Fundraisers on Commission

There seem to be a lot of freelance fundraisers (or if you're in the arts, "development" personnel) in DC. This makes sense, as there are a ton of non-profits based in DC who rely on fundraising to further their missions. Some freelancers work for a set fee; others work on commission. Freelancers bounce from one small organzation to the next, some specializing specifically in small organizations. Actually, now that I'm thinking while typing, most probably specialize in small organizations, since larger organizations have their own development staff.

I'm starting to wonder why organizations don't start demanding that their freelancers work on commission. Some non-profits agree to contracts with freelancers that have a set fee in place. This means that in order for the non-profit to actually raise money, the freelancer will first have to raise their own fee, and then the non-profit gets to keep whatever comes after that.

But what if the contractor doesn't raise enough to cover their own fee?

Case study: At a previous organization, I saw management pay a freelance development team $15,000 for two month's work. However, that "top notch, highly recommended" team brought in $7,000. The result was that the organization then LOST $8,000 on a fundraiser! Not good. Management issues aside, this could have solved by a commission. If the contract stated a 20% commission, and the freelancers weren't all they were cracked up to be and only brought in $7,000, then they would be paid $1,400, with the org taking home $5,600. That's ridiculously low, but it's $5,600 more than they had before. And that's a lot better than LOSING $8,000 on what was supposed to be a fundraiser.

Why don't more organizations demand that freelance fundraisers work on commission? Why trust that even the "top notch, highly recommended" contractors will raise enough to cover their fee?

What's an Art?

So I like to consider myself sort of an artsy type person. I've named my blog "DC Arts Girl," I explain to people who aren't musicians that I have a career in "Arts Administration," and I think I told the IRS (or some other organization to which I've had to submit an official-looking form) that I'm an "Arts Administrator." Some of these designations are to prevent confusion when I tell people that I'm the Special Projects Coordinator for the XYZ Institute of Jazz, because normally the response to that description is "Oooooooohhhhh...." Pause. "So what do you do again?" Pause.

But I've recently realized that "the arts" means different things to people, even those of us in "the arts." In searching blogs, some people say they blog about the arts, but are really just writing specifically about the stage. Or the visual arts. Or musical theater. Or the NSO. Even I just write about the musical arts, and more specifically, the instrumental musical arts involving jazz, symphonies, and chamber ensembles. That's pretty narrow. I definitely am not encompassing "The Arts" as a whole in my blog. Just "The Instrumental Musical Arts That Involve Only Strings, Winds, and/or A Rhythm Section." But that makes for a long title, so I'll just stick to the Arts.

Just a random observation.

Elevator Snubbing in Friendship Heights

Another rant...I work in a six-story office building in Friendship Heights. There happens to be a day spa in the building (which I frequent) along with a tapas restaurant and countless doctor's offices. So there are a lot of people entering the building every day.

It seems as though I encounter what I'll call 'Elevator Snubbing' at least 4 days out of the workweek. Elevator Snubbing is when I'm walking 10 feet behind you, you reach the elevator first, you enter the elevator, and then you allow the doors to close right as I reach the elevator. You don't hold the elevator for me. You act like you didn't hear the click-clacking of my heels directly behind you. You know you heard me. I wear 3-inch heels everyday, and their sound is unmistakable on the lobby's tile floors. PLUS there is a mirror next to the elevators, so you can see who is approaching the elevators behind you. Sweetie, you have no excuse for not being helpful and holding the door.

The funny thing is that this appears to be a unique phenomenon with women between the ages of, say, 25 and 60. Men always hold the elevator door for me, no matter what age they are. Women my mother's age always hold the door. Teenaged girls seem to hold the door. But career-aged women don't seem to help each other out. What's up, ladies?

Is this a Friendship Heights phenomenon? I don't think so. Is this a phenomenon of ladies who don't visit office buildings very often? Absolutely not, because I recognize a lot of the offenders as women who work in the building.

What up?!

Let it be known that if you are 10 yards away, I will hold the elevator for you. I will even call out "going up?" Because I'm a nice person. I'm considerate of others. And I don't mind waiting an additional 5 seconds for strangers.

5 seconds, people. That's all I ask.

Viva la Tour!

Joel and I just finalized our bookings for our trip to France (and the Tour de France) next month. I can't wait!! We're going to spend 4 days in Paris, then take a high-speed train down to Tarbes, right at the foot of the Pyrenees. Once in Tarbes, we'll rent a car and drive 20 km southwest to Lourdes, where we'll stay for 3 nights. The day after we arrive, the Tour will go through Lourdes and go up the toughest climb of the entire race: the Col d'Tourmalet. We plan on driving to Tourmalet early that day or late the night before to get a good spot. We'll be able to see all of the cyclists going very slowly up the 9% grade. Joel is very happy about this. I think it just might be his dream come true. There is no better way to see Jan Ullrich et al, unless you're riding with them. :)

Here's what we'll see before the riders arrive:

How about that?!

After a day of watching the Tour, we'll drive back to Lourdes, where we'll spend the next day and a half seeing the sights, including a castle that Charlamagne seized in the late 700's (not the 1700's, silly American - the 700's!) and the location where the Virgin Mary showed herself to a young girl on 14 separate occasions. Then we'll take the train back to Paris, where we'll stay 2 more nights before heading back to the States.

Can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait.

