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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Non-Profit Startup 1.3 When the world throws the spaghetti at you

I've been spending the month in NYC doing a show and I'm trying to get my feet under me for our DASP conversion to a non-profit.

Do you know how sometimes the world puts signs at you?  I was connected up to a fellow Rochester native who is our fabulous conductor for Astronaut's Tale.  He has experience running a non-profit in Chicago.  For the low price of taking him out for dinner (feed your local artist), I get to pick his brain on how to approach this particular challenge.

A good friend in NYC connected me up to the founder of an early music group.  I had a very focused conversation with her to get more details about how she started her group and what were some of the challenges.

Finally, I've been chatting with my director and producer to get hints as well.

So what are my big concerns?
  • What is it like to get direction from a board?
  • What do you do to get your board to help you get funding?
  • What kind of mission has the possibility of becoming sustainable?
  • How can I help lift up as many Colorado artists as I can with this project?
I'm still collating all of the information I have received so far and continue to get.

For now, they all left me with some key tasks:


  • Get a lawyer to help get started (hat tip to a Young Families friend from Mass)
  • Make sure someone on your board is an accountant and can help with the financial statements and bookkeeping
  • Make a mission statement that is clear and sums up our goals in an elevator talk to potential board members
Future blog posts will document the journey started by these tasks.  It looks like I have some work to do when I get back home to Colorado.

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