artful fund raiser

30,000 feet is the New Black – On the 106 Airplanes of 2013

Posted on December 11, 2013 by jeremymhatch

My work travel year is coming to an end next week with a quick trip to North Carolina – the 106^th business flight of 2013 by the time I get home. Sparkling water to hydrate, turkey wraps of every description, airport barbecue and mediocre $14 hamburgers. Coffee. Always coffee.

I was stranded for the night twice this year (Detroit and Memphis) – the latter’s highlight being picked up by a visibly intoxicated hotel van driver who was kind enough to roll through the Popeye’s drive-through for me at 11pm at the only restaurant within miles of my flea bag hotel in what can be best described as an African American Gentlemen’s Club district.

I tipped him $5 and you would have thought the old dude won the lottery. I was dubious when I got into his van but he seemed to be a high functioning alcoholic and I assumed muscle memory would get us safely from the airport to the motel. My friend cursed the most original and inventive spew for two solid minutes after we almost crashed into a Toyota, weaving bigotry and misogyny into slurred Mamet poetry.

Business travelers won’t easily admit to this but the Road is somewhat addictive. When I haven’t been on a plane for a couple of weeks I get twitchy and restless. I check the Delta airlines phone app every few hours, looking for an unexpected future itinerary, a first class upgrade or my miles summary. Being in motion from place to place, adventure to adventure, gig to gig is a natural high despite (or perhaps because of) the challenges of modern travel.

This week on a late flight to Omaha, after a grumpy four hour layover because of some mechanical paperwork nonsense, I got an extraordinary gift. Approaching from the northeast across Lake Michigan on a clear night, we passed over metro Chicago. I have seen more than most of the US and the world, and this was a stunning wonder to behold, the city meeting the dark lake and stretched out for as far as the eye could see. While most of my fellow window seaters fooled about with iphones to capture the moment digitally, I simply watched the inky black of the lake, with the city shining like something from a science fiction movie.

Consultants often talk about the view from 30,000 feet and how much simpler and more clear solutions are when viewed from a distance. We do it to bring attention to the fact that the client has flown us in for our expertise and wisdom, and that our recommendations want to be heeded because we are headed to the airport later. So Listen up Children.

From the sky America looks so vast and bountiful it is difficult to accept that there are shortages and inequity below. It is an easy worldview but ultimately false – the world we live in has complexity, nuance, and challenge.

As I have worked with client organizations this year on complex fundraising and leadership challenges I have spent less time with 30,0000 foot thinking. We can all get stuck in the weeds from time to time but excellence lies in the details, in the specifics and the strategies, in the close relationships and interpersonal dynamics.

There is no magic to fundraising, just good hard work and strategic thinking, adjustments to the plan as you go, and boldness in asking.

By digging deeply with projects, by investing time, energy and expertise to problem solving and creative solutions, by putting volunteers at the center of our philanthropy, the work this year has been strong and impactful. It has been a blast and I am grateful for this opportunity to work with our clients and the adventures of the past couple of years.

And then it is off to the airport for a turkey wrap and an anxious eye to the First Class upgrade board.

I hate to fly coach.

Posted in Cultural Entrepreneurship, Philanthropy | 4 Comments

The Joy of the $100 Gift.

Posted on December 4, 2013 by jeremymhatch

Year-end is upon us and not quite the Holidays, and so my mailbox is full of solicitations from worthy charities I support (and otherwise). As a fundraising consultant our practice spends considerable time working with our clients on direct response giving programs (direct mail, telefund, online, etc) and so it is always a treat for me to spend an hour or two considering the stack of letters. I collect them in a large stock over the course of the fall and go through them all at once, sipping dark roast coffee, and examining each for strength and weakness, and finally selecting 5-7 for contributions of exactly $100.

Why $100? We all give differently and for different reasons but I’ve decided that a meaningful gift to something where I am not directly involved as a vendor or board member is $100.

