the urgent artist

Whip Your Applications and Finances Into Shape with These Two (FREE!) Mega-Spreadsheets from A.O. PRO(+ductions)!

Apologies for the lack of posting recently.  Between spring (ie: wanting to be in the sun all day), allergies (ie: wanting to be able to breathe all day), and feeling like it’s crunch time for Wake (ie: thinking about it every. day. all. day.) i haven’t had much time to update and trend-watch.

But fear not! I have been working on getting all the AOMC’s business business in order so that i can share it with you.  As it nears the conclusion of my second year here making work in New York, i can honestly say that i’m beginning to find my feet under me and move from a place of “go! go! go! I don’t know where or why but GO!” to a better understanding of what to do when, and why, and how to manage it all in a way that feels a bit more structured and holistic.

I partly understand the two-year evolution – for so much of the business surrounding art making there’s no real way to learn it other than to do it, see what works and what doesn’t, and learn from that process as you do it again.  On the other hand,  NYC sure doesn’t make it easy.  Orgs like danceNYC (who were at one point created to better facilitate a gathering of information on grants, opportunities, etc) have yet to find an effective and sustainable way to gather and convey information to those who need it, leaving us with the reality that there is no single site, book, or listing containing all of NYC’s performance, grant, and residency opps.  It doesn’t seem like it would be so hard, and there is a part of me interested in seeking funding to develop such a site, but that’s another battle.

Rather than pushing my energy that direction, I’ve focused on developing systems for myself to help keep track of what i’m applying for and what i should be focusing on for the AOMC in the future.  It brings us to one of my favorite core problems constantly at play in humanity: how do you arrange and retain immense amounts of information in a way that makes it clear, organized, and immediately understandable? I think this question is the basis for evolution (verbal traditions > written word > books > the internet!) but I won’t go on that tangent (yet).  The point for this post is that I wanted to share a few of the organizational tools that i’ve come up with, and give you the templates to start making your own.  Ideas, as well as full templates to whip your apps into shape after the jump, courtesy of A.O. PRO(+ductions)! >>>

Here’s what i’ve got for you:
Two majorly epic documents, containing everything you need to manage all your applications (the first) and all your money(the second).

Let’s start with my current system for applications >>> CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD from google docs (although i’d really suggest that you download the docs rather than looking at them online – they’ll be much easier to manage!)
I would estimate that about 60% (if not more) of the business work that goes into the AOMC is applying to things to support our work as much as two full years into the future.  It’s constant – performance opps, grants, residencies, papers, etc – if you’re not applying for one thing, chances are it’s time to be applying for the other.  It’s easy to feel overwhelmed! I realized that the key for me was keeping organized.  When i felt like there was so much to be done that i couldn’t keep track of it mentally, it was easy for me to put it off out of stress or fear.  When i was able to take a quick glance and see what i needed when, i was no longer able to allow myself that fear – after all, if i know that what all i have to do to stay on track is to burn one work sample DVD today, then what’s there to be scared about?

Let’s go through a breakdown of what you have here:

• The first sheet of this excel document is my “Application Log” – the master document for everything I’ve applied for, heard about, got part way through, or want to keep on my radar.  The purpose of this document is twofold – first, it helps me to keep track of what we’ve applied for, the ask that we made, how we fared, and any feedback we may have received.  Second, I can use it to determine what I should keep on my horizon for the next project.  The most time consuming part of all this grant work (in my experience) is the searching, finding grants just after the deadline has passed, trying to make sense of the overabundance and under-visibility of what’s available.  With this doc I can have all the basic info in one place.I’ve divided it by project (starting with the current one, going forward into future work) so that I can also analyze how we fared per-project.  As you can see, we did pretty well for showing opps for Wake, and not as well on grants – makes sense, as we’re an emerging company.  You can also see that we’re in the beginning stages of finding support for the next project, The Impact Manifesto, as well as looking into other potential next projects, such as the Danspace Project Platform.
• The second sheet is my “To-Do List” for the Applications I’ve decided to apply for.  Once we’ve decided it’s worth our time, I find it helpful to have some sort of list of everything that’s needed for the app, as well as information about when it’s due and what i’ve already accomplished.  Especially during times where i’m working on three apps at once (that, of course, share some components but are just different enough for me to not really have a full grasp of how) it’s great to have a checklist already set out for myself.  It’s also great because by breaking down the components of each application, it’s easy to use set documents that you have (say, your mission statement or bio) and then tweak it to fit the specific application.  As you can see, I just add each app as it comes, mark what I already have, set goal dates for what I don’t, and then grayscale out the box once it’s been sent.  It’s not as helpful as the first once the app is sent (i don’t usually find myself looking back at it) but it’s great for during the grant writing process.
• Finally, the “Work Sample” sheet.  Initially I had this information combined with the previous one, but found that the details for each app’s work sample were usually so specific that it merited its own page.  Additionally, I do tend to look back at this to see what I’ve sent.  For applications that get accepted, it’s good to be able to analyze why – if you no longer remember which work samples you sent in, you’re already a step behind repeating that acceptance process.  I think it’s pretty self explanatory…apps are added as they come, x’d out as they near completion, and then sent off.  I add the red R (and green A, hopefully soon) by the side for rejected/accepted apps so i have a quicker reference than having to look back at the first sheet.  We’re shaving off seconds here left and right, folks!

The second excel document contains all of the AOMC’s budgeting info (actual info taken out of these ones for donor privacy, sorry) >>> CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD from google docs (again, please download!) I’m the first person to admit that numbers and money is my business weakness, but i’m proud that i’ve gotten better over the last two years, even if there’s still a ways to go.  In much the same way as the group of application documents, keeping your budget, donation workbooks, and donor information organized and functional can lead to an easier time for you down the road when it’s time to plan a fundraising campaign, apply for a grant, or even figure out if you have enough money to hire another helper.

