Last August, during the opening of Tessitura’s virtual conference, a comment in the attendee chat made me smile:

“I had no idea Tessitura was a non-profit. That’s pretty cool!”

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this. For those wondering how Tessitura is both a successful tech company and a successful non-profit, here’s your answer.

The problem Tessitura set out to solve

Before Tessitura, arts and culture organizations had no choice other than for-profit vendors for their ticketing, fundraising, and CRM system needs. These vendors, by definition driven by profits, devoted much of their time and attention to their most profitable customers. As one would expect.

Ticketing system vendors gave their primary focus to major league sports and big arena shows — not museums, orchestras or theaters. Fundraising CRM system vendors gave their roadmap attention to major universities and national charities — not science centers, operas or dance companies.

Smaller and less lucrative, arts and culture organizations were invariably pushed to the back of the line when it came to customer service and feature development.

Tessitura was founded to change the story.

There was another struggle as well. Looking to maximize profits and satisfy investors, the commercial ticketing and fundraising system market was in a constant state of churn, with mergers, acquisitions and sunsets further disrupting the arts and culture sector.

In short, the profit motive might have been good business for the investors in our sector, but it wasn’t good business for the arts and cultural organizations they served.

Tessitura was founded to change the story.

A new kind of tech company

Tessitura was created when seven nonprofit arts organizations came together to license software that had been custom built for the Metropolitan Opera. The Met’s Tessitura software was the first technology to successfully manage arts and culture ticketing, fundraising, marketing and customer relationships in one place, and organizations like The Kennedy Center, Santa Fe Opera and San Francisco Symphony were eager to get their hands on it.

The original goal of these organizations was to share access and support of the Met’s new technology. But then, over meetings and meals, leaders at these organizations started sharing war stories about their travails with commercial ticketing and fundraising companies. They commiserated about deficient customer service, skyrocketing fees, and always being at the back of the line.

Together, the leaders started imagining a new kind of business. Could Tessitura be the tech company that always put arts and culture organizations at the front of the line?

A tech company that was totally, genuinely, tirelessly devoted to one thing: advancing the business of arts and culture.

They envisioned a business that couldn’t be merged, acquired or sunsetted. A business with a mission motive rather than a profit motive. A tech company that was totally, genuinely, tirelessly devoted to one thing: advancing the business of arts and culture.

With a handshake, they founded Tessitura Network as a non-profit organization with a mission to “enable and inspire arts and culture organizations to achieve their goals.”

Since that day, as commercial ticketing and fundraising vendors have continued to come and go, the non-profit Tessitura Network has remained steadfast, has grown every year, and has always put arts and culture organizations at the front of the line.

Those seven original organizations are all still members today. Tessitura has welcomed 750 more organizations in 10 countries and continues to welcome new organizations nearly every week. In short, Tessitura has proven that our non-profit business model is not only innovative but tremendously successful.

What comes next

The arts and culture sector is in the midst of its most challenging era in modern history, and Tessitura is committed to fortifying our beloved sector through every twist and turn.

Since the start of the pandemic, we have released dozens of features to help cultural organizations navigate the rapid changes that this era has wrought. In the past year we have forged strong alliances with tech giants Amazon and Microsoft to ensure Tessitura is supported by the best platforms in the world. And in 2022, we are making our largest ever investment in propelling innovation, increasing the size of our Product Development team by 130% by year end.

Tessitura will continue our digital evolution and deliver innovation at a critical moment for our industry.

With these initiatives and partnerships, Tessitura will continue our digital evolution and deliver innovation at a critical moment for our industry.

All of this momentum is possible because we are able to channel 100% of our revenue, energy and clout back into the arts and culture organizations we serve. We don’t have to pay out investors or chase the next merger.

And that is why Tessitura is a non-profit. And yes, we agree that it’s pretty cool.

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I am grateful every day to the visionary leaders who founded our non-profit tech company:

Jack Rubin, Co-founder, Tessitura Network
Chuck Reif, Co-founder, Tessitura Network

The Founding Board of Tessitura Network:

Rich Dowsek, Lyric Opera Chicago
Alan Levine, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Tom Morris, Santa Fe Opera
Robert Palm, New York City Center
Smeeta Sharon, Metropolitan Opera
Deena Soulon, San Francisco Symphony
Kelly Tweeddale, Seattle Opera