Why?  I once had the opportunity to work for George Archibald, a founder and director of a conservation organization called the International Crane Foundation.  Archibald started this group from scratch 20 years ago; it now has a 160-acre campus and a full-time paid staff of 27, all supported exclusively by private donations.  The MacArthur Foundation awarded him a “genius” grant; an aunt of mine who has served on foundation boards for 30 years uses the same word to describe his facility with fund-raising.  I hope this background will encourage you to pay attention to what he describes as the first rule of fund-raising: “People give money to their friends.”

Think about it.  If you had money to give away, to whom would you give it?  Someone you’ve never met or heard of, who writes you a proposal?  Or someone you know and trust, and who is doing work you believe in?  Here’s another way to think about fund-raising: in essence, you are seeking venture capital for an extremely high-risk project.  Venture capitalists consistently declare that they do not invest in a product as much as they invest in a person.

What does this mean to you?

Fund-raising is a four-step process: you identify prospects, cultivate them, make an “ask,” and follow up.  Let’s look at each phase in turn.

Identifying Prospects

Donations in the private sector come from three distinct sources:  individuals, charitable foundations, and corporations.  Of the three, individuals are far and away the most important.  Individuals often want to support a hobby or a personal passion.  They want to be part of a community, and donating to a cause can offer them that opportunity.  Because of this, individuals are responsible for more than 70 percent of private giving in the United States.  Additionally, 80 percent of all individual donations come from families who have a household income of $70,000 or less.  Contrary to what most people believe, you do not have to know a lot of “rich people” to do fund-raising.

In contrast, corporations and foundations combined routinely account for less than 20 percent of private giving.  Foundations usually direct contributions to solve specific social or environmental problems identified in their mission statement.  Corporations give away money to better the lives of their employees, build name recognition among customers, or add to their status as community leaders.

Another major source of funding is the public sector, or the government.  This can include support at each level of government, including city, county, state, and federal.  Government agencies try to fill gaps by funding community services that are not supported elsewhere.

It is critical to recognize, however, that every source expects some-thing in return.  In other words, your project has to fill a need that an individual, foundation, corporation, or government agency has identified.  When you start to think about potential prospects, ask yourself, “Will this project align with their interests?”  To begin identifying prospects, then, list funders from each of these four sources whose concerns match up with your project.  You should be able to write a sentence declaring why your project would be of special interest to them.

Cultivating Interest

Next, cultivate each of these sources.  Remember that people give money to their friends; to be successful you have to make personal contact with potential funders.  If you are a big-name photographer, your reputation may make this contact for you.  But if you are just starting out, you need to sell yourself.  Be creative.

• If you are targeting individuals, invite them to an exhibit of your work.  Send them cards or letters when you are traveling; send copies of newspaper or magazine articles you’ve produced.  Go to events that they have sponsored and thank them.  Are they interested in photography as a personal hobby?  Offer to help them with technique, or take them with you on location.  Are they interested in a particular cause?  Send them photographs you’ve taken on the subject.  In short, show them how helping you can be a rewarding experience—something that they will feel good about and that will make their own lives better.

• If you are targeting foundations, read their mission statements and the grant application questions carefully.  Think about whether your project aligns well with what they are looking for.  Are you helping to solve the specific problems they’re concerned about?  Study other projects or organizations they have funded in the past.

• If you are targeting corporations, find out who is responsible for making decisions about charitable contributions.  Do they have a corporate giving officer?  Would a friend of yours who works for the company be willing to pass your name along to them?  Would the company be willing to hang your work in a lobby or work area?  Could you give a workshop on photography to their employees, or to kids of employees?  Perhaps your photographs could support a project that the company already has under way.  You might call the company’s giving officer to inquire about deadlines and get a copy of their latest annual report.

• If you are targeting government agencies, study their proposal guidelines.  Get on all of the mailing lists you can find for arts agencies at the local, county, state, and national level.  They will let you know about funding opportunities and make you part of the community of artists being supported by these programs.  Go to openings and other events where you can meet people and learn about projects that are being sponsored.  Agency staff members may be willing to grant a brief informational interview or take phone calls.

