Nonprofits battle over same dollars
May 7, 2006
By Dave Evensen
Reporter

Local not-for-profit arts groups are often closely tied, but increasingly they’ve found themselves vying for the same charity dollars come fundraising time.

Columbus Indiana Philharmonic and kidscommons, the local children’s museum, conducted auctions within days of each other in February.

Last month, Columbus Area Arts Council and CIP held fundraisers about a week apart.

To maintain crowds and auction bidders, the groups have pushed for creative themes, dabbled with ticket prices and pondered the dilemma of attracting younger, though less affluent, guests.

Warren Baumgart Jr., executive director of the arts council, which recently held its 31st annual unCommon Cause Gala, a dinner and auction, acknowledged that drawing a crowd is more complicated than it once was.

“Now we’re calling it gala fatigue,” he said of the event that helps fund the arts council’s free programming at The Commons and the Columbus Museum of Art and Design. “The challenge is to make it unique enough and fun enough so people look forward to it. … It’s a challenge. It’s a big challenge.”

Fundraising figures made available so far indicate groups generally are able to meet and exceed their goals.

CIP’s first-ever fundraising event, a silent auction in February, made more than $50,000 for the group — a figure $20,000 more than the goal. Around the same time, kidscommons exceeded its goal of $25,000 with an auction.

The latest unCommon Cause raised about $39,000 — much lower than the $100,000 of the 2004 event or the $72,000 of the 2002 gathering. But the current figure is close to the estimated $36,000 raised in 1998 and several other years of generating funds in the $45,000 range.

Though this year’s Cause featured an abbreviated public auction of only 25 items, more items have not always translated to more money generated.

Organizers have long struggled with the choice between attracting older, more affluent arts supporters or younger people who can bring new life to a now-old idea. The arts council was pleased with this year’s attendance of 350 people. Though that figure fell shy of organizers’ target of 400 people, the turnout still was 80 to 100 people more than last year. And the crowd was younger at the $125-per-ticket event.

Art of drawing a crowd

More than 150 people attended CIP’s auction, which included 32 items. Eight of those items were things not available in a store, such as a trip to Yankee Stadium and a military fantasy day at Camp Atterbury.

The event included dinner and a band. Executive Director Alice Curry said it was a success.

“The philharmonic has been looking for a signature event for years, and we never have been able to find it until this year’s gala,” she said.

They made decisions to keep the number of auction items low, Curry said, to maintain interest. She also said a ticket price is important in the final outcome — CIP charged $75.

Similar to the arts council, the group found itself in a balancing act between attracting new, younger people and older, more established donors. In the end, Curry said, the crowd was mixed.

“A younger crowd cannot afford bidding (in the auction),” she said, explaining the dilemma. “They don’t have as much discretionary income.”

Kidscommons, however, aimed exclusively for the younger crowd. Tickets for their silent auction were relatively cheap — $50 — to make it more palatable for younger people. The result was hundreds of people packing The Commons for the Mardi Gras-themed party.

“We really are focusing on a smaller ticket price, also making it attractive to the clientele who are bringing their children (to kidscommons),” said Vera Brown, interim executive director.

Baumgart, also a member of kidscommons board, called attracting a younger crowd a “tightrope.” While younger people generally have less money to bid on auction items, he acknowledged that they also want to bring them back in the future — an important consideration for the long-running unCommon Cause.

“They’ve got student loans they’re paying off for the next 10 years or they’ve got little kids,” Baumgart said, of younger people. “The student loans are what I hear about most.”

He said he’s also detected a change in the attitude of auction crowds, though he’s unsure where it comes from. Increasingly, people are looking at auctions as a potential place for a good deal.

“Some people come in and they go, ‘This isn’t worth that much,’ or ‘I can get it for cheaper somewhere else,’” Baumgart said.

“But the whole point is not to get a bargain. It’s to make a donation to the organization,” he said. “We need to energize the whole giving idea. It’s not eBay.”

Reporter Brian Blair contributed to this report.