Ep. 35 - Diversifying Your Income Stream with Aubrey Wilkerson

Hi there folks!

Creatives Meet Business is an event and podcast series based out of Austin, Texas for artists and creatives to learn the ropes of entrepreneurship.

This episode features Aubrey Wilkerson, Executive Director of Out Youth, who joined us in August during our roundtable event on Fundraising. As you'll soon find out, he has so much to share about revenue streams and how to play to your strengths for funding sources. Because there's so much magic in this episode - let's hop in and hear what Aubrey has to say!

• 0:00 to 3:41 - Ashland Opening Remarks and Intro of Aubrey Wilkerson
• 3:46 to 4:52 - Introduction of Self and Topic
  • Started at UT, raising money for super computers
  • Executive Director of Out Youth
  • Board member for The Telling Project
  • Board member for the Austin Tennis Club
  • Fundraiser for over 10 years
• 4:53 to 7:10 - Sources of Funding
  • Grants
    • Researching and finding grantors
    • Writing Letter of Intent 
    • Writing Grant
    • Interviews / Site Visits
    • Executing the Grant
    • Reporting and Deliverables
  • Corporate Gifts
  • Individual Giving // Employee Giving
    • Find Prospective Funders
    • Meeting 
    • Emailing / Direct Mailing 
    • UT model was 12 contacts a year with only one ask a year for money
  • Event Fundraising (Gala, Luncheons, etc)
  • Each category has a lot of work associated with them
  • Think about your capacity and how much you can take on and execute when thinking about diversifying your revenue streams (and whether or not you can)
• 7:11 to 8:23 - Should You Diversify Your Funding Streams?
  • Depends! It depends where you are with the project and much more
  • Out Youth annually reviews its revenue streams to see how to better diversify for coming years
  • If all your funding is from one source (all your eggs are in one basket), you better watch that basket closely
• 8:24 to 9:49 - Downside to Isolated Funding Streams
  • Individual Giving
    • Responsive to things outside your control (like the economy, election cycles)
  • Grants
    • High reward
    • Grantors can change funding models and not renew the full grant, might mean releasing employees if the grant is lost
• 9:50 to 11:00 - Diversified Revenue Streams as Future Goal 
  • At some point, the goal should be to have diversified income streams
  • Start with your best and natural fits first, the lowest hanging fruit first
  • Have future goals for improvement in areas that aren't your speciality
• 11:01 to 11:46 - Making a Case for Supporting the Arts
  • Learn how to message the importance of investing in all forms of art
• 11:47 to 13:07 - Beyonce Story!
  • Included because it's heart warming and lovely!
• 13:11 to 15:07 - What Aubrey Learned from Years in Fundraising
  • The value of stewardship and building a relationship with donors
  • Fundraising jobs at first are technical, it wasn't till he was actually asking for money that he learned how it all worked together
  • If someone is actually connected to the project, asking money for it is easier
• 15:08 to 16:28 - Donor Circles / Donor Societies
  • How they work
  • Host a low impact event (wine and cheese) that's an update about the organization or project and then don't ask for money
• 16:32 to 17:38 - Ashland Closing Remarks
  
  • Stay in touch, email us ([email protected]) or connect with us on social (@createmeetbiz on Instagram and Twitter // Creatives Meet Business on Facebook)
  • Big thanks to Jamal Knox (audio engineer) and Chris James (composer)!

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More on Fundraising, stay tuned!

Thanks!

Ashland, Creatives Meet Business