CHALLENGE GRANT SUCCESS!!! Our Raffle Winners Thanks so much to all of you who contributed to our December Challenge Grant campaign. We are happy to report that we reached our challenge goal and received the full $5,000 match. Carol Jenkins, the noted journalist, producer and former president of the Women’s Media Center, drew the names of ten lucky Challenge Grant raffle winners who will receive free copies of “Sisters: An Anthology” The books will be mailed out next week. IN THIS ISSUE Online Fundraising for Your SWAN Day Event>> IndieGoGo Offers WomenArts Affiliates Program>> Fractured Atlas Offers Non-profit Fiscal Sponsorships>> Advantages of Online Fundraising>> ONLINE FUNDRAISING FOR YOUR SWAN DAY EVENT WomenArts Partners with Fractured Atlas and IndieGoGo We are so excited that the Support Women Artists Now/SWAN movement keeps growing, and more people are organizing SWAN Day events every year. This year WomenArts is partnering with IndieGoGo and Fractured Atlas to make it easier for you to do online fundraising for your SWAN Day event. INDIEGOGO OFFERS WOMENARTS AFFILIATES PROGRAM If you already have non-profit status, or if you don’t think your donors care about tax deductions, you can set up a fundraising campaign on IndieGogo for free and start raising funds right away. There is no start-up fee. IndieGoGo only charges when you actually raise funds through their site. Learn more>>
If you reach the fundraising goal that you set for yourself, IndieGogo will take 4% of the funds you raise and the credit card processing companies will take 3% (total fees of 7%). If you don’t reach your goal, IndieGoGo will take 9% and the credit card companies will take 3% (total fees of 12%). You can start your IndieGoGo campaign from any country in the world as long as you have a valid bank account. IndieGoGo has agreed to have a special page on their site for SWAN Day campaigns that WomenArts has approved as affiliates. If you create a SWAN Day fundraising page on IndieGoGo, please contact us so that we can approve you for the WomenArts Affiliates page. If you are approved, you will also get a WomenArts/SWAN Day badge on your IndieGoGo fundraising page, so that your donors will know that you are affiliated with us. IndieGoGo has an excellent page of advice to help you start your campaign – please click here>> To start an IndieGoGo campaign, please click here>> |
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FRACTURED ATLAS OFFERS NON-PROFIT FISCAL SPONSORSHIPS If you do not have non-profit status, but you would like your donors to get U.S. income tax deductions for their gifts, you can apply online to Fractured Atlas for a non-profit fiscal sponsorship. Learn more>> The application process is an easy one-page form. You just need your contact information, a description of your project, and a simple proposed budget. If you apply by January 31 and they approve your project, you will be able to start using your Fractured Atlas fundraising page the first week of February. Through their program you can also offer tax deductions to people who send you checks or stock gifts. Apply now>> Please note that you will need to pay a membership fee to Fractured Atlas to be eligible for their fiscal sponsorship program ($9.50 per month for individuals or $19.50 per month for organizations). As a Fractured Atlas member, you are also eligible for other great benefits like their low-cost liability insurance, health insurance, help with artist visas, and lots of member discounts. Fractured Atlas will take 6% of any funds that you raise to cover their administrative overhead. Artists outside the U.S. can apply for fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas, but they must have a United States taxpayer identification number AND a valid U.S. mailing address that is checked frequently. Fractured Atlas has a partnership with IndieGoGo, so if you are sponsored by Fractured Atlas, you can be in IndieGoGo’s WomenArts Affiliates program, and you will only be charged the Fractured Atlas flat rate of 6% instead of the usual combination of IndieGoGo and credit card rates. Please Let Us Know – Whether you use IndieGogo, Fractured Atlas, or some other online service to raise funds for your SWAN Day event, please let us know. We are going to set up a page on the WomenArts website that will feature all of the online campaigns for SWAN Day events, and we will be publicizing that page during March and April. Contact WomenArts>> ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE FUNDRAISING Many artists are accustomed to writing grant proposals to foundations or government agencies, but they are less comfortable asking individuals for money. We encourage you to try this kind of fundraising because there are many advantages to building a base of individual donors. Individuals don’t usually require any lengthy application forms, they are more likely to support your general operating expenses, and they will often give to you year after year. WomenArts usually raises over half of its annual budget from individual donors. Online fundraising provides a fast and easy way to reach out to individual donors. The traditional ways to reach individual donors were through snail mail appeals, fundraising parties, and benefit performances. Although online fundraising provides new technology, the basic principles of this kind of fundraising remain the same:
If you are trying to raise funds by getting small gifts from a lot of people, then an online campaign can be a big help because the Internet lets you reach a lot of people quickly. Once you have a web page where you can receive gifts, you can publicize it quickly through through email and social media like Facebook or Twitter. This type of fundraising is usually called “crowd-funding” since you are trying to attract a crowd of supporters. Keep in mind that online fundraising works best if you or your friends already have a lot of people that you normally contact through email, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media. Your fundraising style needs to fit your personality, and if you don’t like being online, it will be hard to be effective at online fundraising. If you feel more comfortable asking people for money at a party or one-on-one, then you should use those techniques. The old-fashioned methods still work, and you will be much more successful if you feel good about what you are doing. WomenArts Website – IndieGoGo – The IndieGoGo Frequently Asked Questions page is here>> Fractured Atlas – Fractured Atlas has a page of Frequently Asked Questions about their Fiscal Sponsorship program here>> We also highly recommend Thanks so much for the great work that all of you do. We are looking forward to another terrific SWAN Day this year! Best Wishes, Martha Richards, Executive Director, WomenArts SPECIAL THANKS WomenArts is supported by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Meyer Levy Charitable Foundation, the Peace Development Fund, East Bay Community Foundation, the Leo S. Guthman Fund, and by gifts of time, energy and money from artists and arts supporters around the world. ABOUT WOMENARTS WomenArts is a community of artists and allies dedicated to celebrating and supporting art by and about women. For an overview of our programs and services, please see the About Us section of our web site at www.womenarts.org/about-us/. |