In a single decade Altered Esthetics was the recipient of community generosity beyond what I ever could have imaged. I’m grateful for the outpouring of community support—a testament to the work we were doing, a positive affirmation of the impact we were having on artists, and a demonstration of the gratitude the community had for us. Over time, these donations included thousands of hours given by artists, board members, and volunteers. Artwork was contributed to Altered Esthetics’ silent auctions over the years, and gift certificates given so generously to our fundraisers.
Did these donations help keep us going? Absolutely. But after a few years of pouring time and energy into annual fundraisers, not just for Altered Esthetics but for other small nonprofits I would visit, there seemed to be something a little wrong with the equation. For small nonprofits hosting fund- raisers, the usual math worked out like this: take several hundred dollars of donated goods, and several hundred hours of volunteered time to organize it, and hopefully come out with a fundraiser where you made $1,000 or more after you paid for whatever permits and licensing you needed to legally host the event. One of the women I worked with in development years ago told me, “I never thought I would work so hard to raise a dollar.”
So, we started creeping away from the traditional fundraiser model. Already hosting so many exhibitions a year, we thought it was taxing our audience to come to yet another silent auction and event, in the same space. Also, much like our artists, our audience was of a modest income. A high-dollar donor base was not part of our audience’s equation. As our mission was to serve artists, our board had some good conversations around whether it was a conflict of mission to ask artists to bear the brunt of our fundraisers, so to speak. If any of the works would end up auctioning for less than what we thought they should sell for, we thought it was particularly counter-mission.
As I started consulting for larger nonprofits I saw other organizations execute silent auctions much more successfully. Not because they were more organized, necessarily, but because they had larger and more established audiences, contributing to more well-established and nobler causes. I saw doctors and lawyers pay great sums for diamond bracelets and necklaces that had been donated by high-end stores, the donors’ dollars then used to help purchase medical equipment for hospitals. I watched, horrified and awestruck, as a staff member walked around a golden-retriever puppy from table to table at an event, allowing guests to pet his fuzzy little face as the bids increased by the thousands. The puppy went home with the highest bidder for about $20,000. Is auctioning off puppies even legal?
I thought of our own rescue pups at home . . . I didn’t run with the crowd that could bring the dollars to make fundraisers worthwhile financially. Even after what we considered a successful fundraiser board members and I would ponder the time we had spent. On one occasion when we did some quick math, we realized that with the number of hours we volunteered to make the event happen we could have raised more funds by all taking minimum-wage part-time jobs and simply signing over the checks. And that’s with a fundraiser that went well. The fundraisers were so fun we often called them friend-raisers, but they were a lot of work for not a lot of payback. So, eventually, we took a break from fundraising events and concentrated instead on organized appeals, grants, and quality programs.
So if you are reading this and your board says you should do a silent auction as an “easy” way to raise some funds—run (unless they have a puppy to donate).
This post is adapted from It’s Never Going To Work: A Tale of Art and Nonprofits in the Minneapolis Community. The book includes illustrations by Athena Currier. ©2019 Jamie Schumacher.
It’s Never Going To Work is a light-hearted, illustrated book that offers real-life insights on founding a community space and nonprofit. It provides tools, tips, resources, and camaraderie to community organizers and anybody attempting something new.