JOHN DAY — Painted Sky Center for the Arts hopes a $2,000 community grant provided by the city of John Day can streamline the web experience for potential sponsors and students.

Kim Randleas, the center’s board president, made the grant request, citing a need to upgrade Painted Sky’s ticketing, fundraising and other online services at the Nov. 13 John Day City Council meeting.

The upgrades will come with a brand new website that Randleas said should provide users a better experience and is more mobile-friendly than the current website. The plan is for staff and volunteers to build the website over the first three months of 2025 in anticipation of an April 1 launch.

Randleas said the center’s current web software is inefficient and outdated, which has led to fundraising struggles along with issues in registering for classes and renewing expired memberships.

“It discourages people from making donations online or participating in the events,” she said.

Despite those struggles, the art center has grown rapidly since its inception, providing over 120 classes and serving more than 500 community members this year alone. Randleas said upgrading the center’s current software is essential for Painted Sky’s continued growth.

“With this system, we anticipate doubling our online fundraising just within the first six months or within a year, so it’s going to make a huge difference,” Randleas said at the meeting.

Other benefits such as improved class registrations, increased event and total revenues, and a significantly reduced administrative workload were also cited as potential positive effects from upgrading the systems.

The improved systems should also make it easier for Painted Sky to raise money for building improvements such as new sinks, a security system for the front door and repairs to the center’s wheelchair lift.

Givecloud and DonorPerfect are the two systems the art center is looking to transition to. The total upfront cost for both systems is $2,750, Randleas said, with continuing costs of about $400 a month.

Painted Sky was previously awarded $3,000 from the Grant County Chamber of Commerce. The art center will pair $650 of those funds and another $100 from its own budget with the $2,000 community grant to cover the total cost of the systems upgrade.

The motion to award Painted Sky the community grant passed 5-2. Mayor Sherrie Rininger and Council President Eric Bush were the two “nay” votes. Both cited concerns that the cost to upgrade the art center’s systems falls under general operating costs, which the community grant does not cover.