John Richardson, Director of audiences and development, Art Gallery of NSW

We are delighted to welcome John Richardson as our guest for our first episode.  John has been a member of the Art Gallery of New South Wales executive team since 2014. He played a pivotal role in the success of the Sydney Modern Capital Campaign which raised over $150 million towards the stunning Naala Badu building.  In his early career, John worked in at Back Row Productions and at the New 42nd Street Project in New York City. Prior to joining the Art Gallery of NSW, he spearheaded the commercial transformation of the South Sydney Rabbitohs as their chief commercial officer, establishing the club as a benchmark for sports administration in Australia.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to How Hard Can It Be. I'm Frankie Airy. I'm Marisa Mandil, and together we am Philanthropy Squid Academy.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

In this episode, we're delighted to speak with John Richardson, Director of Audiences and Development at the Oak Allo of New South Wales. John joined the gallery back in 2014 to lead the planning and delivery of the Sydney Modern campaign, which secured over 150 million in private contributions towards the stunning Nulla Badu building. We hope you enjoy this conversation.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

So, John, while we're really big fans of strategy, we're also very um acutely aware of Peter Drucker's famous quote around culture, eat strategy for breakfast. How true do you think this statement actually is?

SPEAKER_00 0:47

I definitely agree with it. However, I do think I qualify it by saying that culture is absolutely critical to philanthropic success in an institution, but it can be supercharged through strategy. And that was, you know, sort of what I did find when I arrived here 10 years ago into an organization that had a deep philanthropic history, going right back to the very beginning of the institution 153 years ago. The first painting ever acquired was acquired with a government grant and money from 55 subscribers back in 19, 80 sorry, 1871. So philanthropy has actually been in this institution from its act from its very origin. And it's always always played a critical role. So I walked into this environment 10 years ago where there was this very strong annual giving program and a fairly decently substantiated request program that was focused primarily on art acquisition. And that's been a huge success over the past 40 years, which is great. However, the institution had never been through a major campaign. So there was a culture there, but it was how do you take that culture and that goodwill that's been built over that time and then transform it into something that that can take the whole institution to another level? And then what does that take? And so I think that that's exactly where we focused early on was bringing the whole gallery on the journey of what being campaign ready is, and then actually being in a campaign and all the different roles that people have to play. And I, you know, distinctly remember speaking to all staff meetings when we were getting the campaign going, saying, if you're working on a loading dock and you're shifting an artwork or shifting supplies, and I walk over to you with somebody you don't recognize, never assume that could be potentially the you know the most important donor this institution may ever see. And they're often really interested in the people that run the place. And so that's just you know how we I think created this institution-wide sense that we were all playing a role.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Maybe tell us a little bit about strategy, how it drove the culture then.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

The very first thing that I did was get some good counsel. So, you know, full credit to Philanthropy Squared back in the day. Um, and Frankie and I um, you know, going through what are the steps and and what are the resources that we need. And we got a campaign manager and a um insights and research research expert from Sydney University, which was another you know, complete game changer for this institution to get that expertise into an art institution. So it was an incredible combination, and then somebody with expertise and actually the architecture of a campaign with US experience was really critical. So we set that up, and then the other absolutely critical factor was creating the game plan, as it were, the map, the you know, the step-down strategy to present to the board of trustees. And again, I was very fortunate to arrive with a board of trustees that had a number of significant philanthropists installed that believed deeply in philanthropy and also understood that they had to show leadership. And um, I you know, I share my presentation often that I gave in May 2015 with other people setting up campaigns. And the very last slide is your role as a trustee. And it was a picture of Kathy Freeman carrying the torch. And so it's you know, it's very much that you you have to be the absolute ambassadors, you have to show leadership because I can go out and ask, you know, a hundred different people, but if there's not commitment at that highest level, there's going to be a little bit of a lack of trust in what this campaign is and why isn't everybody committed to it.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

I think it's different for every organization, but how how do you assess if a culture of philanthropy is actually gaining traction, is gaining momentum within the organization? Because it's not easy and it takes time and it takes practice.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

