Organisations will give their vision and mission to the general public but aims are more of an internal communications tool. As it relates to how the mission will be carried out this information is usually given to staff and programme development partners. 

• Vision

The big dream is usually in the form of a statement. Vision rarely changes as it is the foundation that everything is built on. E.g. To create a platform for up and coming painters to showcase their art in Malawi 

• Mission

How to ensure the big dream comes true. Mission can be edited but not extensively as it is closely linked to vision 

E.g. Hold a festival once a year in the capital city to raise the profiles of up and coming painters 

• Aims

Breaking the mission into valuable pieces that make the bigger picture. Aims can be moving targets as they adapt to the various internal and external changes in the organisation. A festival that is just starting will not have the same aims after 10 years of operating, they will be adjusted. 

E.g.

 - Showcase as many artists as possible

 - Create conversations about the painters

 - Bring variety of art in the capital city

There is a myriad of ways in which festival can set itself up as an organisation and from country to country the options can be drastically different. What is important is that you choose the legal status that will allow you to achieve your aims and vision in the most efficient way. 

Firstly, is your festival For-Profit or Not For Profit? The former is generally defined by its ability to deliver any profits it makes to its owners or shareholders. The organisation will ordinarily pay tax which can be anywhere between 40% and 0% and further tax incentives can vary from state, county, or province and even between industries. A commercially focused festival in Hungary for instance would only pay around 9% in corporate tax while one in France close to 30%. The organisation is often overseen by a board of directors which can be made up of those that own and run the organisation depending on their stake or number of shares in the company. Check with your local business registration office to find out more. 

While potentially very lucrative for all in involved commercial corporations are usually more time consuming administratively and corporate tax accountant fees are costly. You will not be able to receive anywhere near as much public funding for your art related activities nor receive charitable donations from philanthropists. That said, if you believe that your festival is better served by pursuing commercial returns via the box office and the sale of goods and services then this might be the best direction for you. 

An emerging format of commercial structure is the social enterprise. In short, is a commercial corporation that passes on a portion of its profits to benefit a social or charitable cause. 

More commonly festivals and arts organisations are set up to be Not-For-Profit or Non-Profit organisations, the profits or surplus received from delivering on the organization's mission are absorbed back into the organisation to be retained, reinvested on organisational growth, or better achieving initial purpose. The legal status of a NFP organisation as I said will vary from place to place but there many are common attributes, they do not pay corporate taxes of any sort on revenue or surplus monies made, there is a board or committee of management (usually made up of volunteers) providing oversight and usually a NFP will be able to access some level of charitable status from their tax office. The most typical structure chosen is an incorporated association or registered association (Verein) often limited by some type of legal guarantee providing a level of legal indemnity to all involved. This model is also shared with charities, sporting clubs or any common interest group coming together in a formal way. The founders need to register the business by gathering a committee of management, usually volunteers who have a vested interest in the vision and mission of the new organisation and vote the organisation into existence. Once this is done with the meeting minutes as proof one can open a bank account and finalise all other registrations with your local authorities. At the first meeting it is likely that the constitution or governance for the organisation will be agreed on, this document outlines the rules for how the organisation will run at a governance level. Templates for constitutions can normally be sourced from your local business affairs office which you then can adapt to your needs.

In Germany for example as long an association Verein at time of founding has a purpose that is deemed socially beneficial such as art and culture charitable status is immediately granted. Therefore, the organisation can receive donations from philanthropists and donors to be used to forward the mission of the organisation. The donor in the case of some countries can then receive major tax deductions for their generosity. In Australia for instance though they can receive donations not all charities can provide their donors with a tax-deductible receipt unless granted Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status making those without this less attractive to donors looking for tax breaks while to return to Germany again as an example the tax incentives are immediate as long as the recipient is registered correctly. Ironically, Germany has a much smaller culture of philanthropy due to generous government funding and has less need to use the seamless bureaucracy around giving when it comes to sustaining arts and culture…for now. 

The final thing you want to consider when choosing a legal status is certain restrictions on types of organisations by your potential major funders. Public funding bodies are becoming somewhat less concerned with organisational make-up and are satisfied that there is some sort of tax status and responsible persons at the helm. That said, there are still major funders who will only provide not-for-profits that are incorporated associations and have achieved a level of charitable status or recognition. So, think about where you envisage the majority of your funding will be coming from, do they have guidelines around eligibility when it comes to organisations? It is a good idea to seek these out and read over them.

Picture this, you have founded a new festival in a medium sized city somewhere in the world. The vision filled a gap in the local ecology and satisfied a need that audiences had locally, nationally, and sometimes even internationally. The organisation was set up as an association with a management committee of volunteer supporters some of them with deep pockets and good connections. They provide good governance oversight and support but let you and your growing staff member get on with the task at hand which is putting on a great festival. You have presented several editions now and gathered acclaim and a strong following. As its founder and leader, you feel the pull of new ideas, challenges, and potentially new roles at other exciting festivals. You are going to tell your management committee that you plan to resign. You feel confident that while they will be sad to see you go, the festival you have given so much energy will not cease to be in your absence but rather will continue to go from strength to strength with new operational leadership. It can do this because you and the committee did a few intelligent things early on and thought about legacy and succession. 

