If you’re a follower of SASSAS on Facebook or Twitter or on our mailing list,
you’ve probably noticed that we’re in a fundraising frenzy. We are working on
overdrive to bridge the gap that exists between our ambitions and our size —
closing the gap on our programming expense deficit while laying the groundwork
for crossing the magic $100,000 budget threshold that would enable us to apply
for increased levels of funding to support our programming!
It’s grant season and we’ve just turned in applications to LA Department of Cultural
Affairs, West Hollywood and Culver City. We’re super excited about the
programming we’ve applied for: if all goes well we’ll have a new monthly series of
free concerts at York Park, the new urban park being built across the street from
our office in Highland Park; and we’re organizing a Fluxus oriented season of sound.
with Alison Knowles at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, an evening dedicated to
Al Hansen‘s performance works at the Schindler House and Kids Play Fluxus, our
free workshop for middle school students organized with The Southland Ensemble,
Harmony Project and CFAER.
All three are matching grants which means the organization supplies 50% of the
funding and we must raise the other 50%. In most cases our half needs to be spent
BEFORE we can invoice for the grant funds! This is why we’re running the
Kickstarter campaign for our Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook concert on October 5 –
we must pay our $5,000 share of the budget before we can invoice Culver City!
To help us reach our fundraising goals we are undertaking five of the six steps I
outlined last month:
1 – Our Board made a group effort on membership renewals – thanks to everyone
who renewed, especially the Jerry and Terri Kohl Family Foundation, Abby Sher,
John Lewis and our new Board member Karen Hillenberg.
In addition we’ve worked with Patron Manager to set up a new auto renewal system
that will hopefully save a lot of valuable staff time.
2 – We’ve added one new Board member – Karen Hillenburg – and are in the process
of talking to two others….
3 – We’ve scheduled two amazing Listening Parties: Board Co-Chair Renée Petropoulos
is hosting Hedi El Kholti, Simone Forti and Tashi Wada on September 21 and
Mary Kelly will be hosting on December 14.
4- We’re pleased to announce that our first ever Kickstarter campaign is one of four
projects chosen by ArtBasel to kick off their new crowdfunding initiative…more on
that in a separate post.
5 – You can help us reach our Kickstarter goal and get a great work of art! We’ve
offered several Exquisite Corpse works as rewards.
We are still working on realizing the pageant/variety show fundraiser dedicated to
long time SASSAS supporter and friend Mike Kelley, but this is probably not going to
happen on Halloween. We are actively seeking a venue for this event. Suggestions??
So that’s what’s up…looking forward to your questions and comments!