Arts and Heritage Stabilization Program

Stabilization for Arts and Heritage

Best described as a comprehensive investment fund, the primary purpose of this program is to enable the province’s arts and heritage institutions to eliminate their predicaments with cumulative deficits, cash flow and capital reserves.

Goals of the Program

The goal of the Arts & Heritage Stabilization Program: A partnership between The Government of Canada, the Province of New Brunswick and the private sector is the development of healthy sustainable arts and heritage organizations that focus on achieving their mission and their community service goals.

The program assists the participating organizations to:

• Strengthen their connection to their audiences and build those audiences;
• Adopt an integrated approach to short-term operating and multi-year planning;
• Develop and implement sound governance and management policies and practices that uphold the highest standards of accountability; and
• Adopt sound financial management practices based on the principles of operational surplus generation and risk management while respecting the organization’s artistic and heritage integrity.

Overview

The Program has three components:

• Organizational assessment and planning to assess an organization’s strengths and weaknesses and develop strategies and actions to address the specific needs identified and to increase the overall capacity of the organization.
• Technical assistance to provide expertise to the organization through various mechanisms such as training, seminars, consultation, educational materials, etc.
• Financial awards to assist in eliminating cumulative operating deficits and establish working capital reserves equal to 25% of earned revenues.

Organizational Assessment and Planning

The organizational assessment and planning process is key to help develop, in the organization, a sense of ownership of and commitment to the stabilisation philosophy. The first component of the Program requires the organization to assess its strengths and weaknesses in the following areas: governance and leadership, organizational effectiveness, planning, financial management, and marketing. The assessment process provides the organization with solid information to initiate the development of its 3-year Strategic Plan and Annual Operational Plan and to measure outcomes and success.

Essentially, the strategic and operational plans identify the strategies and actions that are required to address the specific needs identified through the assessment process and to increase the overall capacity of the organization. They provide the organization with the direction needed to effectively manage change. The Strategic Plan must be completed by the participating organization, submitted to the NBFA Board and approved by the NBFA Board within 12 months of admission to the Program.

Technical Assistance

Technical Assistance is the process whereby outside tools and/or resources are working with participating organizations in order to strengthen their organizational capacity and assist them with implementing their Strategic Plan. Specific areas of technical assistance include, but are not limited to, governance, artistic policy and programming, financial planning and management, marketing and sales, market research / audience development, board and staff development, human resources, strategic and business planning, application of information technology, income generation, customer service, fundraising and other forms of non-operating assistance based upon needs assessment.

The technical consulting expertise is provided to organizations from the highest possible calibre experts in the field and is provided through various mechanisms: training, seminars, consultation, educational materials, and technical support. Some assistance activities may be planned and conducted for a group of participating organizations when common needs are identified.

The amount of funding identified for each organization for technical assistance is based on two factors:

• the needs identified in the initial Organizational Assessment and the approved Strategic Plan; and
• the available program funding.

Financial Awards

The capacity and sustainability of an organization are intrinsically linked to the state of its finances. Stabilization provides two types of financial awards: Deficit Elimination and Working Capital.

• The Deficit Elimination award is for eliminating 50% of the cumulative operating deficit. Within 24 months of entry into the Program, the participating organization must demonstrate to the Foundation that it has eliminated 50% of the deficit. The Foundation will then provide to the participating organization the deficit elimination award, covering the remaining 50% of the deficit. Participating organizations must eliminate their cumulative operating deficit if they wish to be eligible for the Working Capital award.
• The Working Capital award assists organizations in adopting solid, long-term fiscal measures that will prevent crisis management and provide the foundation for long-term stability. This financial award is to be used as an internal line of credit equivalent to 25% of the organization’s earned income. Allocation of this financial award will start immediately after approval of the participating organization’s Strategic Plan and Annual Operational Plan and retained by the organization at the end of the Program. Each payment is subject to an annual review to ensure that goals set out in Strategic Plan are met by the organization.

Organizations meeting the Financial Awards requirements are eligible to receive up to $100,000 (this includes the deficit elimination and working capital financial awards). Organizations with no cumulative operating deficit can obtain the entire financial awards toward the establishment of a working capital reserve.