$100 to me is a still a good chunk of cash. I enjoy $100 bills and having at least 5 $20s in my billfold, and can remember more than once in my life when I’ve been down to my last $100. If it is an organization worth supporting, it is worth supporting for $100 – otherwise better for me and the organization not to bother.

Why? Suppose I make instead 15-20 $25 gifts – this would be that each organization I support in 2013 will never ever want to let go of me as a donor and will spend and spend to renew my support. So it is $100 or to the recycle bin.

As an aside, I rarely (like most of you) write out checks these days, paying my bills online and using my bank card whenever possible. The notable exception is when I sit down and make my annual contributions. I enjoy the ritual of writing out a check, naming the organization and a sum, putting into action in my own small way a personal investment to community. Jumping online with a credit card and a paypal giving page just doesn’t feel the same. And I dislike paypal – it feels just too weird still. Perhaps my advancing years.

So what have I supported this year? Mostly organizations where I’ve supported in the past and where I have a personal relationship of some sort, either directly with a staff member or where I have personally witnessed the good work and/or see direct personal benefit. I’ve been asked before by donors on where they might direct their support and I always suggest local investment is best.

In part two of this post I will describe my giving choices this year, and why I’ve chosen some organizations over others and in part three I will break down critical elements of a successful DM piece. For now, some consideration of best practice having read through about 30 fundraising letters in recent days…

Is there Urgency? This is where most organizations need to pay the most attention. Why should I give today? What pressing deadline, opportunity, challenge, success can be immediately linked to my giving today? Direct mail is all about creating urgency. Give. Today. And yet most of our organizations fail to communicate in an immediate way.

Is there Personalization? Of course I would love (and occasionally receive) a personally written note of praise from a CEO or other staff member for my investment and demonstrating where my support has helped prior. One of my favorite letters every year is from the Harrison Center, where an intern or someone underlines examples and hand writes little affirmations onto each letter. I dig it.

Is there a specific call to action? I dislike the church style envelopes where you fill out the back flap with the name and address. A much more effective option is to acknowledge how much I gave last year and suggest I might invest a bit more to take advantage of something timely (back to urgency).

I would encourage you to take a closer look at some of those fundraising letters you get in the mail this week, and consider your own $100 investments in community.

Posted in Annual Fund, Fundraising, Philanthropy | 3 Comments

Royale with Tax Incentives: The little (philanthropic) differences.

Posted on November 13, 2013 by jeremymhatch

This week I spent an hour with an Irish accountant, learning about the tax system as it relates to non-profit organizations, and a recent change to Irish tax policy that I am still wrapping my mind around.

For individuals, the Irish income tax is simpler, and probably fairer, than ours in the United States. For the majority of salaried employees, a simple formula is applied, and added to this various social welfare and other special taxes and your average Irish worker plays between 33% and 40% of earnings to the government.

We can debate all day about this of course – it is higher on average than the United States but the Irish enjoy free health care, pensions, paid time off for new babies (both parents) and all sorts of social benefit. Great, or not—depending on your Tea Party tendencies and how Pop voted when you were a kid (most of us don’t change).

One unquestionable benefit to this system is that Irish pay their taxes and that is that. No annual filing for the majority of workers – it is a square system based on income and none of the myriad loopholes, deductions, credits and so forth that make our American system so cumbersome to understand and administer. You make your money, the government takes a slice, and life goes on.

I am a part-time resident of Ireland and have taxes to pay here, and while it is a considerable chunk of income, the system is perhaps a superior approach. None of the gaming of the American system, where the wealthy are best positioned to further lower a tax basis by taking advantage of deductions and loopholes they would pursue regardless (mortgage deductions on vacation property, investments in their own business in pursuit of further profit, gifts of artwork to museums, etc).