We've got our passports (mine is new - Joel had one but needed to renew it) and have booked our airfare, hotels, train, and car rental. I did most of this online but could not figure out how to book in the Pyrenees. So I went to a travel agency near my work for help with that leg of the tour. The woman I talked with just happened to be from France and gave me the low-down (if you're in DC and need a good agent, call Laetitia at Liberty Travel - she's fabulous!). I thought travel agents were outdated, considering travel websites like Expedia or Travelocity and the fact that most chambers of commerce and towns have their own websites, but when I couldn't figure out how to navigate to/from the Pyrenees, Laetitia proved invaluable.

This trip will be the perfect vacation for us. I get 6 nights in Paris, and Joel gets to see the Tour live and up close. Can't wait can't wait can't wait.

Cheers!

DC Humidity, Herbie's World, Black Cat, etc.

The humidity has returned to DC. This means I am going to have to use some major heat (and lots of time) to keep my hair straight. Or I can go au natural with my hair's odd mix of wavy, straight, and curly locks, which looks decent 25% of the time, but is usually a horrific rat's nest. I've always had straight hair - with the right hair cut and product I could wash 'n go and look decent - until 2003, when I got very sick and suddenly my hair got wavy. Then some of the waviness changed to curls but only on a few locks. When my health returned, my strange hair remained. So I've had to relearn what to do with it. And that means lots of flat ironing or blowdrying on high heat with a round brush, all of which takes at least an hour when dry. Ah, beauty. ::Sigh::

The Institute has been busy preparing for our Carnegie Hall event, called "Herbie's World: Herbie Hancock & Friends," coming up in late June (see the invitation here). It's a benefit concert, which means 200 seats have been set aside for us to sell at $1000, and we keep the proceeds from the sales of those seats. In exchange, individuals and corporations get fabulous seats and admission to the VIP pre-reception, where all of the musicians and performers, including Herbie Hancock and Bill Cosby, will hang. The concert will be a huge smash of some of the biggest names in jazz: Herbie, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Marcus Miller, and a slew of others. I've had a lot of our former students ask if they can get in free, which I completely understand. We often give passes to our annual international jazz competition, and events like this are a great way for musicians early in their professional careers to meet the masters. But Herbie's World is a BENEFIT. Come on, people! This is so we can raise funds for our education programs. If we give away $1,000 seats, then we're not bringing in the money.

I will be working this event, which I'm excited about because I've never been inside Carnegie Hall. Apparently I will be flying up the morning of and leaving the next day. I hate arriving the day of an event, because there's no time to refresh before you have to be "on." Last year, my boss didn't want to pay for a hotel room for me for another NYC event at the United Nations, so I took the train up in the morning, immediately jumped in a cab upon arrival, and worked my ass off for 12 hours, then had to take a train back that night. Ugh. I was useless the next day!

Anyway, my role leading up to Herbie's World has been dealing with invite lists, managing the email blast (1700+ emails, half of which were to law firms in NYC; go where the money is!), and coordinating with the event company we're using. We've never used this particular company before, and so far I'm impressed. We will be watching out for whether they actually help bring in funds - which is the whole point of the benefit - but I've been pleasantly surprised with their project management leading up to the event. Deadlines, agendas, assignments: I love their organizational detail! That kind of thing is strangely missing in a lot of projects we do.

One of the great benefits of traveling with the Institute is that I get to meet up with old friends in the different cities we visit. I just discovered that a friend from jr. high and high school, Renae D., who now lives in LA, will be rehearsing at Carnegie Hall the morning I'm there! Her choir has a performance the night after our event. What a small world. So we're going to try to meet up. Also, the girlfriend of one of the musicians we tour with works at Jazz at Lincoln Center, so I'm hoping to hang with her as well. And then there are all the musicians we work with and their various gigs that weekend that I would love to see. So little time! Maybe I'll stay an extra night to fit it all in.

On top of everything else, I am also the president of the Flute Society of Washington. When I took over two years ago, the FSW didn't have much of a season schedule; they pretty much did four recitals a year and had the huge Mid-Atlantic Flute Fair. Both programs were excellent, but the recitals had very little audience. Plus, I began receiving emails from people who just signed up and realized that there wasn't much to offer for their $30 membership dues. Refunds were demanded! So I rallied the troops and brainstormed with my board of directors. The result is, I'm happy to say, a full schedule for the 2006-2007 season. In addition to the recital series and the flute fair, we've got a second recital series (parlor recitals, held in members' homes); an annual Fall Guest Artist weekend (this fall we'll host Mary Karen Clardy); a four-part workshop series that showcases "outside the box" techniques like Celtic and Native American traditions, jazz improvisation (can you tell that was my idea?!), and the Baroque; a student workshop series; and lots of special one-time events, like an Adult Amateur Workshop, a field trip to the Library of Congress, and a collaboration with the Levine School of Music. Woo hoo! It's neat to see our members excited about the FSW again.

In other news, I recently went to the Black Cat in DC for the first time, a bar that Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl owns. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of him, but alas, he was not there that evening. Mary, Chris, and Al, you would feel right at home there. It's a little like the Way-Out in STL, but with couches and two floors. Drinks were cheap, there's interesting art work on the walls, and of course the music was good. I'll have to take you there when you visit next.

Joel and I have tickets to see the NSO perform Mahler 8, also known as the Symphony of a Thousand, next week. It has an early start time - 7pm - because of the enormity and length of the piece. Performers will be strategically placed around the audience, and apparently there were less seats available to buy to make room for them. We're meeting friends there and will go to Dish afterwards for dinner. I've seen most of the Mahler symphonies now, either with the NSO or the (cough) Phoenix Symphony, but I've never seen No. 8. Can't wait!

And so it goes, the musical arts in the DC area...