Createquity readers, tomorrow is the final day in our Indiegogo funding campaign. Thanks to your generous contributions, as of this writing we have raised $7,385 from 93 funders toward our $10,000 goal. It’s been truly humbling to witness the number of people who care enough about high-quality information and analysis in the arts to contribute. And with just about 36 hours left in the campaign, it’s time to put the pedal to the metal to bring us over the top. If you believe we as a sector need better, data-driven advocacy, or simply appreciate Createquity as a resource for your work, please donate today!
One of the most gratifying things about this campaign so far has been seeing the wave of support we’ve received from people whose work is central to our field. Barry Hessenius, whose blog is another widely-read resource among arts managers, graced us last week with a completely unsolicited and glowing endorsement of this project:
I hope you will go to the Indiegogo site and support this effort. I did….I can give you two good reasons why you might part with the cost of a couple of Starbuck’s half caffeine, double mocha, caramel, latte frappacinnos: First: Ian and the people he has assembled to help with his newest reinvention of his site are exactly the people we want to support in our field – young, smart, dedicated, committed people who are already making a contribution to the field to help make things better for everyone. Supporting that alone ought to be worth ten or twenty bucks. But Second, I can almost guarantee you that if you follow whatever Createquity does over the next year you will read two or more posts that you (you personally) will find of great value to what you are doing on your job. That ought to be worth a few bucks, no?
And how often do you get to play Santa Claus in July?
Indeed, it’s been amazing to see the movers and shakers who find value in Createquity’s work. Every year, with the help of a pool of nominators, Barry compiles a list of the nonprofit arts sector’s 50 most powerful and influential leaders. More than a fifth of the 2013 list has contributed to our campaign so far. The show of support from our field has been extraordinary, with donations from star consultants like Holly Sidford (Helicon Collaborative), Alan Brown (WolfBrown), Adrian Ellis (AEA), Jerry Yoshitomi (MeaningMatters), Claudia Bach (AdvisArts), and Anne Gadwa Nicodemus (Metris Arts Consulting); arts organization leaders like Adam Huttler (Fractured Atlas), Laura Zucker (LA County Arts Commission), Mara Walker (Americans for the Arts), and Kemi Ilesanmi (The Laundromat Project); current and former foundation leaders like Kerry McCarthy (New York Community Trust), Angelique Power (Joyce Foundation), and Marian Godfrey (ret. Pew Charitable Trusts); and fellow arts thinkers and information mavens Doug McLennan (ArtsJournal), Nina Simon (Museum 2.0), Thomas Cott (You’ve Cott Mail), Andrew Taylor (The Artful Manager), and Diane Ragsdale (Jumper). The latter four have contributed to our campaign in particularly special ways: Thomas, Andrew, and Diane all were kind enough to record video testimonials for us (embedded below), and Nina is donating two rare signed copies of her classic read The Participatory Museum, which are available to donors at the $100 level. Grab ’em fast!
I hope you agree with us that this is a pretty incredible list. Won’t you add your name to it and help us cross the finish line?