After over 10 years of blog posts, I hope I am not repeating myself here. I have come across numerous examples of organizations and individual artists that try to take on too much in order to gain a bigger audience. What normally tends to happen is they become spread too thin (in all aspects of their resources) attempting to tend to all the different programs.

I once did an analysis on the Metropolitan Opera’s season. This was during a time that they were reporting having some financial challenges. I found that if they cut a few programs and concentrate on the ones left, they could actually still make money and possibly turn a “profit.”

We also need to consider what matters to us as well as what our audiences are wanting. Sometimes we end up spending time on programs that are not in-line with our collective true vision and values. This can hurt a great deal more despite the thought and hopes for the new programs to attract new audiences.

This is not to say you should not try new programs. What is important is for us to consider our bandwidth during the brainstorming process. Can you take on a new program right now? Does it align with our mission? Can you let go of a program that isn’t working to create space for the new?

Taking on too big a season or too many individual new programs or projects in the name of audience development could backfire big time.

So stretch your boundaries, but make sure the new is undertaken at the right time, place, with enough capacity to truly help grow you and your audiences.

Cheers to happy and loyal audiences,
Shoshana

Shoshana Fanizza
Chief Audience Builder, Audience Development Specialists

Check out my new book Affirmations for Nonprofits: Best practices for building support!