logo
book Subscribe to our Magazine
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
    • Grassroots Fundraising Journal
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Podcasts
    • Tiny Spark
    • Women of Color in Power
  • Webinars
    • Free Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership

Nonprofit Newswire | Getting Rich Off Street Fairs?

Rick Cohen
July 13, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

 

July 10, 2010; Source: Wall Street Journal | We’ve long enjoyed the San Gennaro street fair in New York City’s Little Italy and never once bemoaned the stands selling smoothies, Italian sausages, gyros, and t-shirts for the money—probably minimal—they might be making from the milling crowds. In fact, we assumed, without ever asking, that nonprofits (or churches) were benefiting from the fairs, hopefully substantially.

But of course there are moneymakers involved and like many nonprofit fundraisers, the money makers don’t leave much for the nonprofits. The firm that organizes the San Gennaro festival was established by someone described by the Wall Street Journal as a “former community organizer and singles-club impresario,” a resume combination we hadn’t run across before. He, his wife, his business partner, and about 20 seasonal employees run fairs on weekends (during the week, he runs his political button business).

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

The Journal describes the costs structure of an unnamed festival as follows: “Street festival producers make their money off vendor fees—typically $150 for a 10-by-10-foot merchandise stall or $300 for a corner food stand. You can pack 34 vendors into one block, which means the typical five-block festival earns about $25,000…The city gets a 20 percent cut off the top. Next, the promoter pays for insurance, clean-up crews and portable toilets; these expenses run about $1,500 a block, or $7,500 total. That leaves $12,500 for the promoter to share with the nonprofit sponsor . . . (N)onprofits typically report their share at $6,000 to $8,000.”

For the hoity-toity, the homogeneity of the street fairs and the nuisance of the street closings are bothersome. New York’s Center for an Urban Future has produced a report complaining about the fairs, concluding, “For far too many New Yorkers, summer would be even more enjoyable without them.” The community organizier/singles club impresario/political button/street fair organizing guy has a different take: “For folks who can’t afford a trip to the shore, ‘This is their entertainment for the week.’”—Rick Cohen

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rick Cohen

Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Before that he played various roles as a community worker and advisor to others doing community work. He also worked in government. Cohen pursued investigative and analytical articles, advocated for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promoted increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

More about: Nonprofit News

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

NPQ_Spring_2022

You might also like
The Liberatory World We Want to Create: Loving Accountability and the Limitations of Cancel Culture
Aja Couchois Duncan and Kad Smith
Hearing Every Single Voice: Consensus, Voting, and Co-op Democracy
Anj Talley
The More You Know: Sharing Power by Sharing Information
Nicole Koch
Indigenous Creators Call for Infrastructure
Steve Dubb
Putting the “Social” Back in Social Enterprise: An Evidence-Based Approach
Reece Steinberg
What If We Owned It?
Darnell Adams

Upcoming Webinars

Group Created with Sketch.
June 9th, 2 pm ET

Remaking the Economy

Wage Justice, Now!

Register
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman
WOMEN OF COLOR IN POWER
Women of Color in Power

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe
Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Authentic Leadership
Reclaiming Interrupted Lineages

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Submissions
  • Advertisers
  • Newsletters
  • Copyright

Subscribe to View Webinars

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.