Start early: You began talking about your need for new horizons with your board and peers as soon as possible. Do not keep the desire inside and do not fear that others will be shocked or that it might spread disunity. The more openly considered the more the organisation can plan for transition and buffer against the winds of change. 

Form a task force within your CoM whose job it is to seek out your replacement through their networks and advertisement and management the recruitment. Even if your organisation decides to use an external recruitment agency it is a good idea to do this. No one know what your organisation needs better than you.

Look internally for a successor first. You have spent so much time and money on those that work alongside you day after day. They know the organisation better than any. Could there be someone within the ranks who with the right mentoring could lead? This goes for any junior staff who show promise options to take on new challenges and promotions within the organisations contributes greatly to long term staff retention. 

Organise for there to be a long hand over period. Allow the new incumbent to observe and learn for as long as possible before taking over the reins. Introducing them to all major stakeholders and partners. Doing so will set them up for success and set up your organisation for a stronger future.

Have a policy that dictates what the committee of management will do in the event a of sudden leadership departure so they can move quickly into action and decisively fill any leadership vacuum, quelling doubt among stakeholders as soon as possible.

Here are seven of the most important human resources functions in manufacturing companies, which can be extended to festivals: 

• Talent Acquisition/Recruitment. 

• Compensation Management. 

• Benefits Administration. 

• Training and development. 

• Performance Appraisal and Management. 

• Employee and Labor Relations. 

• Compliance Management.

Duties of HR:

○ Staffing / Hiring   ○ Employee and labour relations   ○ Compensation   ○ Safety and Health of staff   ○ Development of staff 

The top 10 responsibilities that apply to HR in this industry include: 

1. Developing job descriptions

2. Advertising new positions

3. Conducting interviews

4. Training 

5. Work allocation 

6. Managing performance and expectations 

7. Payment and rewards

8. Time keeping 

9. Event safety 

10. Mental safety of staff

Unless based within a venue or site-based arts institution festivals tend to be on the infrastructure light side. Bringing all the logistical and technical elements needed for the festival together just prior to the event. When investing in infrastructure, think about whether you can share it with others, use it as an income source by hiring it out while not in use or whether there is an equivalent that you could use in-kind or for very little in your area. Also think about your moral and social economic impact on local businesses. One scenario being that for years your festival has hired chairs and tents from a local event company for a decent rate, what will cancelling that order do to that business? Could that be avoidable? 

Social responsibility around supporting and stimulating local business is vital to think about as is the environmental sustainability of infrastructure and infrastructure needs. Infrastructure around artists' transport, accommodation and audience will inevitably have a higher carbon footprint. 

Artists Transport - if you are flying artists from elsewhere to your festival you must consider the carbon footprint and general cost in relation to the future sustainability of your festival. 

Top tips are: 

• Get the artist to stay in the general region for as long as possible. Either through extended engagement with your festival or by partnering with nearby events and venues to create a tour or a suite of different engagement types. 

• Share in hard infrastructure such as technical equipment such as seating or lighting with other similar organisations within your area. Perhaps you could co-own these things with the local city. 

• Fly economy where possible and use public transport or carpooling to move the artists around on the ground. This might not suit certain artists who are unused to more egalitarian modes of transport. Only you can decide which is more of a priority for your festival. 

• Where viable see if artists and even audiences can take up paid accommodation within the homes of locals. Hotels have a higher footprint due to cleaning, the buildings they occupy and numbers of staff. But keep in mind, what is your festival’s part in promoting local businesses such as this? Could you work with your accommodation partners to pursue a more sustainable future for all? 

Finally, you can buy your way out. Many festivals will add an extra charge to tickets for the purchasing of carbon credits and similar initiatives such as tree planting.

‘’A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments or combinations’’ 17. 

Partnership is about compromise not surrender. 

‘’Partnership management is the process of following up on and maintaining effective, productive, and harmonious relationships with partners. It can be as informal as phone calls, e-mails, and social visits or as formal as written, signed agreements that partners review periodically. What is most important is that you invest the time and resources needed to maintain partnerships, you communicate regularly with your partners and you both have the opportunity to assess how things are going’’ 18. 

‘’On its own, what WWF – or any organization – can achieve is limited. Working with partners lends WWF projects greater credibility and broadens the scope of what the projects can achieve. In good, effective partnerships, the partnership itself will represent more than the sum of the individual partners’’ 19. 

Any individual, group or institution including governments and donors whose active participation and support are essential for the successful implementation of a project or programme. 

It is important to develop partnerships early, this helps to establish a good relationship in time for implementation of the festival. The lead-up time allows the relationship to work how they best work with each other. 

Stakeholder analysis should be undertaken during the design phrase of the festival.

