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Small not for profit community Theatre and Arts centre

Has anyone done a business model exercise for a small not for profit community theatre and arts centre? The organisation is funded 50% by grants but this is now under threat.

The organisation is governed by a voluntary board of directors who are keen to consider ways of commercialising the organisation.

Currently the grant providers determine most of the activities provided. This leads to a triple bottom line of people, planet and profit. I say profit on the basis of having to try and match costs with revenue. Most activities are not commercially viable.Without grant aid the current operation would be unsustainable. Obviously such an organisation does not have a profit driven culture and this will have to change.

If anyone has experience of such a venture and has used a business model exercise to consider alternative strategies/models, I would be grateful for you sharing any insights which deem relevant.

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Permalink Reply by Bart Doorneweert on February 13, 2012 at 9:14pm

I’m not very much aware of the customer segments the specific theatre and arts nfp is trying to serve, but I have recently started with advising a startup that intends to fuse consumption and charity. The idea is to provide cotton producers in India the opportunity to profile their community projects through swing tags on the apparel made from their cotton. Customers can use QR code scanning on smart phones to find out what kind of projects they can support and tip their favorite at the till when they pay for their product. (they are currently contending at the Unreasonable Institute’s social venture mentoring program so if you can help out please support J https://marketplace.unreasonableinstitute.org/project/the-tipping-p...)

Our interest was catalyzed when we learned of Panera Bread’s project called Panera Care. Basically they advise customers on what to pay for their meal, with the explanation that any surplus paid above that advice will go into supporting the meals of families that can’t pay the price. About 60% of customers pay the price, and 20% even pay more, leaving the other 20% with an option for a free meal. Because the project is community based, there is a lot of incentive with customers to keep the project afloat, and control opportunistic behavior. It seems to be working out very well. I’ve written a blog post about it here: http://wp.me/p1GXjP-4w

Would there be room at the theatre and arts center to experiment with such type of revenue mechanism? For instance do you know what part of your customers are more wealthy, and would they be willing to pay more for their tickets to sponsor less financially lucrative events or the less wealthy segment of your customers?