We artists rather constantly get requests to donate our art to non-profits to sell.  For some reason, charities don't ask Doctors to donate an office visit nor dentists to donate a teeth cleaning nor plumbers to donate an unstopped drain.  But our work is deemed "donate-able" by most of the world.  Silent auctions are the usual way non-profits sell donated art.  

I'm not a fan.

First, if there's a silent auction and someone gets my work way under my normal market prices, how does that make my regular clients feel?  They feel stupid because they paid full price.

Second, it is often difficult to get one's art back if it doesn't sell.  Once I had to pay $130 in shipping to get my unsold art back.  The charity, which hadn't gotten one bid on my art, wanted to keep it and try to sell it again the next year.  I said that would devalue my art.  I paid the shipping to get it back and sold it shortly thereafter for my full asking price.

Third, donating my art gets me almost nothing in the way of a charitable deduction.  The IRS will only let me deduct the cost of materials.  There is no deduction for my time or expertise.

Fourth, charities are truly awful at promoting artists who give their art to them to be sold.  You are extremely lucky if a buyer can find your name anywhere near the art.  Forget about being listed in any promotional materials.  That never happens.

One decent alternative to the demand to donate is what the local Alzheimers Association does.  They give artists a small palette to paint (or in my case, resin) and then they sell the palettes.  That works for me.  My art (read: style) is out there in the world and I've done something nice for a good cause.

By now you're probably thinking that I'm a horrible scrooge and maybe I am (although my cash deductions would belie that view point).  So here are 10 better options for artists to support non-profits from artworkarchive.com's blog.  

https://www.artworkarchive.com/blog/10-ways-to-support-nonprofits-without-giving-away-your-art? utm_campaign=supportnonprofits&utm_source=newsletter

These make much more sense to me than a straight gift of your art.  We need to stop devaluing our art by giving it away.