Business Volunteers for the Arts
One-on-one business support for artists and arts organizations!
Program Overview
As an artist, you want to spend your time and energy creating, not doing taxes, writing business plans or reviewing contracts. Unfortunately, you can’t always avoid those things. Our Business Volunteers for the Arts program is here to help.
While we can’t provide you with a regular accountant, lawyer or other ongoing services, we can connect you with a volunteer who can help in the short term (like looking over a legal document) so that you can focus on what you do best. (Anything beyond the program’s scope can be negotiated between the artist and volunteer).
Matching depends upon volunteer availability. While this program is not an emergency service, we’ll do our best to respond to requests as quickly as possible.
Submit a Request
Please fill out one of the following forms that best describes the type of assistance you require. If you are not sure where your request falls please use the “other skills” form.
Have questions? Feel free to contact the program coordinator hazel@businessandartsnl.com
How it Works
● If you have a problem, question, or roadblock you can submit a request for help using one of our five intake forms for assistance with either Legal, Accounting, Marketing and Communications, Human Resources, or “Other Skills”.
● We reach out to volunteers in our network to find someone with the skills, time and interest to help.
● Once a volunteer accepts the match our coordinator will connect you with them directly.
● You meet (in person or remotely) to discuss the request for 1-2 hours max.
● If you need more help, you can negotiate further assistance from your volunteer directly.
● Our program coordinator will follow up with you and the volunteer to see how the match went and request feedback about the process/program.
Tips for a successful match:
The BVA program is intended to help on a consulting basis. Anything beyond the agreed-upon match of 1-2 hours is up to the volunteer and artist to negotiate.
While we do our best to fulfill requests as quickly as possible, matching depends upon volunteer availability.
Only submit a request for assistance if you have the time and capacity to work with the volunteer and please be responsive once the match has been made.
Having a clear or specific ask will help us facilitate a quicker match. Try to frame your assistance request as a question or conversation that could be addressed in an hour or two.
Thank your volunteers! Give them a shout-out, or invite them to a performance or event.
Open and transparent communication is key and we encourage both the volunteer and artist to check in with each other about how much time is left in the match.
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It is up to the volunteer to decide what they are comfortable providing pro bono and when they need to start charging for their services. We encourage both the volunteer and artist to keep track of time and regularly check in to ensure everyone’s time is respected and to avoid any surprises.
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Everything you share with us is confidential. We only share the names of the people involved with our volunteers to ensure that there’s no conflict of interest on their part and no potential barrier to accepting the match.
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Please fill out our “other” intake form and provide as much information as possible about the assistance you think you might need. Our program coordinator will work with you to try and find someone for our database who could volunteer or refer us to someone else.