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FRANK PROVENZANO SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
ust days before the kickoff of Channel 56's
week-long auction, Jill Silver took a prover-
bial deep breath. She would exhale a week
later.
Ms. Silver, WTVS auction coordinator
for the past two years, put in 15-hour days
at the public television station for more
than two weeks preparing for the recent
six-day auction.
Yet you won't hear her complain about the
hours — or the work.
Like anyone who has toiled for nonprofit or-
ganizations, the work is more of a calling than
a routine 9-to-5. And Ms. Silver, 26, seems es-
pecially pleased that this year's auction lived
up to its billing as the largest special event
in metro Detroit.
For the first time in the auction's 28-year
history, there weren't as many last-minute
anxiety attacks about whether there was
enough merchandise for the six-day bidding.
Largely through Ms. Silver's "quiet persis-
tence," about 1,000 volunteers worked the auc-
tion, which brought in about $480,000 —
double last year's take. That's about 3 percent
of the station's annual budget.
"We had hoped to make half a mil-
lion, which is twice as much as last
year. We're very happy, I should say,"
Ms. Silver says.
Based on her last two years at
WTVS, Ms. Silver has demonstrat-
ed a laid-back persuasive style and
follow-through. But being laid back
shouldn't be mistaken for a lack of
assertiveness. On the contrary.
For her precision in overseeing a
two-person staff and hundreds of vol-
unteers, she has earned the label
"queen of details," an honorable title
in the nonprofit world, where the
ability to organize is equivalent to
"making a buck" in the for-profit
marketplace.
There was a time not long ago,
however, that Ms. Silver wondered
if she'd ever find the right job. Upon
graduation from Eastern Michigan
University, the Bingham Farms res-
ident had no idea what to do with her
degree in literature.
While Keats, Shelley and Whit-
man were certainly worthwhile aca-
demic subjects, Ms. Silver also
learned how to manage multiple
li
tasks from her work outside the classroom as
a waitress. From her job waiting tables, she
learned "juggling skills" that she draws on
daily.
"My job requires a lot of patience and cus-
tomer service," she says. "I have to please
donors, bidders, buyers and volunteers."
She began at WTVS as a part-timer on the
staff of the auction coordinator she would lat-
er replace. Her tenure at the station began
shortly after she left her job as an executive
assistant at an Ann Arbor architecture firm.
Her migration from struggling underling to
successful auction coordinator gained the at-
tention of Glamour magazine, which featured
Ms. Silver in its March issue's "Get-Ahead
Guide to Jobs & Money" section.
With WTVS, she found a way to parlay her
interest in planning special events to coordi-
nating, full time, one of the largest local fund-
raising events of the year.
When the coordinator position opened, Ms.
Silver realized "the perfect fit." Ironically, she
recalls, during the interview she mentioned
that she'd never feel comfortable asking for a
Jill Silver: WTVS auction coordinator.
donation. Since then, she's changed her atti-
tude while finding her own style of soliciting
funds. "The worst thing they can say is 'no,"
she now knows.
For this year's fund-raiser, she approached
a jeweler who had never contributed to the
auction. After a two-hour discussion, she left
the store with $10,000 in jewelry and brooches.
"He knew I was sincere, and he just had
to be convinced that the donation was impor-
tant," she says. "I love getting donations. It's
like shopping without spending money. Un-
fortunately, I don't get to keep any of it." In-
deed, most people, Ms. Silver has learned, are
willing to donate to a worthy cause.
With cuts in federal funding for public
broadcasting and ominous talk about alter-
native financing, the one-time steady nonprofit
broadcasting station now appears more like a
company scrambling to make quota from quar-
ter to quarter. In response, the roles of fund-
raisers like Ms. Silver have expanded.
'We're not here because we want to make
money," she says. 'We're here because we love
public television."
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PHOTO BY DANIEL LIPPITT
Alom