Here is a picture of a man dressed as a tree. It has nothing to do with our goals, I just wanted to make this blog entry more interesting.
Here are our current goals. Please provide feedback, comments, suggestions, additions.
1. Build a stronger financial situation Building a healthier financial situation will allow The Cedar to meet short-term operational needs as well as ensure The Cedar’s sustainability and longer-term success. Consistently growing our base of individual and foundation support will a) increase our ongoing “building renovation” funds as part of our operating expenses - over time, the limited funding we can allocate to building maintenance will cease to cover costs of building degeneration b) develop and build relationships with individuals and corporate and foundation grantors to better put The Cedar in a position to launch a capital campaign in two years c) increase our annual budget to allow for resources that will help us move towards our longer-term organizational goals including outreach to grow and diversify audiences, take more risks on lesser-known artists, and ability to pay larger performance fees for higher profile artists who serve specific audiences.
Progress in 2007: After running a deficit for nine years in a row, The Cedar finished 2007 in the black. The Cedar took a number of steps in 2007 to put the organization on track to secure its financial future. We changed accounting methods, implemented more comprehensive quarterly financial evaluations, and maximized human resources by shifting responsibilities. The Cedar increased charitable revenues from both individuals and private and corporate foundations by an aggregate 60% since 2005. In 2007, The Cedar raised over $100,000 in annual fund revenues, a 61% increase from 2006, and, in just 18 months, tripled the number of individuals and families donating to the organization. In 2007, The Cedar’s implemented mission-driven booking strategies that increased ticket revenues by 29% from 2006.
Goal for 2008: In 2008, The Cedar’s Executive Director will move from a part-time to a full-time position. Though this will increase organizational expenses, it will also free time for the Executive Director to help pursue additional revenue sources in strategeic booking and program development, build and create partnerships with individual and corporate/private foundation donors, and maximize operational efficiency. In 2008, The Cedar hopes to build on last year’s success and increase renewable, individual support and develop new partnerships with more corporate and private foundations. The Cedar will launch a new initiative to seek support and funding through sponsorship opportunities.
2. Increase number of people served Despite The Cedar’s recent success in growing its audience, many concerts are performed with empty seats in the hall. Attracting more audience members (either through selling more tickets or giving away tickets to targeted community members) will maximize the number of people benefiting from the services of The Cedar, increase exposure for Cedar artists, potentially increase earned ticket revenue, and increase the number of communities that know about our organization.
Progess in 2007: The Cedar implemented a better system to track audience fluctuations and event frequency. To build audience numbers, we booked an increased number of shows in 2007 that appeal to larger audiences and an increased number of shows that appeal to new audiences. In an effort to reach out and “tell our story” to a wider audience, The Cedar took out its first regular advertisement in The City Pages; The Cedar now holds a regular advertisement in popular weeklies City Pages and Vita.mn. In 2007, The Cedar started printing its newsletter in color to appeal to more people. The Cedar also evaluated its web presence and worked toward maximizing the effectiveness of its website through minor re-designs and by implementing annual fund campaign webpages.
Goal for 2008: In 2008, The Cedar will use survey results to put in place strategies and initiatives that will respond to our current audiences’ desires and reach out to communities we don’t currently reach. Potential initiatives include offering ticket discounts to encourage repeat attendance and to heavily advertise targeted Cedar shows to audience members who have expressed interest in a specific genre. We are also developing press contacts to increase exposure of the organization. In 2008, The Cedar will undergo a more comprehensive evaluation of its website and determine how to maximize web effectiveness and how to best use all available technical tools for marketing and outreach.
3. Attract and serve more diverse audiences The Cedar hopes to increase the diversity of its audiences by booking more artists who attract diverse audiences and who attract targeted, underserved audiences. As part of our mission to promote inter-cultural appreciation, we are striving to attract first or second-generation immigrants and native Minnesotans to the same performances. The Cedar also seeks to effectively reach out to the Twin Cities’ newer immigrant communities including East African, Latin, and Eastern European and to continue developing partnerships with community organizations to reach targeted audiences.
Progress in 2007: In spring 2007, The Cedar surveyed our audiences to collect feedback and gauge our audience demographics. The Cedar put in place strategies to increase age diversity in its audience by booking musicians who attract younger fans. The Cedar’s location neighboring the West Bank of the University of Minnesota and next to Augsburg College puts it in a good position to attract a college-aged crowd thus exposing a younger audience to international and local performing arts. Performances that were booked with the intention to build younger and college-aged audiences include Black-eyed Snakes, Dean and Britta, Lavender Diamond, El Perro Del Mar, and Andrew Bird. The Cedar also made progress in appealing to specific ethnic and immigrant communities with events such as a concert performance by Marcel Khalife, a Lebanese musician; The Cedar partnered with Mizna, a local Arab-American community organization, for the event.
