Art Biz Voice: To Give or Not to Give, Simple Guidelines

Dear Mr. Trump,

I’ve been away from my blog this week working on some of my charity work.  I really feel that charity work is incredibly important but of course not at the expense of the business. I look at charity work as an integral part of my work ethic and my business plan. 

Because I am an artist I am in a unique place to build my brand while helping some worthy causes I believe in. I can help them fund raise while building their reputations and also build what I call foundational care for daily expenses. I occasionally will help fund raise  for animal charities, many of whom are sanctuaries and rescues. I also try to occasionally work with charities that help people in crisis as well.

Click image to view larger.

Sometimes these sanctuaries and rescues fail, usually, because of poor planning and too much repeat dependence on fund raising for their daily expenses. When they fail there comes a huge rift between them and the public trust.One misstep in planning and animal care due to a bad economy can lead to a spiraling decline in donations. The animals in their care suffer because of lack of donations. No one wants to be associated  with failing animal charities or animal charities that raise huge sums of money only to euthanaize the majority of the animals they bring in. It is even worse when the leaders of these charities have suddenly stopped all fund raising efforts because they simply didn’t know what to do or they have lost interest because it is so overwhelming to them.

As a result of the change in the giving practices, I think, mostly due to the tight economy,  I have put together a set of guidelines for all the charities I consider working with. I of course adapt them slightly for newly created organizations.

What I consider before I give to or work with a community

1. Persons involved in The Charity already support my business.

2. The Charity has good business practices, including foundational support for every day expenses.

3.The Charity is highly visible with regular community access and education. It has a good reputation for service and available programs that reach out to the community.

4. The Charity has  active highly visible fund raising programs through out the year  that maintains a steady flow of nurtured and new support for the organization. The face( generally a person) of the organization is active in fund raising and building community support continuously.

5. The Charity has a transparency policy with public financial accountability. This means proof the money is being spent on what it is collected for.

6. The Charity not only nurtures givers, it nurtures and values its volunteers. This includes a reward for effort program and training program  for volunteers.

7. The  Charity sees my work as valuable and protects the investments my collectors. They not only understand that how they present the work during fund raising determines the value they also know how to get top dollar and increase the value of my work to benefit themselves.

8.  I agree with the objectives of The Charity and how they are implemented. Their work ethic, how they carry it out and the pride they take in their events and location, all play a part in their reputation. If  I disagree with their objectives, I don't want my name associated with their organization. If the actions of  The Charity are completely different from the objectives or they lack professionalism and polish then I don't  offer to support them.

Its so much easier to support people who appreciate your efforts.


Have a great weekend
~Linda

ArtBizVoice: Getting People Involved. ( The PPN Project)

Dear Mr. Trump,

Since I basically have no start up money and I live on a shoe string budget on the best days, I came up with this idea of how to market my work. I call it Partner Marketing or Partnership Program for Non-employees(PPN). Perhaps there is a better name already for it.

Here is the need: I need to make sales to pay for art supplies to keep making art and pay for my expenses.  The people I invite into the program want to buy original art but cannot afford it. Usually the art they want is something special to them like a pet portrait or a painting of their child and their horse etc.

The goal:

The key to my marketing strategy is to sell as many reproduced products as possible. These products will fund further art and some additional programs I would like to accomplish in my community.  By using PPN participants to share the product s  this increases my chances of making the necessary sales and gives them  an opportunity to have art that they couldn’t otherwise afford.  The cost of making the art is covered.

How it works:

Sample of PPN Project invitation

Each person agrees to participate for a year(They can actually participate as long as they want to). For the first month I work with them to teach them how to do the project. Basically participants share three or 4 pre-determined items throughout the day on their social media venues. Each item they share has a special code assigned only to them. Each sale of an item with their code gives them a point. The points are tallied at the end of the month. The participant then receives a statement of points that they can use as a discount against the purchase of original work or signed prints.

The participants in the PPN project also are taught how to do recommendations and reviews and given support in how to market as they go. In the program they do this about 2 or 3 times a week.

The program is active marketing, meaning sharing the content in a public way and talking about it to generate interest.

I read once in Guerrilla Marketing, that a product or brand name must be seen at least 15 times before  a potential client will remember it and act on it. IF, of course, it is something they want or can use. Participations should begin seeing a response to their efforts by sales that begin on about 15 day once they fall into the routine. It generally should take no more than about 15 minutes a day to do this sort of program, especially if they have multiple social media venues. This program will allow people to see what is available multiple times on multiple venues, help a worthy cause, empower people in the project and help me to go on to paint another day.

One important distinction about this program is that it is not aggressive marketing; Meaning that those who participate are not allowed to spam. Spamming is repetitively posting the exact same information over and over again to a large number of people who have no interest or who have not asked for information. If participants spam on their social media or email they will be removed from the program and banned from further participation. 

Active Social Marketing will do four things:
Provide information about the product,
Provoke a discussion
Show people how to purchase the product
Lead people to other products they might enjoy having, if the original product is not to their taste. 

Beautiful day today! Warm and sunny. Have a great day,
~L