Confessions of SSIR Fans

Dear Dreamers and Doers,

We’ll just say it: we are unabashed fans of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. SSIR published “The Role of Brand in the Nonprofit Sector” back in 2012 — the article that introduced the Role of Brand Cycle and gave people like us a framework for what we knew to be true all along. A nonprofit brand isn’t a logo or a marketing tool. It’s the engine that drives identity, trust, capacity, and impact.

So when SSIR publishes something that aligns so beautifully with teaching points straight out of our Bold Brand workshops, we pay attention. This month, it’s “The Future of the Performing Arts Depends on Strategic Partnerships” by Jessica Phillips, Christine Chen, and Julian Chender. It’s written for orchestras, opera companies, dance troupes, and theaters. But read it with any cause and culture mission in mind, and you’ll find yourself nodding along. We sure did.

Two Problems (One of Which Is Pride)

Every cause and culture organization is climbing the same mountain right now — reduced funding, shrinking audiences, shifting donor preferences — on the way to a summit of steadier earned revenue, deeper donor support, and more diverse partnerships. The article’s examples come from the performing arts, but the shadow they cast falls on all of us. So let’s listen up.

The authors name two long-standing stressors. The first is the Baumol effect — economists William Baumol and William Bowen’s 1965 observation that labor-intensive work like live performance gets more expensive, faster, than industries that can automate. You can’t make a symphony more efficient by playing it at double speed. (Well, you can. Once.) Add the wave of canceled NEA grants in May 2025, and plenty of organizations have spent the past year cutting costs, scrambling for revenue, and dipping into reserves just to stay upright.

The second stressor is the one that made us sit up straight. The authors call it institutional exceptionalism: the go-it-alone habit of positioning yourself as utterly one-of-a-kind while quietly competing with everyone around you for the same donors, audiences, and grants. Instead of building public appetite for the art form as a whole, organizations pour their energy into polishing their own image.

You might expect brand people to cheer for that.

We don’t. That’s an ego with a logo.

Purpose First. Then Partners.

The authors prescribe two antidotes for any organization getting ready to approach new partners: clarify your organizational purpose, and map your business model. Their argument is one DRMTM built our whole process on: “organizations with a clearly defined purpose are better positioned to make strategic decisions” about how they operate in their field, because that foundation lets them lead with their unique strengths, both on their own and alongside others.

That is what a well-built brand does. It’s the home of your purpose and values. It answers what makes you special and what role you play in the larger ecosystem — exactly the self-knowledge the authors say an organization needs before it can partner with anyone.

Why It Matters (Hint: Nobody Partners with a Mystery)

The article lays out a whole spectrum of partnerships: everything from one-time joint campaigns, co-commissions, and shared back-office arrangements to full mergers. Every one of them rests on the same foundation — knowing who you are clearly enough that someone else can see where you fit. (That’s the first question we ask in our workshops. Who are you? Nearly everyone responds by describing their programs, not their purpose.)

A partner can’t align with a mission it can’t make out. A funder can’t back a collaboration when it can’t tell who brings what. And you can’t protect your mission’s cultural and programmatic identity inside a shared arrangement if you never pinned down what that identity is in the first place. A strong brand lets you say yes to the right partner, and no to the wrong one, without losing yourself either way.

And here’s the silver lining: the same clarity that makes you distinctive is what makes you easy to partner with. Done right, exceptional and collaborative live in the same brand.

Your October Assignment

The authors suggest building a cross-functional team — artistic, development, marketing, operations — to spot and vet partnership opportunities. Great idea. But before that team ever meets, make sure everyone in the room answers this question the same way:

What is our purpose, and what do we uniquely bring to the table?

If the answers don’t match, start there. That’s the work. We just happen to love helping with it.

Here’s to answers that match,

Laura + Cheryl + Surale

P.S. Wondering whether your brand is partner-ready? Let’s find out together. Book a free Happy Half-Hour consult at hello@thedrmtm.com.