I love your work!
Your jewelry is so beautiful!
You have the best shop I've ever seen!
It's so flattering!
When you're just starting out selling your work, it's exciting to have anyone at all pay attention to it. Who wouldn't love getting an email that gushes about your work?
If all the nice words about your work weren't enough, they're contacting you because it's for a good cause!
With the help of generous artists like you, we can ...
We rely on donations like yours to ...
Would you consider donating one of your items? We would really appreciate it!
It can feel like the only correct answer to these emails is yes. Who wouldn't want to help [fill in worthy cause here]? You'd have to be a complete monster to say no, right?
What Should You Do If Someone Requests a Donation?
Artists, crafters, makers ... whatever you call those folks who make things with their hands and heart ... they are the most generous, sensitive, and imaginative souls I know. I think that's why some of them find it so difficult to turn down any charity request for a silent auction or another type of fundraiser.* But at the same time, the sheer volume of requests means that you cannot possibly say yes to all of them. If you are using your earnings for expenses like health insurance or rent, you need to be especially vigilant about quickly saying yes to giving your work away. So what should you do?
First, let me start by saying that if someone solicits a donation from you on Etsy they are breaking the rules of the site. They can lose their account doing it. You are well within your rights to mark their email as spam, report it to Etsy, or delete it without any response at all.
Second, you might know immediately whether you want to say yes or no. Often sellers, especially those who have been in business for some time, have strong opinions about this topic. That's fine. Some have even gone as far as to create specific forms to funnel these types of requests. (Beth Wade Design and Shannon O'Reilly both have good examples.) Others set a specific cap on the number of donations as shown by Hammered By Nap Time. This blog post is for in-between requests where you're not really sure which way you're leaning.
16 Questions To Ask Before Donating to a Charity Fundraiser
Before you agree to contribute one of your handmade items to a silent auction or another charity fundraising event, here are a few questions to consider:
- Do I know the person making the request?
If a good friend is requesting a donation, I take that request seriously. This is a common criteria. In her post "Please Don't Tell Me About the Free Publicity," the author explains that she is "highly unlikely to give things to a stranger," but does sometimes say yes to requests from people she knows, including prior customers.
- Is this a good time?
For me, any request that comes in November or December is automatically deleted. The holiday shopping period is extremely busy for me. I do not have the extra time to manage a donated item no matter how worthy the cause. Not everyone is busy during this time. Those who cater to weddings or graduations may find the Christmas season slow for them.
Even if the request comes at a slower time in my schedule, it's not an automatic yes. Any retail business will ebb and flow. What does your schedule look like for this week or this month? Assume that this will take twice as long as you think it will. Would you still say yes if you needed to do it tomorrow?
- When's the deadline?
Sometimes these requests come with extremely short deadlines. ("Your donated item needs to be received within the next three days.") Those are always an automatic "no" for me. Organizations should be giving you at least several weeks if not a month or longer to prepare your donation so you can schedule it around your normal workflow.
- Are they asking for a specific item? Which one?
It's a red flag for me if a charity requests I donate the most expensive item in my shop. Otherwise, I do like it when the emails mention a specific item of mine that they think will be a good fit. This tells me what kind of price point they're looking at and why they think my items are a good match for the organization. (Sometimes their oddball or random picks make it easy for me to say no.)
- If the choice of donated item is up to me, do I have something already made?
I almost never do custom work for a charity donation. The type of item I like donating best is one of my samples. This would be an item that is created in my style, but for some reason I never sold. An example would be a keychain that I first made with a certain font, but later decided to change. It's a perfectly good, brand new keychain, but the style no longer matches the rest of the ones in my shop.
- Is the organization a good fit?
I find it best if my items match the theme of an organization. It's always a long shot that the visitors to a charity auction will take the time to track down a shop of a donated item, but I don't want to decrease the odds even more by being a poor match. For example, I occasionally get asked to donate to dog organizations. Out of my 300 or so products, I make maybe 2-3 dog-themed items a year. If an attendee were to come visit my shop, she would likely be disappointed at the very small number of items available with a dog motif.
- Is it local?
