On fundraising and donors

Heya! Nick from You Are Here here with some unresolved thoughts about Fundraising and Donors. You’re catching me in the early moments of our Asking For Money Era, so anything I write will reflect the shyness, uncertainty, absurdity and cock-eyed optimism that I’m feeling as we organise what is intended to be our first annual fundraising Galah (it’s a Gala but we are misspelling it and making it bird-themed, you probably already intuited that). 

Firstly attacking my own premise- we’ve been government-funded since our inception in 2011, so in one sense this is nothing new. We have existed via Patronage all along. Arts ACT and similar bodies have serially judged us as worthy to give tens of thousands of dollars to, while not doing the same for many others who apply. For a few reasons- to cover their bases around independent/experimental/DIY/‘fringe’ art, because we built a rep and a brand over 15 years, because funding us has never led to any particular suffering for them, and because we do excellent work. Yes we’ve done smatterings of commercial work for commercial pay (and are angling to do more under the right conditions), but in the main we get paid by a benevolent source because they think we are a good thing to exist. The ACT government is kind of our upper-working-class to lower-middle-class parent- they can’t and won’t fund us enough to be truly sustainable and ambitious in our life goals, but they will make sure that we don’t perish except by our own hand. And that ain’t hay, as they say. 

Those of you who make a strong ideological or moral distinction between taking money from the taxpayer through government policy and taking money from a directly consenting individual, you might say that the donor model is a superior one to be moving into. I find your way of thinking to be childish and impoverished, but thanks at least for trying to make me feel better, I appreciate it. 

Still though, if I’ve spent so long being so relaxed about taking government money, why does it feel so different to ask our audience, the general public and the Arts Philanthropy Hive to sling us some big cash? 

The two obvious things:

• Funding bodies are fully encouraging me to ask them for their money, and providing an impersonal framework of online forms with which to do so, so it never has to get weird.
• Funding bodies have checks and balances and acquittal processes to protect both parties and keep things mostly transparent and well-bounded. 

So sure, I’m worrying about annoying people by showing up with an ask that they will experience as unpleasant. But only a little bit, because it’s not THAT hard to target a campaign at a specific crowd, and our first donor drive last year indicated that there are a bunch of you who were waiting for a chance to help out this way. That part is mostly a comms execution challenge and I quite enjoy those. 

My actual main worry is around living up to your humbling and beautiful act of donation. Having good and thoughtful takes on our costings and what we ask for, and then executing in a way that actually helps artists in meaningful, permanent ways. The modern era of crowdfunding is just the lastest flavour of the ancient model of arts patronage, but it is a bit of a cesspit, and as someone who has been finding Amanda Palmer to be sketchy since 2011 I am inclined to be extra careful around this stuff. 

And look of course there’s the more shallow worries. Wanting the vibe to feel good, wanting to still appear smart and sexy and self-aware while also asking for money. Wanting to still be able to talk like this and be ourselves. Wanting to believe that we might interrelate with richer people and their desire to give their money to the arts, but still give up some real space for artists from working class and poor backgrounds (always one of the hardest things to do in this particular city). NOT wanting our long term supporters to be alienated by any of this. 

Worries are excellent creative restrictions, they often sit at the heart of what Fun is for me, and they have informed my role as one of the creative producers of the Galah. And so:

The Galah is gonna comprise silly fun, DIY dress-ups, anti-cool aesthetic, an honest/vulnerable/goofy enactment of Asking, and some properly fruity strange art. 

Unlike our usual events which are normally free to attend, it costs to come to the Galah. It’s for people who can afford to support the arts with a part of their income, to come and have fun and be celebrated in doing so. The production vibe will be glamorous and fun but DIY and inexpensive, so that attendees can surrender to the YAH sensibility, and so that the money raised can go straight to what it should. 

The main thing the money will be used for is the creation of the Cahoots Manual- our best attempt to make something permanent, useful and free-to-all that might live on no matter what happens to our org long-term. A practical guide to creative producing that contains all that we know and all that we do, that anyone can use to create their own critically rigorous and care-based creative community. We’ve already started work on it so that we can do some kind of demo at the Galah, and get you hyped up to use it when it’s done. 

We’ll also be talking about our program of free arts event for the year and the various year-round ways that you can hit us up for free creative producing help. But know I’m sliding into Marketing Voice and I don’t want close out like that, I’d love to hear from you actually. Your wants and takes and concerns around the whole topic of how art stuff is paid for, and certainly your difficult questions for us, what I am not even thinking about that I should be? Is it a selfish conflict of interest that my band Babyfreeze is playing at the Galah, or is it a nice moment of matched labour offer between me and the crowd? What do you think of the new Babyfreeze single? And most of all, what can we help you do?