Is it 𝓼𝓮𝓵𝓯𝓲𝓼𝓱 to ask for money in a pandemic?

Published: Thu, 10/29/20


“Using principles I learned from Artists and Patrons, I launched my first-ever fundraiser via FB and crowdsourcing. $4000 in 3 weeks. 

This was my first fundraiser, and third year in business.

Thank you for your help Brainard. I wasted a lot of money on this or that program or course the first year of my art biz, but yours was worth every cent--on many levels.”




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Most artists feel guilty about asking for funds.

Let’s look at how Alan got over this guilt and found the courage to ask for the support he needed:

“I never went ahead with fundraising previously because I'm not doing public art, am really just following my own sense of purpose and fulfillment. Seemed selfish to ask for money for it. But this course helped me see that differently.

I involve my social media connections in my process, and run the FB tagline, ‘For every ugly thing that clamors for our attention 24x7, there are a thousand beautiful things. What we focus on grows.’ My biggest FB feature is Today's Beautiful Thing (TBT) posting, intended to demonstrate that principle. 

So even my individual art journey has a service aspect to it.

And Artists and Patrons, and numerous friends, helped me realize that I WAS performing a public service by publicly living the artist's dream. 

The more I shared that, the better the responses. 

So I crafted a fundraising message about carrying the message of art as antidote and service to the next, global level, and what I was looking to do, and how much I needed to do that. I also created a reward system based on the size of donations. 

Looking back at it, the message itself was too long, lol, and I should have brought it here for editing first.

BUT MOST PEOPLE NEVER BOTHERED TO READ the whole message, or even cared about any rewards. They were already committed to my commitment to make this life work, and are vicariously living this life by supporting it. To them, I'M the one doing the supporting, and offering something beautiful. So I asked for help and they responded.

About half the people who contributed were acquaintances of mine, but many were not. And I was surprised at the size of the some of the donations.

I now have a big responsibility to use these resources wisely. I've been sharing the new digital marketing and other stuff that my new funding makes possible.”

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Want to learn the techniques Alan and other Praxis students use to get these sponsorships?
On Monday, from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm EST, I am teaching a live workshop on how to secure funding for your art from project-specific patrons (even if you can’t write and the thought of asking money makes you want to puke).

PLUS I’ll take you behind the scenes of sponsorships your fellow artists on this email list have secured, so you can see what works in the real world today (and what doesn’t). 

This is what we are covering:
  1. How to frame the dream you have, be it a painting or a film, so that it gets funded (This old-school fundraising technique used by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov practically guarantees that your letters will be read with pleasure and responded to generously)
     
  2. Finding patrons and corporate sponsors who would be interested in funding that dream (Use the tip I show you on slide 51 to identify your first 20 potential patrons)
     
  3. Approaching patrons for funding PLUS why you need to add this phrase about your work to your correspondence in a pandemic (When you do this you get ongoing support that continues year after year as opposed to a one-time donation)

>>> You can sign up here (just click the link, no opt in required) <<<

Best,

Brainard


PS: There will be a replay, but only for subscribers who register. So I recommend clicking that link even if you can’t make it to the live session.