Funding Innovative Ideas

The recent Community Foundation Challenge for Arts & Culture is a concept that needs to spread to helping emerging and smaller - struggling organizations.  While the participating organizations are all worthy of support, we need to take things to the next level to fund innovative ideas from creative minds on the visionary fringe.

There is also the current:  "The New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan, an innovative philanthropic effort to help restore southeast Michigan to a position of leadership in the new global economy.  Ten national, regional and local foundations have committed $100 million to this unprecedented eight-year initiative to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in new and existing enterprises in the region." 

Here are my Awesome Ideas on how to provide funding opportunities to individuals & projects that can make the D a more creative place.

Creative Visionaries Program

(Funded through the New Economy Initiative) 

Modeled after the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship program but with a bit of a twist, that being a focus on creative projects and include persons with great ideas but who may not yet be established. 

"The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction. There are three criteria for selection of Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.

The MacArthur Fellows Program is intended to encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations. In keeping with this purpose, the Foundation awards fellowships directly to individuals rather than through institutions. Recipients may be writers, scientists, artists, social scientists, humanists, teachers, entrepreneurs, or those in other fields, with or without institutional affiliations. They may use their fellowship to advance their expertise, engage in bold new work, or, if they wish, to change fields or alter the direction of their careers.

The Foundation does not require or expect specific products or reports from MacArthur Fellows, and does not evaluate recipients' creativity during the term of the fellowship. The MacArthur Fellowship is a "no strings attached" award in support of people, not projects. Each fellowship comes with a stipend of $500,000 to the recipient, paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years."

The Creative Visionaries Program could involve several levels of support such as:

Creative Visionary -  $500,000,  

Creative Community Leader - $250,000

Emerging Creative Leader - $100,000

Creative Pioneer - $50,000  

Angel Patrons Program

Embracing Creative Vision and Nurturing Creative Pursuits

(Set-up on the Community Foundation website) 

In 1999 I was one of three grand-prize winners of $50,000 through a competition sponsored by Absolut Vodka called Absolut Angel.  One of my co-winners idea was actually an idea I had a couple of years earlier shortly after I started using the internet and there have been similar ideas that have been out there.  

The idea was Art Angels which is a website is set-up for individuals and groups to post a profile of a project or program they are seeking support for and persons who want to make a donation can look for something they would like to fund.

The Angel Patrons Program could help get the ball rolling for projects and individuals who might have trouble securing funding from the foundations.  

Creative Innovation Fund

(Could be a part of New Economy Initiative or set-up as a separate fund) 

This would be modeled on the Federal Empowerment Zone, “Innovation Fund” which was intended to fund innovative projects by emerging nonprofits that might have difficulties being funded by traditional sources.  There was $10 million available, unfortunately the arts weren’t considered that innovative and received a token amount.

 

This fund could be used to help supplement both the previous programs so persons who receive initial support could get additional funding if needed instead of submitting a number of proposals to different foundations.

 

        How they all tie together 

                                

To be eligible for the either the Creative Visionaries Program & Creative Innovation Fund, individuals or groups would put up their profile and project request on the Angel Patrons site, which would be reviewed, and potential candidates would be nominated and grants would be made periodically on a discretionary basis.

 

The Innovation grants would work as follows:  they could be used to supplement both the Angel Patron and Visionary recipients; a challenge grant could be issued to Angel Patron - project requests, which could catch the eye of potential benefactors; grants could provide full funding for certain Angel Patron projects or programs.

 

So the Angel Patron site would be the one-stop proposal submission portal for multiple funding possibilities and perhaps some of the foundations or corporations or groups that do special fund-raising events for different causes could use it to dole out support.

 

The Creative Economy segment of the New Economy needs new models of funding that looks at projects & programs that individually may not have a major financial pay-off but collectively can improve the Creative Climate that will help attract & retain Creative Professionals and Creative Businesses.

 

Supporting Creative Ways

A little follow-up note on my first blog on Detroit's Image, I checked out a recent Travel Network episode of Anthony Bourdain - No Reservations, on food in the "rustbelt cities" of Baltimore, Buffalo & Detroit or as Mr. Bourdain put it, "Fu**ed Up cities I kind of love."  On the Detroit segment he praised the D for past automotive & music glories and asked "what the f**k happened?"

Supporting Creative Ways, part one

I believe a key component to improving the D's image is to fund and provide technical assistance to Arts & Entertainment Entrepreneurs who could be considered Creative Visionaries.  These are persons who want to make the D a better place by improving the Creative Climate through either providing a service to the Creative Community, establishing a performance - exhibition space, producing an event or festival featuring creative offerings. 

While the entrepreneur part of these types of persons would like to make a living from their efforts, it is their passion for creativity as a cause for social exchange that often drives them in their pursuits.  There are a number of individuals and small groups that independently produce events to provide exposure for creative talent and many times they are lucky if they break even.  Some efforts prove fortunate when they manage to turn a regular event into a moderate to major success.

I recently came across an interesting site Tactical Philanthropy the personal blog of Sean Stannard-Stockton, principal and director of Tactical Philanthropy at Ensemble Capital Management.  The blog is an open space for discussion of philanthropy and a chronicle of The Second Great Wave of Philanthropy.

"To practice Tactical Philanthropy is to organize, optimize, and transfer philanthropic capital in ways that maximize the impact of the donor’s strategic plan. It is the practice of transforming philanthropic strategy into reality." 

In one post he wrote about The Awesome Foundation for Arts and Sciences:

"We support people doing awesome things in the world. Every month we give out a grant. 