I completely agree. And even in an institution like the Archives of New South Wales, where there is this multi-decade culture of philanthropy, it's something that we have to work at every single day. Not you can never take it for granted.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

I think it's really interesting that you said that that 50% at least is new money. Um, and it does break the mold, but it doesn't surprise also, again, because it's a change of behavior and a change of behavior amongst the donor community as well. Um, a different call to action. The fact that it's new money, new relationships, and have actually sort of raised the raised the bar uh is is a phenomenal story.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

And those new relationships have led to the opportunities that we're pursuing now. And our focus now has moved to multiple sort of parallel campaigns. I mean, obviously, Frankie, you and I have always spoken. Once you do a big campaign, you never actually start doing campaigns. You just move on to what are your next campaign or campaigns. The other opportunity for us is to just be a have the red carpet out any day of the year. So we just say, look, any of your network, and obviously these are oftentimes people with major capacity and an inclination for art, they love coming to Sydney. But we've now empowered this network to say, yeah, we can be here, we can have somebody, you know, a curator or somebody give you a private tour of a new building or a special exhibition. And it just instantly builds this bond and just helps us keep growing that network in a very efficient way, as opposed to you know going overseas 10 times a year. So we're we're leveraging those relationships, but we're we're trying to take advantage of our home court, as it were, um, because a lot of people are traveling through Sydney um, you know, all the time. What better thing to engage them with than this beautiful new campus and new building?

SPEAKER_02 6:21

That couldn't have happened without a culture of philanthropy.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Because you know, as many institutions, and 10 years ago, it may not have happened. I mean, there's been a sort of a journey that the whole organization has gone on. Many organizations we've worked with over the years, either the curators or the researchers or the academics or the you know, social workers would resist the idea of being on call for donors. That's one of the litmus tests, I think, of culture of philanthropy is actually people recognizing the importance, people across the institution recognize the importance of this source of revenue and the impact that it can actually have.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Right. Yeah, absolutely. It's a beautiful feedback system here. And that's why so many uh you know, curators are very willing to support well when they can. I mean, we don't try and call them at midnight for a Sunday, you know, tour the next day. But I suppose the results that we're getting to support the exhibitions, which take the exhibitions that they may be working on from a very high quality level to what I refer to as our full ambition. And the philanthropy is unlocking that additionality, which you know allows us to achieve our full ambition. That's a very powerful thing for somebody to want to participate in because it's it's actually directly benefiting, you know, the thing that they care most about, which is you know an exhibition or an art position that they're working on.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

So Frankie and I um work a lot with small to mid-size organizations. And they may say that um Sydney Modern, the campaign gallery of New South Wales, well, it's a bigger machine, they can afford to do this work. Is it a chicken and egg story, John, in terms of size or culture?

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Undoubtedly, the the scale of what we went out to achieve required certain resources, but the percentage of what we actually spent on achieving what we did was still quite tight, it's quite efficient. So when I do I speak to small and medium-sized organizations, I mean I've I've given advice to then in Gula, then in the Southern Highlands, and so much of the philosophy or the key learnings or the key things that you need to bring into your work every day are quite similar. It's looking after that that core group of major patrons. And you know, again, they have they have a quite a decent array of major major patrons down in the Southern Highlands. But when I was reviewing it with their chair, it was interesting. It was just as I elicited, you know, the steps that we take to steward people, the active process that we we put in our CRM and who follows up with who and who owns a certain relationship, I could see the light bulbs going off, going, we've got a big opportunity here. We just need to, you know, we just need to organize ourselves, even though we don't have you know a 12-person philanthropy development major gifts team with the people that we do have. And it and again, in smaller organizations, other people that don't have the word philanthropy in the title absolutely can be involved. And so it's a matter of giving them the confidence, the knowledge of the part they can play, and the willingness to, I suppose, take risks, don't be scared, lean into philanthropy. Every presentation or every approach isn't necessarily going to work out. I've got plenty of examples where thought I was going in um with an absolute perfect pitch and went completely sideways. And you just have to be, you know, you just have to take those experiences and learn from them and you know, not get too down on yourself and bounce back.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Frankie just mentioned what a great story the art gallery has. But do you think in general we're good storytellers? I mean, you can have a good story, but how are we in in general talking about ourselves?

