What do we need in the quest for building strong leadership in the arts community? How do we think of leadership as a process for all arts participants and not just a program for a selected few? And what lessons can we learn from the teachings of civil rights leader Ella Baker to help us build a leader-full movement within the arts community? These are the questions informing the 2018 conference keynote by Carlton Turner, whose own transformative approach to leadership speaks to several imperatives of the community arts education field, including the need to restore leadership practices that build trust and counter long-term, systemic inequities.

An equitable future starts with an authentic commitment to honoring and fostering youth leadership. In many of our communities, young people are finding artistic, transformative ways to move the needle on social justice. Community arts educators need to recognize that work and, when possible, find ways to nurture its future success. In the lead up to the National Young Artists' Summit in at Guild Conference in 2018, we spoke to three young artists and activists who are leading movements for change in Baltimore and beyond and who are engaged in the planning of the summit. They discuss their own activist work and how adults can provide authentic support, how arts educators have been involved in fostering their leadership, and how the November youth summit can serve as a platform for youth-led processes of community change.

This booklet introduces how a community school of the arts can be developed within local communities and brings together a wide variety of community schools experiences. 

Digital marketing has become a cornerstone of MacPhail Center for Music’s marketing efforts. In this session learn how MacPhail employs its digital marketing strategy to boost enrollment, donations, and brand through the use of Google Ads, email marketing, and social media. In addition, measuring success of the various efforts through the use metrics will be discussed. Presented by MacPhail Center for Music president and COO Paul Babcock, marketing manager Cassie Noll, and FRWD at Bain expert Joel Pykkonen.

With the addition of Millennials to the workforce, the corporate giving landscape has changed drastically, creating new opportunities for nonprofits to bolster both their corporate and individual giving income. This webinar identifies these changes and highlights some ways small, medium, and large arts nonprofits can position themselves to benefit.

Of the dozens of revenue sources and fundraising programs a nonprofit may have, a corporate philanthropy program is an important staple of every organization from grassroots budgets as small as $100,000 to mega budgets as large as $100 million and beyond. In addition to corporate philanthropy budgets, corporations have hundreds or thousands of employees whose passions and support drives giving policy. With the addition of Millennials to the workforce, employee-driven philanthropy has become the norm, providing a unique opportunity for nonprofits to not only build their corporate giving portfolios, but also their individual giving portfolios. Why invest resources in corporate giving? Because significant corporate giving, some that directly connects to individual giving, can be attained no matter your organization’s budget size or capacity. This article will describe key components of corporate giving and take a close look at powerful strategies for leveraging these gifts.

Practitioners and researchers continue to observe misalignment between, on the one hand, communities of color that are championing new models for social change and, on the other hand, a predominantly white funding community that maintains the status quo.

Prompted by this reality and by conversation at the 2017 Conference for Community Arts Education, in May 2018 the National Guild’s ALAANA Network held a video chat that brought together Guild members and funders for a conversation centered on the growth and development of communities of color. Led by Lara Davis, co-ambassador for the ALAANA Network and arts education manager at the City of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, the conversation focused on the state of funding inequality in POC communities, examples of successful paradigm shifts, and the strategies ALAANA organizations and Guild members can use to change the dynamics of scarcity and exclusion.

This article is adapted from the ALAANA event and includes insights from Arianna Cisneros, Durell Cooper, and Deron Hall.

In 2018, social media is a key component of a comprehensive fundraising strategy. Attracting new, young donors often requires innovative forms of engagement that are driven by reciprocal connection, engaging content, and the empowerment of others to spread your message. Social media can help achieve those goals. However, many community arts education organizations struggle to gain momentum in social media fundraising campaigns. Beyond that, if they do find success, it can be difficult to integrate social media effectively into an overall strategy.

In this article, we break down some of the fundamental considerations when asking the question: how can social media play a role in our fundraising effort?

How, over the long term, can we continue to feel hopeful about what the future will hold? How can we draw on our own strengths and capabilities, as well as those of our co-workers and community members, to build a sustainable vision for hope and progress? Building on her extensive experience in leadership development, Ronnie Brooks shares her vision for how leaders in arts education can draw hope from their work and from their community.

Managing conflict can be one of the most difficult, and frustrating, aspects of effectivel leadership. But Carol Zee argues that once you understand the fundamentals, conflict mediation is a powerful tool for strengthening your work culture and advancing your organizational goals. In this Toolkit article, Zee offers real-world examples of effective mediation and provides strategies for adding mediation tactics into your leadership approach.