How You Can Help Artists With Disabilities

ASPIE has a singular mission: to help adult artists with disabilities show their work and grow more self sufficient.

How do we do that? By working with good folks like you. The ASPIE community relies on people who want to help, either by donating in exchange for handmade artistic gifts in the ASPIE gallery or by contributing more directly.

When you support ASPIE, you are helping painters, photographers, musicians and others, many of whom have difficulties in a traditional workplace, become more independent. The donations they receive represent a sustainable supplemental income that does not interfere with their government benefits.

More important, it gives them a great deal of pride to show their work publicly and see that work appreciated.

Here’s the good news: it’s not hard to help ASPIE artists.

You can help simply by doing things you already do. Here are some examples.

• Donate at the Gallery. We all buy gifts, all year long. Birthdays. Holidays. Sometimes, just because. When you donate in exchange for gifts at the ASPIE gallery, your money goes farther. You get a unique, artistic gift. You help artists with disabilities. And the money you donate is tax deductible. It’s a major win for all involved.

  Perhaps more important, the system is easy. Simply visit the ASPIE gallery, choose your gift and make a donation. That’s it. Your gift is delivered. You can give it a try right now, in fact. Check out these gifts for Patricks Day or Easter. Both are coming up!

• Become an ASPIE Ambassador. ASPIE loves to see new artists go live in the gallery, but we do have a waiting list. It takes resources to get an artist showing, from art supplies to inventory management—even the special ABLE savings accounts that the artists use.

  ASPIE Ambassadors donate $300 to get an artist off the waiting list and onto the gallery. To learn how this works, read about Paul McAuliffe, the musician who is now distributing his original pieces thanks to ASPIE. For the cost of taking a family to a ball game, you can make a huge difference in an artist’s life. You can be the next ASPIE Ambassador!

• Use AmazonSmile. Shop at AmazonSmile and Amazon will donate a portion of the proceeds back to us! Simply go to smile.amazon.com and choose ASPIE as your charity, and then use that site to launch all your Amazon shopping in the future. You will be connected to your regular Amazon account, shop as normal and there is no extra cost to you. This is a truly painless way to help ASPIE artists!
• Make a Donation. Of course, ASPIE would be nowhere without the generous supporters who have donated tens of thousands of dollars in the last year. Whether you give a small amount or something larger, we appreciate every penny.

The ASPIE community has found many ways to help artists this year. One donor bought all his Christmas cards through ASPIE. Another bought three paintings in one day (we actually put out a release on that one). Still more have joined the ambassador program or simply made it a point to select their gifts at the ASPIE gallery.

Your help can make a huge difference. Together, we can help artists with disabilities show their work and grow more self sufficient.