“As each salon is enriched by those who attend, our impact is only as far-reaching as how we are resourced.”
Nirupa Umapathy - Co-Founder
Evolution of Sustainability
The salons have evolved in their impact,viability and sustainability.
In our prototyping phase from 2018 to early 2019, our programming was funded by the generosity of artists, who shared their creative capital. This, combined with the generosity of hosts, who opened their living rooms and community, contributed social capital.
In 2019, we introduced the pass-through model, where artists were paid whatever was raised from each salon. At the end of 2019, when Sybil joined forces with Nirupa, both co-founders committed to freeing the salons from onerous operational costs by bringing all their services pro-bono. This allowed SFL to pass through 100% of proceeds toward paying artists. All other operational costs were taken care of by the co-founders.
In 2020, with the onset of the pandemic, we added another leg to the mission: donate 50% of proceeds raised from every salon toward a community organization, whose mission aligned with ours. To address the concerns of a sliding scale ticketing model, SFL committed to a fixed artist honorarium of $250 per salon, an amount backstopped by Nirupa and Sybil.
Looking back on nearly 4-years of our existence, we are proud of how far we have come and how much we have passed through in terms of monies toward supporting independent artistic programming and organizations doing critical work that are under-resourced.
In our continued commitment to sustainability, our model will again shift in 2022. Blending the fixed artist honorarium with the percentage-based donation to a corresponding organization, 10% of proceeds will be retained for operational costs. Operating costs include, paying our two-team members, Kate and Alexia, two full-time working artists, who offer their services part-time for efficiency purposes. Kate is a recently formalized co-founder. Any contribution to the operating fund therefore amplifies our mission to support independent, working artists, who are disadvantaged by working in markets that undervalues artistic/creative pay for service through equitable pay.
In summary, your donation goes toward paying two critical missions. One, supporting underpaid artists, who act as critical connectors for communities at a time of great disruption. Two, to support the work of small (mostly underfunded) bonafide mission-based organizations, who are doing critical work for communities in restoration and healing.
October 2018
“Your salons serve an important purpose a vehicle for self discovery and deeper understanding of and connecting to the human purpose and spirit.”
Anjali - Medical Practitioner & Mind-Body-Practice Enthusiast
Proceeds from past seasons have supported the following organizations:
2019
2020
Jersey City Anti-Violence Coalition
2021
Indian Muslim Relief & Charities**
2022
2023
Friends of Liberty State Park *
*Payments were facilitated through our US partner, Save the Child
**Payments were facilitated through our US partner, Noorani Dance