By The National Bank of Indianapolis and Barnes Dennig
Central Indiana is fortunate to have a nonprofit community that is innovative and deeply committed to serving others. Thousands of nonprofit organizations address our community’s most pressing challenges, from education and housing to healthcare, workforce development, arts, culture, youth development, and social services.
Even the most mission-driven organizations face a common reality: competition for funding continues to intensify, making every dollar, staffing decision, and strategic choice more important than ever. In this environment, passion for a mission remains essential, but it must be paired with a strong understanding of financial health. When nonprofit leaders invest in ongoing education, they build more resilient organizations.
Continue to focus on lifelong learning.
Executive directors, financial officers, development professionals, and board members are all expected to navigate increasingly complex financial, regulatory, and operational challenges. Organizations that prioritize learning are often better positioned to adapt, make informed decisions, and sustain their missions over the long term.
Understanding how your money works for you is essential for leadership.
Many nonprofits devote significant attention to fundraising and program outcomes, yet fiscal management is what enables those efforts to remain sustainable. Strong organizations understand not only where funding comes from, but also how to manage cash flow, maintain liquidity, anticipate future needs, and align financial resources with strategic goals.
A valuable opportunity for growth exists at the intersection of banking and accounting.
Too often, these functions operate independently. Yet when banking and accounting strategies work together, nonprofit leaders gain greater visibility into their organization’s financial health. Better forecasting, stronger cash flow planning, and coordinated financial guidance can help identify funding gaps earlier, strengthen governance, and support more informed decision-making.
For nonprofit leaders seeking to strengthen their organizations, three areas deserve ongoing attention:
Cash Flow Forecasting. Understanding when resources will be available is just as important as understanding how much funding has been secured.
Liquidity Planning. Maintaining financial flexibility provides stability during uncertain times and positions organizations to respond when opportunities arise.
Collaborative Financial Leadership. The strongest financial decisions are rarely made in isolation. Boards, executives, accountants, bankers, and operational leaders all bring valuable perspectives to the table.
At The National Bank of Indianapolis and Barnes Dennig, we believe supporting nonprofit education is one of the most important ways we can serve our community. That belief is the foundation of our upcoming joint event called Smart Money, Strong Mission: Banking and Accounting Strategies for Nonprofits, an educational forum designed to bring together nonprofit leaders and financial professionals for practical conversations and shared learning. On October 1 at Indiana Landmarks, this panel-style event followed by a social hour will explore how organizations can better connect their banking and accounting strategies to improve financial visibility, strengthen decision-making, and support long-term sustainability. There is no registration fee, and the program qualifies for 1 hour of CPE credits.
The nonprofit sector has long been one of Indy’s greatest strengths. As the challenges facing organizations continue to evolve, so must the knowledge and skills of the leaders guiding them.
When you invest in financial learning, you strengthen more than your finances. You strengthen your organizations and the communities you serve. Smart money management makes mission success possible.
By Lauren Bickham, Assistant Vice President and Fund Director at Black Onyx Management
Artificial intelligence isn’t just transforming how nonprofits operate—it’s expanding their potential. Nearly two-thirds of nonprofits now use AI—organizations of all sizes find it accessible and are identifying practical ways to incorporate it into their work. Additionally, philanthropy is making unprecedented investments to ensure AI’s transformative power benefits the organizations tackling society’s most pressing issues.
A $500 MILLION BET ON AI FOR IMPACT
In October, ten of America’s most influential foundations—including MacArthur, Ford, Omidyar Network, Mellon, and Packard—announced Humanity AI, a $500 million initiative dedicated to ensuring AI delivers for people and communities. The coalition will begin aligned grantmaking this fall, with pooled grants starting in 2026.
This represents a fundamental shift: philanthropy is moving from cautious observation to active investment in AI as a force multiplier for social impact.
HOW FOUNDATIONS ARE SUPPORTING AI ADOPTION
The sector is recognizing that nonprofits shouldn’t navigate AI alone. Yet a significant opportunity exists: while capacity building is common in philanthropy, a 2025 study by the Center for Effective Philanthropy found that nearly 90% of foundations don’t yet offer AI implementation support to grantees. This gap is changing rapidly as leading foundations demonstrate what’s possible:
Skills Development: The AI for Nonprofits Sprint aims to bring 100,000 nonprofit staff to baseline AI literacy in 2026. Microsoft, OpenAI, and others have launched free training specifically designed for nonprofit professionals.
