At the Smithsonian American Art Museum we had a development department. A whole bunch of people who were dedicated to finding and obtaining funding for the museum. (It's worth noting at this point that the Smithsonian does not get all of its dollars from the federal government. At the American Art Museum, federal funding supported around two thirds of the museum staff and paid for facility and security staff. The remainder of the staff in addition to all costs for exhibitions, programs, collections, education, etc., etc. had to be paid for with privately-raised money.) In my eleven years there, I was only involved with a small amount of fundraising: I managed the micro-donation campaign for The Art of Video Games, wrote a couple of grant applications for specific projects, and was occasionally brought in to be enthusiastic to a potential sponsor about something I was working on. Other than that, I requested a certain amount of money every year for my department and was given an allocation based on (but usually less than) that. Simple. (I'm not trying to say that raising money for the museum was simple, but that it appeared so from my perspective).
The Idaho Falls Arts Council is a completely different world. We have only six full-time staff (executive director, visual arts director (me), technical director, development coordinator, office/rental manager, custodian) and five part-time staff (accountant, front-of-house manager, stage manager, and two ticket sellers). This is to manage a 1,000-seat historic theater, two art galleries, function rooms, artist studios, city art benches, a three-day youth festival, a summer concert series, gallery walk events, and the development of a new interactive art lab that opens this summer. As a result, we all help with everything - overseeing events, writing grants, answering the phone, selling tickets, designing flyers, stuffing envelopes, planning programs, cleaning, moving furniture... the lot. Fortunately, every individual on the team is exactly the right kind of hands-on, enthusiastic, can-do person that makes the dynamic work. You will never, ever hear "that's not my job" here! So when it comes to raising money, we all play a role.
Last week was our annual sponsor party. This is a big deal. This is when we present the upcoming season of performing and visual arts to potential sponsors and hope that they will support it. The theater shows are the main focus here, since sponsorship money for these is crucial to support general programmatic and operating costs for the next year. I knew that this was an important event and that we secured a significant percentage of our next year's budget on the night, but I didn't realize exactly how it worked.
It was fascinating.
The evening began with the usual cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and schmoozing. Then, everyone sat down for dessert and presentations. Our executive director revealed the 23 theater shows planned for next year and I outlined the eight exhibitions that will be in the galleries. Pretty unsurprising up to this point. Next, however, we put a list of all the shows on the screen and started asking people for money! Just asking them! In front of everybody! In less than an hour we had confirmed 24 sponsors for the theater and 10 for the galleries, representing over 65% of what we needed to raise through sponsorship for the 2014-2015 season (the rest of our funding comes from grants, rental/ticket revenue, and membership). Several commitments came from groups, in which everyone chipped in a smaller amount to fund a single theater sponsorship. This probably wouldn't have happened if we'd approached people individually or outside the spirit of the event.
The atmosphere was extremely positive and at no point felt forced or fake. We essentially stood up and said "here's what we're doing and what we need to do it, who's willing to write a check?" We weren't dropping hints or hiding behind flowery language; we were being honest with our supporters and it worked. Now, we didn't raise everything that we need and will be working hard over the next few weeks to secure the remainder, but the efficiency of doing the bulk of it in a single (fun) evening blew my mind.
How can you become a sponsor, you ask? You can support one of my gallery exhibitions for as little as $250. Just let me know. :)
Last week was our annual sponsor party. This is a big deal. This is when we present the upcoming season of performing and visual arts to potential sponsors and hope that they will support it. The theater shows are the main focus here, since sponsorship money for these is crucial to support general programmatic and operating costs for the next year. I knew that this was an important event and that we secured a significant percentage of our next year's budget on the night, but I didn't realize exactly how it worked.
It was fascinating.
The evening began with the usual cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and schmoozing. Then, everyone sat down for dessert and presentations. Our executive director revealed the 23 theater shows planned for next year and I outlined the eight exhibitions that will be in the galleries. Pretty unsurprising up to this point. Next, however, we put a list of all the shows on the screen and started asking people for money! Just asking them! In front of everybody! In less than an hour we had confirmed 24 sponsors for the theater and 10 for the galleries, representing over 65% of what we needed to raise through sponsorship for the 2014-2015 season (the rest of our funding comes from grants, rental/ticket revenue, and membership). Several commitments came from groups, in which everyone chipped in a smaller amount to fund a single theater sponsorship. This probably wouldn't have happened if we'd approached people individually or outside the spirit of the event.
The atmosphere was extremely positive and at no point felt forced or fake. We essentially stood up and said "here's what we're doing and what we need to do it, who's willing to write a check?" We weren't dropping hints or hiding behind flowery language; we were being honest with our supporters and it worked. Now, we didn't raise everything that we need and will be working hard over the next few weeks to secure the remainder, but the efficiency of doing the bulk of it in a single (fun) evening blew my mind.
How can you become a sponsor, you ask? You can support one of my gallery exhibitions for as little as $250. Just let me know. :)
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