This month, music and film are at the forefront as each battles with the future uses for burgeoning tech. While AI-generated film visuals seem to be coming up short, progress toward realistic AI-generated music is starting to send shockwaves. On the consumer side, music streaming tools are being released to allow more listening experience customization. Across the industry, artists are celebrating ways that some these new tools can enhance their work, while speaking out against potential impacts on jobs, compensation, and creative freedom.
Generative AI (GenAI) has become increasingly integrated into marketing and communication careers, and even our daily lives, with the rise of various text-to-image, text-to-video, & text-to-text tools. As digital marketers find new and innovative ways to keep up with the trends, and specifically GenZ in a quick-changing popular culture scene, how are they reacting to the rise of GenAI?
Arts and cultural organizations are becoming increasingly aware of their climate impact, and many are taking action to reduce harm. Tracking, reporting, and offsetting emissions may seem like an overwhelming feat for small or mid-sized organizations, but emerging blockchain technology may help make the process more efficient and reliable.
As previously foreshadowed by Samantha in an article written in July of 2023, TikTok: Opportunity and Risk, TikTok has been under a microscope from governments across the globe for quite awhile. The analysis provided in her article is still relevant today given the recent vote to ban TikTok, and the United States House moving forward to force Chinese state-owned TikTok company ByteDance to sell their ownership of the U.S. version of TikTok, or lose access to the United States TikTok market. To fully understand the situation, this article will recap TikTok’s controversial Privacy Policy and the 2023 testimonies, and also discuss the current governmental situation surrounding the ban.
Digital strategy has become a buzzword after the explosion of AI in the last 18 months. Yet, it is not about AI. AI has been the tipping point for organizations and professionals to recognize that they must update or create a digital strategy for success. Digitally-forward arts organizations already have a digital component as part of their strategic plan. Read more to understand the need for technology to be a core component of strategic plans and operations.
Fundraising is the lifeblood of any non-profit organization. Not only is it the primary way to raise money for your organization’s cause, but it also keeps your organization running day-to-day to work on sustaining its mission. Your nonprofit should always be looking for new donation tools as part of your digital strategy. Non-profit fundraising has been made easier than ever before with the creation of technology and apps, such as Venmo.
Organizations’ marketing strategies and missions themselves may need to be reexamined to determine whether or not they align with the next generation of donors. There are a number of practices that organizations can start to embrace in order to expand their mission to a more diverse population while not running the risk of alienating their current support base.
The average theater-goer walks into a performance with their ticket stub freshly procured from the box office. An usher hands them a playbill as they find their seat. Both items are unique to the time and place of the event, and available only to those physically in attendance at the performance. These forms of memorabilia offer audiences collectible, tangible tokens to commemorate an arts experience. However, today it is common practice to take a picture of the stage from one’s seat with playbill in hand to post on social media and store in the cloud, transforming a physical token of memorabilia into a digital one.
Cryptocurrency has the potential to and is already beginning to disrupt philanthropy and the ways that nonprofit organizations collect donations. In previous eras, philanthropic innovation was spurred by “new sources of wealth,” as with John D. Rockefeller creating America’s first foundation or Bill and Melinda Gates translating his immense success in the tech revolution into global philanthropic influence in areas of “poverty, disease, and equity.” Similarly the emergence of a new class of “crypto-elite[s]” has the potential to disrupt traditional methods of philanthropy. Now, as blockchain technology and its myriad applications become more mainstream and our society becomes more crypto-curious, nonprofit organizations have an opportunity to adapt by incorporating cryptocurrency and its various tokens into their fundraising strategies.
Fundraising is a vital part of a nonprofit’s ability to achieve its mission. Cultivating relationships with individuals and institutions in this way can help an organization gain economic support, as well as important relationships and visibility. In order to create and maintain these relationships in development departments, organizations need to meet potential partners where they are and inspire them through their mission and projects. Today, and in the near future, these potential donors may likely be in a virtual space, specifically augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
AI has been slowing encroaching on every facet of modern life. It runs our phones, it navigates our vehicles, and has even began finishing our sentences. As of now, its integration into our everyday life has been mundane. Since AI operates most effectively behind the scenes and is difficult to explain to the average consumer, most products that utilize it do not necessarily draw much attention to it. Negative connotations among the public may prevent business from directly or overtly acknowledging the use of AI in their products or administration, but it certainly does not stop them from utilizing it. AI is bolstering many forms of business management technology, and the nonprofit sector is starting to reap its benefits. With so much of nonprofits reputations relying on trust and good faith connections between stakeholders, donors, and staff, what happens when AI is introduced into the dynamic?
Fundraisers take note: it is estimated that four to seven billion dollars a year goes unmatched by nonprofit organizations. Eighteen million people around the globe have access to a matching gift program, and it’s been surveyed that one in every three people who donate would actually be willing to donate more if they knew their donation could be matched in the first place. Matching gift programs and volunteer grant programs are more inclusive of corporate employees because the causes that they feel personally motivated to donate to or volunteer with are recognized and rewarded by their employers. The digital marketplace for these opportunities is growing making it easier for nonprofits to find their match.
Currently, fundraising in the nonprofit sector uses a “donor-centric” model in which donors’ preferences for the organization’s direction are often prioritized over community needs. In the technology realm, donor centrism demands nonprofits’ use of advanced CRM systems to carefully track donors. Community-centric fundraising has emerged as an alternative that prioritizes community needs and social justice. Community-centric fundraising not only has the power to strengthen the fundraising profession as a form of activism, but its successful implementation means that the marginalized communities our organizations seek to serve will receive the attention, care, and justice they deserve.
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are integral to any arts organization. They allow for the organization to collect data on their patrons in order to create better relationships with them. However, the current pandemic has shown some areas for improvement, specifically in terms of current technology’s relevance. One such area is the intersection of CRM systems and digital giving. Up-to-date and easy-to-use technology can put an organization ahead, but it is going to take a dedicated strategy to ensure progress.
Cryptocurrencies conjure up a variety of images. To some, they are shadowy currencies, born of vice and crawling out of the corners of the dark web to sew anarchy into the traditional financial system. To others, they are harbingers of a new wave of financial tools better suited to the digital age. This report analyzes the pathways, promises, and potential problems of crypto-assets within fundraising.
