Events
The Arts & Business Council of Chicago convenes a monthly morning gathering for arts administrators to discuss topics and share ideas relevant to the business of art. Breakfast Club supports leaders and staff of nonprofit arts organizations through informal peer-to-peer sharing, casual facilitated conversation, and information dissemination.
Join us Tuesday, May 1st from 8:30-9:30am.
Topic: Making Money
Say it again for the people in the back. Nonprofits can make money! The nonprofit sector often carries a stigma of unprofitable, but business planning is just as important for nonprofit organizations as it is for any business or corporation. Sustainable nonprofits don’t wait around for the next big grant or angel donor. They create several diverse revenue streams to support the organization’s financial well-being. Join Breakfast Club: Making Money to connect with peers over successes and strategies in creating mission-driven generated revenues.
A cereal bar, tea, and coffee will be provided.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Price: $5.00
Cancellation Policy:
The Arts & Business Council of Chicago reserves the right to cancel or re-schedule any Breakfast Club for which registrants will receive a full refund.
No refunds are issued for cancellations. No refunds are issued for “no shows.”
BOARD MEMBER TRAINING
Topics include:
- Structures of arts organizations and their boards—staffing, income, and programming models
- Life cycle of arts organizations, from the founding board to the working board and the governing board
- Relationship between the board and staff, and challenges posed by staffing and board transitions
Price: $150
Advance registration is required as space is limited. We will not accept walk-up registrations. For details on registering for this training, please contact Noemi Garcia at ngarcia@artsbiz-chicago.org.
Meet the Boards is a networking session for On BOARD candidates and arts organization boards to meet and learn about each other. Attendees discuss the mission and history of the organization, current and upcoming initiatives, and how new board members can contribute to the organization.
Interested organizations must fill out an arts client On BOARD application – the deadline for which is April 13, 2018.
Meet the Boards is by invitation only.
Tony Award-winning Steppenwolf Theatre Company was born from an idea a couple of former high school classmates had to produce a play in a suburban church. Four-time Grammy award-winning ensemble, Eighth Blackbird, have called Chicago home since 1996. With the right foundation in place, the growth potential for Chicago arts organizations just like yours is immense.
In Arts Administration 101, smARTscope Consultant Lisa Tylke will guide emerging arts organizations through two key pillars of stability: understanding the roles and responsibilities of a board of directors and concept development for the artistic and administrative visions of organizations. These pillars are vital for mastering the basics; understanding who you are, what you do, and how you do it.
This Learning Lab is most appropriate for emerging organizations that have:
- Unpaid or stipend-payed staff and artists
- A few sources of contributed income
- Hands-on Boards of Directors that fulfill administrative roles and do minimal fundraising
- Average budgets of $0 – $100,000
- A strong desire to grow and develop!
Price: $65
BOARD MEMBER TRAINING
Speakers:
- Michael Clark, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP
Learning objectives include:
- Non-governing boards and committees
- Laws governing nonprofit boards of directors
- Bylaws
- The role of the director: responsibilities & restrictions
- Role of the lawyer on the board
- Fiduciary duties
- Conflict of interest
- Directors & Officers insurance
- Contracts
- Strategic Planning
Price: $150
For details on registering for this training, please contact Noemi Garcia at ngarcia@artsbiz-chicago.org.
BOARD MEMBER TRAINING
Speaker: Charles Katzenmeyer, VP Institutional Advancement, The Field Museum
Learning objectives include:
- Funding landscape for nonprofit arts organizations and sector-wide trends in giving
- Defining sources of philanthropic support
- The role board members play in securing funds
- How to structure the “ask”
- Creating a donor cultivation calendar
- Identifying ways to get the “get”
Price: $150
Advance registration is required as space is limited. We will not accept walk-up registrations. For details on registering for this training, please contact Noemi Garcia at ngarcia@artsbiz-chicago.org.
A superb board member brings a wealth of time, treasure, and talent to an organization. So why do we continue to evaluate and prospect board members strictly on financial capacity? If a board of directors is to reflect the community it serves, the sector must consider more equitable models of assessment.
Arts & Business Council of Chicago Executive Director Kristin Larsen will present her innovative, point-based, assessment model for boards of directors. Larsen – with A&BC Board Governance Chair and COO of HBR Consulting, Evan Trent – will guide you through using game theory and a points-based evaluation system to reduce anxiety around giving capacities and create an equitable board of directors that is welcoming to marginalized groups.
In practice, Larsen has seen this fresh accountability system increase committee participation, mobilize current board members to prospect new members and donors, and ignite a sense of self-governance that reduces stress and time for the Executive Director. You’ll leave this lab with an action plan to define the entire scope of what your board of directors can bring to the organization and design your own point-based assessment model that’s not all about the give/get.
BOARD MEMBER TRAINING
Speaker: Megan Angle, CPA, Porte Brown LLC; A&BC Core Instructor
Learning objectives include:
- Financial oversight and safeguarding of assets and nonprofit status
- Policies: conflict of interest, whistleblower, document retention & destruction, executive compensation, etc.
- Understanding nonprofit financial statements
- Taxes including payroll and UBIT
- Filing with the IRS and other government entities
- What occurs during an audit and when you need one
- Managing cash flow
Price: $150
Advance registration is required as space is limited. We will not accept walk-up registrations.
For details on registering for this training, please contact Noemi Garcia at ngarcia@artsbiz-chicago.org.
