BUILDING CAPACITY
David Bury is a fundraising and development expert and the founder of David Bury & Associates, a New York City-based consulting firm. In July 2008, David traveled to Philadelphia to conduct private meetings with local nonprofit music organizations, under the auspices of the Philadelphia Music Project. After his meetings concluded, PMP Director Matt Levy sat down with David to reflect on his consultancy.
Straight Talk: Q&A with David Bury
Matt Levy: David, would you provide an profit music sector? overview of your work as an arts consultant? I was hired over 30 years ago to run What’s the big picture? the Brattleboro Music Center in Vermont. David Bury: Right. Well, it’s primarily It was my first arts job. The Center was a in development and fundraising, helping really wonderful organization, founded by organizations and individual artists find a fantastic woman named Blanche Moyse, more resources, especially contributions who had been a co-founder of the Marlboro and grants. They, in turn, use those reMusic Festival and was a violinist. I was sources to lift their organizations to the hired to be her administrator. The music next level or to carry out a project of some center had community and children’s chomajor proportion. For example, an artist ruses orchestras, a chamber music Eachoryear at its and annual holidayand party, PMP invites arts organization might engage us to help series and in-school programs. It produced members of Philadelphia’s music community to prepare a single proposal, let’s say agenerate major some a Bach festival thatthe toured around warmth while days are coldNew and proposal to the Wallace Foundation, beEngland and into New York City performing the nights long. Last season, the gathering brought cause they haven’t applied for something of 85Bach choralfriends (particularly cantatas) and together of PMP’s at thethe Curtis Institute that magnitude before. Or, on the other exinstrumental repertoire. We performed the of Music to eat, drink, and savor the evening’s treat: treme, an organization might contract us to B Minor Mass and the Passions frequently. a concert by saxophonist Tim Ries and his ensemble manage all its development and fundraising It was just mind-blowing to me to have the of celebrated musicians. One of New York’s finest activities. In the case of Meet the Composer, opportunity to learn so much about the jazz saxophonists, Tim has recorded and performed we’ve been doing that for the past seven musicpop, while simultaneously learning how to with or many jazz, rock, and R&B icons, including eight years. Actually, we do that forJoe quiteHenderson, a makeRed an arts organization work. Of course, Garland, Badal Roy, Maria Schfew other organizations ranging in size and Danilo a big part ofthe that was finding more andSimon, more neider, Perez, Rolling Stones, Paul nature, from community based arts schools resources. So, I quickly began to learn about Sheryl Crow, Lyle Lovett, Stevie Wonder, Incognito, and after-school programs, to ensembles development and David Lee Roth. Timand wasfundraising. joined by his daughter, and orchestras, to presenters and festivals. And from there you went onJay to Azzowork vocalist and violinist Jasia Ries; guitarist It’s really quite wide-ranging, practically with some major service organizations and lina; rapper Felicia; bassist Ben Williams; drummer any kind of arts endeavor you can think of! funders? Ben Hutchinson; and pianist and accordionist Gary How did you get into the field, and how to play From there I took a joboriginal as Assistant DiVersace a selection of Ries’ compodid your work come to focus on the nonrector of the Vermont Council on the Arts, sitions and arrangements of traditional tunes from PMP 36
which I held for a couple of years. That position helped me to see things on a state-wide level, instead of an organization-specific level. At one point, because I had gotten something of a reputation for fundraising when I was at the Music Center, three organizations approached me and asked, “Would you ever consider helping us with development and fundraising?” All of a sudden it dawned on me that if I said yes to all three, I would have a full time job. At just about the same time, Chamber Music America approached me and asked if I would do all its institutional fundraising. I had been a board member from early on in CMA’s history, so I said yes, because I really loved the organization. And it just kept growing from there. It was all word of mouth. Someone would call and say “There’s a project you might be interested in.” Over the past 15 years it’s grown from just my longtime colleague Steve Procter and me to eight of us who do this work. Generally, we work with about 30 organizations over the course of a year, and I suppose over the past 30 years, we’ve worked with nearly 200 different organizations. That’s wonderful. I know that your work varies greatly from one organization to another, but is there a general methodology that you use to help groups find and expand resources and build capacity? Well, it goes back to what we call “good development practice,” which is essentially understanding that to be viable in the long term an artist or an arts organization needs to build a network of people who share its core values, identify with its work, and, importantly, have the means to help. This, broadly defined, means: money, networks, and resources—such as professional expertise or access to in-kind contributions. For example, rehearsal space is a common in-kind contribution. So