Artsurge (on twitter as @artsurge) describes itself as “promoting philanthropic & creative exchange between artists and donors”. It’s an example of how social media can create productive connections between people who might never have found each other. In this case, those-in-the-arts-with-ideas-that-need-funding can make a presentation to be seen by those-who-have-resources-and-want-to-support-ideas-they-believe-in. It looks like some very fruitful alliances could emerge from this.
The concept has some elements of microlending http://wp.me/ptZn3-7L and there’s a directness that is very appealing. I’m sure many donors would prefer to support a specific project rather than a vague “arts organization”. And artists almost certainly prefer to know that a bureaucratic layer has been eliminated in making decisions about how donor dollars are spent.
Here’s the link:
http://www.artsurge.org/
If you know of similar projects, please share them with me.
http://www.zamaanaarts.com is another example with a slightly different focus. It connects artists to buyers and takes a percentage for charitable causes via Kiva http://www.Kiva.org