Strategic Plan and Leadership Transition

As the Philadelphia Folklore Project (PFP) faced a major institutional turning point with the planned retirement of its founder and longstanding director, it developed a strategic plan for 2012–16 that mapped out a path for leadership transition and developed new programming models for the future. As part of the process, PFP interviewed local and national peers in the fields of folklore, community arts, and grassroots activism, and used the data gained from those surveys to design three planning gatherings. The discussions at these gatherings, which involved PFP staff, board members, artists, and audience members, investigated the potential of PFP's past work and focused on ideas around community and cultural development, education, and documentation. They formed the basis for a strategic plan that includes clear transition steps, fleshed-out descriptions of staff skills and responsibilities, and new ideas for fundraising and integration of new media. The plan became the basis for a 2013 Project Grant, which will implement the succession plan and launch PFP's new project, the Folklore Congress. 1

• 1. Management grants, through the Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative, were awarded from 2009 through 2013.