Collaborative Funding: Foundations increasingly favor multi-partner proposals that bring together nonprofits, universities, and tech organizations—sharing both resources and expertise.
When foundations evaluate AI-inclusive proposals in 2026, they’ll be looking for organizations that demonstrate:
Mission Alignment: How does AI amplify your impact rather than simply automate tasks?
Responsible Implementation: What safeguards ensure AI enhances rather than replaces human judgment and relationships?
Equity Focus: How does your approach address bias, ensure transparency, and promote digital equity?
Sustainability: Who maintains and improves the AI system beyond the grant period?
Data Stewardship: What governance protects the communities you serve?
Learning Orientation: How will you share what works (and what doesn’t) with the sector?
These aren’t barriers—they’re guideposts for maximizing AI’s positive impact while minimizing potential harms.
THREE WAYS TO EXPLORE AI’S POTENTIAL FOR YOUR MISSION
You don’t need technical expertise or a big budget to start exploring AI for your organization. Here’s how to get started:
FOCUS ON PROBLEMS, NOT TOOLS Where does your staff spend time on repetitive tasks instead of high-value work? Where could personalization improve outcomes but seems impossible at scale? What data could inform decisions but remains unused? These questions identify AI’s most valuable applications for your organization.
TAP INTO FREE SUPPORT The sector is investing heavily in making AI accessible. Free training through Microsoft Learn’s AI Skills for Nonprofits, OpenAI Academy, and IBM SkillsBuild can boost your team’s confidence. Many offer certificates that demonstrate growing expertise.
JOIN LEARNING COMMUNITIES The Technology Association of Grantmakers is launching learning exchanges for organizations developing AI strategies. Fast Forward and other intermediaries connect AI-powered nonprofits for peer learning. You don’t have to figure this out alone.
THE OPPORTUNITY AHEAD
Philanthropy is making a bold bet: that AI, when used responsibly and equitably, can help nonprofits achieve breakthrough impact on society’s most difficult challenges. With $500 million in new funding starting in 2026, along with comprehensive training and technical support, the sector is creating an unprecedented opportunity for mission-driven organizations.
The question isn’t whether AI will change social impact—it’s how your organization can help shape that change in ways that boost your mission and benefit your community.
PARTNERING FOR AI-ENHANCED IMPACT
Black Onyx Management assists nonprofits in exploring and clearly articulating how AI can enhance their impact. Whether you’re thinking about your first AI implementation or creating a detailed strategy, we combine philanthropic insight with technical knowledge to support you:
Discover high-value AI applications aligned with your mission and capacity
Develop compelling narratives that show foundations how AI amplifies your impact
Design responsible implementation frameworks that protect the communities you serve
Build proposals that position your organization for AI-inclusive funding
Create strategic plans that integrate AI thoughtfully into your theory of change
The foundations investing in AI aren’t just funding technology—they’re investing in organizations ready to reimagine what’s possible. We help you become one of them.
by Melanie Priest, director of grants services, Hedges
Collaboration. Relationships. Connections. Alliances. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, these are all words that are synonymous with partnerships. Strategic community partnerships in the nonprofit sector are the key to success for many reasons including:
Achieving greater programmatic impact;
Increasing visibility and awareness;
Diversifying staff skills and expertise;
Improving sustainability; and
Attaining additional resources such as increased volunteers and funding
In fact, of 1,192 grant makers surveyed by the Urban Institute, 69 percent reported that they actively encourage collaboration among grantees. Of those respondents, 42 percent indicated they often require partnerships as a condition for funding. Grant makers also indicated that strategic partnerships with clearly defined roles improve cooperation among agencies, leading to greater accountability, capacity building, and better program results (Mission Driven Strategies for Effective Nonprofit Program Development, Candid, 2020).
One Indianapolis nonprofit organization that has emerged as a leader in investing in the community by developing and engaging in strategic partnerships is the Community Alliance of the Far Eastside (CAFE).
CAFE has served as an anchor institution in Indianapolis’ Far Eastside neighborhood for the past 26 years. Guided in the last two years by CEO Kendra Nowell, the organization has widened and deepened its role, moving from a traditional community center to a community leader committed to building the long-term sustainability of the Far Eastside.
