FUNDING NEEDS TO FINISH

January 11, 2019
HAS HEART

We knew this “50 States: Veterans + Artists United” working tour would push us beyond where we have not been as an organization. Before this tour, our annual pop-up shop and exhibit each ArtPrize in Grand Rapids was our main fundraiser. We didn’t need much more than that since our projects were local and us few volunteers were running the organization during nights and weekends while we held day jobs.

But we knew the power of the HERO[series] should not be limited to just West Michigan. In order to reach and impact more Veterans, creatives, and civilians, we would need to take a leap of faith and go all-in.

Welp, we did just that. Tyler and Kendra both quit their day jobs, personally financed their Airstream to live in and work from, and planned it out to take [HAS HEART] across the country themselves with the help of many hands along the way. Read more about how we got started on “OUR JOURNEY: PLANNING THE IMPOSSIBLE” blog post.

Our first financial partners and sponsors (AIGA, Alpha Industries, Schultz Family Foundation, Home Depot Foundation, Bates Footwear, Todd Wenzel Chevrolet, FS Investments, and USAA) responded to the call that helped get us started.

Now, 18 months later, our initial funds have been fully utilized and deployed, causing us to pause the upcoming tour projects in order to raise the finances needed to complete the rest of our nationwide mission of connecting Veterans and civilians from sea to shining sea.

With the help of many hands, we’ve been able to be on the road for 545 days, drive 39,095 miles, visit 36 states, complete 38 projects, work with 46 Veterans and 117 creatives, and launch 14 projects alongside our apparel partner Alpha Industries with 24 more currently preparing to launch.

But, we still have 14 states yet to visit, 15 projects still to complete, and 36 projects to launch — the work is not done and we need your help to finish it.

In order to meet our funding needs, we’re working to establish new partnerships and/or promote existing partner ranks. Each level of support yields unique opportunities which may be adjusted to fit your needs. If your foundation, organization, or company is interested in utilizing the mediums of art, design, and fashion to help share meaningful stories of America’s heroes, please Contact Us immediately to get the conversation started.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Q: What are the Participant costs?

A: We want to be sure to pay the participants what we can in exchange for their time and talents. We began paying each participant $500 (the Veteran, designer, photographer, and videographer). We found difficulty in finding videographers for that amount because shooting and editing requires so much time that even those we truly believe in the cause just weren’t able to dedicate that much time to make it. Tyler decided that he could photograph each project himself in order to put that money towards finding a videographer to document the powerful collaborative process, so now we pay $1,000 for a videographer since that is one of the most moving aspects to share each Veteran’s story.

Q: Why is the total project goal $250,000?

A: In addition to the project costs to conduct the tour, we will also have costs after the project is complete for the design, production, and post-production of the tour’s final assets: a collection of American-made products, coffee table book, documentary film, and traveling museum exhibit.

Have more questions for us? CONTACT US and we’ll be happy to answer your question that others may also have themselves.

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FUNDING NEEDS TO FINISH

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