience with grantwriting, public relations, and fundraising for nonprofits, dance companies, and dance centers. Marlena Oden has worked in both the San Francisco Bay Area as well as New York City, working on programming, marketing, and management with dance centers, artists, nonprofits, and arts education organizations.
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Non-Profits and For-Profits
The phrase "non-profit dance organization" can easily create confusion. Whether talking about a dance studio, arts festival, or dance company - artists first need to choose whether to run their business as a for-profit entity or a not-for-profit organization. Both options should be considered, and the choice will be made to best fit the purpose of your project.
Generally speaking, dance studios tend to be for-profit businesses. The studio owner has the potential to net income each year, but also runs the risk of losing money each year, just like any other business. On the other hand, few dance companies in the United States run as for-profit entitites; Momix has always been the main example of a for-profit modern dance company.
What does "non-profit" mean for a dance studio, company, or organization? A business must register for 501(c)3 status with the government. It must be a community oriented organization, benefiting the community. In exhange for your contribution towards the community, your business qualifies for particular money-related rules, regulations, and opportunities. Non-profits do not pay federal income tax. The other main benefit is that a non-profit can receive donations from individuals and organizations. These donations are tax-deductible contributions for those who donate. Non-profit organizations can apply for government funding of programs and other grants from foundations.
One common misconception is that being a non-profit means that you have little money. Quite the opposite, there are many non-profit organizations with multi-million dollar budgets.
Many non-profits create a balanced budget each year, ideally balancing the income and expenses. If a non-profit nets income at the end of a year, then that money remains in the bank for the non-profit for the coming year. (If a non-profit organization nets $30,000 one year, that doesn't mean that the Executive Director earns an extra $30,000. In contrast, if a for-profit dance studio earned an extra $30,000 over its projection one year, then that is an extra earning of $30,000 for the studio owner.)
Non-profits are also required to hold board meetings, make their meeting minutes available to the public if asked, and also maintain a board of directors to oversee the organization. The board of directors looks after the finances of the non-profit, "on behalf of the community, since it is an organization deemed to serve the community." The board of directors also ideally keeps the mission of the organization at the heart of all of the work going on. Many non-profits must make annual financial reports public and available, to clearly show the income and expenses, especially how donations and grants are being used.
Click here for another succinct description of non-profit organizations:
One other category to briefly explain is "fiscal sponsorship" and "fiscally sponsored organizations." Some dance companies and festivals will be fiscally sponsored under a larger umbrella of an established non-profit. This can help support an organization as it builds infrastructure and capacity. For example, when I co-directed the Dance IS Festival in Berkeley, CA for 7 years, we were a fiscally sponsored project of
Dancers' Group. Dancers' Group accepted donations and grant funding on our behalf, kept track of finances, and wrote checks for us out of our account. Dancers' Group also offered support in terms of bigger picture questions for the festival, marketing and outreach, and follow through with our work related to funding from foundations.
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