Category: Help Yourself

Let us help you invest in the future! The League is committed to recognizing and encouraging effective and visionary leadership in the orchestra profession and for the performing arts. Learn more about this year’s OLA seminars. Topics for the seminars at this year’s Conference include:

• Building a Sustainable Business Model
• Developing Effective Director and Board Chair Relationships
• Financial Leadership
• Women Conductors and Leadership
• Digital Models
• And more…

For more information on these and other OLA seminars, visit americanorchestras.org. 

Posted April 7, 2010

The League of American Orchestras & Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) invite you to participate in a financial leadership clinic open to six orchestra teams, Groups 3 to 6, via a competitive application process. This interactive clinic is a unique opportunity to bring your key staff and board members together to examine the crucial financial underpinnings of your organization.

The goal of the clinic is to help the leadership of orchestras make improved and more informed decisions regarding their organizations’ financial situation. The two-day clinic will combine an educational seminar with individual financial exercises and peer-based learning. Designed to increase the capacity of small to mid-size nonprofit organizations to read and interpret financial documents, identify and communicate financial goals, and begin to develop sound financial decision-making tools, participants will receive:

• Help articulating the particular financial dynamics of your organization and setting financial goals;
• A framework, in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, for telling your nonprofit’s financial story;
• Follow-up one-on-one coaching to support your agency’s specific needs and priorities.

The Clinic will take place at the League’s national Conference in Atlanta on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 from 9:00am to 5:30pm and Wednesday, June 16, 2010 from 8:00am to 12:30pm. The cost of this clinic is a flat rate of $150 per person. 

NFF staff will work with each organization individually after the clinic for up to five hours with specific recommendations and/or answer questions.

For more information, agenda, and application, visit americanorchestras.org.

Posted March 29, 2010

Last week, President Obama signed the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, a $17.6 billion bill which includes important payroll tax incentives for nonprofits to hire new workers.  The tax provision exempts employers from paying a 6.2% share of Social Security payroll tax on each individual hired after February 3, 2010 who was unemployed for at least 60 days and who does not exceed the $106,800 social security wage base.  The exemption applies to wages paid after March 18, 2010 and before January 1, 2011.  Employers can save up to $6,622 per qualifying worker.

Further details are available from the IRS here.

Posted March 23, 2010

Each Mentoring Circle meets once a month for six months, via conference call and or web conferencing (90-minute sessions). Content is flexible, confidential, and dynamic – driven by the group. One mentoring circle with a maximum of eight members is selected from each pool of applicants.

Currently available:

• For Development Director of Groups 4-6, facilitated by Melanie Forman, vice president of development for the New York Philharmonic. Register here

• For Executive Directors of Groups 5-6, facilitated by Larry Tamburri, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Register here

• For Executive Directors of Groups 2-5, on Building a Sustainable Business Model, facilitated by Jon Limbacher, vice president and COO, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

  Does your orchestra have a coherent and shared business model?

  Five years ago The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra asked two questions: What business are we in? How can we build a financially sustainable organization? The answer to those questions produced a cohesive philosophy about how mission, audience development and philanthropy can intersect to form a sustainable model.  Join the mentoring circle and discuss the process to building your own sustainable business model for your orchestra. Register here 

Deadline to register: April 5 

Posted March 31, 2010

American Composers Orchestra announces Playing it UNsafe, a research and development laboratory for the creation, reading, and performance of experimental new works by American composers. The goal of the program is to encourage composers to experiment and stretch their own musical sensibilities by developing new works (or works-in-progress) that expand the range of possibilities for—and challenge convention notions about—orchestral music. Playing it UNsafe was conceived to address the pressures and limitations often encountered by composers writing new works for orchestra, a situation that tends to inhibit risk-taking composition and encourages a “play it safe” approach. The program will include an extended series of rehearsal and public workshop/readings with ACO’s Orchestra Underground during the 2010-11 season, culminating in performance in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall on March 4, 2011, conducted by ACO music director George Manahan.

Receipt Deadline: April 30, 2010, 5:00 p.m.

For more information on Playing in Unsafe, click here.

Posted March 10, 2010

We know how much you care about your orchestra, so we’ve created a League of American Orchestras membership especially for board members.

Through your orchestra’s membership, you already receive benefits such as Symphony, Board Notes, online discussion groups, and access to the League’s experts in our Knowledge Center.

But now there’s more.

The League’s Membership for Orchestra Board Members provides further access to the help and resources you need as a board member. Best of all, it gives financial benefit back to your orchestra.

Your $150 membership fee includes:

–$100 credit for your orchestra to use for any of our programs or services, such as the National Conference, webinars, or the Board of Directors Self-Assessment Tool

–Full access to The Hub, our members-only website for orchestra and arts news

To join today, please go to americanorchestras.org or call Member Services at 212 262 5161.

Posted March 8, 2010

This webinar is designed to cover the fundamentals of fundraising for symphony volunteer organizations regardless of budget size.  Topics explored include: the volunteer as fundraiser; the reasons that people give; and how to effectively design, implement and evaluate fundraising events.

For more information or to purchase this webinar, please visit americanorchestras.org.

Posted March 5, 2010

(developed in association with the Nonprofit Finance Fund)
Live, Thursday, March 4th, 2010, at 1:00 pm EST, free of charge.

This conference call will build upon the lessons learned in the Accessing and Managing Credit webinar and will provide participants with further opportunities to become more comfortable learning how an organization is assessed for credit-worthiness. The call will be highly interactive – please come with questions about managing credit.

This event is free, but we do ask that you register here to participate.

Posted March 4, 2010

The League of American Orchestras, in partnership with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and El Sistema USA, would like to invite you to a national symposium on the El Sistema Movement in the U.S. to take place in Los Angeles from May 6-8, 2010, an event open to all League members.

Composing Change: YOLA and the El Sistema Movement
To register online for May 6th, visit americanorchestras.org.
To register online at for May 7th and 8th, visit laphil.com.

Further discussions surrounding El Sistema will continue in June at the League’s national Conference in Atlanta. For more information or to register for Conference, visit americanorchestras.org.

Posted March 1, 2010

The 2008-2009 Orchestra Statistical Report survey is still open for your completion. The deadline for submission has been extended to March 16, 2010.  For more information, detailed instructions, or to complete the survey, visit: osr.americanorchestras.org. 

Posted: February 25, 2010