Ketchum Canada has released the latest in its quarterly Philanthropic Trends e-newsletter, with the most recent issue dedicated to new technology use by
Canadian charities. You can find it here.

Charitable organizations in BC and Ontario wrestling with the implications of the new Harmonized Sales Tax now have access to new resources developed by the Canada Revenue Agency. They include:
A webinar on the application of the GST/HST to charities
A GST/HST checklist for charities

Finally, an absolutely vital (and provocative!) speech from the opening session of the League of American Orchestras‘ 2010 conference, by Russell Willis Taylor. Here’s how National Arts Strategies describes the speech: “There are no crises in the arts – there are crises in arts organizations as they are currently constructed. Audiences are not shrinking, they are growing, but they are not necessarily interested in consuming all the art our member organizations produce. Between 1970 and 2010, the number of arts organizations grew from 2,700 to 27,000 but the number of people funding them, and attending their events, did not grow at all. In this keynote address delivered at the joint annual conferences of  Chorus America and The League of American Orchestras, Russell Willis Taylor, President and CEO of National Arts Strategies, explores the extraordinary opportunities that arts organizations have today.” You can find it here.

It’s the season for annual convenings of arts service organizations – and, earlier this month, the League of American Orchestras hosted its annual conference in Atlanta, GA. To prepare constituents for the conference, to engage a broad audience of non-attenders, and to document the discussions at the conference, the League is hosting a highly interactive website here, where you can read blog postings, check out a lively twitter feed, and post your own comments as well.

Hats off the the Association of British Orchestras ,which has just posted a new briefing document that “highlights the extensive range of education work our orchestras deliver in schools and in the community”. “Unlocking Potential: Education and the Orchestra” is “the latest in a series of briefings being produced by the ABO to raise the profile of British orchestras” – and it tells an inspiring story. You can download the document here.

Next Wednesday, June 16 at 3:45 p.m. Eastern, the League of American Orchestras will be live streaming the Opening Session of its national conference – and the topics being discussed will have relevance to orchestras all over North America.

From what we’ve been seeing on the League’s pre-conference weblog, the discussion is likely to be both provocative and inspirational – and we strongly encourage you to take part! Just go to the conference blogsite and click on the video player at the appointed hour.

Last fall, Orchestras Canada member orchestras were offered a 3 month free trial membership in the League of American Orchestras – and many of you signed up!  The League has now upped the ante, offering Canadian orchestras 18 months’ membership in the League for the price of 12 months.  A further incentive:  orchestras who take up the offer will be able to register people for the League’s national conference in Atlanta in June for only $100.

We’ve got a number of recommendations this week:
The March/April issue of the League of American Orchestras’ Symphony Magazine is now available on-line, and you can find it here.

Community engagement is increasingly important to orchestras of all sizes and kinds, yet it can be challenging to measure its impact and effectiveness.  Two years ago, the League of American Orchestras tested and released a “civic engagement” tool, designed to help orchestras self-evaluate their work in this area.  It’s now available free of charge – and it comes complete with videos, a podcasts and even the opportunity for free consulting.  You can find it here.

We’ve got three recommendations this week.

First of all, some moderately provocative thoughts by Kennedy Center CEO Michael Kaiser on ticket pricing for performing arts organizations, on the Huffington Post, here.

Next up, some good, common sense marketing “new year’s resolutions”, courtesy of the team at Arts Consulting Group.  You can find them here.
Even better, you can sign up on-line to get their monthly newsletter in your inbox.

Finally, the League of American Orchestras is now making its award-winning Symphony magazine available on-line.  In the perky communique from the League, they state

“To celebrate the arrival of 2010, we’re introducing SymphonyOnline. Every new issue of the award-winning Symphony magazine is now available online – with all the same in-depth reports, provocative essays, and cutting-edge research that you love – plus additional content not found in the print issue.  Read, see, and hear Symphony wherever you are – at work, home, or on your iPhone. Live links, audio and video, and the ability to forward on your favorite article are just some of the exciting features of SymphonyOnline.”  You can find it all here.

If you’re interested in either general trends around arts participation and attendance – or if you’d like some more specific insights into how these trends are playing out in the orchestral world – then this week’s recommendations are for you.

In June 2009, the (U.S.) National Endowment for the Arts published Arts Participation 2008:  Highlights from a National Survey.  This report reflects early findings from the most recent Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, the fifth such study done by the NEA since 1982.  You can download a copy of the study here.

Several months prior to the release of the study, the League of American Orchestras commissioned a team of consultants from McKinsey to analyze and reconcile available data on orchestra audiences, with a goal of helping American orchestras better understand their audiences—now and into the future.  We believe this is important work with implications for Canadian orchestras, and we have posted three League-authored documents about it on the Orchestras Canada website here.

Every September, we send out membership renewal notices to our professional, community and youth orchestra members – and we’ve got a couple of particularly good, time-sensitive incentives to offer to our members this year!  While the details are included in the renewal packages as well, we’ll take this opportunity to highlight some of this year’s special features:

For all of our professional, community and youth orchestra members, we’re delighted to announce a new partnership with the League of American Orchestras, through which your orchestra can get a free, three-month trial membership in the League as an additional benefit of OC membership.  The trial period runs from October 1-December 31 – so an early reply is requested.

For our professional orchestra members, we’re pleased to announce the opportunity to take part in a pair of research projects: 

Taking the Pulse:  an economic snapshot is a quick survey instrument we have designed to help our community form robust responses to the current economic downturn.

Human Resources in Canadian Orchestras is a new study we’re launching, in partnership with the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, that will help codify pay scales, benefits, and position descriptions for key leadership and administrative roles in Canadian orchestras.
 
Watch for your membership package in the mail this week.

The League of American Orchestras has recently launched a new resource centre on its website entitled Economic Crossroads, collating helpful materials from a range of sources on dealing with challenging economic times.  We could replicate the initiative – or we could give credit where credit is due!  We’ve chosen the latter option, and you can link to the League’s new page here.