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At ArtsPool, we believe that the work we do can’t be captured in the term “outsourcing.” To us, there are three major differences between outsourcing and what we call “collective insourcing:”

• We’re a team player. ArtsPool was designed to work closely with our member organizations to help them better understand their businesses. From the outset, our goal is to help our members focus on the important, mission-driven work of their organizations, while partnering with ArtsPool to manage operational tasks, such as payroll, bill payments, and budget updates. We’ve developed a model of collective management, which allows our members to share administrative resources and reduce frictions within our field.
• We know the work. Since our founding, we’ve sought out team members who have extensive knowledge in the arts and the arts nonprofit worlds.
• It’s a cooperative. When you join ArtsPool, you also become a part-owner of the organization. See the question “Who owns ArtsPool?” below for details on our governance structures.

ArtsPool provides its members with easy access to diligently prepared data, which allows members to focus on making informed decisions about their business. Instead of spending time preparing data for analysis – and often shortchanging analysis for lack of time – members can more fully interact with their data. Frequent engagement with strong data empowers members to respond to issues and manage their business more quickly and proactively, which allows them to focus their energy on mission-driven work.

For our Core Services, the cost is based on a percentage of a member’s total annual expense (including both operating and capital campaign expenses as well as direct costs and cost of goods sold, but excluding bad debt, depreciation, and ArtsPool Services fees). The fee is paid monthly, based on the previous month’s total actual expenses.

For our Advisory Services, we charge a flat-fee, based on the scale of the project.

ArtsPool is co-owned by its members and its staff. Ownership is not represented in a financial stake or a financial liability, but through governance rights and responsibilities. ArtsPool’s governance structure is made up of four committees: Finance, Operations, Membership, and Steering. Within each committee, there are seats designated for ArtsPool staff representatives and for member organization representatives. The governance right and responsibility that each member has is to vote on who will represent them in the member organization seats. The governance opportunity that every member has is to put their hat in the ring when a member seat opens up.

ArtsPool is committed to protecting its members, employees, partners, and the company from illegal or damaging actions by individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly. We approach security as a team effort involving the participation and support of every ArtsPool employee, affiliate, or member who deals with information and/or information systems.

Every ArtsPool employee, contractor, and member is expected to adhere to strict security standards as it relates to equipment, networks, passwords, documents, financial information, donor data, employee data, and other personally identifiable information. Wherever possible we embrace the use of security best practices such as secure socket layer network connections (a.k.a SSL or TLS), two-factor authentication, encryption, anti-malware software, and random, unique passwords stored in a secure, encrypted password management system. ArtsPool employees receive training in security best practices each year and the company conducts an annual security audit of its systems and practices.

When selecting third-party tools and partners, ArtsPool gives a high level of consideration to their security protocols. Security protocols and functionality that are prioritized in this decision include:

• Compliance with the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) No. 16, Reporting on Controls at a Service Organization created by the Auditing Standards
• Board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
• Availability of two-factor authentication
• Encryption and/or obfuscation of personally identifiable information
• Permissions-based access
• Use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security(TLS) certificates for secure web access
• Notification of unusual access or activity

ArtsPool is built on a partnership and clear communication between members and staff. We expect our members to: retain management and control of their company, continue to make decisions about their company, keep the lines of communication open, and partner with ArtsPool to share information that helps us provide correct, up-to-date data.

If you’re interested in exploring ArtsPool membership please fill out our contact form and we will follow up with you to schedule a phone call.