Sensing the organization had outgrown its previous vision and mission, CAFE’s board of directors and key staff engaged in a process in 2023 to review, reflect on, and revise its vision, mission, and values statements, concluding with new, adopted statements to guide the organization’s continued impact in the Far Eastside.
Through this process, CAFE casted a vision where the Far Eastside is an “inclusive, thriving, and safe community where people of all ages can live, learn, work, and play with a spirit of caring.” CAFE will achieve this vision through a mission that places a strong emphasis on partnerships. The updated mission is to “elevate quality of life within the Far Eastside by strengthening partnerships, maximizing resources, and empowering residents to achieve their highest potential through increased economic mobility, stability, and self-sufficiency.”
As a result of this new vision and mission, CAFE has leveraged its position as a pillar of the Far Eastside and focused attention on how to best invest and improve the Far Eastside community through partnerships. While CAFE has worked in the past 26 years to diligently to develop community collaborations, the shift to more strategic partnerships that truly advance the neighborhood has become evident in the following ways:
Delivering programs. CAFE collaborates with an array of local community organizations, apartment complexes, schools, and churches to provide direct services for clients in the areas of housing, legal services, immigration services, mentoring, employment readiness and skill building, early childhood education and childcare, health care services, and other basic needs. The number of partners is too long to list and ever evolving to meet clients’ needs however a few examples include Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership, IndyReads, Pathway Resource Center, Easterseals Crossroads, Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center, and the John H. Boner Center. In recent years, CAFE has also partnered with grassroots organizations such as and businesses such as Heart2Heart Counseling, The Ross Foundation, and J. Posley LLC which truly understand the community through lived experiences of the Far Eastside neighborhood and are able to deliver services with a focus on cultural competency.
Sharing space. CAFE partners with community organizations to rent space onsite at its facility. This provides clients with many services under one roof which is valuable in a neighborhood where residents often face transportation barriers. CAFE’s 56,000-square-foot facility houses its own comprehensive services along with programs provided by La Plaza, Family Development Services/Head Start, the Marion County Health Department’s WIC program, Finish Line Boys and Girls Club, the Damien Center, Marion County Sheriff’s Parole services, Indiana Department of Workforce Development’s Work One program, and Warren Township School’s Walker Career Center.
Convening and facilitating: CAFE also convenes and facilitates many groups that exist to advance a variety of community improvements and economic development projects that increase the vitality of the neighborhood. Groups and initiatives like the Far Eastside Community Council, Collective Impact Council, Apartment Managers Roundtable, and the Eastside Neighborhood Action and Community Team hold their meetings at CAFE’s facility and are instrumental in addressing needs related to education, employment access, crime, safety, and food access.
In the past two years, there have been increased opportunities for funding to elevate the quality of life while reducing violence and poverty for vulnerable populations who have experienced inequities for generations. The Central Indiana Community Foundation’s Elevation Grant and the Urban League’s Indianapolis African American Quality of Life Initiative are both opportunities that align with CAFE’s vision, mission, and strategic goals.
These revenue streams have enabled CAFE to embark on enhanced partnerships and invest in the Far Eastside community by working with community-based organizations. To date, CAFE has partnered with and invested in six organizations that have a spectrum of experience, capacity, and readiness to complete the requirements for the grant proposals as well as to manage significant funds. The organizations are Crown Community Development Corporation, The Kween Project, M.O.V.E., New Direction Church, Project Free University, and The Ross Foundation. CAFE worked with these organizations by:
Allocating resources. CAFE’s consultants work closely with the organizations to learn more about their programs, identify programmatic outcomes and impact, and develop budgets. As a result of this information exchange, comprehensive grant proposals are prepared and submitted on behalf of the organizations. The expenses for these services have been covered by CAFE.
Taking fiscal responsibility. Once the grants are awarded, CAFE’s staff works with the organizations on management of the grants. Managing the grants during periods of one or two years requires regular reporting, careful monitoring of how the funds are spent along with gathering the corresponding documentation, and data collection and analysis.
Building capacity. CAFE’s staff and consultants do not do the work for these organizations alone. It is because of true collaborations and significant input and effort from the organizations’ staff members that the partnerships have been a success. The funding has enabled the organizations to hire more staff, provide services to more clients, and make a deeper impact. The organizations have also learned how to manage grant funding. In fact, two of the organizations are now managing grant awards without CAFE as a fiscal agent and another is emerging and aspiring to get to this level.