So Ireland favors a simpler, progressive tax code. Fine. Where things get strange pertains to charitable deductions. Until 2013 there was tax refund eligibility for certain types of deductions as an opportunity to reduce tax burden. Last year charities in Ireland lobbied and the law was changed in favor of a scheme to award the tax refund (what would have been paid had not for the charitable gift) to the organization itself, and not to the benefit of the donor as prior (and in the US).

So in America, if I give $1000 to my favorite non-profit, the Indy Fringe, and receive negligible benefit for my contribution, I can claim a $1,000 deduction from my taxes. Essentially, I don’t have to pay taxes on that contribution amount. Why? Because we want to incentivize the citizen to help non-profits to do those things that government does not/will not/cannot do.

So what does this mean? In simple terms, I don’t pay taxes on that $1,000 of income, with a net savings depending on the tax rate I pay. Let’s say it is 20%. So that’s $200 worth of tax that I don’t pay. Good for me, bad for society generally (less tax revenue for education, bombing small nations on our behalf, the Grand Canyon, etc).

In Ireland, they have recognized that this $200 in unpaid taxes is not to the public good – so they have changed to a system where this sum is awarded to a SPECIFIC public good (the selected charity) directly, in addition to the contribution.

As an American fundraiser this is Genuine Heresy, viewed from the Almighty perspective of incentivizing donations as SACRED to the DONOR. After all, we incentivize behavior we seek all the time (home ownership as a societal good and thus the mortgage deduction, as the biggest example).

The Irish see this from a vastly different perspective, still considering it an incentive. By awarding these tax increments directly to the organization they reward true philanthropic intent for the donor. Instead of, “I lowered my tax basis by $5,000 via charitable deductions last year” it is, “My contributions were leveraged even more by an advantageous tax program. As a donor who cares about this charity, I am so pleased.”

It is fascinating (as tax matters go). Is America on the right track with our simplistic demand that every contribution (and many of our prudent and financial decisions-savings, home ownership, investment in our businesses) include a tax incentive for good decisions we should want to make anyway? When I first say the Irish approach I thought it was odd but now not so sure.

Which approach in the end rewards true philanthropic behavior? I gave a bit of money this week to the International Red Cross to assist with the Philippines disaster, not for tax purposes but because a country where I lived as a small boy is in dire need and there is great suffering.

That’s enough tax fun for now. Come back a couple weeks after that if you are here for the Miley Cyrus debate or lively consideration of millennial giving societies.

Posted in Cultural Entrepreneurship, Fundraising, Ireland, Philanthropy | Leave a comment

Jeremy turns off his phone—Week #1 as a Foreign National

Posted on November 7, 2013 by jeremymhatch

It is a (somehow) both sunny and rainy (and hail earlier this morning) Thursday on the emerald isle and I’ve enjoyed a lively week as a Foreign National in Galway – having successfully tripped the alarm of the office twice, locked myself out of the offices at least three times, and learned what a cold, driving rain for three straight days does to one’s spirits and dress shoes.

That is to say I am having a blast, working with the local colleagues on a 2014 fundraising plan for a growing organization and keeping up with my various projects in the States. Some initial reactions to this strange and wonderful week:

The working day is quite civil, from half 9 to half 5, with an hour’s lunch at 1pm and tea at 4pm or so. I’ve been an 11:30 am lunch guy forever so a bit of an adjustment. With every meeting there is coffee or tea. I am going to have to switch over to tea or stroke out from the caffeine. Plus the drip coffee here is not that grand.

But, I have a lovely breakfast at my B&B every day: smoked salmon and poached eggs. The proprietor of the establishment is a delightful woman and excellent cook. She has a clear, bright singing voice and sings popular songs while she cooks, so it is Katy Perry’s “Wrecking Ball” as she delivers my vittles.

When the sun is out, Galway is out. On Sunday it was warm and sunny in the morning, and I took a long walk along the bay with the rest of the town. I saw some sea swimmers, old men who will live to be 100 no doubt swimming in the Irish Atlantic in November.

