My neighbor from down I-85 (or I-40/I-77, I get to choose) has made a big splash recently with a great project for bringing the arts industry into the social media/networking age with respect to fundraising. The Arts and Science Council of Charlotte has introduced a new program, Power2Give. In his October 17 post (The Power to Give) on the NEA’s blog, Art Works, Scott Provancher, President of the ASC, introduced this new online giving/crowdsourced fundraising vehicle. I’ll let you read the post and explore the website, but in a nutshell, P2G is a robust fundraising tool that has grown out of the experience of such online funding mechanisms as Kickstarter. It is a website that “allows anyone to easily give a gift to the organizations and projects they are most passionate about. The site provides the option to give to an arts organization’s specific project or to buy gift cards in support of local arts organizations.” The Give to a Project page looks very much like Kickstarter, complete with dollar goals, giving percentages, and a countdown clock. (Kickstarter projects are all-or-nothing; they must be fully funded within a certain period of time or none of the money is released. This is not true of Power2Give. A donation is a donation.) Here is the most eye-opening passage from Scott’s post:
[I]n the first seven weeks since the launch of the site in Charlotte, we have fully funded 37 projects, raised over $150,000, and attracted over 650 donors. Several of the organizations who have posted projects have individually raised $15,000 or more and one group even reported that their $3,000 project was fully funded by ALL NEW donors!
Of course a part of the initial success is that the Knight Foundation is making a 1:1 match of all gifts at this stage. Clearly that’s helpful. However, this strikes me as a funding mode that will succeed even after the match has run out.
You will be hearing more (much, much, much more, I imagine) about this in the coming months. This may be as big an innovation in the arts as Subscribe Now! was all those years ago. (The youngsters in the crowd can now ask someone who Danny Newman was.) That by itself would be enough to get me to lend kudos here to ASC. However, this blog is primarily about community engagement and I’d like to make an observation or two about this.
In my reading of the Art Works post, the emphasis is on expanding the contributor/participant base somewhat–to younger, technologically oriented people. That is a good thing, but the “product” is largely still envisioned as “that which is.” Of course, that is only natural. This is a new program and the organizations posting projects are established ones. What intrigues me is the potential this has for influencing arts organizations to develop programming that more directly touches the lives of non-usual suspects. The dependence of the arts (as well as the entire not-for-profit world) on major donors means that the interests of those people are the ones that hold the most sway. Like the small donor funding of the Obama campaign in 2008, Power2Give has the potential to spread the base of support. This, in turn, could well lead to arts programming that is meaningful to greater numbers of people. I’ll have more to say on this later.
———————
In the meantime, I’ve been waiting for a good excuse to highlight this example and now seems a perfect time. Amy Martin is a Montana-based performing artist supported by Fractured Atlas. (I’ve really got to talk about them in a post one day. For those of you who have not heard of FA, it provides fiscal sponsorship to non-501(c)(3) organizations and individuals so those organizations and individuals can receive tax deductible donations and foundation grants.) Amy has established something she calls Patronopolis. It is a crowdsourced fundraising vehicle to support her work. People give her money and she creates: patronage in small bites. This is incredibly entrepreneurial. And, while some might view it as presumptuous, no one is forcing anyone to give. Clearly, if her work gets funded, it will be because it has meaning to those who support it. I don’t have much of an opinion, one way or the other, about her work. I’ve not viewed/heard enough of it to have one. But I do think this concept is cool and has potential for individual artists (with or without the fiscal sponsor aspect: Kickstarter donations are not tax deductible). Creatively done, Amy.
Engage!
Doug
Photo: 
Some rights reserved by James Cridland
The power to give is rewarding when there is an inner attachment to the product being presented. When hearts are melted by anything that is near and dear it makes giving easier. Givng is a supporting mechanism for me when my voice cannot speak to a situation, event, or product. I think it is good that this vehicle of giving is readily available for would be supporters and for those to continuously reach out and help. It is rather clever to reach people that may otherwise not know about the opportunity to give to a project. People often ask, “what can I do to help this”?
Doug — this is a little bit of serendipity. Yesterday, 50 arts leaders from my community met to discuss innovative ways to fund the arts and artists, and Kickstarter-type project funding was among the ideas presented.
Here are two more that came up. The first is a microloan program similar to what Kiva (kiva.org) provides for entrepreneurial businesses. I think it has a lot of potential for artistic projects. With microloans artists can purchase equipment and supplies or create marketing tools that will help the project be a success. As for the donors, they receive word when the loan is paid back and can then loan their share to someone else.
Another innovative model that was presented yesterday is creating a consortium where participants purchase shares in an artist. This is not project support but artist support — the amount of available shares is equal to the amount of money the artist would need to live on for a year. The model that was presented raised $45,000 (in 45 – $1000 shares) to support a songwriter. In return, the consortium received dividends based on the work sold which was created during the support year. This is not a charity — the consortium is an LLC. One of the enticements to shareholders was that the opportunity for dividends is ongoing — say for example the songwriter sells a song to a band 10 years from now, some of those proceeds would still be payable to the consortium.
I agree with you that crowdsourcing arts support may be one of the most significant trends since Danny Newman. But I like it better, since it is offering patrons ways to support artists, not just exploiting audiences for organizational gain.
Ellen
Hi everyone, a quick post from the other side of the pond in the UK. We’ve just launched a similar site called AngelShares. Individual artists or arts and cultural organisations will have the choice of posting projects which have a timeframe and target, so donations are pledged up to the point that target is hit, or a straight donation option, for projects that they know will go ahead but could achieve so much more with some additional money.
We’ve also given charities who are registered with HMRC the opportunity to claim Gift Aid on donations, making AngelShares the most tax efficient and flexible arts and cultural crowdfunding site in the UK. it’s been conceived by an experienced fundraiser with 20 years of experience, and built by Made Media, one of the UK’s foremost digital agencies working with the arts and cultural sectors. Check it out – http://www.AngelShares.com – and wish us luck as we help the arts achieve more in these difficult times.