Liz Hopfan

Great potential sabotaged by ineffective founder/ED The greatest detriment to Free Arts is the ED who founded the organization nearly two decades ago. The organization has become so intertwined with her ego that nothing moves forward efficiently. For an organization founded nearly twenty years ago, the scale of the work should be in a different place and as a whole the organization should be running more efficiently. Instead it runs like a badly managed start-up with a revolving door of upper level staff. Many passionate, dedicated people have passed through the organization but they have been pushed out by the ED who micro-manages everyone on staff but has no understanding of positive youth-development principles or long term fundraising strategies. She often derails the work of her very competent staff until they eventually leave taking with them important historical information. This leaves new staff members constantly recreating basic structures which stunts further growth of the organization. On an interpersonal level, the ED is hostile and demeaning to her staff creating an environment that is permissible of such behavior. The small staff lacks models or structures of effective communication and collaboration leaving certain members on the staff overwhelmed with work while other cruise through their role.