Engineering Management at the Board Level

I’m the board chair for the Live Music Project. It’s a fantastic organization doing excellent work to serve the classical music community. We help people find just the right concert for them, and build meaningful connections between organizations and audience members. Seriously. They send each other love notes because of us. This year we went …

Non-Profit Software Platforms: The Time Has Come

News recently broke that a new, non-profit alternative to Uber and Lyft is launching in Austin. The city kicked the companies out for a variety of reasons, including low pay, labor practices, the usual. Instead of rejecting technological advances, or trying to turn back the clock to a past taxi industry (as some try to …

Kickstarter’s 5% Pledge

This week, Kickstarter announced their reincorporation as a benefit corporation. They’re not a non-profit, but this is still a significant move for the company. A key part of their new charter is a pledge to contribute 5% of their profits to charity. There’s a certain symmetry to that: Kickstarter users pay 5% of their revenue …

Speaking at the Dance/NYC Symposium

Sydney Skybetter is hosting something really fun at the Dance/NYC symposium on February 22nd of next year. Instead of a panel discussion where 3-5 people get rambly for an hour, Sydney is getting bunch of his ‘culture warriors’ together (including me) and grilling us one by one. I think he’ll get better stuff out of …

Dump Your Vendor: DIY Tech for Non-Profits

A lot of non-profits have problems that sound like this: We’re paying almost a whole salary, if not more, for this third party technology that supports an essential part of our organization, but we’re really unhappy with it. It doesn’t really do what we need it to do, and our staff spends a lot of …

How Non-Profits Can Learn From Tech Startups

There’s a lot non-profits can learn from the tech industry. Of course, when I say that, sometimes people think I mean that non-profits should emulate startups and their culture, complete with the venture capital, the ping pong, and the gender equity issues. Unsurprisingly, that’s not what I mean. For more on the tech sector’s issues …

The Met in HD, MOOCs, and the Distributors of the Future

There’s a fascinating discussion going on right now. It’s about what the arts sector will look like for the next couple of generations. The most recent chapter was started by Michael Kaiser, picked up by Diane Ragsdale, and then continued by Adam Huttler. Basically, Michael is arguing for increased efficiency in our organizations (better marketing …

Why Don’t I Have a Non-Profit?

I’m an entrepreneurial young person in the arts in New York City. I produce events large and small, have experience and expertise in the management of a non-profit, particularly in grantwriting, and all the other skills necessary to create and lead that kind of an organization. I have a core group of collaborators that could …