More Reflections on Catalyst 8 and Philanthropy...

The Long Center for the Performing Arts- Austin, TX

[photo (by WDFloyd): The Long Center  I took this photo right after seeing the screening of The Big Bends, a short film which received a Boost subsidy to be shown in the Rollins Theater and which was in Sundance.] 








 In my previous post, I made a reference to the 3M matching grant offered to Catalyst 8 last year.   I've copied the text of the press release (issue last spring), which reads as follows:

The Long Center is pleased to announce that 3M has awarded the Long Center’s Catalyst 8 a $20,000 membership matching grant. The membership challenge begins immediately with the goal of 65 new members in just 8 months!

In an effort to promote young professionals supporting the arts, 3M will match all membership gifts to Catalyst 8 dollar-for-dollar until December 31st, 2010, up to $20,000. 3M has been very impressed with the growth and impact of Catalyst 8 and wanted to reward the good work the group does through the “Boost” Rental Subsidy fund, which is where the funds will be applied.

“Cultivating younger donors helps ensure that we will continue to have a vibrant arts community in Austin for years to come,” says Russell Bridges, 3M Government & Community Affairs Manager. “3M congratulates Catalyst 8 on their past successes, and we are excited to be partnering with them to benefit the Long Center and to assist emerging arts groups to have access to its world class facilities.”
Join today and double the impact of your gift!

More about Catalyst 8

Who are we?
A group committed to “making it happen” by spreading awareness about the Long Center and the arts, providing opportunities for social access and involvement, and developing future leaders in the community.

What do we do?
100% of funds raised by Catalyst 8 fuel the Boost Program. Boost awards rental subsidies to Austin area emergent and underserved arts groups. Boost offsets costs so that a wider diversity of performances and audiences can experience The Long Center’s world class stages. Since its inception in 2007, Boost has awarded 24 arts groups more than $40,000 in rental subsidies.

I think you can see why we were very excited about meeting and then exceeding the challenge of recruiting 65 members.  Moreover, it was a lot of fun working to meet the goal, and I ended up learning a few interesting lessons about membership recruiting during the process. 


What impresses me most from 3M's statements is the awareness of the importance of engaging younger Austinites in arts philanthropy, and the importance of said engagement as a foundation for the future of Austin's arts and culture (which I would argue directly impact the larger issues of quality of life and economic development).  Of course, I think the appeal of Catalyst 8 was that it was an active donor group which provided opportunities for real engagement with The Long Center, artists, community members interested in supporting the arts, and peers who shared common interests in helping to build up elements of the Austin art ecosystem.   I think these engagement and participatory opportunities provided a lot of appeal to members (I did a lot of recruiting as membership chair, and this was a major point of attraction).   YMBL and HYP, which offer a tremendous amount of engagement opportunities, are some additional examples of groups which have been very popular and successful (and have done a lot of good work).   I think that they both have the strength of letting members get their hands dirty helping out with the very projects which the members support via fundraising efforts. 

Community and civic engagement is an area in which I have a lot of interest, and I'm working on more postings about the importance I see in fostering opportunities for people to become directly involved with charities, non-profits, and philanthropy in general.   Important not just as a fundraising tool, but also as a mechanism for building communities and the community in general.  Thus, you have my intense interest working on the new arts project to which I alluded in the last post.  

I'd write more, but I'm a little fried from a couple of days of intense lawyering, and I'm very ready to head downtown for SXSW Interactive shenanigans.