Author Archives: Anahita

Our unique leadership model

By Anahita | Published: Apr 11 2017

by Jini Stolk Half way through a NPQ webinar on Nonprofit Leadership Transitions and Organizational Sustainability (which will be very helpful in planning our November 27th Creative Champions workshop on Succession Planning) it hit me. The performing arts has for years been using a shared or co-leadership model that the wider non-profit community has recently […]

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Boards adding value

By Anahita | Published: Apr 11 2017

by Jini Stolk I had a conversation this morning with a long-time arts board member who feels that now, just as when he first started, most board members don’t understand what they’re supposed to be doing. He personally took the time to mentor new board members and his board developed, over time, a detailed description […]

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How and why people attend

By Anahita | Published: Apr 11 2017

by Jini Stolk The more you know about your audiences and why they attend, the more successful you’ll be at filling your house. That’s the theory. Not everyone is as immersed in research as I am. And that’s okay. The National Endowment for the Arts research paper When Going Gets Tough: Barriers and Motivations Affecting […]

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Reading and writing

By Anahita | Published: Apr 11 2017

by Jini Stolk I’ve been thinking recently about my favorite pastime, reading. It’s more than just a lifetime joy (although it certainly is that.) The proliferation of book clubs, across ages and other demographics, indicates that reading helps answer a deeply felt need for thoughtful discussion and exchange of views. Book Clubs for Inmates at […]

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The scope of our impact

By Anahita | Published: Mar 21 2017

by Jini Stolk “How the arts helped kill off the NEA — by trying to play the conservative “economic value” game”. The title alone of this piece caused me a few sleepless nights. It’s a cri de cÅ“ur from arts advocate Matt Burriesci who’s facing up to the reality “that the NEA and the NEH […]

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Coming up at Creative Champions

By Anahita | Published: Mar 20 2017

by Jini Stolk Creative Champions, Toronto Arts Foundation’s arts board network, continues its exciting line-up of workshops and events in 2017. We started on February 7th with a special session on governance and fundraising at Artist-run Centres, arts service and membership organizations. It was a hot topic: people braved the year’s slickest ice storm to […]

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Skills we don’t know we have

By Anahita | Published: Mar 20 2017

by Jini Stolk I hadn’t thought about it in these terms until I read this brief post in Nonprofit Quarterly. Could it be that the success of many arts managers rests on an unrecognized skill – that of being dauntlessly determined to succeed no matter how difficult and terrifying the situation? It sounds right to […]

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Remembering

By Anahita | Published: Mar 20 2017

I’d like to say a fond farewell to four wonderful women who had a great impact on my life, and whose loss in 2016 touched me deeply. Sandi Ross (1949-August 31, 2016)  Sandi was an actor, activist and force of nature. She was an early leading champion of diversity on stage and screen; an untiring […]

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Fundraising’s shifting sands

By Anahita | Published: Nov 02 2016

by Jini Stolk The Ontario Nonprofit Network’s Nonprofit Driven 2016 conference revealed an unexpectedly forceful consensus. It’s time for both government and non-government funders to move to trust-based grantmaking. Vu Le’s description  of a gradual shift to “a default starting relationship between funders and nonprofits (that) is one of suspicion” is as recognizable here as […]

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Why it matters

By Anahita | Published: Nov 02 2016

by Jini Stolk Last week’s Get on Board workshop (October 26, 5:30 – 8 pm at the Textile Museum) was a rare opportunity for members of arts boards to hear directly from a major funder about the importance and impact of good governance. Claire Hopkinson, Toronto Arts Council and Toronto Arts Foundation Director and CEO, […]

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