CAFE’s partnerships with these agencies have provided the funding needed to significantly expand and enhance their programs, build organizational capacity, and achieve greater sustainability. These investments and collaborations are solutions that will contribute to increasing the quality of life and the vitality of the Far Eastside community for years to come.
Melanie Priest is passionate about making Indianapolis a great place to live, having strong connections in the community, and helping nonprofits share their stories of impact. For nearly 25 years, Melanie has worked closely with the Central Indiana philanthropic community to provide creative solutions to complex problems. As Director of Grants Services at Hedges since 2012, Melanie has secured hundreds of grant awards for dozens of Indianapolis nonprofit organizations to ensure they are able to advance their missions.
by Christy Frazier Shepard, managing partner, Planning Plus, LLC
According to a recent survey, burnout is on the rise globally, but particularly in the United States. The Future Forum Pulse survey revealed that burnout among the workforce rose by 8 percent globally and by 16 percent in the United States between May 2022 and August 2022. The rates were higher among middle managers.
With rising rates of employees reporting symptoms of burnout, organization leaders have been grappling with how to address the syndrome in the workplace. One good place to start is by gaining a deeper understanding of burnout.
What is burnout?
Burnout can be difficult to describe. However, it’s not a medical condition. According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, burnout is defined as “physical, emotional or mental exhaustion, accompanied by decreased motivation, lowered performance and negative attitudes towards oneself and others.”
Often, people do not know they’ve reached burnout until they cross the line between “really tired” and “too exhausted to function.” Other people might be the type of personality who likes to stay busy and might not recognize when they are doing too much. Burnout also happens when work-life balance gets too far out of sync. With the rise in remote work and technology in most aspects of our daily lives, this out-of-sync balance has been a common occurrence in the last few years.
The difference between burnout and stress?
While often used interchangeably, burnout and stress are not the same thing. Depending on your personality and DISC behavior type, you may react positively to stress. Some team members find that small amounts of stress help them feel more productive and motivated.
According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, stress is defined as “a normal reaction to everyday pressures but can become unhealthy when it upsets your day-to-day functioning. Stress involves changes affecting nearly every system of the body, influencing how people feel and behave.”
While the benefits or detriments of slight stress vary from person to person, burnout is exclusively detrimental. Too much pressure and chronic stress can lead to burnout. These cases occur when someone has been so worn down by stress that you feel — as the name suggests — burned out.
Like stress, burnout manifests differently, depending on the person. Even though we commonly associate burnout with emotional exhaustion, it can impact all areas of your life — including your physical health.
Signs of burnout
Common causes of burnout?
Like the various signs of burnout, there are a variety of burnout causes. In general, each cause leads to a central tipping point: When work-related stress or pressure becomes too much or goes on for too long, it can lead to burnout.
You may be at risk of burnout if there is:
Little to no control over your workload.
Little to no recognition of a job well done.
Unclear job expectations.
Unreasonable or overly demanding job expectations.
High-pressure work environments.
Too much work — specifically when it leads to less time to do the things you enjoy outside of work.
How to prevent burnout on your team
One of the most impactful things you can do as a manager is support your team and recognize burnout before it happens. It’s much easier to prevent burnout than to fix it once it’s already happening — by the time you notice burnout, it’s hard to reverse. Instead, be proactive about your team’s workload.
Frequently checking in on their capacity and resource management to get ahead of burnout and ensure team members aren’t overwhelmed.
Workload management tools give you a bird’s-eye view of everyone’s tasks in one place. That way, you can get a sense of if anyone is overloaded and redistribute that work if necessary.
Create realistic and attainable goals. Figuring out how a task contributes to a bigger initiative can take mental energy.
Mapping out a clear set of goals for your team to work towards can reduce confusion or overwork.
Schedule weekly or biweekly 1:1 meeting with team members to check in on priorities, capacity, and other questions they might have.
Reverse burnout
There are several strategies you can use to reverse burnout. The one that works best for you depends on your situation and personality. Try implementing these strategies in combination with one another for the best results.
Scheduling breaks. Burnout happens because you’ve been too stressed for too long. You likely have a lot of work to get done and may be feeling a lot of pressure to do it. To start pushing back against burnout, schedule breaks throughout the day.
