Helping Cultural Organisations Survive Covid-19 and Thrive

By Mary Carty

Last week, I wrote about how consumers can help creatives survive this difficult time. Today, I am turning my attention to cultural organisations. I will share some ideas about how technology and social media can be utilised to increase profile, capture leads for future events and find new audiences. And by thinking laterally; in partnership with their networks, cultural organisations can develop new revenue streams.

We know that the creative community has survived many stressful circumstances before. But Covid-19 has brought with it a raft of new challenges including the inability to produce new work and the cancellation of thousands of festivals, exhibitions, concerts and live events. This unforeseen, abrupt halt to activities has left no time to plan and many cultural organisations are in survival mode. Others have made the difficult decision to let staff go. This crisis has left the sector in shock and with little support from the Government, other avenues for financial assistance must be considered.

In the first few weeks of social distancing, the cultural sector opened up archives and streamed concerts and productions online. New content was added daily. Audiences responded very favourably and material was shared widely across social media and new connections made. Musicians produced concerts from their living rooms, singers gave singing lessons and writers facilitated workshops, nearly all for free.

While this was a huge positive for us stay-at-home workers, not much revenue was made on the back of this free material.  All this content costs money, time and resources and is made by a diverse cast of professionals and experts.

As we reach a number of weeks in isolation, there is an emerging consensus that while free content is great, it would be better if cultural organisations developed a strategic approach to sharing material and building new revenue models.

There is also a fear that too much free content will result in a lesser appetite for live events and experiences post Covid-19 in a contracting economy with reduced disposable incomes.

As Mark O’Brien CEO of Axis Ballymun notes “there is a huge amount of activity going on behind the scenes to remount shows, restructure programmes, manage finances and staff and support our communities. Arts and culture organisations are learning to work remotely too”.

So, what can cultural organisations do to sustain their practice through this crisis and build new financial models for support? Here are a few ideas:

Ask

It’s ok to ask for money. Most of us understand that resources, time and staff need to be paid for.  Be conscious of the value you are providing. If your audience tunes in to your events online, many will be happy to make a donation.

Make it easy for them to pay.

Include a donate button on your website, under live streams or any other material you make available online.

Bring people back to your website. As much as possible make it your central repository. In this way, you have control and ownership of your material and are not subject to algorithm updates or fees.

Share events and updates across social media and thank users for their donations and support.

Share testimonials. Why have people supported your organisation, what do they like about the work and why did they choose you?

Tools To Help The Audience Pay

Paypal has an easy to install donate button.

Ko-fi makes it easy to accept one –time payments and subscriptions.

Patreon allows users to become members of your community and pay monthly subscriptions.

Call to Action

Make sure to include a call to action. What would you like the user to do and why.

If they like your material what should they do next? Communicate this ask clearly.

What Can I Monetise?

Show some of your back catalogue, portfolio or events for a short time.

Share workshops, classes or conversations.

You don’t have to share everything.

Use your social platforms to communicate with your fans regularly.

Cross promote online activities with other organisations for wider audience engagement.

Thank your users for their donations and support.

Online Tools for Selling

Gumroad  is an online service that sells digital assets, merchandise, books and online courses

Gather Emails Everywhere

In order to facilitate longer-term relationships it is vital to grow your email list. Make sure to tell your subscriber what you will do with it, how often you will communicate and how you will protect their data.

Once you have done this, you can start communicating regularly. Over time you will build up a level of trust, gain insights, learn about your subscriber’s tastes and offer exclusive content, early-bird tickets and experiences as a valued member of the community. This is a mutually-beneficial relationship.

Community building is the most powerful thing you can do right now. This community will sustain you into the future, loyalty and trust works both ways. A solid email list with an engaged audience means lots of help to promote new material and any online ventures you embark on.

Email Marketing Tools

Have a look at Campaign Monitor and Constant Contact.

Use Your Network

This week, a law firm invited an orchestra to play for their remote workforce. In a beautiful symmetry of our time, the orchestra played from home too. This was a paid event that brought joy and solace to workers transitioning to a new normal.

Theatre professionals are giving communication workshops to large multi-national employees on presentation skills online. (We all have enough of up nose shots at this stage!) Set designers are consulting with international firms on lighting and branding when using video conferencing across continents with clients and employees.

Instead of cancelling The Williamstown Theatre Festival in New York, this season will be all-audio thanks to a partnership with Audible. 7 shows will be broadcast from development to rehearsal and staging. A bold move that ensures creatives get paid and work in development is produced.

Working with existing partnerships, can you find new opportunities and get paid. Consider approaching current sponsors to support programmes or events. Maybe there is scope for co-productions or skills-share.

It is a good time to acknowledge that we are all missing cultural events and being together. Find ways to bridge this gap. Open the back of house to your audience; introduce the makers, professionals and behind the scene experts that bring your organisation to life. Axis Arts Centre is doing a lovely series of conversations using this format with #TheAxisChats on Twitter.

A Final Word

As we face a further period of isolation, it is becoming clear to citizens and audiences just how important the arts are to our lives. It is heartening to see individuals not requesting refunds but donating the proceeds to venues, organisations and companies instead. Our national broadcaster closed the 9 o’clock news recently with a Louis MacNeice poem. It was an unprecedented moment that exemplified that this time is ripe for creativity and innovation.

Of course these ideas will not work for every organisation. In times of crisis it is enough to put one foot in front of the other. My hope is that some of these strategies will help unlock new potential and avenues of support for cultural organisations.

Many thanks to the artists, creatives and organisations I have spoken to over the last few weeks while researching this series.

Mary Carty is a senior consultant and strategist at Wilson & Keys working with global technology firms, arts and cultural organisations, agencies and universities. You will find Mary on Twitter @marycarty.

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