We are currently selling pieces of an art installation by a local artist. The money for the pieces are considered contributions to a fund. We would like to set up a public-facing TNEW page to sell the pieces, but since we treat the money as a contribution, we won't be able to keep track of our stock, and feel we run the risk of over-selling before we even know we've sold out.
Does anyone know of a creative way to put a cap on the number of contributions that come in via specific channels? Or can you think of another way to address this need that perhaps I'm not seeing?
Thanks all,
Mike Dorsey
CRM Specialist
National WWI Museum and Memorial
You might consider using a "performance" as a product to control capacity and sell on TNEW, and then do some backend processing (likely manual) to create the contributions and move the money out of the dummy performance into the fund. We do this for all kinds of things.
This sounds promising, but it's something we've never done before. Can you provide a little more detail? For starters, how do you move it from the performance into a contribution? Do you capture payment information for the "ticket", return and re-run for the same amount as a contribution?
Thank you for your insight and assistance!
Yup, that's the basics of it. You take payment for the ticket (we use the term "dummy event"), and then periodically sweep through the dummy event, modifying capacity with holds as necessary, and returning the ticket value to an on-account payment method. Then on the contribution side, you pay for the contribution amount using the on-account money.
Nick,
This should work really well for our purposes. Thanks again! You've been a big help.
-Mike
Hi Mike,
I'm interested in this thread (we're about to do something similar) but I'm curious about why this money should be considered a donation?
For us (maybe it's an Australian thing) we wouldn't consider this a donation as the rules here state that a donation (for tax purposes) cannot receive a material benefit. We're planing on selling this in the same manner as merchandise, via a performance - as per Nick's response.
Martin
There's a portion of it that is essentially the material cost, which is not considered a tax-deductible donation. We "sell" goods as contributions in a couple of scenarios, and there's a material cost taken out of the overall donation. This is the first scenario we've come across where we will have a limit to the number of items available.
Here's hoping this solution works well for both of us! I'm optimistic that it will.
Thanks!
To clarify, are the donors actually receiving a piece of the artwork (similar to a premium) or are they merely donating to support a portion of the artwork (more like "Name a Brick")?
It's similar to a premium. The art installation consisted of a number of large metal poppy flowers made by a popular local artist and museum patron. Donors receive a poppy flower for donating, to use however they wish.
Thanks Mike.