The dogs of Galway have a great life. They are always off leash along the bay, politely minding their business and having their own fun. They don’t bark and never jump on you. Why aren’t American dogs this way? Why aren’t American children this way?

The Western Irish of Galway are mad, mad joyful jaywalkers. At every opportunity, at every intersection, with abandon. It is a bit of a civic pursuit, characteristic of what seems to be a benevolent disregard for authority. Which I recognize in myself.

My technology so far has failed me completely—phones that won’t work, ipads that won’t charge, junky wi-fi., banking problems. All to the good but when I return AT&T and I are going to have a Real Talk about our relationship and mutual expectations.

I travel alone most of the time and have become immune to eating in restaurants by myself. I now realize that my huge crutch has been my phone, with friends to text, Facebook posts to admire, Yelp check-ins to navigate, and artful photographs of my beef pho to compose.

My I-Phone has been my steadfast little buddy in my solo work adventures the last couple of years. The irony is that there is a major media campaign ongoing in the US at the moment, “Jeremy turn off your phone” via t-mobile.

Off to a black tie fundraiser tomorrow—had to rent a tuxedo, despite owning two in the States. The trials and tribulations of a 4000 mile commute.

Posted in Cultural Entrepreneurship, Irish Adventures | 2 Comments

Onward to Ireland.

Posted on October 28, 2013 by jeremymhatch

I am so pleased to share that I am working with the Galway Arts Festival, Indianapolis based but as a part-time resident of Ireland. I head across the pond this week, and am excited to begin the project, a professional opportunity of staggering potential.

The Festival is an extraordinary international happening every July, a combination of world-class theatre, music, dance, visual art, comedy and street performance. The organization is in the midst of rapid growth from a regional event to an international destination and they partner with producing theatres around the world on year round programming and outreach with ambitious plans for growth in the years ahead.

They do just the sort of fundraising I most enjoy – entrepreneurial, forward looking and in collaboration with like-minded partners. And the Festival itself is everything I most enjoy about art—fun, dramatic, beautiful, ambitious, challenging. They even have a tent for rock and roll.

Galway itself is a lovely city on Ireland’s west coast, the farthest outpost in Europe before the Atlantic and the distant shores of America. It reminds me of my own adopted hometown of Bloomington, Indiana—a college city with great art, natural beauty and in a somewhat remote locale.

I have been intrigued by the notion of international fundraising for many years now. I served for some years as CDO of a university art museum in Bloomington, and had notions of arranging a trade with a similar British museum of higher education, where the fundraiser in charge and I could swap jobs for a year. Nothing ever came from this idea beyond the urge to fundraise abroad and so here we are, months away from my 40^th birthday.

The key question to answer is a simple one—Can the basics of effective fundraising be transferred to a different culture? The Irish are a generous people who rise to assist others, but the philanthropic support of the Arts is a new idea, and one that will take some time to develop. My premise is that we cannot attract investment by talking about what we don’t have, what is lacking due to lowered government support. Instead we have to showcase the philanthropic impact of our efforts and invite investment so that we could serve more, do more, be more.

I’ll be blogging about the experience and what I learn as we proceed. The world is getting smaller and our vital work as fundraisers is more vital than ever, at home and abroad.

Onward to Ireland!

Posted in Cultural Entrepreneurship, Ireland, Irish Adventures | Tagged Galway Arts Festival, international fundraising, Ireland | 2 Comments

On Giving and Getting

Posted on October 9, 2013 by jeremymhatch

I serve on the board of a young performing arts organization that Can, the Indianapolis Fringe. Now in our 9^th year we’ve done amazing things, including purchasing our own building while rapidly growing our August Festival year after year. We are now in the midst of a capital campaign to build a new black box theatre and renovate to include proper restrooms, dressing rooms, and the like.

