My awesome girlfriend pointed this piece in the NY Times out to me. Apparently, it's now standard for museums to be open at night and throwing after hours events.
Over the last decade, just about all of New York’s major museums —
and a few of its minor ones — have jumped on the nocturnal bandwagon,
hoping to hook a younger generation on museumgoing. But they’ve hooked
the older crowd as well, with some offering live music or D.J.’s, performances and lectures, discount prices and, not surprisingly, booze.
A
majority of these evening activities are on Friday nights, seemingly
perfect for just-arrived out-of-town weekenders. The crowds they
attract appear much more New Yorker than tourist. The average attendee
comes with high heels and a hip handbag, not sensible shoes and a
Lonely Planet guide.
Here in San Francisco, both the De Young Museum and Yerba Buena Art Center do this too.
Which actually raises an interesting question my dad and I were discussing this weekend. What is the obligation of a non-profit organziation to cultivate a new generation of supporters?
The brat in me yells "A Huge One!" I'm just as tired as you are of staid, lifeless organizations assuming that, because my grandparents gave to them out of social obligation, that I will simply roll over an do the same. Welcome to the age of limitless choice, where the law is "If you don't speak in my language, I don't have to listen."
However, as Pa Smokler points out "What if another organization in the same community is already doing that? Does every single organization everywhere have to have a young person's initiative?"
Well no. That seems positively wasteful.
Efforts to attract new generations are time consuming, expensive and must be deployed with great care. Some non-profits simply don't have the resources to do that radical paradigm shift, even some of the time, with no certain payoff. And I sympathize with that reality.
However, I also believe there is no greater recipe for failure than ignoring the inevitable future. And the future says that most organizations a few decades from now will have to depend on a more hybridized mix of small and large donors, and non-monetary opportunities for involvement. Big donors are few and far between and are spreading their resources out more than ever. Little donors can become big donors, particularly if you involve them early on. And every organization has costs that can be outsourced to volunteers if done skillfully.
The future belongs to those who prepare for it today. How ready are we?
Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times edited by Kevin Smokler
The Customer Is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles edited and compiled by Jeff Martin. Essay by me on page 45.