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I founded a small nonprofit (~$250k budget this year for underpaid staff of me+3 art types) that serves an annual audience of 1 million unique visitors for the

I founded a small nonprofit (~$250k budget this year for underpaid staff of me+3 art types) that serves an annual audience of 1 million unique visitors for the last few years with hi-res documentation of contemporary art; we are nearly ubiquitous within our field, academics have hailed our project as transformative, but we suck at fundraising and are tiny. Problem: in the midst of running everything, I do all the coding slowly by myself, and the urgent coding todo list has exploded while some of our sites age. What should I do? Thank you!

gnat 11y ago
(This is not one of the YC chaps) 1) Tell us the site, 2) Ask who makes money when your audience grows, 3) Ask who wants access to your audience, 4) Realise that "non-profit" only describes who has a claim on profits, not whether they must exist. Your org must still have income >= expenses
- ForrestN 11y ago
  Our most famous project is called Contemporary Art Daily, but our most ambitious, new project is called Contemporary Art Quarterly. The organization is called Contemporary Art Group. We're generating $250k of income, a bit more than our present expenses, largely based on the value of our audience. Being a non-profit also, very importantly, speaks to our motives, which mostly are to fulfill a mission to make important art more accessible to the public, rather than to get bigger and enrich the people involved.
tlb 11y ago
You need a great developer. You can't offer more salary than Google or Facebook, so you have to offer a mission that they believe in. I think your mission would be really exciting for the right person -- you just have to find them. Tip: if you're in the Bay Area, there'll be a lot of developer/artists here this weekend: http://grayarea.org/event/deepdream-the-art-of-neural-networks/ http://grayarea.org/event/deepdream-the-art-of-neural-networ...
- ForrestN 11y ago
  Thanks— I suspected as much. I'm in LA but even the prospect of finding events like this is very smart. Cheers.
  - gnat 11y ago
    (You could also put an ad on your own site/s for your job -- "Love Contemporary Art? Want to Help Us Bring it to the Masses?) Your next developer might already be a reader.
hanniabu 11y ago
You can try contacting this kind gentleman: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11142402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11142402

gnat 11y ago

(This is not one of the YC chaps) 1) Tell us the site, 2) Ask who makes money when your audience grows, 3) Ask who wants access to your audience, 4) Realise that "non-profit" only describes who has a claim on profits, not whether they must exist. Your org must still have income >= expenses

ForrestN 11y ago
Our most famous project is called Contemporary Art Daily, but our most ambitious, new project is called Contemporary Art Quarterly. The organization is called Contemporary Art Group. We're generating $250k of income, a bit more than our present expenses, largely based on the value of our audience. Being a non-profit also, very importantly, speaks to our motives, which mostly are to fulfill a mission to make important art more accessible to the public, rather than to get bigger and enrich the people involved.

tlb 11y ago

You need a great developer. You can't offer more salary than Google or Facebook, so you have to offer a mission that they believe in. I think your mission would be really exciting for the right person -- you just have to find them. Tip: if you're in the Bay Area, there'll be a lot of developer/artists here this weekend: http://grayarea.org/event/deepdream-the-art-of-neural-networks/ http://grayarea.org/event/deepdream-the-art-of-neural-networ...

ForrestN 11y ago
Thanks— I suspected as much. I'm in LA but even the prospect of finding events like this is very smart. Cheers.
- gnat 11y ago
  (You could also put an ad on your own site/s for your job -- "Love Contemporary Art? Want to Help Us Bring it to the Masses?) Your next developer might already be a reader.

hanniabu 11y ago

You can try contacting this kind gentleman: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11142402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11142402