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INDIVIDUALS

Individuals are a great source of funding and, if possible, should be a part of every media center's mix of unearned income sources. Professional development consultants often quote the following statistic: individual donors have for decades accounted for anywhere from 82% to 89% of all the dollars donated to all nonprofit causes in the U.S. Here's a quick look at the rewards and pitfalls of fundraising from individuals.

Upside:


  • There is no faster way to get a donation than from an individual donor-- if you need money quickly, individuals are your best sources.
  • You need very little paperwork (rarely anything as detailed as a formal grant) to get an individual donation.
  • Fundraising from individuals puts your organization in direct contact with people in the community, and helps create advocates and volunteers.
  • Statistically speaking, the most powerful and productive "ask" you can make is with an individual - this type of direct ask has the highest likelihood of success.
  • Once an individual feels "ownership" in your organization you can generally count on their continued support.
  • There are lots of paths you can follow for an individual donation, including:
    • the direct one-on-one "ask"
    • targeted personal letter writing campaign
    • membership campaigns
    • large direct mail efforts
    • telemarketing
    • email appeals


Downside:


  • This type of fundraising is very labor-intensive, often involving sophisticated databases and the work of a professional development director.
  • Individual donations generally trickle in over long periods of time, and arrive in small to medium amounts.
  • Individual donations are usually in the hundreds of dollars (or less), occasionally in the thousands of dollars, and very rarely in the tens-of-thousands of dollars (unlike foundation grants, which generally are substantial amounts that arrive in one lump sum).
  • In order to ask for and receive large donations from wealthy individuals in your community, you typically need the help of influential board members who are making substantial donations out of their own pockets-- many small-to-medium-sized media arts organizations do not have this type of board.
  • It can be difficult to "qualify" an individual donor -- to research what they like to fund and what their comfort zone of giving is.
  • Large direct mail campaigns can be very expensive and there is always the chance you will lose money on these.


SOME STORIES:

REAL ART WAYS (HARTFORD, CT)
As told by Will K. Wilkins, Executive Director.

FILM ARTS FOUNDATION (SAN FRANCISCO, CA)
As told by Lisa Foster, Development Director.

911 MEDIA ARTS CENTER (SEATTLE, WA)
As told by Fidelma McGinn, Executive Director of Film Arts Foundation (former Executive Director of 911 Media Arts Center)