BOARD MEMBER TRAINING
Presenter: Kristin Larsen, Executive Director, Arts & Business Council of Chicago
Panelists:
- Seth Boustead, Executive Director, Access Contemporary Music
- Erica Hawkinson, Marketing & Operations Director, Green Star Movement
- Marilyn He, Board Member, Access Contemporary Music; On BOARD Alum
- Ben van Loon, Board Member, High Concept Labs; On BOARD Alum
Topics include:
- Structures of arts organizations and their boards—staffing, income, and programming models
- Life cycle of arts organizations, from the founding board to the working board and the governing board
- Relationship between the board and staff, and challenges posed by staffing and board transitions
Price: $150
Advance registration is required as space is limited. We will not accept walk-up registrations. For details on registering for this training, please contact Noemi Garcia at ngarcia@artsbiz-chicago.org.
Meet the Boards is a networking session for On BOARD candidates and arts organization boards to meet and learn about each other. Attendees discuss the mission and history of the organization, current and upcoming initiatives, and how new board members can contribute to the organization.
Interested organizations must fill out an arts client On BOARD application – the deadline for which is August 17, 2018.
Meet the Boards is by invitation only.
BOARD MEMBER TRAINING
Learning objectives include:
- Non-governing boards and committees
- Laws governing nonprofit boards of directors
- Bylaws
- The role of the director: responsibilities & restrictions
- Role of the lawyer on the board
- Fiduciary duties
- Conflict of interest
- Directors & Officers insurance
- Contracts
- Strategic Planning
Price: $150
For details on registering for this training, please contact Noemi Garcia at ngarcia@artsbiz-chicago.org.
Leaders in non-profit organizations – board members, executive directors and everyone else – should be comfortable asking for money. But, too few of them are actively doing it.
In this fast-paced, interactive session, fundraising veterans Christopher Jabin and Charles Katzenmeyer will offer a practical framework for identifying and cultivating prospective donors, engaging them in the work of your organization, getting the meeting, and finally, making the ask.
Participants in this Learning Lab will understand how to:
- Identify prospective donors for a non-profit organization
- Build cultivation efforts that help move distant prospects toward being top prospects
- Request and structure a solicitation meeting
- Make the ask and answer potential objections
- Close a gift and begin donor stewardship
BOARD MEMBER TRAINING
Speaker: Megan Angle, CPA, Porte Brown LLC; A&BC Core Instructor
Learning objectives include:
- Financial oversight and safeguarding of assets and nonprofit status
- Policies: conflict of interest, whistleblower, document retention & destruction, executive compensation, etc.
- Understanding nonprofit financial statements
- Taxes including payroll and UBIT
- Filing with the IRS and other government entities
- What occurs during an audit and when you need one
- Managing cash flow
Price: $150
Advance registration is required as space is limited. We will not accept walk-up registrations.
For details on registering for this training, please contact Noemi Garcia at ngarcia@artsbiz-chicago.org.
BOARD MEMBER TRAINING
Speaker: Charles Katzenmeyer, VP Institutional Advancement, The Field Museum
Learning objectives include:
- Funding landscape for nonprofit arts organizations and sector-wide trends in giving
- Defining sources of philanthropic support
- The role board members play in securing funds
- How to structure the “ask”
- Creating a donor cultivation calendar
- Identifying ways to get the “get”
Price: $150
Advance registration is required as space is limited. We will not accept walk-up registrations. For details on registering for this training, please contact Noemi Garcia at ngarcia@artsbiz-chicago.org.
BOARD MEMBER TRAINING
Presenter: Kristin Larsen, Executive Director, Arts & Business Council of Chicago
Topics include:
- Structures of arts organizations and their boards—staffing, income, and programming models
- Life cycle of arts organizations, from the founding board to the working board and the governing board
- Relationship between the board and staff, and challenges posed by staffing and board transitions
Price: $150
Advance registration is required as space is limited. We will not accept walk-up registrations. For details on registering for this training, please contact Noemi Garcia at ngarcia@artsbiz-chicago.org.
Nonprofit organizations are born from creative ideas and passions for social good. To execute your mission and create real impact, you need to have a business plan. A business plan is your guide to defining your organization’s identity, developing solutions to your problems, and setting and measuring goals. You don’t need an MBA to run a successful organization, but you do need a plan to manage finances, be accountable to your vision, organize your team, and generate revenue and control expenditures to keep your ideas and passions alive. “Building the Nonprofit Business Plan” will help you do just that!
Instructor: Irv Michaels, Founder – Michaels Consulting, Ltd.
Click here to read Irv’s bio.
Learning objectives include:
- Define your identity in the marketplace and your “problem worth solving”
- Gain a clear understanding of your product / service and its relevance in the market
- Explore financial aspects of the plan: developing generated revenues and necessary expenses
- Learn the importance of setting goals, measuring results and responding to inevitable changes
Presenter Bio:
Irv Michaels majored in accounting at college where his interest in the arts grew. His first job post-college was at Chess Records, where he worked as an administrator and nascent record producer. This led him to the intersection of traditional and creative businesses. He practiced at a local CPA firm, attaining senior partner status, serving entrepreneurial businesses. He 1986, Irv founded Michaels Consulting, Ltd., providing financial, business development, technology and human resources advice to graphic design firms, architecture firms and other creative organizations. The firm’s focus is to help creative businesses thrive.
Certifications: C.P.A.; Strategic LivePlan (business planning application) Expert Advisor; QuickBooks ProAdvisor; TSheets Pro Certified
Memberships: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; Illinois CPA Society; Chicago Creative Coalition; Art Institute of Chicago; Business Solutions Network