Doing Well by Doing Good

hen you have a business, you inevitably attract a parade of charity fund-raisers. Here’s a tip from some savvy business people: among those to whom you say yes, include those that can also pay marketing dividends — ones that will publicize your business in return.

Debbie Bays of P.T. Isabel Garden Art in Milford, Ohio, understands both sides of the charitable donation equation. A former non-profit administrator and grant writer, she knows the needs of non-profit groups. She donates work to causes that include local schools, women’s cancer support groups, and intercity art and education projects. Many of these donations, such as vases for women cancer patients and the fountain she gives annually for auction to benefit her daughter’s soccer team, are made strictly as a way of community support with no thought to any promotional value.

But other donations serve a real marketing purpose. Bays recently donated a fountain valued at $400 to the Cincinnati Horticultural Society for a fund-raising auction. “This is a very upper-class bidding audience,” she says. “They’re a perfect target for our work.” And that is the key to getting full marketing value for donated work — finding the right match between audience and product.

This fact was recently confirmed for Bays when an unsuccessful bidder at an auction came to the P.T. Isabel studio to buy a similar fountain because his wife had fallen in love with it. Ceramist Susan Reynolds of just susan originals in Hillsboro, N.M., can track a number of sales as a direct result of work donated to local fund-raising groups.

Jeweler Marcia Dean has donated her work to public television, and finds it a good way to support a worthy cause while also generating publicity.

Jeweler Marcia Dean, president of the Cambridge Artists Cooperative in Massachusetts, is a big fan of public television. Donating work to the Boston area’s public television fund-raising auction was a perfect way for her to promote her work while supporting a cause.

The public television audience also is a good target market for Dean’s jewelry because donated items receive television coverage, the artists are credited, and items appearing in the auction catalog are displayed at the auction’s opening reception. Dean believes the resulting publicity has been helpful both for herself and the co-op.

Erin Brayton coordinated donation requests when she was affiliated with the Cambridge Artists Co-operative. Now she donates work from her own gallery, 18 Birch, in Roslindale, Mass. “Crafts generally target the higher-end buyer, and charity fund-raisers target those same people,” says the fiber artist.

Phyllis Harrison, owner of The Art Stop in Tacoma, Wash., hosts an annual gallery event to raise money for one of her favorite charities while also promoting her gallery. She sponsors an “Arfs and Crafts” silent auction each April to benefit a service dog training program at a local women’s prison. She asks gallery artists to design a special dog bowl just for the event, which they can either donate or sell to the gallery at wholesale; the gallery commission is donated to the charity.

Last year, approximately 45 artists participated, and most donated their work. The event’s opening coincides with Tacoma’s Third Thursday Art Walk, and the silent auction runs Thursday through Saturday. Artists’ names are listed on the bowls and included in postcard mailings and press releases. The event generates a lot of publicity for the gallery and has been so popular that several other area galleries now participate.

Included among the regular contributors to Arfs and Crafts are potters Reid Ozaki of Tacoma, Wash., and Barbara Bravo (Bravo Ceramic Designs) of Saugerties, N.Y. They donate because they believe in the cause. And although they see no personal promotional value from the donation, both say that they benefit from the creative stretching that comes with the challenge to design something outside their normal production line.

“Birds Nest Birdbath” by Debbie Bays, who donates work to a variety of art, health and education causes.

Lisa Drader-Murphy, fashion designer and owner of Turbine Clothing Company in Falmouth, Nova Scotia, finds the combination of charitable giving and business promotion so potent that she has formed her own charitable giving foundation, the Turbine Fund.
After relocating her studio from Alberta to Nova Scotia, Drader-Murphy introduced her clothing line at a showcase in Halifax in 2001 and donated proceeds from ticket sales to a home for abused women and children. “Turbine makes power clothing for women, and we believe in supporting women’s charities,” she explains.

When planning the event, she found that many local businesses wanted to offer promotional door prizes. The following year, Drader-Murphy used the donated items for a silent auction in conjunction with her showcase and raised an additional $2,000 for a selected charity. In 2003, she created the Turbine Fund and replaced the silent auction with a fine art auction featuring donated work by five area artists, including a jeweler and a furniture maker.

The donors each received significant publicity as part of the event promotion. She also commissioned a pewtersmith to design a lapel pin, with all proceeds of sales going to the Turbine Fund. The pin features the “T” of Turbine’s logo, thus increasing awareness of the Turbine brand while raising money for charity.

Turbine’s two annual showcase events capitalize on what Drader-Murphy has learned about her customers. “People are more socially aware in Nova Scotia; it’s very charity-driven,” she says. All profits from ticket sales and the art auction go to the Turbine Fund’s charitable giving. “We’re not making a profit on the event at all, which earns us a lot of respect,” she adds.

In addition to newspaper and television coverage, the fall showcase generates significant business for Turbine’s booth at the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council’s Christmas Craft Market, which runs the following weekend.

Drader-Murphy plans to nudge her customers’ charitable leanings by a special promotion at her Spring 2004 showcase. Customers will be invited to bring in a “gently used” suit in exchange for a discount on a new one. Turbine will benefit from the new sales, and the trade-ins will be donated to the local Dress for Success program, which provides business clothing for disadvantaged women.

Giving back to the community by supporting a worthy cause is sufficient reason for donating work to charity. But if you know your market, you can also use donations to generate publicity and sales, doing well for your business while doing good for others.

Grace Butland is market coordinator for the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council. She resides in Nova Scotia,
Canada.