PHILANTHRO-SYNTHESIS: When Art and Strategy Connect
When Winifred Haun & Dancers needed to figure out their growth strategy to solve their need for sustainability, they signed on to Navigate Nonprofit, VEGA Partners’ virtual consulting platform.
Winnie, the Founder and Artistic Director of the company was looking for trailblazing ways to approach their fundraising strategy. The VEGA team helped Winnie realize that they should approach their fundraising much like they approach their artistry.
From there the Winnie Circle was born. This allowed donors and potential donors to attend Winifred Haun Dancers’ open rehearsals as an invited audience. This strategy led them to upgrade the open rehearsals to become more of an experience.
These changes led to 40% growth for the Winnie Circle. And the Winnie Circle has become a regular and reliable fundraiser every year. A vital component of the growth seen within this group is ensuring that every board member is also a member of the Winnie Circle.
“VEGA helped us with lots of things, I could make a list. It would be an extremely long list of the changes that we've made.” said Winnie.
To optimize Winifred Haun & Dancers’ marketing efforts, the VEGA team helped them implement fresh marketing strategies to include a variety of changes, such as using pivotal tactics that have not been used before, which increased the results of their efforts.
The VEGA team provided guidance to adjust their planning approach, contributing to their continued growth throughout the pandemic. “Typically, before Covid- you’d make a little annual budget and that’s what you submit to the funders. But that model didn’t fit with the pandemic at all. So, we started a thing where we would just make plans three months in advance… that has helped us engage the board better. As the Artistic Director, it’s proved to be helpful, in terms of planning, communication, but also emotionally and stress-wise,” says Winnie.
VEGA’s work with Winfred Haun & Dancers is what we like to call the formula of connecting philanthro-synthesis for art and strategy. We uplift the strengths of the company while energizing the company resources. We then match these with VEGA’s expertise and creativity to create philanthro-synthesis. We have led Winifred Haun to their next level using philanthro-synthesis to create powerful strategies that impact the world brilliantly.
”One of the things that I really love about VEGA is how creative they are. They are not afraid to suggest things that people haven't tried before. That's creativity too, it's creative to help people come up with new ideas, for how to do the same thing,” says Winnie.
