The Edifice Complex
From Rebecca Thomas and Rodney Christopher at Nonprofit Finance Fund:
This Edifice Complex is indeed omnipresent in the cultural sector. In our 30-plus years advising and financing arts organizations at NFF, we’ve seen scores of organizations jeopardize the long-term vibrancy of their programs because they focused on getting the building built rather than having a healthy organization inside it. In our experience, the institutions that undertake facility expansion successfully run capital campaigns that place the facility expansion in the context of the organization’s overall vision and strategy. These campaigns have several things in common.