I love political campaign e mails. There’s such a sense of urgency and drama. I got one this morning that said, “Own a piece of this movement by making a donation of $25 today.” Own a piece of this movement. Boom. Yes. I even like how they’re addressed – there’s no “Dear Potential Subscriber” or “Dear Patron” or even “Dear Amanda E Ameer”; it’s all “Amanda –“. I’m like yes, what’s up, how can I help you? Also, I appreciate them suggesting $25, a specific, manageable amount that I don’t really have to think about. <\/p>\n
Where is the sense of urgency in arts fundraising e mails? I don’t want a free tote, I want to know that you really need my money now or something bad will happen (or something good WON’T happen). Also, where is the gesture toward a broader movement? Everyone wants to be part of something big and history-making; what is\/where is the national arts movement, and will my donating money to Playwrights Horizons make me a part of it?<\/p>\n
Last thought, re-triggered by our clever political friends: “own a piece of this movement, literally”, formerly called, in my mind, “the church organ commission”. When a church needs an organ (re)built or repaired, the fundraising committee asks church members to sponsor individual pipes. Money doesn’t seemingly go into a general pot – you know which pipe is yours. I always wondered why dance companies and chamber orchestras (or symphony orchestras, for that matter) didn’t seek to create new works commissioned by the so-called people. “I own 4:03 – 4:23 of the newest John Adams piece for Alarm Will Sound.” The more people who commission the work, the more who have a vested interest in spreading the word and making the work a success; a new donor base and an established street team, all rolled into one! <\/p>\n
Most importantly, donating money to tangibly help create a new piece of dance or music really would make me feel like I was part of a movement, literally and not so literally. I love political campaign e mails. There’s such a sense of urgency and drama. I got one this morning that said, “Own a piece of this movement by making a donation of $25 today.” Own a piece of this movement. Boom. Yes. I even like how they’re addressed – there’s no “Dear Potential Subscriber” or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"