How To's
Simpler processes, smarter tech: Solving the time deficit for arts nonprofits
Busy is the natural state of any nonprofit arts organization administrator. Brian Rahill, CEO and Co-Founder of CourseStorm recalls sitting at a talk attended by a bunch of performing arts professionals when the presenter asked, “How many of you feel like even if you had a second pair of hands, you still couldn’t get it all done?” And every person in the room raised a hand.
At CourseStorm, we see thoughtful use of technology as a way to relieve the pressure and help nonprofits do more, faster. Recently, Brian joined CourseStorm Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Matt James to present a webinar on how nonprofits can simplify processes and use AI to increase capacity tenfold in 2025.
As a course registration and marketing platform, CourseStorm is focused on making these processes impossibly simple for both students and administrators. We spend a lot of time talking with admins and staff at arts organizations about their opportunities and challenges. Here are some highlights from the webinar on how organizations can integrate AI to position themselves for success this year and into the future.
Watch the full webinar or read on for the highlights!
The nonprofit arts industry is in flux
Right now arts organizations face big challenges and unique opportunities. Overall ticket sales and subscriptions are stagnant across the industry. Audience demographics are in flux, and old methods of reaching audiences don’t resonate with everyone. As patrons age and demographics shift, organizations are looking for ways to build the audience of the future.
Meanwhile, political and social changes are causing even more uncertainty. Organizations are trying to do more with less. They’re looking for stable revenue streams and opportunities to increase efficiency without sacrificing their connection to the community.
Brian and Matt believe there are two key strategies that can help organizations build a thriving education program in the face of these headwinds — simplifying processes and selecting the right technology.
First, simplify your processes
Over-complicated processes can bog down organizations. Adding technology to complexity doesn’t fix the core problem, it just makes things even more complicated. The better course of action is to streamline processes first.
Examine processes to identify what’s causing friction. For education program admins, these might be policies or procedures that are making it difficult for you to manage and process registrations. It might also be decision points that are causing friction for your students.
For example, imagine you want to make a class more accessible to people with lower income so you create a “pay what you can” policy. That might sound like a straightforward solution, but it creates some fiction points you might not be aware of. First, this might be tricky to do within your registration software. Perhaps more importantly, it presents learners with an extra decision to make — how much to pay for the class.
“[The customer] already had to make a bunch of choices, and so you want to limit the number of decisions they’re having to make,” Matt said. “It’s got great intent behind it, but introduces unnecessary complexity that slows things down and then makes it more complicated for you to run your program.”
The simpler solution may be to provide scholarships or discount codes, or even offer the class for free.
Add the right technology for your needs
Simplifying processes is a powerful first step, but organizations can’t stop there. Brian talks about the many organizations that are still using ticketing or event software to run their class registrations. “They simplified some processes, but they’re still using the wrong software and they’re feeling this friction,” he said.
That friction might come in the form of complaints from students, or the realization that you’re spending a lot of time moving data between multiple software systems. This most often comes up when an organization is in a stage of growth.
That’s when a solution like CourseStorm becomes almost essential. Our software integrates registration and payment systems and can connect to marketing and donor management software.
The right technology should save you time, reduce manual tasks and improve the student experience. It should:
- Empower instructors to connect directly with students and manage class rosters
- Automate class reminders and other communications
- Send low enrollment warnings and flag classes that are almost sold out
Automation frees administrators and staff to focus on the human tasks that add unique value to the organization. Tasks like interacting with students and connecting with community members.
AI in class registration and management
When it comes to AI, Brian acknowledges that administrators may be feeling both excitement and uncertainty.
“If we think about helping someone on a personal growth journey through education. If we think about the arts in particular, and how that connects to the whole of human experience, that’s something AI is never going to replace,” Brian said.
What AI can do is handle the time-consuming tasks that humans are less good at. “AI is really an accelerant,” Matt said. It speeds up tasks like analyzing data.
So rather than manually reading through and coding dozens of pages of student feedback, you can use AI to search for trends, identify outliers, and analyze sentiment. The best AI tools allow you to ask questions in plain language like, “The glassblowing 101 class seems to rank poorly, are there any common reasons why?”
AI tools can also support idea generation. For admin staff who are working alone or who don’t have easy access to peers, generative AI can help with brainstorming. “It’s sort of a thinking partner,” Brian said. You may not take the exact ideas generated, but they may spark new directions.
How arts nonprofits can simplify reporting with AI
Annual reports and results reporting are essential tasks for nonprofits. It’s also time consuming, and frankly, boring for most administrators. AI tools simplify reporting processes so admins and their teams can focus on more human work.
While third-party AI tools, like Chat GPT, can help organizations generate reports, they also raise privacy concerns for some organizations. De-identifying student data takes time. So does downloading it from your system and uploading it to a third-party site. That’s why we’ve simplified the process.
AI generated reporting is now built into CourseStorm, no plug-ins or extra subscriptions needed. Your data is protected and anonymized with no extra steps. You can ask the AI complex questions in plain language, and it will deliver clear results, plus tell you how it found the information. This allows you to feel confidence in the answers you’re getting because you can see the underlying logic.
We call it “Just Ask Reporting,” because all you have to do is ask. See this feature in action below:
How to increase your org’s capacity tenfold
“Uniquely creative human endeavors are never going to be replaced, and we’ll have more time for those if we can offload some of the [manual] things, like wrangling spreadsheets.” – Brian Rahill
In short, organizations can increase capacity tenfold by taking three simple steps. At every step, choose the simplest and most straightforward solution.
- Streamline and simplify processes to improve overall flow
- Introduce the right technology to solve real problems and automate processes
- Adopt targeted AI tools to accelerate processes
Technology in general, and AI in particular, should free people to focus on the tasks that are uniquely human. By automating and accelerating with technology, you liberate your team to connect with the community, build relationships with your students, and get creative about ways to increase your impact.
Learn more about what we do at CourseStorm and how we can support your arts education program here.
Natasha Wahid
Natasha is a seasoned marketing leader with a curious mind and a passion for storytelling and community. A mission-driven person, Natasha has spent the majority of her career in industries that impact people, including HR and education technology. A firm believer in lifelong learning, Natasha is currently sharpening her roller skating skills and dusting off her Italian.