• This document opens with our current project budget.  Though I’ve taken our actual figures out, you can get a sense of how I’ve organized it.  The biggest decision for me in making this was whether to divide our numbers by project or by year – although our fiscal sponsor (DTW) has it’s calendars set to a fiscal year cycle, the project-centric budget seemed to make more sense to me.  I like it because it lets me see how much i’m spending on what over the entire course of the project, and eventually compare that to the full cycles of projects to come.  There’s certianly not a right or wrong answer about how to do yours – just pick whichever makes the most sense.
• Since I decided to arrange the budget per project, I also made a document to keep track of our rehearsal hours.  At first I wasn’t sure if I’d find it useful or not, but it’s actually been incredibly helpful when figuring out how much time to book.  It’s good to know our patterns, and nice to be able to predict that we usually use about 125 hours of space a month, and aprox 50 more when we have a showing we’re prepping for.  It’s also good for our current budget and future planning, and good for fundraising as well to be able to know exactly how much money and how many hours went into the creation of this piece.
• The third sheet in this document is our current donation workbook, again organized in relation to this specific project.  As you can see, we have three sections of fundraising for this piece – a winter mail campaign, an upcoming fundraiser party, and then probably a last-minute close-the-gap email campaign.  Having all the donation information here is helpful for a number of reasons.  First, I can see at a glance how successful each appeal was, who was a repeat donor, etc.  It also gives me a way to keep track of where the donation is (being processed, deposited, etc) and if I’ve sent the thank you letter and followed up in the proper way.  Finally, it lets me keep track of what i’m actually going to end up with, minus fees for fiscal sponsorship.  Always important to keep in mind!
• Last, we have the “full donor archive”.  Since I’m a single person and not a large arts organization, I don’t own a database program.  Even if i could have access to it though, i’m not sure I would want to.  For my purposes, an excel sheet is all i really need.  The most important thing here is that we never want to lose any information.  Knowing information about your donors, your past campaigns, and your success over time is hands down the most important fundraising tool you have.  Since i took all of our donor info out it may be a little hard to visualize, but this spreadsheet is my baby – full of a TON of extremely important info.To start, we have the basic info – who gave what, their address, email, etc.  But rather than basing it on a yearly model, this spreadsheet contains all of our info from the AOMC’s first year onwards.  Admittedly, I didn’t have a spreadsheet like this when I started, so I’m sure some information has (tragically) gotten lost along the way.  All in all though, I think I’m doing okay.  Keeping info on who gave what when has proved to be a helpful tool, both in terms of knowing how to approach the donor, and in terms of predicting what we’ll be able to make in the next year.  Last, there’s also the “via” column.  I use this column to designate how the donor came to the AOMC.  Since I ask my dancers to actively participate in our fundraising efforts, we have donations coming in from their friends and family as well as mine.  Keeping track of how they first came to us allows us to personalize letters and asks, as well as be aware of trends among dancers.

So that’s that.  Please download and take a look at the documents for yourself, and please, feel free to use and modify it in a way that works for YOU!  The point of any spreadsheet or database is to help, not make you more frustrated.  Though it may take a few years of working with to figure out the best system for you (and even after – it’s always still changing and evolving) having systems such as these in place will allow you to work more effectively and accomplish more across the board.

Here are some additional insights i’ve come across from working off these for a few months now:

• Less is More. ( i know, i know – the maximalist in me is dismayed, but the OCD in me is so happy!) You have to walk a fine line – include all the information you need in one spreadsheet, but don’t over-clutter it with info that is relevant, but not absolutely necessary for what you’re trying to convey. For example, it’s important to know that the Jerome Foundation grant is rolling admission, so you should apply early on in your project, but you don’t need to have that info in your face as you’re mid-way through the application figuring out which work samples to send.  Divide info into relevant groups and uses rather than having it all in the same place.  One way to achieve this is creating a document with multiple sheets, as i’ve done in mine. That way, you can have all relevant info together, but only look at one thing at a time.
• Be silly. Maybe it’s the dad-humor in me, but having a little bit of humor in the documents help keeps me sane.  It also helps to cut through the dread i feel when i think about having to deal with numbers.  Whether it’s cute titles or crazy colors, find what will put you at ease, and use it!
• Good design = peace of mind.  For the longest time, i couldn’t figure out why excel spreadsheets, supposedly there to make my life easier, never really did it for me.  Then i realized: i couldn’t really take all the info in because it was just that: info.  Once i began to construct spreadsheets that had a visual logic and designed aesthetic to them, they were something that i was happy to be looking at – a friendly tool that i could work with rather than from.  Maybe it’s silly, but it works for me.
  How to do it:
  • use the ‘borders’ tool to construct bold lines around your info, and the ‘merge cells’ option to create larger areas where it’s necessary.
  • Use a calm but clear color scheme to highlight what’s already been done and what’s left to do.
  • Use the same general aesthetic across all documents.  You’ll start to create a vocabulary for yourself that will make your documents easier to read.  Plus, they’ll match and the OCD person in you will be very very very happy.
• Update often. I’ll say it again: update often! If you keep returning to these documents on a regular basis, even if it’s just to add one thing here and another there, chances are that they’ll remain more useful, aesthetically pleasing, and filled with correct information than if you let them go for long periods of time.  Remember, these tools ROCK (i am soooo cool right now) but they’re only as good as the information you fill them with!

That’s it for now (frankly, i think it’s enough!) let me know if you have questions and I’m glad to answer!  If you decide to move forward with these as tools, drop us a line and let us know how you’re modifying them to your own liking! Over, out, and back to work, <3 A.O.

Tags: A.O. PRO(+ductions), budget, business, grants, reasource, spreadsheet