Written by: Divya Palasamudram
As the holiday season was approaching, Roshni Daruvuri, Tanvi Kadam, Sarah Richard, Aditi Lakshminarayanan, Neha Kamichetty, Lasya Tula, and Marina Khan created beautiful holiday paintings to sell! All profits made from the Art Shop went to Girl Up. Girl Up, in partnership with the United Nations, stands up for girls, speaks up for programs that help them thrive, and rises up as a community of advocates to change the world, for good.
Choosing an organization to support with a fundraiser can be difficult, the Art Shop team’s decision to fundraise for Girl Up started at General Services’ December meeting. Yadurshini Raveendran was a guest speaker at the December meeting, and in the meeting she introduced Girl Up to our members. What she had to say inspired the group to support Girl Up with their fundraiser.
Set Up and Promotion
Each team member was passionate and enjoyed making art, which is what drew them to this project. Tanvi’s passion for art started when she was 6 years old and Roshni started making art when she was around 11 years old. Sarah had just joined General Services at the time of this project, and thought that creating art would be a super fun first project! All of their paintings were displayed on an Etsy shop, in order to promote their shop, each team member posted an Instagram Story on Girl Up, and linked this Etsy shop to their post. Sarah also added the Etsy shop link in her Instagram bio. Each team member also texted their friends and family their art work as well as the art shop link, which proved to be a great method of promotion in the past. Sarah found that giving people reminders about your project is effective as well.
Obstacles and Tips
Despite proper planning, almost every project has to deal with some sort of obstacle along the way, which is perfectly fine! For the Art Shop, they found that since they started their project so close to the holidays, they did not have as much time to promote before the holiday season was over. As a tip, the team recommends for other members to start planning any themed projects early, so that there is ample time to promote. If you are in the position where you do not have as much time to promote a themed project, the Art Shop team suggests possibly modifying your idea to make it more general.
Conclusion
The Art Shop was a creative fundraiser idea, and the team was able to support a wonderful organization using their talents, and so can you! If the Art Shop project inspired you to start a fundraiser of your own, that is amazing! The General Services board is always here to assist you with starting your own service project.