On September 23, the Community Foundation awarded $450,000 in second year funding to the twenty local arts and culture organizations that are part of the PACE initiative. PACE is a three-year program designed to encourage arts organizations to work on strategic organizational issues and build long-term sustainability.
Last year, these organizations analyzed their capacity challenges and identified a crucial strategic issue to address over a three-year period. They then identified innovative solutions to implement, which involved developing extensive plans and creating action steps to undertake in the initial phase of the program.
As demonstrated in the graph below, the majority of the organizations elected to work on the issue of audience development, with the next most pressing issues for the cohort being organization and management and board governance. Even though the themes are common and many times overlapping, the solutions proposed and plans developed varied widely; each is unique to the organization and its specific circumstances.
The first year of the program is now complete and the organizations have, by and large, achieved their first-year action steps. They will now be embarking on second year goals, building on the prior year’s efforts as they continue to make progress toward strengthening organizational health and enhancing their distinctive missions.