Notch Theatre Company's Moral Fundraising Practices
Notch is part of a new, values-based economic ecosystem (based on relationships and well-being, not on economic growth) that puts ownership in the hands of communities who have been excluded by traditional for-profit and nonprofit support. Therefore, we are committed to raising funds from donors seeking economic justice and not the exploitation of peoples oppressed by poverty. We believe that cultural transformation work requires shifting economic power. Our programs attempt to seed new networks, relationships, and funding streams that catalyze alternative and regenerative economies to support our partners in achieving full financial freedom and autonomy.
One method by which we achieve these goals is in keeping our overhead and administrative costs uncommonly low while decentralizing our power structure. We have a three-person, part-time staff, and ALL other personnel are program specific and predominantly hired from within each community. This allows for decision making to happen close to the work and gives the community leadership over their programs. Less than 25% of our organizational budget goes to general operating costs including all staff, who are essential in upholding our Moral Fundraising Practices. While community leads the work as producers, visionaries, and artists, Notch is committed to providing a program’s full financial support and ensuring that all local participants are paid. Thanks to our small but mighty staff, Notch will never show up empty handed.
Moreover, our work invests in the economic wellbeing of each community with which we collaborate. We strive to allocate at least 50% of all costs directly to our Community Partners and participants. This includes investing in the local economy by hiring neighborhood workers for every production, feeding people at all rehearsals and events, using local (rather than national) food and catering companies, paying our partners for rehearsal space, housing any out-of-town artists in the community, and contracting area nonprofits to partner with our programs in ways that advance our mutual missions and strengthen their sustainability.
Terms
Ethical Finance is commonly used to describe finance that takes into account not only financial returns but also environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, reflecting the importance and value of delivering measurable positive environmental and social impact on a sustainable basis.
Regenerative Capitalism is an economic system that acknowledges that the market we have now is not a beautifully self-correcting free market, but a market that is manipulated by the most powerful forces.
Regenerative Economies are economic systems that work to regenerate capital assets and prioritize environmental and social goals as much as fiscal ones. They strive to leave the world a better place than it was when they started.
Companies that embody regenerative principles know that wealth is more than just financial. We place worth inhuman capital, in the form of happy, healthy employees and community members that are valued and well taken care of; cultural capital exists by offering space for creative, enlightening, healing, and/or affirming interactions to take place; and natural capital, by creating programs and systems that enhance the health of the planetary space we all share.
Alternative Economies are processes of production, exchange, labor/compensation, finance, and consumption that are intentionally different from mainstream (capitalist) economic activity.
Models of decentralized leadership ensure everyone has a voice, buy-in to an organization’s mission, and meaningful professional relationships. Groups ranging from startups to YouTube, from Alcoholics Anonymous to the Apache Native Americans, have used this type of structure to create empowering and healthy collectives.
Cultural Work is creative labor involving or concerning society and its ideas, customs, and art. It has a moral positioning embedded into it, as well as an inherent accountability. A Cultural Worker’s labor occurs with the intention, or with a moral imperative, to uphold a certain culture. As artists we are not simply creating art for art’s sake but have a moral obligation to use our artistic talents in the service of liberation.
In each community, we begin by engaging with area nonprofits and stakeholders who become our Community Partners (or thought partners and program advocates within community) who support community organizing and tap their networks, inviting their constituents to collaborate on the program. These partners hold the heart of the work and continue a project’s long-term activism after the curtain has gone down. (For more on Community Partners and our process see our METHODOLOGY one page)
One method by which we achieve these goals is in keeping our overhead and administrative costs uncommonly low while decentralizing our power structure. We have a three-person, part-time staff, and ALL other personnel are program specific and predominantly hired from within each community. This allows for decision making to happen close to the work and gives the community leadership over their programs. Less than 25% of our organizational budget goes to general operating costs including all staff, who are essential in upholding our Moral Fundraising Practices. While community leads the work as producers, visionaries, and artists, Notch is committed to providing a program’s full financial support and ensuring that all local participants are paid. Thanks to our small but mighty staff, Notch will never show up empty handed.
Moreover, our work invests in the economic wellbeing of each community with which we collaborate. We strive to allocate at least 50% of all costs directly to our Community Partners and participants. This includes investing in the local economy by hiring neighborhood workers for every production, feeding people at all rehearsals and events, using local (rather than national) food and catering companies, paying our partners for rehearsal space, housing any out-of-town artists in the community, and contracting area nonprofits to partner with our programs in ways that advance our mutual missions and strengthen their sustainability.
Terms
Ethical Finance is commonly used to describe finance that takes into account not only financial returns but also environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, reflecting the importance and value of delivering measurable positive environmental and social impact on a sustainable basis.
Regenerative Capitalism is an economic system that acknowledges that the market we have now is not a beautifully self-correcting free market, but a market that is manipulated by the most powerful forces.
Regenerative Economies are economic systems that work to regenerate capital assets and prioritize environmental and social goals as much as fiscal ones. They strive to leave the world a better place than it was when they started.
Companies that embody regenerative principles know that wealth is more than just financial. We place worth inhuman capital, in the form of happy, healthy employees and community members that are valued and well taken care of; cultural capital exists by offering space for creative, enlightening, healing, and/or affirming interactions to take place; and natural capital, by creating programs and systems that enhance the health of the planetary space we all share.
Alternative Economies are processes of production, exchange, labor/compensation, finance, and consumption that are intentionally different from mainstream (capitalist) economic activity.
Models of decentralized leadership ensure everyone has a voice, buy-in to an organization’s mission, and meaningful professional relationships. Groups ranging from startups to YouTube, from Alcoholics Anonymous to the Apache Native Americans, have used this type of structure to create empowering and healthy collectives.
Cultural Work is creative labor involving or concerning society and its ideas, customs, and art. It has a moral positioning embedded into it, as well as an inherent accountability. A Cultural Worker’s labor occurs with the intention, or with a moral imperative, to uphold a certain culture. As artists we are not simply creating art for art’s sake but have a moral obligation to use our artistic talents in the service of liberation.
In each community, we begin by engaging with area nonprofits and stakeholders who become our Community Partners (or thought partners and program advocates within community) who support community organizing and tap their networks, inviting their constituents to collaborate on the program. These partners hold the heart of the work and continue a project’s long-term activism after the curtain has gone down. (For more on Community Partners and our process see our METHODOLOGY one page)