Goal for 2008: In 2008, The Cedar would like to develop strategies and execute initiatives based on information gathered from the surveys with the purpose to diversify our audiences. We will evaluate our audience diversity related to race, income, geography, cultural identification, age, and identification with the GLBT community. We will determine which demographics are not being served by our work and develop strategies to engage these audiences. Potential action items include booking artists from communities missing from our audiences, giving away tickets to community centers that serve communities missing from our audiences, advertising in targeted local newspapers, adding newsletter drop sites to geographic areas in the Twin Cities from which we don’t draw audience members, and building an advisory committee of individuals from specific demographics to serve as a liaison between these communities and The Cedar.
4. Implement building and facility improvements The Cedar’s building is old and in need of repair. Because of a tight annual budget, facility upgrades are overdue. Increasing our annual operating budget will allow The Cedar to allocate more funds for building repair and maintenance. Executing needed capital improvements will provide a more pleasant experience for audience members, potentially make our facilities more handicap accessible, and make our building more attractive for the local community.
Progress in 2007: The Cedar made steps toward improving the physical condition of our building; we purchased new furniture for the lobby and purchased and installed a stereo that broadcasts the audio from the live show in the lobby. We also and tuckpointed and painted the building’s exterior.
Goal for 2008: With help of a capital grant from Saint Paul Travelers, The Cedar will replace its old, worn, and outdated sound system. This will provide a better quality experience for both the musicians and the audience. The Cedar will seek funding for the restoration of the historical marquee on top of the building which will restore a prominent landmark and will better advertise the venue. The Cedar will once again increase annual general operating money to be used towards building repair and maintenance. Completion of current operational goals will put The Cedar in a position to effectively execute a capital campaign which will allow for necessary capital improvements and renovations.
5. Increase focus on access and education The Cedar has always kept ticket prices low, offered opportunity to earn admission to shows through volunteering, and offered educational workshops throughout the year as part of its programming. We hope to expand these efforts by facilitating more in-school workshops with middle and high school students and offering more complimentary tickets to targeted community members who will benefit most from specific programs.
Progress in 2007: The Cedar has started to distribute more tickets free-of-charge to community centers and targeted households thus increasing access and providing opportunities to families and individuals who could benefit most from specific programs. To increase focus on education, The Cedar has sought funding to underwrite the commissioning of several international artists who will be performing at The Cedar to administer instructional workshops in local, urban middle and high school classrooms. In 2007, The Cedar developed new partnerships with Project SUCCESS and MacPhail Center for Music. MacPhail Center for Music offers music lessons to students of all ages; their students come from 220 zip codes and seventy percent are students of color. Project SUCCESS serves local, underprivileged youth and their families by offering access to the arts through free concert tickets and transportation to the events. The Cedar has committed to providing 50 to 300 complimentary tickets to one show per month to Project SUCCESS. In January, The Cedar exercised these new partnerships, serving both Project SUCCESS and MacPhail’s audiences, through the execution of a successful event with The Carolina Chocolate drops, an African-American stringband from the south. The Cedar commissioned The Carolina Chocolate Drops to expand its work in the Twin Cities; they not only performed their scheduled concert at The Cedar but also administered free workshops at MacPhail Center for Music and put on an additional concert on MLK day including a question and answer session specifically for students in Project SUCCESS. The Cedar was able to execute the project with funds from a Saint Paul Travelers Arts and Diversity Committee Grant.
Goal for 2008: In 2008, The Cedar hopes to build on the success of the Carolina Chocolate Drops project and get funding to execute more projects of a similar nature. The Cedar hopes to develop a program of concert performances and workshops that will not only serve Cedar audiences but youth and families involved with Project SUCCESS, MacPhail Center for Music, and Project for Pride in Living’s youth program. The Cedar also seeks to create new programs that engage young people with our organization. For example, The Cedar hopes to fund a program in partnership with South Senior High School which commissions South High’s web design class to create monthly podcasts for upcoming Cedar events.
6. Evaluate The Cedar’s fulfillment of its mission Given current efforts to increase number of people served and to attract and serve more diverse audiences, The Cedar will be identifying underserved populations in the Twin Cities and communities that aren’t currently served by our organization; The Cedar will be evaluating needs in our communities and how those needs can best be met through the work of The Cedar.
Progress in 2007: The Cedar’s board of directors, Executive Director, and Artistic Director worked toward better defining the organization’s criteria for programming. Because we are mission-driven and not-for-profit, The Cedar seeks to book programming that best serves its communities. The board put in place guidelines that will determine if, why, and when specific shows should be booked, if and how they serve a specific audience, and why a specific artist might be especially compelling or interesting as part of The Cedar’s programming. Identifying criteria for programming has the potential to increase audiences by reaching out to specific, new audiences that could be served by certain programs.
Goal for 2008: In 2008, The Cedar will seek more community input on booking and programming through contact tracking sheets and surveys. The Cedar also seeks to expand its programming by using concert performances by local artists or international artists as a nexus for a larger program that might include focus groups, interviews, published articles, educational workshops, or engaging specific audiences. This will better ensure that we are using concert events to fulfill our mission to facilitate cultural connection/gathering and/or cross-cultural appreciation.
