state arts action network

Sheila—found out that fundraising is the number one issues that everyone wanted to hear about. Turned over to Alene.

A Fundraising Journey during the Past 25 Years
Wanted to point out three studies. San Francisco study, “Daring to Lead,” found that 80 percent of arts administrators said they would never do it again. 73 percent of administrators said top issue of concern is fundraising. Another study from Boston called “Understanding the Arts” found three top issues in the arts (mergers, strategic alliances, and foundations). In other words, more conservative groups get more support from especially conservative government. Success, in her experience, for money always comes from individuals. You don’t hire a fundraiser, rather you work with your board and ask them to focus on fundraising. She has worked on bringing more nonarts people, as well as young people, onto the board. Cultural leaders—the major cultural institutions helped them survive because they have higher membership dues. Also always drew one person from that pool into a leadership position to bring other institutions to join. Regardless of budget, every year you begin to seek out dollars one by one and look for new allies. She recently found an ally from a local bank who has helped take the organization a really long way. You can’t assume that because you’re in a large city you’ll get more support, because competition is higher. Have to be creative in thinking of new projects that will intrigue new funders. About 45 percent of their funding comes from foundations and corporations. About 25 percent comes from their foundation awards dinner. 8 percent comes from individual gifts to their annual funds, half of which comes from their board. Membership is about 13 percent of their annual revenue. Some of the persons in the group were 100 percent membership-driven. Publication sales and services fees add up to about 8 percent, but almost half comes from government and corporate giving. Frequent voters seemed to have a higher chance of responding to surveys/questionnaires. They had 80 of the organizations in their states give them the names of the frequent voters. Her budget in 1986 compared to now—was 150 thousand in 1986, and is now 700–800 thousand. Never makes money at their conference. Have been co-convening the meeting with the arts council, and they’re both players. Got funding to do two programs where executive directors come together and another is mentoring. They’re taking all the research on mentoring and are going to do a pilot with 20 couples to prepare and train them so mentoring will be institutionalized. Peer training is coming from the NEA…this is the type of granting they’ve been able to get. Development director? Luckily in the beginning she did everything. No, she doesn’t develop director foes. The grants office manager does all the finance and the public policy person is focused on other areas. Had a team that can do leadership in her area. Couldn’t do this without being a staff of five like today. Anyone who has a staff of two is really heroic. Hopes everyone can find a board director who can find a foundation to fund a position, because everything will get done (such as publications, etc.). This is why it would be great to find a national foundation that could fund an extra person for everyone. Andrea question—in the research that she mentioned, was there a section that looked at foundations providing operating support, and was there any division as to who was supportive and who was not. Tom question—of the foundations that were supportive, did you find foundation that were not supportive of state organizations. There are some foundations that only fund cities. Also, some national organizations such as Kraft and Phillip Morris only fund New York, so they’re now turning regional.

John—regional fundraising in America. Turn to book that he handed out. Premise was to find out what works in rural and urban communities. Found that urban has more resources. More resources but also more competition. But if you have a small town that only has one million and its being asked for by library, how do you ask for money. Researched formats…such as tried using a USA Today format. Which organizations have a good track record in fundraising? Asked them to identify which fundraisers were most successful. Found 20 states and 60 organizations. Read the book (findings are there). Couple of things, foundations were split. Listings are alphabetical by category. Had no control over the picture on the cover (fiddle players). Performing arts are a very poor way to raise money. There was one success in Illinois; home of Sean Colvin made a donation. If you’re going to make money in performing arts, you have to have everything donated, including artist performance. (Andy—artist deduction.) But you have to know your audience. Know who you’re trying to seek and what they love. Sun Valley Center for the Arts—population fewer than 5,000. Annual wine auction…raised one million dollars. Know their market. If there’s a secret formula to raise money, do it. For example, if you have a board member that can raise money, do it. Executive director who raise money can look bad since it may be perceived as wanting to raise their own salary. One of most effective things you can do is to talk about the good the organization has done in the community. Novel approach. Tell them what you’ve done with the money…don’t just ask for more. That can lead to unsolicited checks. And when you come back, the door will be wide open. Find out if there is something unique in your area. Good food and fun will attract more people. Focus on your mission and never give up. Does it make more sense to narrow your focus to one group or broaden your message to appeal too many? Both work, but focus on return investment. Not one organization said grants are the best way to raise money. Another tidbit is that we learn more from our mistakes than on what we did right.

Virginia—how do you stop from upsetting member organizations because you’re competing for fundraising?

For large organizations, what are the largest dues they pay or are there special perks that they get? Alene says big guys hardly give anything (such as the orchestra). Explain your budget to your constituents so they understand your needs.

Focus on things only you can do. Most organizations have a minimum that organizations/board members have to give. Several major organizations have lobbyists (chased funding for line items). Have separation on line items in Maryland, too (for operating their expenses). It’s hard to find specific funds in federal line items that directly benefit arts organizations. Also, lists aren't broken out by states but rather by bills (HUD, transportation, etc.). Americans for the Arts will come out with resource guides on “how they’re done.” A good place to find out about federal money given to local arts projects is in your congressperson’s website. In New York, pork is huge. That is one of the things that Judy is actively helping to do and access that money. They have no idea how much money goes that way. It’s hard to track. Very viable source of funds.

What do you do in the case that a powerful senator is supporting a line item for a local arts organization that you want to stop? Alene says they don’t oppose line items.

Andrea—in VT there have been longstanding arts institutions saying that they’ll fold if they don’t raise large sums of money in a certain amount of time. She’s not sure how it’s happening, and she calls it “the Katrina effect.” How many other states have seen this happen?

Dan Hunter—they will never make earmarks go away because its one of the perks of being a legislator. So they try to capitalize by them. It’s a train that’s leaving the station, so you have to get on it before it takes off. Sneaky line-items sometimes have names you cannot recognize. Has had a teacher that has gone through advocacy training and for her thirtieth birthday, she wants people to give to Betty’s organization. Has anyone else done this? They’re planning on doing this for other special events.

Judy—wants to say she considers earmarks very much a part of her fundraising campaign for her organization.

Sheila—call for session ideas