An art organization making a transition into a nonprofit.
For years TAP had been working as a private organization within the international art community, and in 2020 it came time to expand into the nonprofit world in order be able to sustain itself through donations and receive grants. So as a nonprofit, it would need to be able to translate its art world voice into more accessible language for growing donation and support. A change in conversation was needed, to talk more about what impact their work has on our world. To reposition TAP as a nonprofit, would mean understanding its impact on community through the lens of a mission and find clear language to explain its intangible impact of art on society.
Services
Brand Strategy Consulting
Mission, Vision, Values, Brand Compass
for most driven by a cause, it’s not creating a purpose, but articulating what’s already there.
FOr tap, it means communicating the vital + intangible impact of art on a society.
the idea is to bring organizations closer to the donors, colleagues, public and communities they serve by clearly communicating their true value as a nonprofit.
GIving shape to Art as a cause
The Process
To position TAP as a nonprofit meant starting a series of informal workshops and conversations with the whole team to get a full picture of the public art world. So we really dug into conversations to better understand the intersection of culture, activism, politics, art market, creative process and the magic of the unexpected.
Turns out, breaking down the impact of art gets pretty abstract! So we began parsing the new findings into a kind of Stakeholder/Impact map for an intangible change takes effect on how art impacts our views of the world. Understanding in more plain terms the “Who, How, + What”, begins to bring a sharper image of a Mission and Vision into focus.
Bridging the gap between art and impact
reDefining An organization as a nonprofit
At the center of everything was answering some pretty tough philosophical notions of what intangible change occurs when art is catalyzing the world around it.
What we discovered at the center of why TAP devotes itself to the work it does, is a belief that Art has the power to change minds, reshape societies, and (in effect) influence the world. This is their core reason for being, believing and behaving.
Most organizations can tell you easily enough “What” they do, but articulating “Why” they do it is where the process leads to. That breakthrough moment we aim for is to pinpoint a central to the “Why” of an organization. With “Art as impact for social change” as the central “Why”, a sharper picture begins to emerge of TAP’s role in the world.
A clear donor story emerges
New clarity, pitch, and insights for connecting with new audiences
Words matter. And crafting the right strategic mission, vision and values can often be a group effort to make sure everyone is in love with the right articulation. With the ideas in place, all that was left was to work through the right wording with the whole team. Taking into consideration was finding the right balance of art world credibility, nonprofit parameters, and easily translatable in several languages. In the end we not only landed on the right strategic direction and articulation to help TAP apply themselves to a new nonprofit sector, but new clarity to help shape all communications moving forward; newsletters, reports and a new visual identity.
