Fund Your Dreams Like a Creative Genius

How to Get Others to Support Your Vision

If you have a dream that needs backing, be it an art project, an invention, or even a business, this is the book for you. Brainard Carey offers advice with solid examples of how building relationships with sponsors, investors, grant-makers, and patrons is something every creative person can pursue. Carey draws from his extensive experience and interviews with others to show artists and creative people how to raise money without the use of crowdfunding platforms. Readers will learn how to articulate their funding needs, develop a campaign, and approach sponsors. Chapter topics include:

• Defining your funding goals
• Pitching a proposal
• Writing to someone you've never met before
• Conversational tactics to help you ask for funding
• Methods for keeping in touch with potential sponsors
• Real examples of artists and entrepreneurs who succeeded in gaining the support of philanthropists and patrons
• And much more

With chapters divided between practical how-tos and case studies, Fund Your Dreams Like a Creative Genius, offers readers both instructive and demonstrative lessons in making their next big project a reality. Everyone can do it with the right tools, and Carey offers an insider's guide to an otherwise daunting process.

Brainard Carey is an artist, teacher, walker, and pool player. He cofounded the artistic collaborative Praxis with his wife, Delia Carey. As host of the popular Yale University radio show, Lives of the Artists, he has interviewed over 700 artists and creative people to illuminate their careers and work. He is passionate about art education and has written several books for artists to develop their careers, including Making It in the Art World, New Markets for Artists, and The Art World Demystified. He also co-founded Praxis Center for Aesthetics, an online school for professional artists. He lives in New York City.