INSPIRATION ALCONA INC

FINANCIAL
To then seek out corporate sponsorships, continue to cultivate local support and partnerships, seek grant funding and establish a marketing plan, which would include the hiring of an Executive Director at some point.
MAXIMIZE PARTNERSHIPS
Continue to cultivate cultural and educational (musical, visual arts, literary arts, dance, etc.) partnerships and create a coalition of area cultural groups to meet on an occasional basis to share ideas and brainstorm. To continually look for potential new members of this coalition and invite them to become engaged in sharing and brainstorming.
EXPAND TYPES OF EVENTS
Increase the numbers and types of events held over the course of the calendar year with the ultimate goal of having regular events year around. To expand these events from visual arts and music to also include literary arts, culinary arts, performing arts and to begin to expand programming to include events geared specifically toward children's programs, seniors' programs and programs for the physically and developmentally challenged.
CREATE A CULTURAL IDEA INCUBATOR
Brand Inspiration Alcona, Inc., as an idea incubator. To host an annual or bi- annual collaborative meeting of all interested creative groups to discuss and set goals for how we can draw cultural tourists to Alcona County and meet the long-term goal of becoming a destination and artist's haven to create a new economic base. As an idea incubator and clearinghouse, Inspiration Alcona, Inc. would assist those who present ideas worth pursuing with obtaining micro-loans or grant funding to support the transition from idea to reality.

FINANCIAL
• Engage in county-wide marketing of this idea and create community partnerships by having board members personally present the vision to individual community organizations and businesses.
• Approach county, township and municipal governmental units to familiarize them with our work.
• Actively seek financial support locally and through corporate sponsorships, as well as researching and applying for any and all grant funding that Inspiration Alcona, Inc. may qualify for.
• Create a marketing and public relations plan including a media kit that will be capable,over time, of expansion to a national level.
• When it becomes financially feasible to generate a detailed job description, advertise, interview and hire an Executive Director to manage the administration of programming, marketing and financial accountability.
MAXIMIZE PARTNERSHIPS
• Assemble a comprehensive list of regional groups that would be potential coalition participants.
• Contact area cultural groups including art councils, art guilds, writer's groups, dance groups, theater groups, culinary groups etc and invite their participation in a meeting to share the vision of Inspiration Alcona, Inc., as well as share ideas and brainstorm.
• Set a date for a coalition meeting and secure a venue that will be conducive to open and free discussion of ideas.
EXPAND TYPES OF EVENTS
• Research and contact other similar organizations to view their organizational format and how they grew from their inception.
• Assemble a catalog of the array of programs being offered by other organizations. Examine what resources would be required to present similar programming. Determine our own capabilities and limitations as an organization and then decide what array of events we would like to be able to present and over what time period they could be presented.
• Research the resources and limitations of presenting programming specifically designed for youth, seniors, or physically, developmentally and cognitively challenged people.
• Make a determination as to whether we would want to include this type of programming in our long-term planning and if we would have the appropriate resources to do it.
• Hold an annual Alcona Regional Farm Conference.
CREATE A CULTURAL IDEA INCUBATOR
• Obtain information on how to go about branding Inspiration Alcona, Inc. as an idea incubator or clearinghouse that will support and mentor the ideas of others as well as pursuing our own mission.
• Work on becoming a resource for other groups regarding available grants, micro loans or other forms of support for their ideas and providing assistance to them in obtaining those.

RESOURCES AND THE STRATEGIC AND PERFORMANCE PLAN
The annual Inspiration Alcona, Inc., budget and funding needs are directly linked to the organization's strategic and performance plans. The goals and objectives contained in the Strategic Plan reflect goals and objectives and outcome information related to annual outcome reports, contract requirements and projected performance plans. The resources necessary to carry out the annual performance planning process will continue to be determined based on data of similar activity conducted in the past or at present and correlating estimates of applications, grants and leadership activity with the programmatic funding, and other operational costs, such as space and service delivery costs/needs necessary to effectively and efficiently implement the plan. Because of these efforts, the agency will be better positioned in the future to correlate new or increased programmatic activity with the resources necessary to carry them out. The strategic plan now in place is our second, covering 2020 to 2025.
FUNDING SOURCES
Inspiration Alcona, Inc., relies principally on earned income and grants, and to a lesser extent local sponsorships and donations to carry out our mission, vision and philosophy. .
Inspiration Alcona has received grants from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council annually since 2016, and from the Michigan Humanities Council in most of those years. Other grants have come from the Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan, First Federal Savings Foundation, Walmart, Meijers and the Harrisville Arts Council.
At the end of the fiscal 2017 year, Inspiration Alcona engaged in a fundraising program through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation for our new Farm to Fork Alcona initiative, raising more than $17,000, including a $7,500 grant from MEDC.

Inspiration Alcona, Inc., went from the kernel of an idea to a fully realized art retreat in nine months. The initial Alcona Arts Retreat was well attended and extremely well reviewed, and it celebrated a small profit. The follow g retreats have all netted small profits and attendance has climbed to the point that we cannot expand. The eleventh is scheduled for September 2022.

Our Lost Lake Writers Retreat, in partnership with Springfed Arts of Detroit, started October 2016. It attracted seven staff and 37 students. Our sixth annual retreat is scheduled for October 2022.

In 2014 we hosted a culinary arts retreat, which also got great participant reviews. We held a Farm to Fork Alcona food demo in 2016, drawing 22 people, and a local food dinner at the end of 2017 that drew more than 100 people. That dinner was part of a crowdfunding grant with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation that jump-started our Farm to Fork Alcona committee. We held the third annual Alcona Small Farms Conference in February 2020, just a few days before covid restrictions shut down most programs for the rest of the year.

Since 2013 we have sponsored educational visits to the local Alcona Community Schools.

In April 2015 we held our first Alcona GospelFest, an ecumenical event that attracted more than 200 singers and listeners and raised more than $1,000 for the host church's roof fund. It was the talk of the county for the next month. Attendance has been at the limit of seating in our small rural churches ever since. The 2020 and 2021 events were canceled by the coronavirus crisis. In 2022, the fest is scheduled for October 29.

In 2016 we began Alcona Authors, a twice-monthly writers group led by a retired English professor and a retired newspaper editor. People in the program currently are working on memoirs, novels, young adult books and self-help books. Four members have self-published books.

In 2017 we began offering free after-school guitar lessons to high school students. In 2018 we added ukulele lessons for elementary students (whose hands are too small for guitars). After covid interruptions, those programs are to resume in September 2022.

In 2018 we added our Farm to Fork Alcona program, which produced three small farm conferences before covid prevented more.

In late 2018 we also added Grand Art, in which fourth- and fifth-grade students are bused after school to the nearby Lincoln Senior Center, where they and the senior citizens jointly work on art projects led by a professional sculptor. Seniors and the kids also share dinner after the lesson; Inspiration Alcona pays for the children's meals.

In 2019 we began Dockside Jams, an open mic music night each Tuesday, held in winter at a local cafe and in summer in the open-air pavilion and lawn above Harrisville Harbor. In 2021 we added Harbor Nights, summer outdoor concerts by professional musicians.

Other events, both past and present, can be seen on the Inspiration Alcona website.