Setting boundaries. All the causes of burnout have one thing in common: external pressure. One of the best ways to reverse burnout is to set boundaries for yourself. Choose a time to log off from work every evening.
Taking time off (if you can). This might not be an option for you straightaway but taking time off is a great way to relax and recharge. Even if you only take a day or half day away from work, this is a chance to seek work-life balance. When you do take time off, make sure to confirm with your supervisor that you’ll be offline and unavailable.
Take care of yourself. Often, burnout happens because we are dedicating too much of ourselves to our work. Take time for self-care. Make sure you are getting enough sleep and spending time with friends or family. Try introducing mindfulness into your day through things like yoga or meditation. This can help you combat stressors and increase wellness.
Build resilience
Burnout can happen to anyone, and just because you beat burnout once doesn’t mean it can’t creep up on you again. Here are some steps to developing resilience.
Build your work relationships. Many times, burnout can happen when you are isolated at work while simultaneously being under a lot of pressure. One way to build resilience against future burnout is to build and foster your work relationships. When pressure starts to mount, you have colleagues that can provide support and assistance to address the stress before it becomes burnout. You are not in this alone.
Align work with performance goals. Aligning work with goals means you’ll have a clear sense of why your work matters. When you understand how the work you are engaged in is contributing to the bigger picture and strategic plan, it is easier to understand and prioritize projects and tasks, even when the pressure starts to build. If you must change direction or reprioritize, you can effectively prioritize your most important tasks without worrying you won’t hit your goals.
Balance your work life with your personal life. In addition to getting enough sleep and connecting with loved ones, make sure you’re dedicating time to your interests outside of work. Do things you enjoy, whether that’s reading a book, seeing friends, being creative, doing a sport, or something else. Think of it like diversifying your investments—but in this case, you’re investing in your interests.
From burnout to balance
Burnout can fly under the radar. Given enough time, these symptoms can build up and impact the well-being of your team members. The best way to ensure your co-workers aren’t burning out is to spot it before it happens. That’s where workload management comes in.
by Shari Finnell, editor/writer, Not-for-profit News
For decades, Freetown Village, a small nonprofit organization based in Indianapolis, had been focused on educating its audiences about a unique period in America’s history — specifically 1870, when freed African American slaves experienced a series of firsts, according to founder Opehlia Wellington.
That distinct period served the organization well, according to Wellington. “When I first started Freetown Village, I decided to focus on that period since there were so many things that happened after the Civil War to benefit African Americans,” said Wellington, referring to the passage of the 15th amendment, which granted African American men the right to vote, as well as the 13th and 14th amendments, which abolished slavery and provided all U.S. citizens, including former slaves, equal protection under the laws. “It was an unusually safe period of time for African Americans.”
About 15 years ago, Wellington decided to modify and expand that focus — among the many steps she has taken to ensure that Freetown Village maintains its resilience. “After research, I decided we need to expand beyond that era — after 1870 and even before 1870,” she said. “It allowed us to talk about a more inclusive history of African Americans in Indiana. It gave us the liberty to do something different.”
While expanding an organization’s mission can have advantages, it also comes with disadvantages, according to Wellington. Although Freetown Village has put on numerous productions since modifying its mission, the organization continues to address questions related to its productions set in other time periods. Another consideration is determining how to repurpose or address previous marketing materials, she said.
“A lot of people still think we’re only making productions in 1870,” she said. “Many of them are surprised. It requires a significant amount of marketing to inform people.”
Maintaining sustainability as a small nonprofit
With the nonprofit organization celebrating its 40th anniversary, Freetown Village has avoided a statistic that haunts many other nonprofits. According to the National Center on Charitable Statistics, more than 30 percent of all nonprofit organizations will fail within the first 10 years. And, the fallout from the global pandemic will likely result in even higher numbers of failures.
Wellington, a former educator who first conceptualized Freetown Village in 1982, notes several lessons learned as a small nonprofit that has been able to sustain itself after numerous decades. One of the key factors is ensuring that you have a mission that excites you, as well as addresses a need that is not being met by other nonprofits.
“Do you have an audience?,” she asked. “Are other people excited about seeing the value in what you’re doing?”
The next step is determining how to make the nonprofit sustainable. “It’s really about the planning,” she said.
As part of determining whether others see the value also lies at the heart of fundraising because you will need to solicit support at numerous levels. “There are many nonprofits that get money from foundations as well as individual contributions,” she noted.