SPEAKER_00 9:58

We very strategically and actively celebrated our campaign. And that wasn't trying to big net ourselves or um the good work that we were doing. But every single time we did it, we literally would have a new major gift come out of the woodwork. So at the same time, we wanted to be promoting major philanthropy in Australia, you know, not just for our benefit, but for the benefit of the whole arts ecosystem, philanthropic ecosystem. And many people have often said that. They're like, it's so fantastic that you just this example, and then there's so many others now that are you know having huge success, whether it's at universities, obviously they're driving a massive campaign down at Victoria now. And I know that there's a number that are going to be kicking off for you know various performing arts groups in the not too distant future. And I I do believe that there's this there's a sense of the possibility, the opportunity, and a realistic you know, chance of achieving it now, more than there was 10 years ago. And that's not that's not just because of our example. I think it's it's it's it's the I think it's the expertise, um I think it's the knowledge that's being gained at board levels, um, and people with more and more that experience, you know, landing ending in those CEO roles as well, which I think is Frankie very, very important. You know, you can obviously always try and hire a great philanthropy manager or head of campaign, but if that CEO doesn't have either the belief or any experience in participating in something like that, it can be it can be a challenge um uh to get that that institution-wide buy-in, which is so critical to success.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

What's next for the LA?

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Very, very good question. We've we've quietly been transitioning from the main campaign and all the stewardships of the celebration and thanking people, and we still have major pledges coming in for the campaign. And that was the other massive part of the opportunity and success for us was being able to actually schedule major gifts over a number of years. That was a huge shift for some donors that were thinking of one number that then were able to shift to a much more ambitious number because if we had a multi-year opportunity for them to pledge. So we're stewarding those donors, but many of them are completing their pledges now. So there's a level of discretion. We we try and give them a little break, but if there is a particular project, exhibition, public program, art and health program, special artwork that we have our oil that we just know fits with their particular interest or inclination, we go and speak to them. And again, it's never with, it's never, hey, you know, you've been incredibly generous, but we have this really exciting project. And these projects and these exhibitions and that additionality, this is this is what's going to help us achieve the full vision of what you've already helped us create. So you helped us create the infrastructure. Now we have to bring it fully to life. And that's the conversation that we're having now across those different categories, Frankie, that I was just talking about. Those are those are our key areas. And then the other one, and I have to give credit to my colleague Nora Saunders, who's come over from Sydney University, who kind of revolutionized their request strategy there. She's working with me and her foundation and is doing an incredible job, to your point around communication, educating every single stakeholder group, staff, volunteers, volunteer guides, members, um, everybody about requests, executive team, trustees, special training sessions so that everybody has the same language around quests. Because yes, major gifts have almost that more immediate impact, but be quests are the are the next level transformational philanthropic opportunity for this institution. That's probably the hardest one to sustain. So if you talk about the culture of philanthropy, bequest, the bequest strategy is something that more than anything else, you have to live and breathe and keep and keep the muscles strong. Um, because it's very, because it doesn't have the direct impact, that immediate kind of assistance with the next year's budget or you know, next year's project. It is a it's a it's a very long game, but a very, very powerful one. So those are probably the two areas. So it's that's more programmatic and exhibition support, as well as a real absolute laser focus on bequests across everything that we're doing.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

I'm hearing two things with the first group, never assume that they don't want to give, always they're now part of the family, so give them an opportunity. They may be annoyed that you didn't give them the opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

We've experienced that. And so that's that we're using those examples of somebody somebody saying, Oh, you should you should have told me about this. But we're so there's there's a there's a danger of being too polite when you've been successful or when you've you know you've got good relationships with people, you can over-index because you see some people a lot, so you're telling them things more often, and then they just because they're so generous, they kind of get involved maybe a bit too often, and then that can look optically to other people like you think you're over-asking. And that's you know, that's okay. You just need to you know find out that.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

