Friday, May 08, 2009

SF and TCG Follow Up

Melanie Colburn, who sent me the original email about the study of San Francisco Bay Area theatre community that I wrote about here, has followed up with more information that may be helpful in this discussion. I appreciate Ms. Colburn's efforts. She writes:

After reading the interesting discussion that’s followed, I think a few clarifications are in order on the media alert and the fiscal snapshot report I sent Scott.

The “Taking Your Fiscal Pulse” snapshot provides the first comprehensive look of how the Bay Area not-for-profit theatre community is faring since the economic downturn.

Instead of scaling back on performances or staff, independent San Francisco theater companies are returning to their mission to connect with their donors and stakeholders. They are doing this both through reinvigorating time-honored methods of donor cultivation and embracing new social-networking technologies for the first time.

A few clarifications, in response to some of the posts above:

- The data represents a snapshot survey of independent not-for-profit theatre companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. So yes, smaller companies are well represented.

- The report shows companies are using more new media and social networking tools as a way to engage their supporters—and, yes, finally discovering facebook!

This is a first step in engaging stakeholders with new technology and much experimentation and learning is, no doubt, underway.

- The report also shows that the theatre community is also doing more hand holding with donors, cultivating the personal relationships that are at the heart of their mission.

- This is just a sampling of the findings and much more is contained in the full report.

Theatre Bay Area and TCG hope that other regions and theatre communities can learn from the survey. The full report is accessible for download online at: http://www.theatrebayarea.org/_docs/_data/Fiscal%20Pulse%20Report_Bay%20Area_20090427.pdf

A more comprehensive report will be released in the fall (September/October).

And my apologies to Scott for any missteps! You and your community of readers here are exactly the people whose insight and thoughts on the report we are most looking forward to.

Now, aren't you ashamed of yourself, Mr. Walters?
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2 comments:

Laura Sue said...

Well, are you?

Scott Walters said...

Sure -- too quick with the snark.

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