However, Wellington noted, smaller nonprofits, including grassroots organizations, have traditionally had challenges with the fundraising aspects of sustainability. Even small nonprofits that have been able to sustain themselves often are not able to generate enough money to do the things they had envisioned, which has happened with Freetown Village.
“There are many things that we had talked about doing but just never got the funding to make it happen,” she said. “There are some inequities in the amount of money that is distributed. Only recently have foundations realized that only about 2 percent of their funding is granted to organizations led by African Americans.”
Wellington said she is hopeful that trend is changing as numerous foundations have intentionally sought to make funding more equitable in recent years. “Within the last two or three years, with some of the DEI funding, we’ve been able to pick up some new supporters,” she said. “Some of them I would never have wasted my time submitting a proposal because the amount we would have received would have been insignificant.”
“It’s hard to do the same quality of programming and services when other organizations are getting significantly more,” she said. “That’s not to say that all white-led organizations are flush. It’s just that a majority of black-led organizations are experiencing similar problems with fundraising.”
As she looks to the future, Wellington said she will continue to explore options to expand Freetown Village’s mission as she did with the recent production “Sign of the Times,” a one-woman show that shed light on the women’s suffrage movement in the mid-1920’s.
“Knowledge changes the world,” Wellington said. “With every program we do, regardless of the year, we try to make a current connection to it. For our recent show, we were talking about women’s suffrage. Now, in 2022, we see a resurgence of people trying to keep not just women from voting, but black people and Hispanic from voting. It can be eye-opening to see that the same playbook is being used from 100 years ago.”
After more than 15 years at the helm of the IndyFringe, Pauline Moffat decided it was time to activate a succession plan — identifying and hiring her replacement as CEO for the annual theater arts festival. While Moffat previously had given some consideration to this phase in IndyFringe’s development, the events of 2020 — a global pandemic and racial injustice protests — triggered a more serious look at the implementation of a succession plan, she recalled.
“The world is changing,” Moffat said. “It reminded me of my duty. We did not have a succession plan in place to take IndyFringe through the next 10 years. I knew it was time for us to start seriously thinking about it.”
As Moffat spends her final few weeks at IndyFringe — assisting its new CEO, Justin Brady, with strategic planning, she leaves behind a case study of how to transform a fledgling street festival into a vibrant arts organization with two theaters, zero debt, an active army of supporters, committed sponsors and donors, and a strategic plan to ensure its long-term viability.
When she took on the roles as IndyFringe’s co-founder and leading executive in 2005, Moffat knew little about Indianapolis and the business of running an arts festival. “I didn’t come from an arts background,” said Moffat, a marketing professional who had just moved from Australia at the time.
Setting the foundation through a fundraising education
Moffat determined that a formal education in fundraising was a good place to start. She had already heard about the reputation of the Indiana University School of Philanthropy. “One of my major clients told me that the IU Fundraising School is the best in the world,” she recalled. “That piqued my interest because there is nothing like it in Australia.”
The courses didn’t disappoint, said Moffat, who considers them foundational for anyone operating as a leader in the nonprofit industry. Moffat initially took one course and, as she faced new milestones as CEO, she enrolled in additional courses that aligned with the leadership’s goals at the time — from strategic planning to successfully managing capital campaigns.
As part of a fundamental course on fundraising, she gained a critical understanding of the differences in communicating supporters and donors. “It provided the techniques and principles of fundraising, including language, terms and references you need to understand when communicating with constituents and patron. Your conversation must be couched in different terms, depending upon who you’re talking to,” Moffat said.
Moffat also stressed the importance of adopting a “constant learner” mentality when guiding a nonprofit through different stages.
“When we got to the point of doing a more comprehensive plan, I enrolled in that course,” she said. “The IU School of Fundraising provides a wonderful learning opportunity. It’s a great investment.”
Strategic board selection and planning fueled IndyFringe’s growth
Developing a strategic plan for IndyFringe’s growth, including identifying the right board members at every phase, has been critical to the organization’s successes, Moffat said.
“It’s important to come up with a good solid plan that’s achievable, something that everyone can feel good about, like 10 percent growth year over year,” she said.
The composition of the board was an area that demanded close attention, Moffat said. “For each stage of the organization’s strategic growth, efforts were made to get the right board members,” she said. “At the grassroots stage, it’s important to have board members and volunteers who are willing to work hard, putting in a lot of physical effort and energy.