This week I made my largest ever philanthropic pledge, a multi-year commitment to the campaign to name a fun little corner in my own honor. A blip to the goal of course, but a very meaningful sum to me in my early years as a philanthropist. I am calling it the 40^th birthday gift to myself, along with the hella-nice Hamilton watch I picked up on a recent business trip to Ireland. And a trip to California with friends over the Holidays. And…

This post isn’t about Giving – this post is about Getting.

Giving, I find, is easy, and the benefits obvious and profound. It made me feel incredibly virtuous when I emailed our executive director to share my news and to discuss terms. She was so gracious, and grateful, and the whole thing has made me feel warm and generous, and a Good Person.

Giving is the easy part with obvious and lasting rewards. Getting – that is to say Asking, is the hard part. As a board member I am committed to help with the fundraising, for opening doors, making introductions, and asking others for generous support. And I find this to be so incredibly difficult.

Really I kind of suck at it. I don’t personally know that many people with money and I am hesitant to ask personal friends for much beyond attendance at fundraising parties and events.

As fundraisers, we ask our volunteers All The Time to solicit their friends, family and work colleagues. We show them lists, expecting them to grab names with enthusiastic abandon, that all they’ve wanted to do all day is ask their friends for charitable support. And we are disappointed when they struggle, or aren’t up the task.

So I ask my fundraising colleagues, when was the last time you asked someone for money as a volunteer? It is sobering, difficult work to talk to your friends about giving. I wouldn’t care for it if someone asked me to join them at church and asking for a charitable gift really isn’t that different. It is no easy task to sit with a trusted friend, where a relationship exists, and make a pitch. It is involving yourself in another’s private business. What if they say no? What if they hate me?

And so I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve as a fundraising volunteer – we all need to be reminded about how challenging our work really is and how much patience and grace we aught to show our volunteers committed to the task.

Our volunteers need patient encouragement, training, practice, relentless follow-up, wins that are celebrated, losses that are consoled, and loving care and feeding. A good fundraising volunteer, one willing to ask boldly for things from friends and foe, is a rare and precious thing. As fundraisers we need to be reminded of how humbling this work can be, instead of constantly crabbing about our lazy volunteers and their feckless ways.

Get yourself involved with something meaningful. Take some prospect names and stumble through cultivation and solicitation. You will be a better fundraiser for the experience.

Posted in Fundraising, Performing Arts, Philanthropy, Volunteers | 6 Comments

1st and 10 at the start of the 4th Quarter. Are you ready for some Foot—I mean Fundraising?

Posted on October 2, 2013 by jeremymhatch

Summertime is no good. At all. Not for work at least, or anything resembling productive output or that involves a deadline. No truly productive work gets done though we go through the motions at the office. Vacations, bocce, hanging around, sunflowers and boat days on the lake interfere with the good work or our lives.

As Chief Development Officer, I never enjoyed summer fundraising. No one is truly interested until the change in the weather. Staff vacations suck up whole months and volunteers aren’t engaged, particularly when there are young kids at home. Who wants to think about concerts and plays during pool season?

And so while I love the summer and lying on a beach as much as the next fellow, I am grateful for the return of fall and with it the universal shift back to good business. America collectively returns to focus after Labor Day—as a nation we put the sandals away and turn our attention back to employment, our studies, volunteer commitments and generally leave the sillies beyond until next year.

Q4 is upon us once again and therefore GO time for our organization’s fundraising activity to kick to the next level. For many arts organizations fall is the time when the season starts, concerts resume and board members have returned from their 60 day round the world yacht trips and start thinking about local activities and commitments once again.

As fundraisers, it is our time to shine – when the majority of activity needs to happen to achieve the magical 65% of goal by December 31. Our staff is back to work, our art is on the stage, and our volunteers are (or aught to be) reengaged and reenergized ready for the challenging work ahead. It is impossible to maintain momentum forevermore and so fall is the time to get back into gear with focused growth plans.

