Q: How have you seen the state of funding for arts and education nonprofit organizations change over the years? And how would you describe the current state?
Nicole: Seattle JazzED exists at the intersection of youth development and the arts. In the nonprofit sector, few things are consistently underfunded as direct service music programs, especially when they aren’t backed by endowments or foundations. And with youth development, the competition for funding is intense because it’s such a broad, critical field.
As we emerge from the pandemic and move forward in the absence of government support, all organizations are put in a position where they have to continually make a case statement for support. Donors and other funding sources have shifting priorities, and we need to clearly communicate why it’s worth investing in us while also responding to market forces that are outside of our control.
Q: You mentioned specific economic challenges like shifting donor priorities, lack of COVID-19 funding impacting nonprofit funding. What steps have Seattle JazzED taken to work through these challenges?
N: A lot of what we’ve been focusing on is clarifying our focus and building staff capacity. We’re refocusing and reprioritizing our internal resources in the interim so we can sustain the programs we do have to the best of our ability. We’re recentering ourselves, making data-informed decisions, and tapping into different funding and resources that can sustain our work in the long-term.
One area we’re paying close attention to is our sliding scale discounts, which are important for keeping our programs accessible. We’re committed to finding ways to sustain that model without losing sight of our mission. At the same time, we’re working to engage our donors in a deeper way by helping them understand the unique impact of our work and why their support is so vital.
Q: Looking ahead, how do you see sustained arts funding supporting Seattle JazzED and its mission?
N: Across the nonprofit sector, there has been a recent movement where advocates, even at the policy level, are asking for a shift away from contract-based funding to unrestricted assets. That’s important for us because we are unable to move forward in the ways we would like within the current funding system where so many of the funding opportunities we have access to have the additional burden of reporting and providing proof of services before releasing funds. There’s a genuine need for unrestricted funds, specifically for an organization of our size.
Recently, we’ve been able to triple our impact throughout the community through partnerships and expanded offerings, yet our resources have remained the same. Without additional funding streams, the organization is incurring these operating expenses which isn’t sustainable in the long run. While we’re happy to do so because we believe in the mission, the hope is that we have access to unrestricted assets to sustain the work.
Q: You previously mentioned that you’re focused on building clarity and staff capacity. How have these recent investments in staff contributed to the organization’s sustainability?
N: When I stepped into this role, Seattle JazzED was going through a difficult transition. We were navigating the departure of our co-founder and former Executive Director, Laurie de Koch, and still finding our footing after COVID-19.
When I looked at the future of Seattle JazzED, the biggest thing we could do was a hard stop. My role was to address staff morale, clarify focus and priorities, and ensure everyone on my team felt supported even though the future remained unclear.
A lot of decision making in nonprofit and corporate spaces is very top-down. It was important to me to lead with a consensus mindset, allowing everyone to tap into their own unique skillset and have a say in the strategic planning of the organization. When the staff feel connected, supported, and valued, that will ripple out to what we do and how we show up in the community. We’ve applied a similar approach to how we are encouraging our teachers, allowing them to influence programming decisions in a way that we haven’t been able to do before.
Ultimately, I believe my highest value as a leader is recognizing that I’m not a teacher or have a background in fundraising, but there are people on the team who have those skill sets who can help inform that decision-making. I’m here to provide them with support and guardrails to move forward.
Q: Beyond the internal efforts to strengthen staff morale, there’s a broader external landscape to consider: the demand for arts education. What have you noticed?
N: In Seattle, we’re seeing school consolidations and closures and a reduction of in-school arts programs. There’s a need for arts and youth development organizations to be adaptable and respond. So rather than a decline, there’s a growing need for increased access to music education, increased access to high quality arts, and increased access for spaces where students can explore who they are as people.
At Seattle JazzED, we’re thinking about how to incorporate student and family feedback to make sure our programs are responsive to our community and that our programs genuinely provide a service that our community is interested in. We don’t exist in competition with school-based programs. We could be a place where a student establishes their relationship with music for the very first time or a place where someone can discover music in a new way.
Q: How can the community come together and support access to music education?
N: What it comes down to is for the community to invest in youth development and arts programming. Where we put our resources into speaks to what we value, and that’s just as true for organizations as it is for individuals. Donors can look at organizations that fill those needs that youth may not be receiving in traditional spaces. By investing in youth-focused programming and development, we have the chance to show young people that we care.
From a broader perspective, there could be more coalition-building and mutually beneficial partnerships that are less competitive with the intention to support the whole ecosystem that we exist in. The same is also true for donors. Supporting Seattle JazzED is not simply contributing funds. It can be volunteering, relationship building, advocating for policy that supports youth development and arts education, and connecting us with grant opportunities we may not be aware of.
Q: Any final thoughts or anything you would like to share?
N: Despite the challenges we’ve experienced the past year, what gives me hope is that those challenges are not unique to Seattle JazzED. Rather, they are often symptomatic of the system we exist within. There’s a lot that can be changed within the system that allows organizations to be more malleable and less rigid, but that will take time.
What keeps me going is seeing the impact our organization has every time I’m on site, at a school, or interacting with a family. During my time here, I’ve watched a certain group of kids come up from our earliest programs to become more well-rounded musicians to the point that it moves me to tears sometimes. It’s such a powerful experience for young people to have. I deeply believe in the power of education in any form, and I’ve been grateful that I get to experience it through the lens of music education.
