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Louise Stevens
Strategic Planning Consultant, Economic Impact Analyst, Cultural Planner, Feasibility Study Analyst, Program Evaluation
Professional Background
Louise Stevens is a highly esteemed consultant specializing in guiding clients across the arts and cultural sectors towards their success goals. With her experience, Louise has evolved into a leader in economic development through arts and cultural initiatives, enhancing the engagement and sustainability of various organizations. Acting as the President of ArtsMarket, Inc., she advises a diverse portfolio of clients including government agencies, nonprofits, foundations, and economic development agencies. Louise is recognized for her ability to align strategic planning with practical feasibility studies, which help her clients not only to raise significant capital, but also optimal audience engagement and cultural asset utilization.
Throughout her impressive career, Louise has overseen various projects resulting in successfully raised over $1 billion through capital campaigns initiated by her clients. She has championed the economic impact that cultural planning and development can have, maximizing the benefits of arts and culture within communities. Through her workshops and speeches, Louise shares her insights about the return on investment (ROI) of culture and provides sound advice on the preparatory steps necessary before embarking on a capital campaign. Her presentations are widely endorsed, signaling her expertise and ability to enrich audiences with valuable knowledge and strategies.
Education and Achievements
Louise holds a Bachelor of Music (B.M.) and a Master of Music (M.M.) from Northwestern University—a prestigious institution known for its emphasis on arts education. Her academic background has shaped her exceptional skills in research, audience development, and strategic planning.
Not only has she built a credible career as a consultant, but Louise is also a prolific author. Her notable publications include "The Community Cultural Planning Work Kit" and "Through a Mirror, a Guide to Program Evaluation", both of which serve as essential tools for cultural planners and evaluators. Additionally, she is working on her forthcoming book titled “Getting to Gold: The Seven Essential Prep Steps Before a Capital Campaign,” aimed at further assisting organizations in their fundraising efforts.
Her extensive consulting experience includes vital positions held across numerous sectors: from the Strategic Planning Consultant at Hartnell College Council for the Arts to Cultural Planning Consultant roles in Somerset County, NJ, and Milwaukee County Parks. She demonstrated her expertise further while consulting on civic infrastructure investment strategies using various tax credits and funding opportunities at ArtsMarket, Inc., showcasing her ability to creatively navigate complex financial paradigms.
Achievements
Louise's strategic contributions have had lasting impacts across multiple domains in the arts and cultural sectors. She has been instrumental in crafting audience development strategies for renowned institutions such as the Charlotte Ballet, and she has evaluated numerous programs, helping grant foundations track and measure their successes through her consultancy at the National Endowment for the Arts. Additionally, her skills as an audience and donor researcher have provided valuable data for projects including the CUME project at the Arts & Science Council.
In completing the Hudson County NJ 10-Year Cultural Plan, Louise has been key in laying the groundwork for long-term cultural enhancements in the community, proving her dedication to sustainable arts practices. Louise’s work on the "FOCO-Creates: Arts & Culture Master Plan for Fort Collins" is another testament to her ability to transform community engagement through strategic cultural planning. Louise has notably contributed to several cultural planning initiatives across various cities, evidencing her adaptability and thorough understanding of the local community's needs.
Louise has also served as a lecturer at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, sharing her extensive knowledge of cultural planning and evaluation with emerging professionals. Her teaching roles expand her impact beyond consulting, making her a revered figure not only as a guide for current projects but as an educator for future leaders in arts and culture.
With a career marked by service to communities and the promotion of the arts, Louise continues to push boundaries, demonstrating the importance of cultural infrastructure and its essential role in economic development. Her passion for arts and culture is apparent in every initiative she leads, every consultation she provides, and every audience she speaks to.
For those interested in enhancing their arts and cultural projects or learning more about audience engagement, Louise encourages them to reach out via her contact at lstevens at artsmarket dot com. Her commitment to fostering successful arts practices remains profound, as she continues to be an invaluable resource for organizations looking to thrive in the cultural landscape.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.