Push your volunteers to ask early and often, with focused energy in October and November. You will lose the magical Mo by December 1, as folks turn to the holidays and consumption of sugar cookies. Whatever your volunteer fundraising committee looks like, push an aggressive calendar of activity in the first two months of Q4, with an expectation of in-person solicitation before Thanksgiving.

December is too late for anything but cleanup. Well, cleanup and the lighting of candles and sincere prayer for your key $50,000 gift that arrives every December 30 from the elderly couple who no one has ever met and without which you cannot possibly make goal.

Your volunteers are tanned, rested and engaged to help, at least for the moment. Task them with good prospects, the right case, and urgency and lead them to success, spreading praise and victory as you go.

Are you ready?

Posted in Annual Fund, Fundraising, Performing Arts | 2 Comments

Season Tickets – Yummy and Good for You. Like Kale.

Posted on September 27, 2013 by jeremymhatch

In my hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana I am not currently a subscriber to anything but the New Yorker and cable television—not the Indianapolis Repertory Theatre, or the opera, nor baseball, basketball or football teams (the sports guys call those program season tickets). I travel extensively, have lots of outside interests and activities, friends to see, bikes to ride, rivers to kayak, television drama to watch, football on Sundays (the game looks better to me at home on the widescreen than the cheap seats at Lucas Oil Stadium).

What does this inevitably mean for my attendance at local performances? I mostly (almost always) miss them. As busy as I am, it is rare that world of mouth, social media, or other marketing efforts penetrate my narrow world to the point where I will stop, invite friends, make some plans, buy a ticket, attend a show.

What does happen though on the rare occasions when the stars align and I check out a play, a musical performance, the symphony or an opera? I enjoy myself. I learn something. I have fun. My sprit is uplifted in the way that only the performing arts can do—more than movies, tv or sports.

Recently I attended a brilliant production of “God of Carnage” that a client put on in Omaha, Nebraska, where I spend several days per month consulting to a capital campaign for a new theatre. It just so happens I am a season ticket subscriber to the organization, mostly to show support and because I dislike comp tickets—why give away what you can sell?

I’ve seen this show before, several years ago in a blistering production in Minneapolis and it was terrific. When it played Indianapolis a year or two ago I skipped it (having seen it prior). But in Omaha, as a ticket subscriber, I was compelled to attend. So I saw the show on opening night instead of watching old episodes of “Game of Thrones” on my ipad.

And it was a great entertainment – probably better than the Guthrie production. Funny, viscerally uncomfortable, shocking at times. The best parts of a great night watching live actors work their craft. Beautifully directed and designed. I am so glad I got to see it. And this is all because I am a subscriber, that I have committed myself in that small way to the company, to the future performances, to the potential for greatness.

Too often we rely on word of mouth from friends, free beverages, or extraordinary marketing to propel ourselves to buy tickets – this makes the work of our arts groups that much more difficult. We are a fickle and uninterested public much too often, and we won’t make a buying decision easily.

From time to time we need compel ourselves to the arts, to commit our time even when we might have something better to do or the show doesn’t look like our all time favorite at the time. Our organizations are counting on this. An investment up front in a year’s entertainment and the opportunity to wow us with something new, fresh, out of our comfort zone. The solution? A subscription. Buy one, or three, give them as gifts to friends this holiday season – what could be better than a year’s worth of entertainment with folks you care about?

I resolve to sign up for at least two season subscriptions this year—will you join me?

Posted in Patrons, Performing Arts | 4 Comments

SImple math? An $8,500 advertising budget vs. $400,000 in sponsorship

Posted on September 20, 2013 by jeremymhatch

Performing Arts season is upon us – with operas, symphonies, ballet and theatres launching this year’s programming across the US and the world. I hope you are able to attend an opening night in your town of something interesting. What is my favorite part of opening night you ask?

The program book.