‘’Your partners will likely be drawn from this larger pool of stakeholders, but they differ from stakeholders in that they represent a smaller pool of individuals and institutions that need to be directly engaged in the planning and implementation of your project. Over time, however, your project, the context in which in takes place, and/or the partnerships themselves will evolve. Thus, it is important to revisit your partnerships and stakeholder analysis at various points in the planning and implementation process to ensure all key partners are involved and engaged and that it is clear to all involved what is expected of each partner’’ 20. 

‘’How your team cultivates and manages its partnerships will vary greatly by the type of partner and the relationship between your team and that partner. In general, however, cultivating and maintaining partnerships involves these main steps: 

1.Establish and review partnerships

2.Determine governance

3.Formalize partnerships 

4.Maintain strong relationships with partners. Although we present these steps separately, they are often occurring in tandem. Because of the evolving nature of partnerships, it is also likely that you will have to revisit these steps several times over the course of your project’’ 21. 

A festival cannot survive without partnerships, there are two kinds of partnerships: 

1. Sponsor partnership: this is another organisation that supplies you with resources to deliver your festival. The resources could either be in kind or cash. Examples include venue, transport, media coverage, marketing, finances, security, etc There is great focus on a partner who can provide them with money, but in-kind partners could offer more essentials services that end up reducing the budget or providing more output for input e.g., an advertising company partnership would give the festival free publicity in exchange for very little from the festival but help the festival achieve more of its goals. 

2. Program delivery partnership: This is a partner who helps you deliver the actual content of the festival e.g., a dance festival could have a partnership with a dance academy, the academy is not giving money or anything in kind but is a major curator of the program. These partners are different from the first because while sponsor partnership may influence the curator slightly, program delivery partners are part of the team. Both partners need to understand the vision of the festival, but these ones need more of an understanding because they are delivering the actual festival.

17.  “Partnership,” Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation, June 25, 2021), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partnership. 

18. WWF, “Step 3.4 Partnerships and Partnership Management,” April 2007, https://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/3_4_partner_management___may_20__2007.pdf. 

19. WWF 2007, 1.  

20. WWF 2007, 2.  

21. WWF 2007, 2.  

For in-depth analysis see the Atelier Tool for Climate Change and Environmental sustainability.

Across the world the festival has been a key element in artistic and cultural output particularly since the end of the second world war. The proliferation of festivals, events and biennials has been vast and a well-researched phenomenon. A festival’s reason for being is often not just due to the showcasing of art but rather a mix of adjacent and complementary things such as adding value to tourism offerings, accentuating a particular time of year or particular place, the nadir of a year round community spirit, the marking of seasons, the celebration of something divine, it could be a gift to a community for contributing to a larger entity such as a corporation, or it could be a showcase of something the location is renowned for or finally a site of coming together when all other avenues of unity seem hopeless. 

Festivals the world over have many different drivers and motivators and therefore how they are funded can come in many forms but there are some constants. Some countries have highly developed public funding systems that fund festivals for the common good, others do not and yet festivals flourish, funded via public subscription, donations and ticket sales, others are entirely funded by a large business as part of its sense of responsibility to the population who works for it or buys its products. Whichever the case funding generally comes from one of 5 places. 

Box Office/ticket sales, government grants, sponsorship from a corporation or large organisation such as a religion with a community focus, Major philanthropy via a formal trust or foundation, and finally individual giving via many small donations or subscriptions.

Case Study – Income Diversification – Castlemaine State Festival, Australia

Money, the final frontier. As a festival maker you will be constantly seeking funding for your event from multiple sources at any given time. A diversity of income sources is increasingly recommended but, in some cases, a single or only a few sources is all that’s needed. A festival’s total income will likely come predominantly from these 5 areas.

-  Box office Sales (20%) 

-  Government Funding (40%) 

-  Corporate Sponsorship (16%) 

-  Major Philanthropic Gifts from Trusts or Foundations (12%) 

-  Individual giving (12%) 

The percentages against the list are the breakdown of the sources for my own festival here in Australia. What are they for you? What do you think they will be in the future? If a Black Swan event such as C19 has shown the arts industry anything is that it is not a good idea to be overly dependent on any given stream of income. Even Government funding. Reducing dependency on any given area does not mean reducing it in cash terms but rather increasing other areas to create balance. 

Think about diversification within each area. Here is my breakdown on the 40% of government funding from each level of government we engage with. 

- Federal or National: 40% 

- State, Staat, Province, County: 53% 

- Local Government, City, Gemeinde: 7% 

As you can see, we are highly dependent on funding from our State government within this sub-section of funding. Our funding from the local area is tiny and a problem we are working with local partners to rectify. The national average for public funding received by arts organisations from local government in Australia is 26% of total government funding received. What if there was a problem with seeking funding from the bigger areas of government? We would be in a terrible position so balance in the long-term must be achieved in this instance if we are to maintain a fiscally responsible outlook. The same thinking can be applied to any area of income that you might have coming in. Zooming back out to the initial 5 areas. You can see for yourself that we are generally overexposed to risk in the areas of government funding and box office. My time with the organisation has been spent strategizing and pursuing methods of boosting the last three areas. 

What can you do to strengthen areas of income that are underperforming in your festival?