Pricing is one of the most powerful strategic levers in an arts organization, yet it’s often overlooked or delegated. The impact, however, is felt everywhere: the quiet pressure behind every budget meeting, every board conversation, every anxious glance at the sales report.
With these pressures, it’s easy to fall back on fear-driven instincts: “I wouldn’t pay that, so no one will.” Or, “We’ll just hold the line and avoid raising prices.” But those choices don’t protect your mission; they undermine it.
In TRG’s work with clients, the data is consistent: organizations that pace pricing changes with demand and inflation grow both income and accessibility.
Those that avoid the conversation fall further behind; putting unnecessary pressure and unrealistic targets on development teams to try to cover gaps with philanthropy; gaps that a robust pricing strategy could have helped close.
The provocation is this: if pricing defines your future, why isn’t it treated as a leadership decision?
Pricing is one of the most consequential leadership choices an arts organization makes.
Every decision reflects the value you place on our work, the trust we build with audiences, and the sustainability of our future.
Yet too often, decisions are based on:
- Projection bias: “I wouldn’t pay that price, so our audiences won’t either.”
- Arbitrary caps: “We simply won’t charge more than X” without fully unpacking the consequences.
- Martyrdom thinking: believing we must hold back on price increases, even when demand is strong and costs are rising, because “we couldn’t possibly operate like other businesses.”
These patterns create a dangerous disconnect. Costs for labor, materials, and operations rise year after year. But when earned income is held artificially low, the difference must be made up through philanthropy. The result is an unsustainable cycle where donors are asked to cover revenue that pricing strategy should have generated.
As we shared in Leading the Way, these habits are more common than leaders might realize:
From Fear to Strategy
The first step is reframing pricing as a leadership strategy. You don’t need to build pricing tables yourself; but you do need to set the framework and ask the right questions:
- What does success look like? Is this performance about volume, revenue, or relationship?
- How does pricing align with costs and demand? Are you pacing with inflation and responding to audience behavior?
- How are we balancing accessibility with revenue? Are low-price entry points intentional, or accidental?
- Who owns pricing decisions? Is accountability clear, or spread too thin across teams?
These are just four of the 10 Questions Every Leader Should Be Asking About Pricing. Start by asking your team these questions; not to micromanage, but to make sure strategy is guiding every decision.