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Fundraising, Statue of Liberty Style (Jim Karrh On Marketing)

3 min read

Today she stands proudly as a symbol of liberty and hope. But as I learned during a recent tour of Liberty Island, it was far from certain that the Statue of Liberty would ever make it to America — or anywhere, for that matter.

The story involves marketing, competition, envy, and the media, including lessons for fundraising today.

The Statue — officially titled “Liberty Enlightening the World” and designed by Frédéric Bartholdi — was proposed as a gift to America from the people of France. Americans were asked to raise money for its pedestal. That’s when the work of fundraising began, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Here are some fascinating lessons I learned:

There was a Plan B. Although the statue was intended for New York Harbor, boosters hoped that displaying the hand and torch of the statue at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition (while the rest of the statue was being built) would generate interest nationwide. Bartholdi chose these parts to display because he thought they would make an acceptable standalone structure if the overall project failed. Soon that seemed the most likely scenario; in September 1876 the New York Times reported that “the statue has been suspended in consequence of a lack of funds.”

Competition — real or imagined — helped the cause. For a designer, Bartholdi was a pretty good marketer. In a clever response to the New York Times, he said that he might allow Philadelphia to claim the statue. Within a few months, New York took the bait: The city announced that the hand and torch would be displayed in Madison Square while everyone awaited the rest of the statue. Today we call this phenomenon FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out.

Once the hand and torch were in Madison Square, prospects did not improve. According to our guide, nannies across the Madison Square neighborhood complained that kids were freaked out by the sight of a giant hand coming out of the ground. But the hand and torch stayed for a year, then another, then a few more.

Although money for the project was still lacking, New Yorkers apparently did not want any competing city to have it either. After word got out that Boston wanted in, an Oct. 3, 1882, editorial in the New York Times included this: “…no third-rate town is going to step in…that great light-house statue shall be smashed into minute fragments before it shall be stuck up in Boston Harbor.”

This sounds like cities competing for major sports teams and stadium deals, no?

Success depended upon broad participation. New York’s wealthiest weren’t participating; leaders needed to somehow get a large number of New Yorkers involved. They got creative. Fundraising efforts included benefit concerts, art exhibits, and auctions offering models of the statue, photos and souvenirs. The campaign eventually raised money from more than 160,000 donors. More than 75 percent of donations were less than a dollar. This was “crowdfunding” long before there was such a term.

A final boost came from celebrity and media. By 1885, the Statue of Liberty was in New York. But it was in pieces, waiting to be assembled. Today, in a similar predicament, we might try for celebrity attention as a way to secure media coverage. In 1885 the cause got a big dose of both in one man. The renowned publisher Joseph Pulitzer launched a fundraising campaign in his newspaper The New York World. In five months he raised $101,091 — enough to cover the last $100,000 needed to finish the pedestal plus a little extra as a gift for the sculptor.

So take heart, fundraisers. The next time you see an image of the Statue of Liberty — even in one of those insurance commercials — know that your visionary idea can become reality through a few marketing principles and a big chunk of patience.


Jim Karrh of Little Rock is a consultant, coach and professional speaker as well as a consulting principal with DSG. Visit JimKarrh.com, email him at Jim@JimKarrh.com and follow him on Twitter @JimKarrh.
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