I give priority to local organizations. It's much easier to track down information about a local group and frankly, it feels good to give back to your own community. You can also more easily attend a local event and see if it's a group you'd like to work with in the future.
- Are they a real charity?
You can verify an organization's tax-exempt (501c3) status through the IRS website. It's been my experience that those organizations that have this status will let you know in their initial request. For me, an organization without that status is not necessarily an automatic no. PTAs (Parent Teacher Associations), for example, may not have a 501(c)3 designation. In any case, it's a good idea to check out the organization's social media accounts and websites to see if they are a group you want to support.
- How much will it cost?
It's likely that you'll have to pay for shipping your item, unless it's a local place where you can drop off your item in person. (Another reason that local organizations are a good bet and international requests get an automatic no.) If you're making something new, remember not only to calculate the amount you'll spend on supplies, but also the total amount of time it will take: making the item, communicating with the organization, packaging, photographing, and shipping.
- How many other (and what kind) of donations are involved? How large is the event?
Many organizations seek as many donations as possible. (It's all profit for them.) Obviously, at a smaller event your item may receive more attention than if it's one item scattered on a table with a thousand others.
Events often feature large ticket items (vacations, spa treatments, fancy restaurants) from large corporations. How does your work as a handmade artist fit with the other donations? Sometimes events will cluster handmade or local work together which can make it easier to find bidders. I found this article "Fundraising Silent Auction: It's the Items, Stupid" from a fundraiser's perspective fascinating, as it mentions that art in general is often a tough fit for many fundraisers. An abstract acrylic painting's appeal is more subjective than a gift certificate to Tony's Italian Eatery and will likely receive few bids. This is another reason why being a good match (see Question 6) matters. Some groups will appreciate handmade items more than others.
- Is this the event's first year?
I tend to shy away from first year events unless the organization has a good track record of successful events. In my experience, first year events can be disorganized and organizers may have an inflated (and unrealistic) idea of how popular their event will be. ("We're expecting 10,000 people!!!!")
- How will the donation be acquired?
See Question 9. You definitely do not want to end up like this Etsy seller who not only had to take her item to the auction, but later to the winning bidder's house.
- What kind of exposure will my shop get? Is it trackable?
Every event will promise you some kind of exposure: your name in a slide show or printed program, your business cards tossed on a table, a shout out on Facebook or Twitter, a link on a web page. Links to your shop on social media can good, depending upon the number of followers and how active they are. Links on web pages that will be accessible for months after the event can also provide a steady trickle of traffic. It's easy to look at your statistics and see how effective the organization is in driving traffic to your shop.
- How will I feel if my item brings in little money for the organization and/or no new business for me?
This is, honestly, the most likely outcome. Are you okay with that? Silent auctions are a very popular fundraiser in part because those attending love to get a "good deal" on something they might normally not have purchased. They're also a good place to socialize, which could mean more attention to conversation and food than the auction itself. Attendees may not want to pick up business cards or brochures that they need to carry around all night. (However, they might take photos of your items with their smart phones, so think about having identifiable packaging so you can be found later.)
- Will I get any feedback after the event?
Sadly, it's rare to receive a thank you or acknowledgment for your donation. It's even rarer to learn how many people ended up attending or much money your item brought in. (You can always ask, but don't be surprised if you don't get a response.) While you can't use this criteria for a new-to-you organization, it's definitely a good question to ask yourself if they come back for a second donation. Personally, I will always remember the one elementary school that sent me a kid-written thank you note for my donated bookmark. How could I not be charmed (and likely to donate again)?
- Is there another way to support this organization?
For me, this last question is the clincher. If it's a fantastic organization, maybe I'll attend the fundraising event myself or donate my own time or money. Many Etsy sellers do make a point of donating part of their proceeds to charity. Just because you were asked to donate a handmade item does not mean that is your only option to give back.
* I'm talking only about charity requests in this blog post ...elementary schools, cancer fighting organizations, the local Rotary club. You will likely get personal donation requests, too. ("I'm sooooo popular online! Send me free stuff!") Go ahead and delete those without a second thought.