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Little Paul - #
Well this certainly makes for interesting reading: http://ezine.juggle.org/2012/08/01/a-message-from-the-chair
From the link I was hoping for a Ronnie Corbett sketch.
Interesting indeed. In the past I've seen the #IJA as an organisation for the sake of an organisation, this piece seems to signal a shift to a more business like model, with a focus on providing customers with value for money. Aside from the annual festival the organisation is almost becoming a paid subscription content service. This sort of service hasn't set the world on fire among the big news organisations but I think they are making money (or at least losing less). I do think that a paid content provider for a small niche like juggling could work (although I can't think of any others off the top of my head right now).
I still find it difficult to define what I expect the IJA (or any juggling organisation) to do.
The main thing I took away from that article is that the author is really brilliant. And extremely sexy, too.
Okay. It was me. You hit on some of the real challenges for us (the #IJA) these days. I don't have any doubt what we want to do; we have lots of good programs underway to help the juggling community, and other ideas we haven't been able to pursue due to lack of human resources or funding. The trick is that most of these "for the good of the community" projects cost money. When you say to the world at large, "I'm a nonprofit, and I'm trying to cure cancer. Would you like to give me money?", then there is no shortage of people saying, "I'm not ashamed to say I'm AGAINST cancer! I'd be happy to donate to your cause." But when you are a juggling organization, and many of your potential donor base are jugglers, it is a bit tougher to get donations to serve the greater good. So our challenge becomes how to encourage membership in a way that will actually make us money that we can then use to fund these greater-good type programs. My sense is that our potential members don't even necessarily need to view this like going to a store where they are making a strict purchase; there is some amount of wiggle room for supporting juggling projects. But there is definitely a "what is in it for me" component that we have to address. And as you note, if you ask those same people, "Okay, what can I do for you?", the answer is often, "Hmm. Good question. I don't know."
So this is where we find ourselves. Trying to find ways to make membership attractive enough that jugglers are willing to join us, and in doing so support programs that don't fund themselves. And it is an interesting see-saw we find ourselves on; these days, almost all our expenses are static and don't scale upwards with the number of members. So as we succeed and the membership goes up, it is almost all "profit". And as we're not looking to make a "profit" per se', if we find ourselves with a surplus, then two things are likely to happen. The first is that some of these programs get some love and become more successful. The second is that we can afford to lower membership further. Which then hopefully encourages more people to join, and so on.
I'm pretty proud of what we've done in the last year. I'm hoping we can build on that momentum and keep doing good work. If our efforts speak to people (both the programs and the attempts to improve the value proposition of membership), then the next year could be really fun...
Dave
You do realise it is your fault that juggling chat on the internet has plummeted now that it is harder to bash the IJA? :)
I think it is difficult for me to say what an organisation should do because I don't really need any help in sustaining my addiction. I am a juggler & barring death I can't think of anything that would ever change that. I am aware that this is a selfish way of looking at the issue but I find it a little uncomfortable thinking about what an organisation should do to other people. Sounds a bit creepily cultish. Which is why I like the content provider role, if I or anyone wants what you have, I have to go & knock on your door to get it.
Little Paul - - Parent #
"I'm pretty proud of what we've done in the last year. I'm hoping we can build on that momentum and keep doing good work."
This. In spades.
I've never really been what you might call an "IJA fanboy" but the last year or so has seen lots of little tweaks and improvements to the IJA and from what you've said (both here and in your post on the eZine) you've made some slightly larger tweaks already and there are more improvements to come - and these are all positive!
I'm still slightly in the "what's in it for me?" camp - given that a large part of the benefit to me as a customer of the IJA is still a festival I'll probably never be able to attend... but some of the paid for content that's been coming out has been really very tempting! Now that you've dropped the membership price, it's even more tempting!
Your point about donations is an interesting one. What I'm about to say may sound a bit backwards and a-typical but... I'm more tempted by the idea of donating money specifically towards some of the outreach programs than I am by the idea of paying membership fees.
From time to time I have a small amount of disposable cash floating around that I like to do something helpful with, and it usually ends up in the pocket of a charity which interests me at the time.
Is there (or could there be) an easy way to donate money to the IJA (large or small amounts) and have it go directly towards a specific outreach program which appeals to me rather than just going into a big pot of money to bankroll a festival for some white middleclass americans?
I'd be interested in this too, something like Kickstarter for juggling projects.
Little Paul - - Parent #
I like that idea. Kickupstarter perhaps?
I wonder why there aren't more jugglers making use of kickstarter to fund shows/performances/videos/festivals/other projects.
Or are there people doing it, but it's just that no one has told me?
A quick & dirty search shows there have been 1 2 3 4 juggling projects, 2 were successful, 2 were not. Looks to me that the right projects received funding.
There is also the website indiegogo which does the same thing.
There is currently a group of students from the Montréal school who have made a very nice proposal
https://www.indiegogo.com/FAQCollective
The Afghanistan Mobile Mini Circus for Children https://www.juggle.org/programs/mmcc/ is an IJA program with a direct Paypal Donate button. Other donations can go through the store but this requires a login.
Little Paul - - Parent #
The MMCC sounds like the sort of approach I'm thinking of (thanks, I'll bookmark that for the next time I'm swimming in it ;-) but I can only donate to other projects if I'm a member?
That sounds a bit daft to me as an outsider (but probably makes a lot of sense to someone somewhere!)
You don't have to join to use the store. It is world-readable. To make a purchase or donation you'll have to create on account, put the item(s) in your cart, checkout, and then interact with Paypal. The MMCC gets you to Paypal with a single click. https://www.juggle.org/store/
Little Paul - - Parent #
ahh - that makes much more sense. Thanks!
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