She was right

When I first started this blog I asked for the Nonprofiteer blog to give my work a mention.

She refused, in part because she felt like the work I was doing at the time had too heavy an emphasis on fundraising from corporations and not enough emphasis on individual giving.

Since then I have switched the focus of my work to marketing but I still think about what she said.

I can now say, almost 18 months later that she was absolutely right.  Individual giving is the most powerful form of giving there is. 

In fact if you look at any stable arts organization organization they achieved that stability because of two things:

Individual gifts and earned revenue (i.e. ticket sales).

Of course, these two things are linked because the most likely candidates for individual giving are those that participate in your art by buying a ticket, subscription, membership pass, etc.

Is foundation and corporate giving important?  Sure.  But I think it is important to put that giving in perspective.

Foundation giving, generally, is like government assistance.  It's designed to help you survival for a while you are learning the ropes.

Corporate giving only comes along when you have an audience and that can come and go depending on a variety of factors.

Individual giving is the type of giving that can last for a donors entire life and beyond (if they put you in their will).

So I were starting an arts organization from scratch today, I would spending 80% of my time finding individual donors and the other 20% on corporate/foundation giving.

Comments

[Nonprofiteer]

Thanks for your gracious acknowledgement! We all learn from each other every day.

[Nonprofiteer]

Thanks for your gracious acknowledgement! We all learn from each other every day.