In reading all the great content here over the past few days, I’ve learned a lot. And I’ve had some new thoughts as well, inspired by others. So now, in honor of Broadway’s Hitchcock parody, I’ve come up with my own to-do list – 39 Next Steps, if you will – to build more private sector engagement of the arts here in Portland.

1. Listen more to what the private sector is saying.
2. Identify a few more companies who seem to have a commitment to creativity and a skilled workforce, but may not be aware of some great investments they can make in this regard. Invite them to coffee. Don’t ask for anything, just listen.
3. Keep mulling on this theme of “investment” rather than “contribution.” I tend to use this term as well, but my concern is, do businesses who understand “investment” accept the ROI that the arts have to offer, or do they expect said investments to have more impact on their own, immediate bottom line? Discuss.
4. Help more private sector leaders who “get it” write and submit op-eds and editorials.
5. Find more ways to use public $ to leverage support from the private sector.
6. Conversely, cultivate more private sector leaders to lobby local governments to unlock $ from the public sector.
7. Cease using the phrase “challenging economy.”
8. Ask Michael Kaiser to stop using the term “Arts in Crisis.”
9. …But recognize that we’re not out of the woods yet and won’t be for quite some time.
10. Vigorously support collaborations within the arts community that help them reach new audiences while sharing expenses.
11. Send personal contributions to the arts organizations that have managed to make their income and their expectations meet.
12. Fiddle around with new ways to help the arts community collect $5s and $10s through social media and texting campaigns.
13. Hone the message using Cincinnati’s research, our own polling and focus group data, and several other great conclusions based in science.
14. Help bend our community’s arts education pitch to a quality education issue not an arts issue
15. And focus on powerful anecdotes and personal stories – something the arts community should be able to do better than anyone else.
16. See if I can help build an online catalogue of arts experiences-cum-testimonials on a local level.  We’ve had firefighters testify about the importance of art in their stations, and social workers telling tales of art’s effect on youth at risk – I need to do a better job of collating those stories over time.
17. ...And look for similar resources on a national level. Whether it’s 9/11 or the Haitian Earthquake, are we collecting our stories about the role of the arts in our healing? Do we have a repository for all of this knowledge?
18. Help more of our social service organizations who understand the importance of art testify to their power on behalf of the arts community.
19. When making the case, remember always that one size will never again fit all.
20. Help dispatch the best arts argument to the right person.
21. Help arts organizations connect the dots between their meaningful coalitions and local business needs.
22. …And the needs of the community at large.
23. Connect my own dots.
24. Get ready for the Arts & Economic Prosperity IV report.
25. Get ready for a local version of the National Arts Index.
26. Bring more artists into more workplaces.
27. Engage more employees – the corpus -- at a grassroots level while their corporations wait for profits to return.
28. Uncover new ways for volunteers to engage in days of service for the arts community. Just yesterday our own local arts agency donated an afternoon to the Oregon Food Bank and it was a very rewarding experience. Beach cleanup days are very popular here as well. Are there big opportunities like these in the arts community?
29. Help more arts organizations and volunteers collect on their companies’ dollars-for-doers programs.
30. Encourage more companies to match their employees’ gifts of time and money.
31. Figure out more effective ways to integrate our individual creatives, creative businesses, and nonprofit organizations into the larger creative economy sector here.
32. Ask friends in this broader creative sector what that they think about all of this.
33. Work with local businesses to establishing a common vocabulary around “creativity,” its role and value, and the methods by which creativity can be demonstrably grown, quantified, and managed.
34. Spend more time with emerging and potential leaders in arts administration in our community, and help them help us think of new ways to stimulate arts philanthropy.
35. Send thank you notes to community leaders who have done a great job over the years communicating the importance of a strong arts community.
36. Applaud the companies and foundations that continue to invest in the arts.
37. Attend the next Salzburg Global Seminar. (I can dream can’t I?)
38. Find time to rejuvenate, and new sources of inspiration.
39. Continue to collaborate with each other across the country and the globe to support the power of art in all of our communities.
    To be clear, this is my to-do list, not yours. But I am interested to hear what’s YOUR take-away?