building that network is fundamental to how we think about increasing an organization’s capacity. Almost always we talk about the degree to which an artist or organization has an existing network, is aware of it, and is thinking in an ongoing strategic way about strengthening its relationship to each of the people and organizations that constitute that network. That’s the large context. The small context is case by case. What can this particular foundation do for us now, and are we in a position to approach it? To what degree are we connected to that foundation, either on the staff or on the trustee level? Do we have a history with it? What does the foundation need from us in order to consider us a prospective grantee? By addressing these questions and others, we come up with a short-term plan that positions the organization to be successful with that particular foundation. Working through that conceptually and then helping an organization carry out the plan strategically—essentially, that’s the work we do. So, with clients with whom you’ve worked for long stretches of time, how has your approach manifested itself? Maybe give an example of an organization that has grown in terms of profile and capacity. We’ve been working with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s for almost 15 years. It’s grown from a $1 million to almost $6 million organization. It’s gone from an operating deficit to the point where it’s debt free and has a $10 million endowment. It’s currently in the midst of a $35 million capital campaign for an orchestra rehearsal facility that we have helped conceive, organize, and coordinate. Also, I think it’s fair to say that we helped redefine how the Orchestra thinks about generating earned income, particularly in regard to its primary constituency, which it now conceives of as the “presenter/producer marketplace” rather than individual ticket buyers. It’s really a highly entrepreneurial and collaborative organization in that regard. We’ve played a part in shaping its contributed income strategies, and those strategies have really paid off.
So, that’s an example of a client relationship that’s been productive. I should also say that there are some situations where we’re not effective, where things don’t work out as well as we had imagined they would. For example, when a client doesn’t have the ability to supply the information we need in order to be effective. That makes it nearly impossible to prepare good materials simply because the information isn’t there. That’s bad, so we’ve learned to avoid those situations. Could you talk about your work in Philadelphia in particular? What are some of the most common problems that local arts organizations seem to be grappling with? I know that you came across the full gamut of challenges, but I wonder if there are any trends. I think the first thing that struck me—and this isn’t characteristic of only Philadelphia, I find it in a lot of places—is just the degree to which there are some remarkably talented people out there working in challenging circumstances, but doing really good work because fundamentally they believe in it, and that’s what their life is about. I find that phenomenally inspiring, that there is this population of people that is committed to making culture live in communities all around the country, and particularly here in Philadelphia. That resonated throughout all of my meetings with your constituents. I would say that the kinds of problems and issues they’re facing are similar to those in other communities. In some ways, I look at Philadelphia and am a little bit jealous that there are places like Pew, and PMP, and the William Penn Foundation. The level of sophistication within the funding community in Philadelphia is just sensational. I don’t know of another community that has those kinds of resources available to it. I don’t even think New York does. The way it’s organized and used, and the way funders think in Philadelphia is just, frankly, more sophisticated about, and more concerned with, the local arts ecology. A third thing that comes to mind is the degree to which, although people intuitively understand the need to build donor networks, they’re not really informed about how to do it in the most practical and efficient ways. Everyone I met with, as far as I could tell, found the idea of good development practice, particularly of how you implement it and how it works, really appealing. Good development practice provides a maximally efficient way to build a donor network; by systematically building the network and cultivating its members, an organization’s fundraising inevitably becomes more and more successful. In other words, focus on development (buildaround the world. —E.S. ing the network) and your fundraising will do well; in the absence of good development practice, it will do less well. The more people you have in your network—people who are involved in your organization and educated about what it does—the greater the likelihood of their providing financial support, and the more generous that support will be. It’s not that people are unaware of good development practice; it’s that they’re unaware of how it can be practiced in a systematic and efficient way that leads to good results in fundraising. That’s the message I preach. If artists and arts organizations are disposed to implement good development practice and have the personal and organizational skills to carry it out, the results can be absolutely transformative.
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