I have just started a new project with which I am wanting to donate a % of my sales to a charity. I was wondering if there was any way to connect a just giving account to my shop. If so is there any way of attaching a way seeing the amount raised through the artwork on the site as you give, without having to leave the folksy site?
Any advice would be great. Thank you
I don’t think there is any way to do that, I’ve never seen it done. You could ask admin but I doubt it can be done, sorry!
Which charity and is this started (so to speak)? I think my other half would love your puffin print and I owe him a birthday present.
Sasha
I fell a bit ambivalent about people giving to charity via their shops. If it encourages people to buy from you because you’re a “good cause” it’s a bit unfair on those of us who regularly give to charity anyway and don’t make it a selling point. Quite a good percentage of my sales value would go to Medicin sans Frontieres if I allocated it a source. Hope this post doesn’t offend anyone, it’s just how I feel…
I would also check with the charity that they are happy with this. I only say this as when I started out over 3years ago, I was giving all my profits to charity, a well known cancer one, and was telling everyone that was what I was doing on my FB page and my website. The charity were actually not happy about this - the reason being that in order to use their name with your business name is in fact down to their discretion, otherwise you can be seen to be trading off the back of it. I was told if I wanted to associate my business in any way with them I needed to sign a contract and be donating £50k+ each year. This was all about brand protection. It did smart at the time I’ll admit, but I understand where they’re coming from.
I still give to charity (it’s in memory of my sister who inspired me), but I don’t use it as a promotional tool. I just say 10% of sales to charity support by BBLB, and when I make a donation I will say which charity it has gone to.
Sasha, Great that you love my puffin print. Unfortunately I was going to be setting this charity giving for a specific set of lino prints which are in the process of being designed and printed. These prints are of a number of endangered British species specifically printed to raise money for People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES). I have not applied this across all of my art. I hope this doesn’t effect your desire to purchase my print for your husbands present, but I’d understand if you were wanting to buy art that supports a good cause. I love to do that, even though I give to charity separately, it is nice to see charities benefit from gifts you buy…its a win win.
Christine I am not wanting to give to charity to encourage people to buy from me that was indeed the last thing on my mind. A few weeks ago I was moved by the fact that there are hundreds of British species that are in serious decline. Many of them are species like the hedgehog, slowworm and sparrow which were very present when I was growing up and hold a lot of nostalgia for me. It breaks my heart that my children or even more so my grand children could never encounter some of these species. I am preparing a series of 20 limited edition lino prints (limited to 20) which are dedicated to 20 of the endangered species and I was going to sell them to raise money for the charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), which helps the conservation of British species. It never occurred to me that I was encouraging people to buy my art, just that I was wanting to use the gift I had to draw to support the work of this charity.
Liz, luckily the charity seems very excited by me doing this. Thank you for informing me of the problems you have encountered, because I didn’t inform the charity before hand as I just presumed they would love people fund raising for them. They now know and I have their blessing which is great!
I’m already late with his present (and our anniversary is coming up in october) so I’ll wait and see what other options you come up with and then choose my favourite (by which I obviously mean the one I think he’ll like the most of my favourites 
).
Sasha
Fantastic, hopefully they will also spread the news for you too. Hope the fundraising is a great success! 
I give 20% of my pet portrait listing price to The Cinnamon Trust, a charity that aims to keep terminally ill people and their pets together for as long as possible. Like you, I was moved from the heart to do this; I don’t charge any extra for the pet portraits so it is a genuine charitable thing.
I contacted the trust prior to beginning, I have an account set up with them, and send them a cheque whenever the fund gets over ÂŁ10 in it. They gave me wording to use in my listings, and allowed me to use their logo.
I’ve just seen the first of the charity prints - so cute! Can’t wait to see the rest of the series.
Sasha
I cannot afford to give any of my profit to charity as my profit is minimal and my pension pathetic. SO…I donate some items that I make for charities to raffle and that way they make slightly MORE than a % of any of MY profits. I sell my paintings but I make origami models that I just give away to anyone who is willing to come and collect an item (I don’t sell these, they are purely for charity)…it is the only way that I can afford to give.
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I used to give a percentage of certain artworks to charity, but with going full time it was becoming a nightmare to administer, and I was terrified of missing a donation out. Nowadays I prefer to do a painting every so often and give the whole thing - the charities tend to do auctions, and people pay over the odds in auctions, so the charities do better out of me that way
I raise funds for The Bunny Bank, a small organisation that helps rabbit rescuers with vets fees etc., and have just donated a Westie painting to Westies in Need
@teabreaks - those origami models are awesome!
I agree Sara, the charities gain a lot more if you donate an item so that they can have a raffle or an auction.
I give to Wateraid on a regular basis, but I prefer not to advertise this in my shop because I want my customers to buy my products because they like them and I feel that if I advertised the fact that this is why I was doing it, they might buy them for that reason.
Brenda - Wow! your origami models are amazing. Thank you for your feedback. For me I am unsure if I can make contact with the charity to raffle off my art. I have thought of a similar thing and to auction some pieces, but the charity I want to support isn’t local and this would involve a lot more organisation on my part. With working and doing my art as a secondary interest I do not have a lot of time. I have started to sell my pieces and I will see how it works. Thanks again
Sara - Thank you. I also work as well as doing my art in my spare time. I have thought about actions, but feel this would take a lot more organisation on my part and if I was to be honest I would be really scared people wouldn’t want to buy my piece, therefore not really gaining very much for the charity. Great that you raise money for the Bunny bank, its always good to do all we can to support the smaller organisations and charities - keep up the good work.
Martine - Thank you. Great that you give to wateraid, great charity! I am wanting to raise money for a charity with a project I have started specifically for this reason. I am not thinking of applying it to all of my artwork. I do my art as an addition to teaching so I really wanted to use a gift I have to help a charity. People like my art and if I can do something good with them buying it then it’s a bonus, I know that will buy it even if the charity wasn’t benefiting.
With The Bunny Bank I run the auctions myself, usually on my FB page as I know my customers will want what I’m selling. With Westies in Need they run their own auctions on FB, so I just photograph the item I want to donate, along with a description and shipping costs, it then gets listed on their page for when the auction starts, and they do all the rest 
I just ship the item when it’s been paid for and they have sent the shipping cost on to me
And always have confidence in your work - if you love it, others will It’s still nerve wracking waiting for the first bid, but the charities will tend to promote what you auction as it’s for their benefit
