Since its founding, Fractured Atlas has worn a number of hats: production company, space finder for artists, insurance provider, technology platform, and more. Right now, we identify as a nonprofit arts service organization. Who do we serve, you ask? 

Fractured Atlas serves a diverse community of artists across a range of creative disciplines. Our programs and services are designed to help our members navigate within the cultural ecosystem through providing assistance with necessary elements of the creative business. Fractured Atlas offers the below services to help meet a wide range of member needs:

Core Programs

• Fiscal Sponsorship provides the means for independent artists or unincorporated groups to apply for funding and receive tax-deductible contributions. The fiscal sponsorship model often serves the long-term needs of arts groups aiming to become institutions better than the traditional path of applying for 501(c)(3) status on their own behalf. It also gives artists the opportunity to run crowdfunding campaigns.
• Artist Visa Letters: For international artists needing an O or P visa to work in the United States, Fractured Atlas provides letters of consultation/no objection that vouch for their artistic excellence.

Fractured Atlas is a customer-centric nonprofit organization that prides itself on providing its customers with stellar service. Our interactions are guided by the tenets found on our Community Support page here.

Community & Education

• Education: Fractured Atlas is known for its robust library of engaging educational content and community interviews. They live on our blog, Inciter Art. Additionally, there is a robust Knowledge Base providing resources to empower creativity and in depth information about our policies and procedures.
• Community: The Creative Outpost is an online community built for our members to connect, co-work, share knowledge, and build worker solidarity together.
  
  

Sectoral Change

Fractured Atlas also believes that being a part of the cultural sector means doing what we can to strengthen it, which means sharing our knowledge and resources where we can with other cultural institutions and leaders.

• Transparency and Learning Initiatives: Fractured Atlas has long recognized the virtues of making smart decisions quickly, and seeks to share practices of effective management and strategy as widely as possible both within the organization and across the broader arts field. Fractured Atlas aggregates and shares knowledge, best practices, and insights with the rest of the field through workshops, speaking engagements, conference programming, and blog posts.

At Fractured Atlas, we are committed to anti-oppression principles in all areas of our internal and external work. This commitment is grounded in our belief that change is possible, and that our work and that of the artistic community as a whole will grow stronger as oppression is eliminated. 

Here’s an excerpt from our blog that illustrates this further:

We realized that if we’re serious about our core mission — to make the journey from inspiration to living practice more accessible and equitable for artists and creatives — then we must attack issues of injustice head on. Fractured Atlas has always been about leveraging technology products and resources to level the playing field for independent grassroots artists, small arts organizations with few or no staff, and within communities of color. We believe that diverse organizations with inclusive policies and equitable practices promote honest discussions and the very best business decisions. This is what Fractured Atlas strives to become, and we know that we can’t rely solely on technology to get us the whole way there.

In our current phase of this journey towards being an Anti-Racist Anti-Oppressive (ARAO) organization, our staff engages in ARAO meetings and race-based caucusing. As an organization, Fractured Atlas continues to consult with experts and advocates that help us further integrate ARAO principles and practices into all that we do.

Currently, Fractured Atlas has two race-based caucuses: a POC Caucus and a White Caucus. When joining Fractured Atlas, new employees let the People team know which caucus they’d like to join based on their identity. Both caucuses meet monthly and have their own Slack channels. The focus of each group is different and adapts to the needs and ARAO goals of each group. There is also an ARAO Slack channel where both caucuses share information and the staff shares important details about our ARAO Committee meetings.

Everyone on staff attends ARAO Committee meetings (more on that in Core Curriculum) and undergoes Harassment & Anti-Bias Prevention training as part of their onboarding process. In June 2023, as part of our work with Art in Praxis, we updated our core values and adapted our ARAO Committee meeting structure to better support our staff and our ARAO goals.

As we pursue this work, we recognize that we don’t have all of the answers and that the work will continue to evolve as the Fractured Atlas team changes. We ask that new team members join us as we continue to learn, practice, and grow. This process is ongoing and will likely continue for as long as Fractured Atlas is in operation. It is crucial that the culture and core values of an organization should continue to grow and shift to reflect the world we live in.

Check out our entire Policy Statement.

We believe that the culture and core values of an organization should continue to evolve to reflect the world we live in. While we have articulated current values, these should meld and change as the organization grows and shifts. At any given time, there might be additional emerging values. At Fractured Atlas, we're guided by these values:

COLLABORATION at Fractured Atlas means that we…

• are transparent about the goal(s) , distribution of responsibilities, and decision making processes of any given collaboration. This could include a combination of ourselves, our partners, our members, and the public. 
• are intentional about creating a space of trust for all voices involved in any given collaboration to be heard.
• are continually addressing power dynamics that can subvert true collaboration.
  
  

ADAPTABILITY at Fractured Atlas means that we…

• ​are open individuals willing to listen, learn, exchange, create, and/or accept solutions and new possibilities for the organization.
• embrace change with creativity and curiosity to reshape our processes, policies, and programming that no longer serve our stated goals and values.
• honor the humanity of everyone who is a part of the web of Fractured Atlas, including ourselves, our partners, our members, and the public, recognizing that people will have different needs and capacities throughout processes of change and adaptation.
  
  

TRANSPARENCY at Fractured Atlas means that we…

• err on the side of sharing as we are able, but if we are unable to share, we at least share why we can’t
• frequently communicate internally and externally to allow for ease of access to knowledge and processes
• have clarity around decision making processes from small to big, and embed opportunities to check in and solicit feedback along the way.
• contribute to internal and external processes by communicating honest and respectful feedback with an eye towards growth.
  
  

CARE + CONNECTION at Fractured Atlas means that we…

• center collective care, knowing that people have unique needs and access points, and they are an expert in what care looks like to them
• prioritize meaningful relationships between our co-workers and members 

…in an effort to build a thriving ecosystem so that we keep each other well.

Fractured Atlas's business model is based on a mix of earned and contributed revenue. The model we have developed helps ensure that Fractured Atlas remains a resilient organization, squarely focused on the needs of the community.

Our Approach

In addition to evaluating decisions at Fractured Atlas on their alignment with our mission, strategic goals, core values, or financial impact, we also use the below anchors as lenses towards decision-making:

• Foster a diverse portfolio of activities and revenue streams
• Aggregate and share knowledge and ideas
• Cultivate a right-sized, values-aligned staff
• Build and leverage technology to serve both members and staff
  
  

Revenue in a Nutshell

• By design, our core operations are sustained by earned revenue drawn from membership dues and program fees.
  • We believe that if the services we provide create real value for our members, then they will be willing to pay a reasonable amount for them.
  • This approach also provides a built-in evaluation gauge for our work, meaning that our members will tell us — quickly and unambiguously with their buying power — whether our work is having a positive impact on their lives.
• Seed funding for organizational growth, including new program development and the expansion of existing programs' scope, comes primarily from grants made by institutional and/or government funders.

• Where appropriate to our mission, Fractured Atlas initiates special projects of finite duration. Because these projects may have great impact on the field but little opportunity for earned income, they are generally grant-funded.

• When grant funding for growth or special projects is unavailable, we may elect to draw from our Strategic Opportunities Fund (a Board-designated reserve fund built and maintained by a portion of annual operating surpluses) or, if possible, finance them from operating revenue.