Fun for Friends — Oct 4th, 2017
Last week was Silent Barn’s Fundraising Week, and Friends presented on a panel about Funding Strategies for DIY Arts Organizations, alongside the president of our local Credit Union, Kickstarter, and a fundraising advising group named the Void Academy that helps artists with crowdfunding campaigns.
Why do memberships and Friends matter?
00:47:00 — Video of DIY Funding Panel at The Silent Barn (~5min)
Watch me make the case for why memberships are a critical tool for arts organizations of any size, and what sets Friends apart from other crowdfunding tools, at the link above.
Membership Tabling
Follow that link to check out our findings and tips!
We also pitched in to help Silent Barn by running their on-site membership table, and made some really exciting discoveries! By engaging with people one-on-one, and making it super-fluid for them to sign-up on the spot, we secured 9 new members for Silent Barn in only 3 days, representing over $5,000 and potentially tripling the amount of donations they could secure over the year. This is a huge new opportunity! And we make it easy.
Overall, September was a big success for all our pilots.
Check out the activity, live, at withfriends.co
Upcoming Talks
Lastly, we’re out there coming up, talking at Columbia and Sarah Lawrence about Friends and where it fits in the funding landscape.
Columbia Venture Community Demo Day
It’s a big honor to have been invited to present at the CVC Demo Day at the end of this month. CVC has a decade-long history of surfacing incredible new startups and technology and we can’t wait for the opportunity to present alongside all the other groundbreaking ideas this month, and be included among their 3,000 faculty, alumni, and students from across the university. You can learn more about CVC here.
Sarah Lawrence’s SLCeeds Panel
Friends will also be participating in a panel that kicks off the new SLCeeds entreprenuership program for Liberal Arts in Startups, alongside Tracey Riese of Golden Seeds. It’s a great opportunity to share our knowledge with the future generations of small arts organizations!
