CLIENT: East Bay Center for the Performing Arts
The East Bay Center for the Performing Arts (“The Center”) has, for more than 50 years, been Richmond’s premier nonprofit in the advanced arts and youth development, serving thousands of young people in public schools and at their performing arts center in the Iron Triangle neighborhood of Richmond, CA.
THE CHALLENGE
The Center had been bursting at the seams when COVID hit, shutting down their facility and nearly all their school-based programs. Their diverse, low-income families were hard hit, job loss devasted many households, and young people were stuck in their homes. What’s more, their founding Executive Director was set to retire. A major transition now loomed.
THE RESPONSE
PRG was brought in to design and manage a multi-phase solution. The first was establishment of a COVID Relief Fund to provide direct cash assistance to score of Center families. Second was to organize a rapid but important strategic visioning process, an essential component of new executive director decision-making. Third was to assess nearer term financial need and construct a new fund development strategy. And fourth, was to support the Center Board in hiring a new executive director. All of this had to be accomplished in less than 6 months.
PRG had to create an unprecedented game plan.
THE RESULTS
PRG “sat in the pivot” of Strategic Planning, creation of a new fund development strategy, execution of a COVID adaptation plan, and Executive Search. Through our own skilled team and PRG’s network of strategic planners, budget analysts, and nonprofit search consultants, the Center completed a sweeping strategic reset, secured more than $1 million in adaptation funding, and hired a new Executive Director. A reorganization of the Center’s management team made way for the hiring of the organization’s first Chief Development Officer. 2021 was their most successful fundraising year in their history.
Best of all, more than 4,000 young people are now participating in the transformative power of the Center’s services.