6 tips for Successful Fundraising for Artists & Creative Entrepreneurs
Carolyn McDonald gave talk 'What Artists and Creative Entrepreneurs need to know to fund raise successfully' at Hotel Elephant, Spare Street.
Fundraising is always a popular topic for artists and creative entrepreneurs and we had a full house for our most recent talk at Spare Street, delivered by Carolyn McDonald.
Carolyn McDonald has 20 plus years of exeperience supporting organisations and individuals to communicate the purpose they are passionate about. She has worked with organisations within huge health tenders and cultural organisations and individuals to create the environment they need to materialize their dreams. She has extensive experience of raising funds from the £1 million to £500.
Although it can feel daunting at first, successfully fundraising for your creative projects can provide huge benefits! Below Carolyn provides her top 6 points to consider when starting out on your fundraising journey;
1. Who are Your Audience?
Audience understanding is vital to success. Rather than trying to please everyone, focus on those who really matter!
2. What are your Objectives?
Make a plan. Objectives are essential as they keep you focused and enable you to measure your results. Ensure your plan has an appropriate budget too.
Talk attendees in discussion at Carolyn McDonald's talk at Spare Street
3. Who can help you?
Think about who you know and what doors they could open for you, make a list of who can help you. Then contact them!
4. What can you offer your supporters?
Give your supporters something for their time/money. You can often get a better response by giving people something. This could be as simple as offering involvement or on a larger scale putting on an event or thinking what do they get out of being involved?
Group discussion at Carolyn McDonalds talk at Spare Street
5. What has been done before?
Take advantage of something that already exists. You don't need to reinvent the wheel! Make your fundraising just that little bit easier by using something that already exists. Access others reports and research, add information and numbers to your impact.
6. Raise your profile!
Use the media. Besides generating money, media is all about raising profile and awareness of your cause.
But most of all....