Full Disclosure: I’m a political video remix artist and writer blogging at PoliticalRemixVideo.com. At this year’s Open Video Conference, I participated in the panel, Remix Theory and curated the video remix program which ran throughout the FIT venue. My participation in the conference began last year as a curator and panelist and I’m involved with the open video movement because of their continued support for remixers, Fair Use and online digital rights.

Capacity means the ability to accomplish, change, remodel, or act on something that is a necessity, but often invisible because it is part of the operations or architecture of an organization. Since nonprofits must focus so intently on the work that becomes their public face, they do not have an easy ability to re-engineer the infrastructure hidden below. Since 1999, NAMAC has offered modest capacity building grants -- much like capital infusions to either start or complete a much-needed home improvement project.

In June 2004 Film Arts completed its groundbreaking Member2Member appeal, raising $40,700 from over 400 members. This member-driven appeal re-connected Film Arts with our community and its core values and raised six times more money than Film Arts’ regular direct mail appeals. It is also our first fundraiser using email, with 16% of all gifts arriving via the Web. With the exception of a $10,000 matching gift from Board Chair Henry Rosenthal, no gift was larger than $500 – truly a grassroots effort.

The day before I started to do my search for a donated building, I attended a Michigan Association of Community Arts Agency's Kim Klein fundraising convention in Dearborn, MI. Our organization is in the seed stages of funding so we are working on a volunteer basis. A lady I met at the convention told me that her group rented out a donated building at a rate of $1 a month the whole year. This seemed like an impossible request for the Art Café to ask for. She told me that because her town was run down the arrangement had been easy to work out.