When the organization set a goal to secure property, Moffat said, they recruited board members with real estate knowledge.
Next, the focus turned to how to become a sustainable organization. “At that point, we needed people who are much more experienced than us, people with experience and wisdom. Educators. We did that and the results were fantastic,” Moffat said. “When we decided to build a second theater, we needed expertise on how to do that while leveraging and protecting what we already had. If we always have to rent, how do we protect the festival? We went to the phase of capital fundraising — how do you build a building and then become debt free?
“I would tell a young executive that those are the key goals — get a great board, don’t carry debt and develop a good plan so that you can achieve results,” Moffat said. “We’ve had challenges, absolutely. But the festival has never suffered. We have always had affordable ticket prices to ensure that people can attend but at the same time asked the question, ‘How do we operate without debt?’”
Navigating uncertain times in 2020
As the spread of COVID-19 forced organizations to cease their operations and programs, IndyFringe was in an enviable position. The theater group did not have to worry about significant bills since it owned its properties. Moffat said that she believes it will be key to IndyFringe being sustainable in the theatrical space in the coming years.
While its debt-free status helped IndyFringe better navigate shutdowns caused by COVID-19, Moffat relied on advice from other international Fringe organizations to help her team determine whether to cancel all programs or move forward with some shows with restrictions in place. The World Fringe association includes more than 250 Fringe festivals from around the world.
“We have the support of all the other Fringes around the world — this huge network of people doing problem solving,” Moffat said. “We could see that COVID was hitting Australia in a big way while it was still just a blip in the United States. In Asia, everybody was prepared for this. We were engaged in a lot of discussions about how they were able to navigate it. As a result, it was pretty easy to make a call to cancel the festival early. Performers didn’t have to wonder what we would be doing.”
As IndyFringe approached the prospect of reopening earlier this summer, it considered a balance of streaming shows and live theater. “We were exploring who’s doing it well and how do you do it better,” Moffat said.
The organization decided to move forward with outdoor performances. “With our second theater, we designed it so that it had a wall that opened to the park,” she said. “The moment they said you could have up to 250 people gathered outdoors, we started working on the logistics of how to host programs, including festivals, music, dance and theatrical performances.”
IndyFringe was able to sell out all but two of its shows, with a maximum of 100 people in attendance. Procedures included temperature checks and social distancing checks. “It was stressful,” Moffat recalled of the experience. “It didn’t get any easier because COVID cases kept going up. Nothing was getting better.
“It probably was the hardest four months in my life,” she added. “You’re fraught with anxiety about whether you’re doing the right thing.”
Maintaining personal connections with donors, volunteers
During the pandemic, Moffat said, the IndyFringe team also committed to keeping personal connections with their donors, volunteers and other supporters. Without the ability to engage with them frequently during in-person events, Moffat and the team focused on reaching out, including with telephone calls.
“You need to know your donors. It was important to keep the conversations going,” she said. “It was time to be personal, starting with the top people you know, those who understand your organization and mission, and are connected to it. It’s also a great time to get to know your volunteers by picking up the phone.”
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. “They appreciated it. If they couldn’t be close to people, it was great to have that personal connection,” Moffit said. “It gave me just as much pleasure.”
Choosing the right successor at the right time
With the reduction in programming created by the pandemic, Moffat said the timing was right for a succession plan. “The more I thought about it, the more I realized that now is a good time. It would give them (the successor) the freedom to create their festival and build their own team because it would be such a long time between festivals.”
As the leadership team worked on identifying a replacement, they were committed to finding someone who had close ties to Indianapolis. “They also needed to understand that Fringe is not a 9-to-5 job,” Moffat said. “It’s a way of life and it demands a world connection. We’re a community … we share everything. It’s an open book. We’re very noncompetitive.”
Justin Brady clearly fit those requirements, she said. Brady, a graduate of Butler University and Indiana University, had worked in theater in New York City. He also was intimately familiar with IndyFringe, having been a part of the organization’s growth in its early stages.
Moffat will work with Brady throughout December, focusing on strategic planning with assistance from an award by Lilly Endowment. “That was very important to get the strategic plan done, and it does require both of us,” she said. “The future and the past have to come together to determine what does 2021-22 look like?”
