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The Giving We've Done Together in 2020

If you follow me on Instagram, you’d know that throughout 2020, I made a TON of art. Making art helped me stabilize my mood, express myself, and stand up for causes that I believe in, but I wanted to push myself and make some sort of impact on my community through my art.

2020 was the year that we did that together.

During the latter half of 2020, I started to do charity initiatives through my art page, and I’m SO insanely lucky to have had people participate in them. It only shows how kind-hearted you all are, whether you participated through donating, or through sharing/liking/spreading the word on my small initiatives. I’ve posted stories on Instagram around what my fundraising totals have looked like along the way, but I thought I’d update you in a more permanent way through this post.

So here we go! This is what 2020 looked like in terms of our fundraising: (all totals are rounded to the nearest dollar)

January 2020 – I committed to donating 15% of my commissions from that month to Love146, a nonprofit that fights child trafficking. I made $200 in commissions in January, so my donation totaled $30 CAD. The receipt is below

June 2020 – I did a fundraiser with customized digital versions of my most popular art pieces for a $5 donation to any BLM-supporting charity of the individual’s choice. All they had to do was show me a screenshot of their donation receipt. Some donors preferred for me to make the donation on their behalf, and provide them with their donation receipt, which was promptly completed. We raised a total of $135 – due to the number of people who sent in their receipts and/or donated through me, it’s difficult for me to embed every donor’s receipts here. The majority of donors opted to donate themselves and send me their receipts, but those who donated through me already have their proofs of donation.

August 2020 – I did a print fundraiser where individuals had the option to donate to the NAACP, or Save the Children’s Yemen Fund for a print. The logistics around donations and receipts were the same as my June fundraiser. We raised $468 together! I’m so so proud of what we accomplished.

I also launched my website this month! With 30% of all proceeds going to BLM TO.

August-September 2020 – I did a charity raffle in support of relief for the Beirut explosion, with some art prints, a Wacom tablet, and custom-made pieces by Nadratan Rahman (owner and designer of @nad.rah). Raffle “tickets” were $2 each – we raised $60 together for the Lebanese red cross! The same logistics around donations/receipts applied from my previous fundraisers

September 2020 – It was my birthday this month, so I put up my Childhood Collection on this website, with South Asian versions of Hello Kitty, Winnie the Pooh, DW from Arthur, and Club Penguin, with 100% of my proceeds going to Thrive Child and Youth Trauma Services.
I’m so proud to say that the Childhood Collection made a total of $363 in revenue – with shipping costs deducted, we raised a total donation $300 together! The donation receipt is below: 

December 2020 – As the year closed, I totaled my website sales. The Childhood Collection’s total revenue and profit are above, and the total revenue for my other collections combined came to $376. After printing costs, and shipping costs were deducted, I came to a total profit of $160. 30% of this was donated to BLM to, which was $48. The donation receipt is below (I donated $46, with a $2.30 processing fee, for a total of $48.30).

The reason why my profit margins were so small was that I kept my prices low ($11-13 CAD) to make my art accessible to everyone. I also offered free shipping to Canada and the US, and I shut down my store in November 2020 as the Covid-19 cases in my area began to spike, and Canada Post began to become more backlogged. 

In 2021, I hope to dedicate more time to perfecting the balance between affordability and generating more donations through my art, as a full-time student this isn’t always easy, but I’ll do my best :)

In total, we raised $1,041 together! It seems like a small amount, but I’m so thankful to all of you for participating, and for encouraging me to do more with my small platform. I hope to do even more this year, with all of your help and support, whether it comes monetarily or not monetarily :)

Love,
Andrea