Man Gets $140 Picasso as Innovative Raffle Makes Charity Millions

Ruth McCambridge

December 20, 2013

December 19, 2013; MSN News

NPQ covered this story previously in September, saying that the structure of the fundraiser was different than what we had previously seen. Beating out 49,999 other raffle tickets in a Wednesday drawing, the ticket bought by 25-year-old Jeffrey Gonano won him Picasso’s L’Homme au Gibus (“Man with Opera Hat”), valued at $1 million.

Gonano, a project manager at a fire sprinkler firm, bought the ticket for 100 euros, or $140. What makes the whole deal different is that the artwork was bought with a large bank loan; by our figuring, it looks like it will have netted about four times its original price for the International Association to Save Tyre—Ruth McCambridge

About the author

Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

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