Partner Toolkit

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HOW TO...

OVERVIEW OF THE TOOLKIT

As a CreativeGround partner organization, you have direct access to site data and roster designation vetting, and there are many ways to distribute information about CreativeGround to your constituents. What follows is a nonexclusive list of tools and resources you can utilize to promote CreativeGround and help make visible the New England creative economy in your state, town, and community. Please reach out by emailing creativeground@nefa.org as you discover new ways to share this information or have questions about how to maximize use of the the current tools; the CreativeGround team can share these innovations with with you and your colleagues to continue to make visible and vibrant all the creative economy of New England.

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HOW TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT AND GAIN ADMIN ACCESS

In order to gain admin access to CreativeGround, you will first need to create a user account by following the steps below:

  1. Go to http://www.creativeground.org/user
  2. Enter your information under "I want to create an account" and click SAVE.
  3. Notify CreativeGround Team for admin access

You must create your own account. Once you have a user account, in order to gain admin access as a partner, please email your request for access to CreativeGround staff at creativeground@nefa.org. If you do not notify the CreativeGround team, you will not have access to approval queues, exports of your state's profiles, etc.

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HOW TO EXPORT PROFILES FOR YOUR STATE

To download a spreadsheet of CreativeGround profiles with physical addresses in your state, follow the instructions below:

  1. Log into your CreativeGround SAA Admin account
  2. CLICK "Dashboard" on the black menu bar at the top of your screen
  3. On the "Reports" block, CLICK "Profile Export Report - Your State",
  4. You can filter the profiles by Profile Type, Postal Code, or Profile Name, if desired, before exporting. To do so, adjust the corresponding fields toward the top of the page, and CLICK "Apply."
  5. Once you have run your search (if any), scroll to the bottom of the page and click the orange CSV button on the left side of your screen. You will then be taken to a processing screen. DO NOT close your browser until your export is complete. 

Please note, large exports can take time to download- it can be from 10 to 15 minutes up to hours for more than 10,000 records. Once you click the CSV button, do not closer your browser window until it is complete. Once your file is downloaded, you can open it with Excel and format, edit, and filter your data to your organizations needs. You can convert your CSV export to XLS in Excel. 

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HOW TO USE CREATIVEGROUND AS YOUR STATE'S CREATIVE ECONOMY DIRECTORY

Link to the CreativeGround directory from your website.

You can link either to the full directory, or just to search results for your particular state/community. Here are some examples of ways you can link to CreativeGround:

Create an iframe linking to Search or Explore results

What is an iframe? An iframe, as it pertains to CreativeGround, is HTML code that will create an embedded window on your website that links to and displays specific search results. The size and search results are both customizable to your organization's needs.

Use an embed code that corresponds with the URL of the search that results in the profiles you want to feature. You can create an iframe from any Search or Explore results by applying the relevant filters. For example, if you want to create an iframe that displays the profiles with New Hampshire's Traditional Arts Roster designation:

  1. Go to www.creativeground.org/explore
  2. Underneath the "Apply" button on the left hand side, there is a column of categories. Scroll down until you see "On a State Arts Agency Roster"
  3. Check the box that corresponds to the roster for which you want to creat the iframe. (ex. New Hampshire Traditional Arts Roster)
  4. Click "Apply" at the bottom.
  5. Copy the URL from your address bar in your browser and paste it into the iframe code below (edit in a word processing program).
  6. Replace the NAME with the title of the roster. (ex. "New Hampshire Tradtional Arts Roster).

Iframe Embed Codes:

Orange text indicates a field value that can/should be adjusted to fit your needs.

TEMPLATE:

<iframe name="NAME" width="960" height= "800" src="URL"></iframe>

EXAMPLE:

<iframe name="New Hampshire Traditional Arts" width="960" height= "800" src="https ://www .creativeground. org/explore?f[0]=field_state_roster_detail_search%3ANew%20Hampshire%20Traditional%20Arts%20Roster"></iframe>

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HOW TO VET PROFILES THAT HAVE YOUR SAA ROSTER DESIGNATION

Head over to the Adding a State Arts Agency Roster Affiliaton to a Profile page for instructions for both SAA representatives and artist profile owners.

It is important to note that as an SAA admin, you have the authority to approve CreativeGround profiles for your roster designation. However, you do not have the ability to remove a roster designation. To remove a roster designation from a CreativeGround profile, email creativeground@nefa.org which profile(s) from which you would like the designation removed. You may also flag the profile in need of roster designation removal and the CreativeGround Team will be notified 

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HOW TO MARKET CREATIVEGROUND USING YOUR TOOLKIT

Include Information about CreativeGround in Constituent Communications

Whether included in an email newsletter or as part of an award letter to grantees, we have plenty of text to help you describe CreativeGrolund to your constituents. There are lots of resources on CreativeGround under www.creativeground.org/get-involved. At www.creativeground.org/about, you can find some marketing text on individual cohort pages. Here's some general text to get you started:

Boilerplate Text:

CreativeGround spotlights the rich range of creative people and places at work in the six New England states. This free online directory includes profiles for cultural nonprofits like libraries and theaters, creative businesses like recording studios and design agencies, and artists of all disciplines including visual arts, performing arts, and crafts.