What is Awesome?

Awesomeness is often overlooked by mainstream culture, which tends to rehash the same broadly appealing but mediocre creations. Thankfully, there is the web.

Awesomeness is more the product of a creator’s passion than the prospect of audience or profit. Awesome creations are novel and non-obvious, evoking surprise and delight. Invariably, something about them perfectly reflects the essence of the medium, moment, or method of creation. Awesomeness challenges and inspires.

Submit an awesome idea. If we pick it, we’ll give you $1,000 in cash. Yup, $1,000. Cash." 

I submitted one of my Awesome Ideas, this months deadline ended last Friday and they haven't made an announcement yet.

Presently if a group decides to go the nonprofit route to be able to apply for grants they have to be able to start jumping through hoops beginning with first registering with the state as a nonprofit entity (which is the easy part) then they have to apply for 501-C3 tax exempt status from the IRS, which can be intimidating.  

If 501-C3 status is granted then the group will find that many foundations have restrictions on what they will fund and most will not fund building & equipment expenses along with events & festivals.  In general the main type of funding an arts organization can is for "programs" that serve some type of community related function.

So it's a little ironic that the main option for start-up nonprofit is to hold a fund-raising event where bands or a DJ donate their time and a bar or club owner donates the use of the venue for the cause.

It is promising that the Kresge Foundation created the Kresge Artist Fellows in the Visual Arts each including a $25,000 prize but what is also needed is a fellowship for Arts & Entertainment Entrepreneurs.

Tactical Philanthropy directed towards emerging arts related organizations and foundations supporting Awesome Ideas would go a long ways in turning around the D.

Next week part 2 on Funding Creative Ways featuring an Awesome Idea.

Creative Ways Can Combat Detroit's Image Problem

As someone who tends to ponder deeply on creative ways to improve Detroit, I do a variety of research in the area of creativity and its impact in reviving cities & communities.  I often think in particular on how to improve the image of the city and have written about it in the past but had a couple of pieces on the subject rejected as commentaries in the papers.

I recently did a search on "Detroit + image" and an NPR story that I hadn't heard about from a few months ago came up about Detroit's image in movies.  There are a number of other choice examples that could have been used and the story failed to mention that Detroit is an easy target for jokes on television as well.  So given the problem of a bad image that continues to plague the city this piece from four years ago is still most relevant and I will follow it up with a way to foster creative ways to make the city a better place.

 

Detroit’s Image Problem

2005

At the recent Detroit Regional Chamber, Partnerships luncheon, a couple from Hamilton, Ontario told of their decision to expand their business into Detroit.  At first they were apprehensive about setting up shop in the city with the main image they had of Detroit being that of the riots.

 

Last year two animated shows, the Simpson's and King of the Hill both made jokes at Detroit's expense, the latter made a homicide reference even though it has been years since the city's reign as the murder capitol.  Also the past couple of year's comedians & talk-show hosts keep using Detroit as the butt of jokes. Most recently Adam Corolla, who co-hosted the Man Show with Jimmy Kimmel, who last year made the crack on national TV about Detroiters burning the city if the Pistons went on to win the championship.  Corolla made a similar crack about burning cars after a sports championship win but since it was on a cable channel it didn't seem to cause as much of an uproar as Kimmel's comment.

 

As a marketing slogan of the past so aptly put it, "Image is Everything" and in Detroit, image is the problem.

 

So what is it going to take to combat the negative images of Detroit that continue to persist?  The city is counting on a big image boost from the Super Bowl but aside from superficial fix ups what is being done to ensure the maximum pay-off and image enhancement?

 

Overcoming a long-term negative image problem is going to take more than landscaping & facade improvements along with major projects such as Campus Martius, the River Walk, the new stadiums and once they're built, the permanent casinos.

 

If we are truly going to make the transition to a world-class city, innovative, visionary and radical ideas need to be embraced.

 

The Creative City by Charles Landry, is a book that came out a couple of years prior to Richard Florida's Rise of the Creative Class but for some reason it didn't get the attention it deserved.  While Rise of the Creative Class was more of an overview on the nature and impact of creativity, The Creative City gets into the nuts & bolts of what it takes to make a city more creative and competitive.

 

Among the things the book suggests, is setting up a center for the public to gather to have dialogue and debate issues, and to act as an ideas factory to provide homegrown solutions.  It also suggests bringing the radicals and activists to the table to provide input.

 

The book also stresses the need for culture to take center stage.  "Culture provides insight and so has many impacts; it is the prism through which urban development should be seen.  The cultural industries, hotbeds of creativity, are perhaps the fastest growing sector in modern urban economies."

 

Another book that came out a couple of years ago entitled Unleashing the Idea Virus by Seth Godin and while it applied primarily to businesses, it could be applied to a city as well.  So what we need to do to overcome our lingering image problem is to create an idea virus that Detroit is a hip & happening city and back it up with visionary projects & programs.

 

The Creative Community can provide solutions if given greater opportunities.  An excellent essay by William Cleveland,, Translations and Change: The Arts as Infrastructure in 21st Century America"provides insight on just what the arts and the creative community can accomplish.  "The arts community brings untapped capacities as bridge builders, translators and problem solvers.  We bring the language and technology of transformation."  One suggestion is to establish forums for discourse and problem solving between and among artists, scientists, engineers, economists, philosophers etc.

 

I am tired of Detroit being the "Rodney Dangerfield" of urban cities, we deserve a little respect and we are inching forward to earning the designation as a world-class city. We have persevered and with an extra push, we will prosper once again.