Subject category:
Strategy and General Management
Published by:
Stanford Business School
Version: March 2000
Length: 32 pages
Data source: Field research
Abstract
Artists for Humanity (AFH) is a nonprofit that hires 30 to 40 teenagers each year for after school work and training in the arts and entrepreneurship. The young artists, working in six different studios, make and sell the art they produce. AFH was started in 1990 by local artist Susan Rodgerson and six middle school students in a Boston garage studio; in 1993 they were able to expand and move to two floors of a wharf-area warehouse. At the time of the case, Rodgerson, the executive director, is weighing issues of expansion, staff turnover, and a capital campaign to raise money to secure a building (the warehouse lease runs out in 2001). The case showcases the challenges that face many small nonprofit organizations, and outlines some of the particular characteristics that describe non-profit organizations that also have an entrepreneurial arm.
About
Abstract
Artists for Humanity (AFH) is a nonprofit that hires 30 to 40 teenagers each year for after school work and training in the arts and entrepreneurship. The young artists, working in six different studios, make and sell the art they produce. AFH was started in 1990 by local artist Susan Rodgerson and six middle school students in a Boston garage studio; in 1993 they were able to expand and move to two floors of a wharf-area warehouse. At the time of the case, Rodgerson, the executive director, is weighing issues of expansion, staff turnover, and a capital campaign to raise money to secure a building (the warehouse lease runs out in 2001). The case showcases the challenges that face many small nonprofit organizations, and outlines some of the particular characteristics that describe non-profit organizations that also have an entrepreneurial arm.