Create or update your profile to promote yourself and your work to a broad audience of organizations and individuals looking for potential collaborators. Use CreativeGround's image gallery and extensive fields to describe your disciplines, activities and services, populations served, and more to help users find your profile in specified searches. Perform your own detailed searches to find collaborators within your region. Learn more about using CreativeGround at http://www.creativeground.org/get-involved or email CreativeGround@nefa.org. See our webinar series on our Resources Page, and stay tuned for updates on upcoming episodes, workshops, and info sessions.


Social Media

Tag NEFA's social media pages in your posts:

Twitter: @NEFA_Boston
Facebook: @NEFA

Use #CreativeGround if highlighting a CreativeGround profile. CreativeGround will tag you in a post or the comments on a post for featured profiles from your state. Please share!

Logos

Download logos of the site at www.creativeground.org/get-involved, or contact us for other logo sizes and options. Simple text to use along a logo could be:

Dig Into CreativeGround! New England's free directory of creative enterprises and artists.
www.creativeground.org

Handouts

Head over to our Get Involved page to view and download handouts that you can distribute to constituents. These documents are specific to artist/organization type and list ways that CreativeGround can benefit them specifically. In addition to Performing Artists, Visual Artists, Public Artists, Creative Economy, and Native American Artists, we have tailored fliers for LCCs, Libraries, Museums, Community Planners, Teaching Artists, and New England Presenters. To obtain copies of these fliers, email creativeground@nefa.org.

Postcards

Distribute CreativeGround postcards at events and in mailings. Contact us with your address and how many you need, and we will mail them to you. What are some great ways to use postcards?

  • Make postcards available at events, workshops, and gatherings
  • Include postcards in grant award letters and other communications with your constituents
  • Mail them to specific organizations or individuals to tell them about CreativeGround

Host Workshops and Events for your Constituents

NEFA staff are always happy to visit your state to do presentations or office hours (one-on-one in-person instruction for users to create or update their profile). If you are aware of other events that you or other partner organizations are hosting, let us know! We are always happy to tack onto other events and do a presentation, office hours, exhibit, or provide materials, such as postcards and handouts.

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HOW TO RECOMMEND A PROFILE TO BE FEATURED ON CREATIVEGROUND

Your state is full with amazing creative individuals and organizations. Help recognize excellent and exciting work by recommending the profiles of these entities to be featured on CreativeGround.

'Featured Profiles' have the opportunity to be showcased:

  • On the CreativeGround Home page
  • On the CreativeGround About page
  • In the quarterly CreativeGround newsletter
  • In CreativeGround blogposts... such as "On the CreativeGround with..." (See the example of Orlando Hernández)
  • In NEFA program eblasts and newsletters

Recommend profiles in from your state in 3 simple steps!

  1. Anytime that you come across a CreativeGround profile you love, send a short email creativeground@nefa.org to recommend the profile be featured. We also directly solicit your colleagues on NEFA's NEST grant panel at those triannual meetings.
  2. Submit the name and profile link for an artist, creative buesiness, or cultural nonprofit profile (or one of each!) from your state.
    • Keep in mind that we want to showcase the diversity of New England's cultural assets. We recommend that you submit profiles that showcase the wide variety of artistic disciplines (visual arts, performing arts, crafts, creative economy work, etc.) and cultural talent in your state.
  3. Encourage your constituents to update their profiles with, at the very least, the below specifications in order to be considered as a possible Featured Profile:
    1.  A profile image
    2. Contact information (first name, last name, job/title position, email, phone, fax (if applicable), website, internal contact information, complete mailing address, and complete physical address
    3. About description 
    4. Organization name and organization EIN (where applicable)
    5. If a cultural nonprofit or creative business, date founded
    6.  At least one (1) Additional Discipline
    7. At least two (2) Activities and Services
    8. At least one (1) Population Served
    9. At least one (1) Geographic Reach
    10. At least three (3) pieces of media in the gallery
    11.  At least a Facebook or Twitter account, where applicable
    12. At least two (2) I Have Worked With listings with relationship description
    13. If a cultural nonprofit or creative business, at least one (1) Accessibility of Services
    14. If a Touring Artist, complete information
    15. If a Native Artist, complete information
    16. If an organization with rentable venue, complete venue information (all required fields, at least (1) accessibility option and two (2) venue features

Suggestions: Featured Profile ideas can come from...

  • Your list of SAA grant recipients
  • NEST eligible CreativeGround users (these profiles must meet certain completion requirements to be considered for NEST eligibility)
  • Profiles that meet the suggested guidelines
  • Your CreativeGround Artist roster (CT, NH, RI, and VT)
    • Want to define the criteria for your artist roster? Take a look at the requirements above or for NEST eligibility.

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