4 OCTOBER 2019 Consulting®
Shor tTakes Trends, Views and Analysis
A Standing Ovation
L.E.K.’s Pro Bono project helps Boston’s Boch Center identify
and engage the next generation of performing arts fans.
Consulting: Can you tell me a little bit about
how this pro bono project came to be?
Haslehurst: L.E.K. does about four pro
bono projects a year because we like to
work on meaningful projects, in the cities
where are offices are located. In this case,
there’s a member of our staff on the business
development scene and before business
school he had a role in the Boston arts
scene and he was part of the Metropolitans
Program at the Boch Center, which is
essentially their young professionals
program. When he spoke to the leadership
team there he was aware that they could
use some help around how they interacted
and connected with younger members of
the Arts community. We had some internal
discussions about it and reached out to the
center and had some conversations about
it and eventually worked with them to
develop the scope of the project and what
we could bring to the Boch Center.
Consulting: Is this a big issue—millennials
and their financial support of the arts
community or is it just getting the venue
up to speed with new technologies?
Haslehurst: It’s a little bit of both. The
vast majority of its database was older and
while it had younger people coming to its
events they were not really engaging with
the organization as a nonprofit but more as
just a theater. Also, some of the data we’ve
seen—and I’m going to paint the millennial
generation with a broad brush—say live
events and unique activities are an important
cultural hook for that generation. So, that
bodes well. Millennials are philanthropic,
but often times it’s lower dollar values
or less consistent giving than older
generations. Plus, with new technologies
traditional giving pipelines typically do
not work with this generation, so that was
something for us to consider, as well.
Consulting: Were there very specific goals
in terms of measurable and project
deliverables or was the project more
general in focus around engagement
with this particular demographic?
Rob Haslehurst
L.E.K. Consulting completed a pro bono strategy project on behalf of Boston’s
Boch Center to help the nonprofit performing arts organization. The center is
home to theater, classical and popular music, opera, musicals, dance and other
performing arts. It also runs numerous education and community outreach
initiatives and collaborations designed to inspire appreciation for art, culture
and creativity. The Boch Center is located in Boston’s theater district, about a
mile from L.E.K.’s Boston headquarters. The firm brought to bear its expertise in
strategy and entertainment to help create a roadmap for the Boch Center to expand
its connection with millennial and younger audiences and philanthropists, says
L.E.K. Managing Director and Boston office head Rob Haslehurst, a consumer-sector Partner at L.E.K. who co-led the project, which took place earlier this
year. Consulting caught up with Haslehurst to discuss the project.
