•
mess
c:Dyricicircite
Jewish philanthropists
have helped cultivate
business support
for charity.
n 1981, when the De-
troit Institute of Arts as-
sessed its annual benefit
gala - Under the Stars
- the museum felt the
event should clear more
than $18,000.
After all, the ball was
drawing prominent
Jewish donors, from
shopping mall magnate
Al Taubman to industrialist
Max Fisher, among others.
Still, for a museum with an
annual budget of well over $20
million, $18,000 was chicken
feed. To help boost revenues,
the Institute needed a way to
increase contributions to the
gala outside of personal donors,
who were already giving gen-
erously.
R.J. KING
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
The answer was corporate
giving. By cultivating business
support, the museum increased
gala contributions by over 40
percent in 1982, while press cov-
erage for both the event and a
chief sponsor sky-rocketed. By
linking itself with various cor-
porations in subsequent years,
annual contributions to the ball
jumped nine-fold to $170,000
last year.
"In 1981, we were getting
very little return from Under
the Stars, so we decided to look
outside our traditional approach
and bring in corporations," said
Peg Tallet, past director of Un-
der the Stars and now vice pres-
ident of fund-raising for
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Dulcie Rosenfeld
Sarah Saltzman manages corporate events for Ameritech.
Anthony M. Franco, Inc., a pub-
lic relations firm in Detroit.
"In order for the corporate
giving program to work, we had
to be more responsive to a com-
pany's goals. They were looking
for a big splash and we were
looking for wider support. It
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was a classic example of corpo-
rations linking themselves with
non-profits to create a win-win
situation."
With Sarah Wolk, president
of Sarah Wolk & Associates, a
public relations and marketing
firm in Birmingham, Ms. Tal-
let approached Gucci Shops,
Inc. following the 1981 ball.
Gucci, an international retail-
er of quality fashions, operates
a store at the Somerset Collec-
tion in Troy.
Ms. Tallet and Ms. Wolk pro-
posed Gucci host a party to cel-
ebrate their store and invite
people who purchased patron
tickets to the 1982 Under the
Stars. The in-store Gucci event
was used as an incentive to up-
grade ticket purchases to the
ball ($250 per person, $100
more than normal gala tickets).
"Corporate giving is a tricky
thing, but if done right it can in-
crease revenues and exposure
for the non-profit, which is the
ultimate goal," said Ms. Wolk.
"You have to try to fit the gift,
whatever it is, and make it ap-
propriate to the non- profit and
the client. The closer the fit, the
better it works.
"If Under the Stars and Guc-
ci continued to go it alone, they
would never have received the
exposure that they did in pool-
ing their resources. But it
should be in the spirit that com-
panies take from the commu-
nity, they should give back. You
want the lion's share of the do-
nations and exposure to go to
the non-profit, not to the client
or administration costs."
While some may argue that
corporate giving allows compa-
nies to benefit from the public
goodwill of a non-profit, the re-
ality is both sides need each oth-
er. As long as the tie-in isn't "too
close" or "tacky," Ms. Tallet said
most people are willing to sup-