Schneider is the development associate for Bread for the City’s annual Art with a Heart auction (www.breadforthecity.org) to be held on March 29. The auction is one of the biggest fundraisers for the year for the nonprofit, which provides free food, medical and dental care, legal assistance, social services and clothing to the District’s neediest residents.
How much do you hope to raise this year?
This is our 22nd year doing Art with a Heart [and] last year we raised about $338,000, and this year the goal is to raise $400,000.
How fancy is this shindig?
It’s a little different than your typical fundraiser. For one, it’s on a weekday so it’s business attire instead of black tie. It usually ends up being about 350 to 400 people, most of which are donors. It’s a really fun, laid-back event. … We’ve already sold about 75 percent of our tickets.
What are some of the more coveted items up for bidding?
The silent auction prizes range from tickets to sporting events to theater tickets … to a yoga basket. Then you have a seated dinner and the live auction will continue to raise funds. That includes an apartment in Rio [de Janeiro] for a week and $1,500 in airfare from USAirways… Paul’s Wine and Liquor in north Georgetown donated a wine tasting where they’ll come to your home and do everything you need for it.
Where does the money go?
All the money goes directly to services — food, clothing, medical programs and legal and social services. It costs about $28,000 a day just to keep us up and running and … we have a $6.5 million operating budget. So [if we hit our goal of] $400,000, it would be a huge dent in the budget.
– Liz Farmer
