Starting and Non-Profit Arts Organization

Craftspeople, hobbyists, students, teachers, and crafts dealers will find this an authoritative and thorough source of information on selling in today's marketplace. Drawing upon profiles of established artisans and the helpful insights of small-business entrepreneurs, this unique guide not only gives tactics for promoting and marketing crafts, but also provides the necessary forms for getting a business up and running. The book details how to network effectively and build a customer base, listing organizations, business associations, and crafts publications that offer further sources of information. Filled with easy-to-understand examples and sample forms and contracts, this book provides the essential tools for prospering in the crafts business, as well as the resources needed to keep savvy as business grows.

On-line tutorial on starting a theatre company, including developing a mission statement, steps to forming a nonprofit organization, sample articles of incorporation and bylaws, and tips on budgets, developing audience, press, and marketing strategies.

A marketing resource for non-profit arts organizations. Online tutorial, Practical Lessons in Marketing includes advice on maintaining a press list and cultivating media relationships, sample releases and worksheets, and tips on developing publicity and marketing strategies.

A paid listing of AFP members and organizations that provide products and services to the nonprofit community. Includes providers of grantwriting services, management consulting, development assistance, leadership development, board and staff development, and many other services related to fundraising.

The AFP web site posts information and links to resources on a range of fundraising topics. The online Resource Center includes a searchable card catalog and fundraising dictionary. AFP also posts a Code of Ethical Principles and Standards of Professional Practice for fundraising, a Donor Bill of Rights, and a list of frequently asked questions about ethical fundraising.

The Blues Foundation web site lists local blues societies in towns and cities across the country and internationally that are Blues Foundation members. The site also provides information and templates for starting a blues society in your own community.

This kit contains a wealth of how-to guides on developing not-for-profit management systems. Subjects include getting started, creating fiscal systems, program planning, personnel management, fundraising, and much more.

Online database of over 200 professionals in the state of Illinois.

The Donors Forum Library is the Midwest's largest collection of resources on philanthropy, nonprofit management and fundraising. A cooperating collection of The Foundation Center, the Library holds more than 2,500 volumes focused on grantmaking, fundraising and nonprofit management in the Chicago area and throughout the United States. The Library's collection includes: extensive materials on proposal writing, fundraising, board governance and all aspects of nonprofit management; private and corporate foundation directories; grants lists; foundation annual reports; giving guidelines; periodicals on philanthropy and nonprofit management; files on domestic and foreign grantmakers and nonprofit organizations; annual reports, giving guidelines, press releases, newsletters, magazine and newspaper articles; and a job binder containing open positions in nonprofit organizations.

The Donors Forum web site provides an online tutorial for grantseekers, including individual artists, from preliminary self-assessment and development of a fundraising strategy through advanced research tools and donor contacts.

Independent artists and small arts organizations are eligible for membership in Fractured Atlas. Member services include fiscal sponsorship, grants, and access to health insurance, information, publicity, subsidized rehearsal space rental, workshops, and technical support. Subsidized legal services/consultations available in 501c3 filing, contracts, non-profit incorporation and federal trademark application and prosecution.

Nonprofit Online News has been in continual publication since April 1997. It provides a commercial free stream of tightly edited, well annotated news and resources related to emerging issues in the nonprofit world, with a particular emphasis on communication and new technology.