For All Artist: Donating Your Art Work To Charity

As an artist you may have thought about donating your art work to help benefit a charity. You may want to think about several things before you donate your art.

• Is this a Charity that you believe in? This, to me, is one of the most important aspects of donating your art work .

• What is your motivation? If having the right people notice you and your art work is, you need to do a thorough investigation of the event.

• How will your work be promoted?   If it is a very large, popular event there will be others seeking as much publicly as they can get. Find out if you will be promoted or acknowledged.

• Are you a last minute entry added to fill a space at a silent auction or are you the headliner?

• Have your artist statement, bio, description of your art work and contact information available and placed next to your art donation, if possible.  Many events may only list your name and maybe the name of art creation you donated without any contact information.

• Who will be handling your work?  Volunteers are a great thing. They are passionate about the cause that they are supporting. They are NOT, however, experts at display or handling your art pieces or art in general. Ask, if possible, if you can set your own art display up. If so, then by all means do so. You can put your art work in the best light possible.

• Remember- your art work may sell for less than what you have listed the value to be. This is where it is important for you to choose a charity that is important to you. So that any dollar raised, because of you and your art, is a dollar well raised for what you believe in.

• The value you placed on your art piece or what the piece sells for may not be the amount you can use to deduct for tax purposes. Check with your accountant on the amount you are legally allowed to deduct. Keep your records.

• There may be entry, approval or inventory forms that need to be completed before you donate your art piece. Call and check with the director handling the event. Or check their website to see if they have the forms available there.

Choosing to donate your art work can be a very rewarding endeavor. The key, again, is to choose a charity that is close to you and that you believe in.