And the other piece is that bequests will be the future, they grow endowment. Bequests are the source of uh endowment funds, I think the world over. You know, we all talk about we all look over the US with institutions with envy at their endowments, and they've they've grown through bequesting.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

And that is that is a focus of ours. So we are we we will always primarily try and focus our requests to the foundation's endowment, which is our major art acquisition fund. That is, you know, that's a primary objective of ours. But we have set up endowments for our Jonathan Jones uh Indigenous art garden that'll be opening later this year to support cultural and public programs for that artwork in perpetuity. So that's a whole brand new concept for us, but very attractive. We're halfway to our $8 million target, hasn't opened yet. We do, we were lucky to receive a you know a significant request that we've directed towards exhibition support. So instead of just spending all the money in five or 10 years directly on exhibitions, you know, we're using this $15 million instrument to generate $700,000 of support, which is bigger than any sponsorship that we have. So it's you know it is it is transformational these types of um facilities.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Could you maybe tell us a little bit about your journey into fundraising?

SPEAKER_00 16:16

So I grew up I grew up in New York City, so I was surrounded by a culture of philanthropy growing up and um went to Union, studied theater and economics, and wanted to become a theater producer. That was sort of my original um goal and ended up interning for a gentleman named Peter Helmseport, uh, who's a well-known, uh, well-known family in Australia. He's the eldest son of Robert Helmsecourt. And he had a theater company down in Tribeca, and I was working there, and uh he ended up selling it, but that was my first exposure to the arts and the business of arts, but it it just exposed me to the arts, and then he invited me to come down, um, but exposed me to Sydney, which is eventually how it ended up back here. I was being drawn back to the arts, and I went back to New York and worked, and this is what I really got exposed to, you know, kind of not just philanthropy, but public-private partnership, which is very rare in America. I worked at a place called the New 42nd Street Project, which is one of the incredible projects in New York where they they fixed up all the C old theaters on 42nd Street and turned them into the Lion King Theater or the American Ireland's theater. And the revenue from those commercial theaters went into supporting a nonprofit center where they had affordable rehearsal studios, two dance theaters, and a 500-seat children's theater called the New Victory, which I was working for. And so I was doing programming, but as I said before, small, medium-sized organizations, everybody was involved in philanthropy. So whenever we would have donor events, I'd be there talking about the programming. So I did a master's in arts administration at Columbia University, and that's when I got actually taught, you know, the actual tertiary skill sets of of fundraising, marketing, you know, um collective bargaining, had a detour into rugby lake, which was um wild. And I think the main thing that um I took from my time there was definitely intense stakeholder management. Um, so I think it was I think it was that that kind of thrust and that energy and that that pace that I eventually brought to the process here, which I think, you know, you have to balance that enthusiasm and pace with with burnout. But it can be really amazing in a campaign and you have lots of different conversations happening. And you know, you're on the phone to David Goldsky and then Mark Nelson in the same day, multiple times a day, who's talking to who. And just that it's that momentum and that excitement that that can just get everybody going. And then you you you get a gift confirmed, you send a little email around to the key people, they all cheer, and then and then they get excited, they want to go out and you know, and and get going with what they're trying to achieve. So that's I think it was probably that that enthusiasm, that belief that just because it hasn't been done here before doesn't mean it can't be, but with total respect and I suppose a bit of livid experience about the Australian environment and um the amazing community um here. So it wasn't it wasn't just walking with the rah-rah, you know, kind of New York uh enthusiasm. It was it was in in an Australian context, in the context of this institution and in the context of what we're trying to achieve.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Perfect way to finish. Fundraising is a team sport.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

That's it.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

John, thanks again.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Yeah, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

Always love hearing your stories and um and your experience and thanks for sharing your wisdom. Yeah, really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

No problem. Pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

We hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as we did. We'd love to hear your feedback and we'd also welcome any ideas you may have for future topics of discussion. Our email is hello at philanthropy2.com. And if you'd like to speak with us about our new fundraising learning programs, including a hugely popular onboard program developed specifically to get boards more engaged and more involved in fundraising, we'd love to hear from you. Again, our email is hello at philanthropy2.com.