Each day this week on our blog we are highlighting a finalist for The Washington Post 2011 Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management.

Meet Post Award Finalist Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company was founded in Washington, DC in 1980. Now in its 31st season, Woolly is “known for its productions of innovative new plays” (The New York Times, Nov. 2007). They’ve garnered this reputation by holding fast to their unique mission: “To ignite an explosive engagement between theatre artists and the community by developing, producing and promoting new plays that explore the edges of theatrical style and human experience, and by implementing new ways to use the artistry of theatre to serve the people of Greater Washington, DC.” Woolly's staff includes 23 full-time and 107 part-time employees with support from approximately 425 volunteers annually. The organization’s budget size is approximately $4 million.

Q & A with Post Award Finalist Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

What does this award mean for you and your organization?

While Woolly is already an established leader here in the District and across the U.S. with respect to its challenging and provocative artistic work, this award would serve to highlight the equally bold but decidedly less visible management practices that make our innovative artistic work possible. And this would provide tremendous validation and well-deserved recognition for our hard-working staff and our committed Board of Directors. Finally, this award might help change a common perception that “art” and “management” are incompatible. The fact is that the more creative the organization, the better and more disciplined the management must be. This award might help promote this truth more broadly.

What have you learned through the application process for The Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management?

The application process has provided an unexpected but quite welcome opportunity to articulate management practices that have become ingrained for us. How do we utilize our volunteers?  What is our approach to risk? Putting these practices and our philosophy in words, and on paper, has provided us with new tools for talking to patrons, donors and funders. Even more vitally, this process forced us to seriously consider the alignment of all the various elements of our operation. On stage, we’re committed to producing work that pushes the envelope in terms of content, language and style. Do we express our mission statement through our administrative practices, too? This was an interesting and deeply empowering exercise as we discovered that, in fact, our art and our administration both equally express Woolly’s unique mission statement.

What advice would you offer for other nonprofit leaders/organizations striving for excellence in nonprofit management?

Defend your Mission – Guard your mission statement and maintain a laser-like focus on it, never deviating, even during tough financial times. One of our proudest moments at Woolly took place at perhaps the darkest moment of the financial crisis, in 2009, when we presented one of the most challenging pieces we have ever produced, Hell Meets Henry Halfway by the Pig Iron Theatre Company from Philadelphia.  t a time when we might have flinched and pursued more populist programming in order to reap short-term benefit, we doubled down on our mission. We maintained our commitment; and our community and our constituents responded by maintaining their commitment to Woolly, which allowed us to finish a difficult year with a negligible deficit, equal to less than 1 percent of our expenses that season.

Hire Good People – An organization’s ability to pursue its mission statement is entirely dependent on the quality of its staff.  In the theatre, we like to say that casting is 90 percent of the work involved in producing a successful play. It’s no different on the administrative side of the operation. Take the time and energy necessary to find, recruit and hire the right people for the right job. This is one of the most important and consequential things a leader does.

Communicate – The job of a leader is to communicate his or her vision, expectations, needs, hopes and concerns to patrons, staff, Board members, funders and volunteers.  This takes discipline, dedication, and, most critically, honesty but, ultimately, this is the most important thing a leader does. Theatre is all about communication—between actors and an audience—and we work very hard to model this dynamic on the administrative side of the operation. Theatre leadership is continually in touch with patrons and donors via e-mail, mail and personal phone calls. Meanwhile, we maintain an intense schedule of communication with our Board of Directors, including committee meetings, full Board meetings and email updates. Finally, staff meets weekly with their supervisors and every other week we convene a full staff meeting. If we aren’t communicating effectively with one another internally, we can’t possibly communicate effectively with those outside the organization.

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Learn more about the Award.