Asking For Support

How you ask for funding will vary dramatically, depending on the source.

• In general, individuals do not want to read a lengthy report on your project.  Don’t snow them with paper!  It is always better to start off with a brief, concise presentation and provide them with more information when they request it.  A classic approach is to make “the ask” over lunch (make sure that they aware this is a meeting where they will be asked for a donation; don’t surprise them).  After the ask has taken place you can follow up with a brief written proposal.  Be extremely specific about what they are funding and why; make it clear that this is interesting and important and that you can pull it off.  Individual “asks” are also where you can be the most creative.  You can put together a house party, a gallery showing, a movie screening, a car wash, or anything else you can think of.  Just re-member that you need a platform where you can let people know about your project and an opportunity to make the ask, and then make sure they know how and where they can donate.

• Foundations almost always have a specific form that you will need to fill out.  Read through the grant application carefully.  Make sure you are aware of all the deadlines and understand all the supplemental materials they ask for.  Additionally, make sure that your proposal is concise and clearly shows how your project aligns with their aims.  Board members have dozens of proposals to review and will appreciate a clear and compact presentation.  If you are not comfortable with writing, get a friend to help.

• Depending on how big they are, companies may ask you to draft a proposal based on a specific form or set of guidelines.  Also, larger companies usually have set deadlines for proposals to be submitted.

• To the best of my knowledge, all government grants are form based with extremely specific guidelines about the materials required, length of presentation, and even format (font size, mar-gins, etc.).  Sweat the details.

Keep in mind that it’s crucial to do a lot of asking.  Every person or agency you contact funds just a tiny fraction of the proposals they receive.  Furthermore, few people or agencies like to be the sole funder—most vastly prefer being part of a diverse base of support for a project.

Following Up

After submitting a proposal, make a follow-up call to confirm that the proposal was received and to clarify when a decision will be made.  Whether or not you are funded, be sure to thank the person or agency for considering your proposal and for contributing to the community.  Above all, do not take rejection personally.  Expect to struggle a bit when you’re new at this, and learn from each experience.

If you are funded, begin planning how you can continue the cultivation process.  This begins with the thank-you note.  Any time you receive any type of donation from an individual (or even from a foundation, corporation, or government agency), always follow up with a thank-you note.  After people donate to your project you have one chance to make them feel like their donation was welcomed and appreciated.  This is the thank-you note.

After you have sent your thank-yous, acknowledge your funders in every way you can think of.  If you promise a print for a specific contribution, make sure it gets delivered promptly.  Many foundation boards and companies ask for a formal report, either partway through a project or upon completion; most government agencies require this.  Even if this is not required, do it.  Send copies of your photos, newspaper clippings, and/or notices about your progress.  Build confidence that their money is being put to good use.  And whenever possible, provide specific, quantifiable evidence that you are making an impact.  Platitudes like “I feel I’ve increased public awareness about the plight of immigrants” doesn’t have the same impact as “The enclosed clippings, featuring my photographs, are the first time that a regional newspaper has featured a story on the Laotian community.”

Scott Freeman

This series features selected articles from Shooting From The Heart: Photography That Makes A Difference, our highly regarded handbook for photographers developing documentary projects.  If you can’t wait for the full series to be published, feel free to download a free PDF version of Shooting From The Heart and have a copy to keep as your own!

The portrait “Jared Hood” was recently selected for the group show “Encore! More of The Art of Photography Today” at the Camera Obscura Gallery.  Opening night during the First Friday Art Walk this upcoming Friday, Nov. 6th, 5pm- 9pm.  The show will be up until January 2nd.  Camera Obscura Gallery - 1309 Bannock, Denver.

Gary Braasch – Earth Under Fire

Opening reception for Gary Braasch’s new climate change exhibit in the Lobby of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1200 New York Ave. NW, Washington DC, 20005 on November 18th at 5 p.m.

Subhankar Banerjee – Land As Home

ARTPORT_making waves in collaboration with the Global Gender and Climate Alliance presents the Exhibition (Re-) Cycles of Paradise at DGI byen Copenhagen, from December 7-18, 2009.  A photography and video installation by Subhankar Banerjee will highlight the voice of Gwich’in elder Sarah James and her efforts to bring attention to how issues of climate change and industrial development affect her community and the ecology of the Arctic.

- Bart J. Cannon, Program Manager

Gary Braasch speaking this past Saturday at the Frye Art Museum.

Long after the lecture ended, discussion of critical issues surrounding global warming continued.

In the first lecture of the 2009-2010 season of our lecture series highlighting documentary photography, Blue Earth project photographer Gary Braasch spoke at the Frye Art Museum this past weekend on recent work for his project on Global Climate Change.  Attendance was good for a Halloween weekend, and, as usual, Gary kept the crowd riveted.

Keep an eye out for announcements about upcoming lectures – our next speaker will be Annie Marie Musselman on “Finding Trust: My Discoveries At A Small Wildlife Sanctuary.”

All lectures are held Saturdays, 2 p.m.at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle.  Admission is free for Frye and Blue Earth members; $5 for students w/ ID or $10 for general admission.  Tickets will be available at the door.

- Bart J. Cannon, Program Manager

SPE is a non-profit membership organization that provides a forum for the discussion of photography-related media as a means of creative expression and cultural insight.  This year’s regional conference will feature teachers, artists and demonstrations that highlight photographic education in the Pacific Northwest.

Registration (PDF download) is still open and starts at only $35.

- Bart J. Cannon, Program Manager

Boutographies Photography Festival
Deadline: November 30, 2009

The Boutographies - Rencontres Photographiques de Montpellier, is a competition open to all photographers, amateurs or professionals, living and working in Europe.  The criteria for selection by jury are a high creative level, originality and a coherent personal vision.  There is no theme.  Please send up to 20 printed images and 10 Euros admin fee.

Is your project worthwhile?  Do you believe your project will add value to people’s understanding of its subject?  Do you believe that spreading this knowledge is important?  Is your project truly meaningful?  Your answer to these questions is already yes or you would not be working on it.  The next step is to help others understand why this project is valuable.  Fund-raising is more than just asking for money; it is about building relationships with people who care about your work.  When others learn about the valuable work you are doing, you have created an opportunity for them to participate in your project by providing financial support.  If you are truly convinced of the benefit of your work, you should be able to be your own best missionary.

Blue Earth project photographers who were successful fund-raisers each believed their project was so important that people would love to have the opportunity to contribute to something that valuable.

Do you need to be a nonprofit with 501(c)(3) status to raise funds?  The answer is no, but it may affect the way you go about fund-raising.

You may be able to get contributions from a business even if you do not have 501(c)(3) status if the contribution is for a legitimate business expense.  The most usual business expense category is promotion.  You must, however, offer a promotional benefit to the business, and that should be stated up front.  Recognizing the business as a sponsor in publications, exhibits, or promotions for exhibits is a typical way to create an advertising and promotion business expense.

If you do have 501(c)(3) status, individuals can take a charitable deduction for contributions made to your project.  However, this contribution is limited to the amount by which the contribution exceeds the fair market value of anything received in return for the contribution.  For example, if your fund-raising involves the usually successful method of giving a print in exchange for the contribution, the donation will not be tax deductible if the fair market value of the print equals or exceeds the amount of the donation.  In this case, 501(c)(3) status is not relevant.

As an example, a now very successful photographer in the North-west funded 10 of his photographic trips by asking individuals to contribute to his anticipated trip expenses in exchange for the right to select a print from images taken on the trip.  The donation for each print was set at a price slightly below the photographer’s usual selling price.  When the photographer returned from his trips, he would set up a special exhibit so the donors could view the images and select their print.  This also whetted the appetite of the donors for the next round of prints from the next trip.  This method was successful in funding the trips without 501(c)(3) status.

However, if you have donors who contribute to your project with-out receiving anything in return, their gift will be tax deductible only if they make that donation to a registered nonprofit.

If you have 501(c)(3) status, charitable contributions by corporations and businesses are also tax deductible, and likewise are subject to the limitation that the contribution must exceed the fair market value of anything received in return.  In-kind contributions are also tax deductible.  It is important to remember that individual charitable donations by employees are oftentimes matched by their employer if the donation is made to a registered nonprofit.  This is another way in which businesses can help contribute to a project.

Frequently, a business entity or an individual may be unwilling to give money but quite willing to give in-kind contributions.  Be aware of what types of things such individuals and organizations may sell or produce to see if any are usable by you directly or through an auction or other fund-raising device.  It’s also important to remember that in-kind donations, and cash contributions, can be used to match funds raised through a grant.

Additionally, if you have 501(c)(3) status you will be able to apply for grants from more foundations than if you were applying as an individual artist.  Most foundations are required by law to each year give away 90 percent of their income to nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status.  They cannot meet this obligation by giving funds to individuals.  Thus, this fund-raising avenue is not available to your project unless your project has 501(c)(3) status through a nonprofit organization.

Some foundations do give funds to individuals.  The method of applying these foundations is usually similar to that of applying to foundations whose contributions may be made to nonprofit organizations only.  Several government agencies also will provide funding for worthwhile projects.  These agencies may or may not require that the applicant be a nonprofit organization.  Thus, the material in this book about applying for grants has universal application.

All foundations and some businesses have specific procedures to follow in seeking funds.  Before you apply, make sure your project is of the type that the funder is interested in.  That information is readily available from potential funders.  Don’t waste your time, and theirs, applying for funds for a project that does not meet the funder’s interests.  Once you have found a grant source that aligns well with your project, read through the entire application (paying special attention to deadlines and application procedures).

Surprisingly, one of the most commonly cited reasons for rejecting a proposal is that the applicant failed to follow the organization’s rules about applying for funds.  Another common difficulty is that the applicant does not directly answer all of the questions in the grant application in a clear and concise manner.  You must be compelling and concise if you expect your application to be seriously considered by the individuals who decide who will be funded.  Foundations are usually flooded with funding requests, and you have to  draw attention to the uniqueness of your project.  If you need it, get help writing.  The clearer your application can be, the better chance you have of receiving funding.

Judy de Barros, Malcolm Edwards, and Marissa Chavez

This series features selected articles from Shooting From The Heart: Photography That Makes A Difference, our highly regarded handbook for photographers developing documentary projects.  If you can’t wait for the full series to be published, feel free to download a free PDF version of Shooting From The Heart and have a copy to keep as your own!

- Bart J. Cannon, Program Manager

Bangladesh eroding.  Bangladeshis on the edge of an eroding village south of Dhaka, only a about a meter away from inundation by the next storm or flood.  A one meter rise in sea level will displace 20 million people and flood 10 percent of Bangladesh.  © Gary Braasch

Don’t forget to mark your calendars!  This week Blue Earth will be hosting photographer Gary Braasch presenting “Climate Change: A World View of Global Warming,” the first in our 2009-2010 lecture series on documentary photography focusing on global environments, social, and cultural issues.  Braasch will be speaking in Seattle at the Frye Art Museum this Saturday, October 31 at 2 p.m.

Braasch presents a compelling and inspiring view of the world today through his exploration of our planet.  He brings nature, science and our relationship with them into focus through a reporter’s eye and engaging photographs made from pole to pole.  Tickets available at the door.  Free to Blue Earth members; $10 for non-members; $5 for students with ID.

Is your membership up-to-date?  Renew today and attend all events in the Blue Earth Lecture Series for free!

