Fundraising Toolkit Case Study: The Art Cafe (Davison, MI)
As told by Cora Smilkovich, Executive Director
Summary
How to Get a Building for $1 a Month
Original Goal: 0
Amount actually raised: $2,400
Cash investment: $1.00/month
Staff time and value: 25 hours/ $1,000
Total unpaid volunteer hours: (staff is all volunteer)
The rest of the story
The day before I started to do my search for a donated building, I
attended a Michigan Association of Community Arts Agency's Kim Klein
fundraising convention in Dearborn, MI. Our organization is in the seed
stages of funding so we are working on a volunteer basis. A lady I met
at the convention told me that her group rented out a donated building
at a rate of $1 a month the whole year. This seemed like an impossible
request for the Art Café to ask for. She told me that because her town
was run down the arrangement had been easy to work out.
The next day I scoped out a building for rent that had been empty for nearly three years. I called the owner and told him the goals of my organization. Then I just directly asked him if I could rent out the building for $1 per month for six months, or at least until we could start building a budget for Art Café. There was a pause, then he said "Yes.” I did seek out other people that had newer buildings, but I decided to stick with this owner because most of the others wanted to donate the space for only one month. The lesson? It never hurts to ask.
What helped make this effort a success
- Have confidence in yourself. If you do not believe in your group how can you expect others to have faith in you?
- Include the individual as a sponsor and give him recognition in your events.
- Asking for a donated building can be tough to do, but I say just do it!
What we wish we had done differently
Make sure you give the owner a copy of your references. It took the
owner nearly two weeks to sign the contract – one week longer than
normal – because we forgot to do this.
Advice to colleagues
- Seek out space that has not been rented for a long time.
- Rehearse talking to the seller before you call them.
- Make sure you are able to describe your agency's goals, benefits and how the rental donation will benefit them. For instance, I told the seller that increasing foot traffic into his building would allow people to get a free viewing.
- If you only rent for a short time you can suggest that someone may want to buy the building because people will know you are renting out the space temporarily.
- Nonprofits are created to benefit the community. Even though the seller is not part of our group he is allowing us to extend our benefits to him and our town.
Some resources I find helpful:
- Fundraising for Social Change, by Kim Klein (Jossey-Bass)
- Michigan Association of Community Arts Agencies.
For more information on this story contact staff@artcafeonline.org, 810.653.0881
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