Monthly Archives: July 2014

Just the Arts Facts…

by Jini Stolk “What do we really know about the arts in Toronto?” was the original, seemingly simple question that led to four months of research and the publication of Toronto Arts Foundation’s Toronto Arts Facts. Arts Facts compiles recent data from a variety of statistical surveys and research studies on Toronto’s arts and their […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Engaging…employees

by Jini Stolk I’ll bet you thought I was going to say “audiences.” No. I actually want to talk about how we relate to our most important resources: the people who work in arts organizations, producing, promoting and generally supporting the art in an astonishing variety of ways. When I meet with people eager to […]

Posted in Organizational Development | Leave a comment

Finding space

by Jini Stolk From the moment I heard about SpaceFinder, Fractured Atlas’ online venue database and rental system, I hoped someone would find a way to bring it to Toronto. I’m incredibly pleased that TAPA, ArtsBuild Ontario and WorkInCulture, with the support of the Metcalf Foundation, are launching SpaceFinder Toronto this fall. Once it’s fully […]

Posted in Facilities | Leave a comment

The joys of reading

by Jini Stolk Something’s wrong. How can it be that a light and breezy article about summer reading includes a tip like this: “Any book, which enhances knowledge. No fiction.”(The grammatical and punctuation mistakes might indicate that this tweeter needs to read more fiction, not less…) This war on fiction comes up more and more […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Anti-spam spam

by Jini Stolk Like you, I’ve been overwhelmed by an onslaught of anti-spam compliance emails over the past few weeks. I’ve heard from companies whose messages I’ve been receiving, in some cases for the last twenty years, and with whom I have an established and very happy artistic and commercial relationship. I’ve heard from organizations […]

Posted in Audience Development | Leave a comment

I’ve looked at boards from both sides now

by Jini Stolk I don’t know whether Joni would approve but it’s Canada Day weekend and her beautiful poetry is never far from my mind, at any time. It’s sometimes easy to focus on the negative side of nonprofit boards, because we hear so frequently about personal clashes and struggles for control – or alternatively, lack […]

Posted in Board & Governance | Leave a comment

Great emails, great results

by Jini Stolk Speaking of emails. I said in a recent post that “good online fundraising rests on a very firm basis of excellent email capture and communications” so I think it’s only fair to say a few words on how to do that in our new CASL age. Dunham + Company has been sending […]

Posted in Audience Development | Leave a comment

Enjoy the sun? Or get everything done?

by Jini Stolk I was excited by a recent email about the important benefits of taking a vacation until I noticed that one of its major messages was the ease of using hotspots, web conferencing and file sharing while away. Phooey. Did you know that a vacation can increase productivity and creativity (before you leave, […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment