Extreme Fundraising

So I am reading the April 13 edition of Forbes Magazine. There is an interesting article in it called Extreme Fundraising. It is one of the few magazines I get in print, so I am not sure if it is available on-line (google it). Anyway it is about these athletes going to, well, extremes to raise money for charities.

The people involved were amazing individuals who in all cases had been touched personally in such a deep and affecting way that they were driven to push themselves to the edge of their endurance in order to raise funds and awareness for their causes.

These are REAL extremes, rowing across the Atlantic Ocean extreme. Most seem to be for medical causes and most seem to be related to sports, but it begs the question...what would be considered extreme fundraising for the arts?

Is there a marathon for the arts?

Does someone paint a skyscraper for the arts? (I know I got a city bus painted for the arts - bright pink and at a community arts festival children painted pictures on it - every time I saw it on the street I smiled, but I digress.)

Does someone sing across America?

A cross country theatre-thon? (What in the world would that be?)

Or is simply about creating that kind of unique, somewhat insane fundraising event?

What captures attention with these extreme fundraising profiles in the article is that they are such personal causes. There are great back stories and the fundraisers themselves are fascinating characters.

Can we capture this sort of thrill in the arts? Can we inspire this kind of personal challenge for the arts? Can we create this kind of personal journey in our fundraising? After all, we certainly have wonderfully passionate, entertaining, and exciting individuals in the arts. Many artists and arts participants have been profoundly affected by the arts.

The other day, I was having a discussion about how difficult it is for some organization's leadership to ask artists to help with fundraising - they are so busy, we pay them so little, it isn't any fun, and they get asked by so many. I take the position that if you are passionate about your organization you had better ask the artists to help with fundraising and frankly the artists should and usually do want to help.

If we want to figure out a form of extreme fundraising for our individual organization...we are going to have to take a huge risk in creativity and have our artists work with us on it.

Any extreme fundraising ideas being used in your organization? Email me because I would love to hear about them.