Guild Hall’s Give-a-Thon

The producers of Guild Hall’s 12-Hour Live Stream event included its staff members, from left, Hannah-Faye Huizing, Kristen Curcie, Samantha Young, Jennifer Brondo, special guest Ivy Brondo, Casey Dalene, and Joe Brondo.

A 12-hour Facebook event

Dec. 7, 2017

Jennifer Landes

It takes a lot to attract the attention of a populace that is still in a food coma from Thanksgiving and exhausted from the financial consumption of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. What is a nonprofit arts organization to do in this environment to stand out from the crowd of others clamoring on Giving Tuesday for end of the year tithes from the dazed and tapped-out masses?

Guild Hall and its director Andrea Grover attempted to solve the conundrum with its Guild Hall Live Stream-a-Thon, a 12-hour Facebook event with LTV manning the cameras and a full slate of hometown arts personalities participating, all interspersed with a dancing banana (Kristen Curcie, in costume). In addition to a chalk drawing that Kara Hoblin created and then erased to reveal a message related to Guild Hall's mission, the extravaganza featured Wolffer wine and Montauk Brewery beer tastings.

All in all, the event attracted 15,985 views, 799 clicks, 1,300 reactions (likes, loves, ha-has), and raised $3,000. It was $2,000 short of its goal, but more than a quarter of the donations, averaging around $100, came from sources new to Guild Hall. The institution estimates that half of the donations came from young patrons.