I adore the program book and always have – as a CDO it felt the culmination of a year’s effort to sell sponsorship and build a donor list. When we opened the Carmel Palladium a few years ago my staff helped to frame up a version of our opening night program – a lasting memento of an amazing journey.

As a consultant I always ask to review the program book as an early step in working with a client – it reveals a great deal. How are sponsors recognized? How are donors? What sponsors go where and why? Are your sponsors allowed to own specific real estate or all clumped onto the Logo Soup page? Who are the general advertisers?

And this gets to our topic today. I cannot stand paid advertising in program books. I would ban the practice if I could and if I ever spend time with your sponsorship program that’s where we must begin.

Why? Our precious sponsors pay good money for the privilege of promoting themselves to our affluent audiences. That is a fundamental exchange in the partner relationship—investment for access, exclusivity and return on investment.

And yet symphony and performing arts centers have advertising sales people in the marketing department, or worse yet, employ commission based sales outsiders to sell, on the cheap, access and promotion to our audiences. The result is either crummy advertising, often sold to businesses beneath your brand, or to wily companies anxious to reach your demographic but clever enough to know they can ignore the sponsorship manager’s proposal and instead chat with the marketing department. Don’t do it.

Instead…

Keep full-page color advertisements in your program as an exclusive benefit to sponsors.
Create additional inventory of season sponsors whose primary benefits is the program ad (it is something valuable. Someone will pay).
At all costs, hold the premium placement ads in reserve for your sponsorship team. I promise you are seriously underselling your back page, your inside front cover, etc. if you are getting $1,000 (the average) for it. Make it a benefit to someone giving you at least $10,000.

Your program books are beautifully designed marketing tools to a captive, affluent and educated audience. Leverage this tool for increased revenue.

Posted in Sponsorship | Leave a comment

Leave your iphone in your pants (at the show).

Posted on September 19, 2013 by jeremymhatch

I travel for a living. I take a lot of pictures with my iphone – of places I visit, of beautiful things, of sunsets, of tasty barbecue (a life quest is the perfect plate of pulled pork). My business partner and I exchange pithy little photos by text of strange piles of debris we encounter on the sidewalks in American cities. My favorite so far as to be the gently bloody used latex gloves I came across in Shreveport, Louisiana.

So all of this is to say, yes, I get it. We document our lives – interesting and mundane, often at the expense of actual experience. Years ago I was visiting friends in Juneau, Alaska and was invited out on a crab boat in the bay on a perfect late afternoon. We encountered an extraordinary sight – whales bubble net fishing, circling a group of fish and pushing them to the center until a group of 4-5 would surface together at the center to gorge. It may be the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life, except I more or less missed it, screwing around with my digital camera to capture the moment. The results? Blurry and ambiguous shapes, off in the distance. I’d show them to people, and say would say, “Huh. Neat.”

This week I attended a symphony performance of a client down in North Carolina – a first rate performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. I was sitting per my custom on the aisle, and in front of me a woman in her 60s began taking photographs with her phone including the flash, for the duration of the performance. She would take a few, examine them, adjust the contrast or exposure, and repeat. For a 30 minute symphony. Without stopping once.

Of course this presented a quandary. I wanted to snatch the phone away in the name of civilization, or least firmly express my mortal outrage at this shocking concert behavior. But what if she was a major donor to my client? Risk the business relationship? And so I sat there doing nothing, partly in awe of her stamina and mostly in shocked outrage and amusement. The best is when she (and I) would examine the results every few minutes. Blurry, uninteresting, badly composed. She missed the show and had nothing to show for it.

So I am done taking pictures at concerts, of all varieties, including rock shows. You might consider doing the same. When your favorite band is playing your favorite song, stay in the moment. Look around and watch the people taking pictures, looking like a jackass. Watch the show. Live the moment.

Save your iphone for the amusing shot of a hipster with a man purse. Text me that one though okay?

Posted in Performing Arts | 1 Comment