- Bart J. Cannon, Program Manager

© Lydia Lum

© Lydia Lum

Say the phrase “Ellis Island of the West,” and a certain image comes to mind, doesn’t it?  When Europeans sailed to America and saw the Statue of Liberty, they knew their trip was nearly over.  They considered Ellis Island a dream destination.

But Angel Island, which is a short ferry ride from San Francisco, was not a place that Chinese immigrants looked forward to.

Back in China, the villagers would spend months at a time preparing for the interrogations that they expected at Angel Island.  The answers to the questions would be compared to those of their sponsors in the U.S., who were cross-examined by the officials running the immigration station.  If answers between immigrants and sponsors didn’t match, immigrants could be deported to China.

These questions were nitpicky.  They revolved around the immigrants’ families, villages and lives in China.  For instance:

“How many windows are in your home?”
“What direction does each window face?”
“How many water buffalo does each family on your row own?”
“Describe the route to your grandparents’ graves.”

The overwhelming majority of Chinese who came through Angel Island were boys and young men like my Uncle Raymond who went through this ordeal in hopes of going on to find jobs in San Francisco—laundry, restaurant, herb shop—that would allow them to send money home to their impoverished families and villages.  By “young men,” I mean ages 9 or 10, 12 or 13, for the most part.

I was reminded of how young some of the immigrants were when I visited Angel Island recently for the first time in several years.  To see a child’s clothing or pair of shoes is sobering, to say the least.

Lydia Lum

Lum’s current project with Blue Earth is Angel Island: The Ellis Island of the West.

© Lydia Lum

© Lydia Lum

Greetings!  My esteemed colleague and fellow project extraordinaire John Trotter chronicled some of his recent travels in highly entertaining fashion.  After re-reading them prior to starting this blog entry, I think we should commission a how-to blog on how to blog after John blogs on the BEA blog…

If you’re unfamiliar with Angel Island, often called the Ellis Island of the West, let me introduce you.  It’s a state park in California, near Alcatraz.  For Chinese immigrants such as my late great-uncle Raymond, Angel Island was their first American home if they arrived here between 1910 and 1940.

But rather than a welcoming gateway, the Angel Island immigration station was better known as “the Guardian of the Western Gate.”  It was a veritable prison.  Some 175,000 Chinese were detained there and interrogated for days, even months in some cases.  Why?  Because Americans already here were trying to protect jobs they believed were their birthright; they feared competition, that the Chinese would take away jobs.  The idea behind Angel Island was to keep the Chinese out, to discourage them from making the trans-Pacific voyage in the first place.

A broad part of my project involved interviewing and photographing some of the surviving Angel Islanders.  There aren’t many living.  My uncle Raymond passed away a few years ago.  I feel fortunate he shared much of his story with me.

“We had nothing to do at Angel Island except wait,” Uncle Raymond recalled.  “I was so scared.  But my dad had told me this was a part of life.  All Chinese going to America went through this.”

Uncle Raymond was at Angel Island for three months, shoehorned into a 2,700-square-foot room of triple-tiered bunks where he and more than 200 other Chinese immigrants languished.

Can you imagine how crowded that is?  Many of us (although not me) own homes, where, let’s say, a family of 4 might live in 2,000 square feet.  You can see my point, I imagine, when considering a room of 2,700-square feet for 200 people.

I recently returned to Angel Island, which reopened to the public this year after a major phase of a large-scale preservation and restoration project.  Some portions of the barracks where Uncle Raymond and other men stayed now contain props and staging, to try to re-create some sense of what the place might have been like, what it might have felt like to live there day to day, month to month.

As you’ll notice in the images, there’s no semblance of privacy—at all.  Strangers were lumped together, like cattle in a pen.  I didn’t measure the bunks but estimate the “bed” to be about 18 inches wide.  To me, the bed seemed smaller than say, the front door of a house.

The staged set-up also included one of the original bunks.  It’s the rusted one.

Lydia Lum

Lum’s current project with Blue Earth is Angel Island: The Ellis Island of the West.