The Begging Suit

I was out today asking for money. Now this is not like going to Mom and Dad with a good excuse and telling them you need an extra $10. No, this is serious stuff. We call it Development.

My old friend Homer LeGassey, the great auto designer, used to tell me he would put on his “begging suit” in order to get funds for our design program, and it worked!

After more than a year of work for so many people, we were awarded a Federal Infrastructure Grant for $2.45 million, with a few challenges. We need to get another $2.45 million to match it in order to get it and we need to do all the work by March 31, 2010. As I said we have some challenges. So, I need to put on my “begging suit”!

I have been raising money most of my life. From the gentle ask to the big push, the goal is still the same, money.

The first “big gift” I ever received was in the late 70’s, and it involved a dinner. I was invited, with my wife, to meet our Board Chair and a few selected others. We spent many hours looking at art, and talking about art and futures. I played a guessing game for a while where I was asked to guess whose art work I was looking at. There were some challenges, but I was able to identify the artist on most of the pieces. There were some tough ones, like Enrico Donati and Kenzo Okada, wonderful mid-century artists whose work I did know, and a few I can’t remember now whose work was unfamiliar to me. However, it did seem a test.

There was a Reg Butler and several small Matisse sculptures. It was a wonderful adventure for me.

The next morning when I arrived at work, there was an envelope on my desk. My name was on the front, but no note. Inside, with no ask on my part, was almost $1,000,000 in stock! I checked the market and realized that we were just $60 short of a million, and called my business office and asked that if I gave them a check for $60 and included it with the envelope, could I be recognized with the benefactor as the giver of the one million. No answer was required.

Several years ago in Massachusetts, I received money from a donor who came to my office to complain bitterly about a local University that had the audacity to suggest an amount that she should be able to give them. She was alum, and had been a giver, but they had, according to her, overstepped their boundaries. Now this is a common practice, suggesting to donors an amount, but it can backfire. You can ask for too little, or ask for too much. Somehow, we never get it just right. I sympathized with the donor, and felt her pain, and was very glad I hadn’t dome the same thing to her. Her anger was such that she gave me the money she had intended for the university!

Another donor, after tea, cookies and a look at another art collection, asked me what I thought she should donate. I was caught! I had to answer but was concerned that I could ask for too much and get nothing, or ask for too little and get less than I could have. It was a tightrope. I knew the giving history of course because I was prepared, but still, what to do? I decided to go for it and mentioned a number I thought to be possible but more than double any previous gift. Her response was sure, but I can’t do this every year! That’s just what I had hoped to hear!

All of us are donors. We all have favorite charities. There’s the dollar or two I give to every poor kid with a can in front of the grocery store on the weekends, and the ongoing support we all give to a series of health related charities. And for me and my supporters, there are the arts. There are the symphonies, the dancers, the art schools, the museums and all the cultural opportunities out there to help continue and improve our world.

We all need your support for all kinds of important reasons. It’s not just health and poverty that are important to us; it’s the arts as well.

If you are in position to give, give it to me! (not me actually, but in this case it’s the Dundas Valley School of Art) Every dollar given will be matched by our Federal Government, and will be used to renovate and rehabilitate out 175 year old structure. (I have to go put on my begging suit, and I’ll give you a call!)