The Disappearing Donor Excerpt #1
For development novices and seasoned professionals alike!
Join us on the adventure that begins when two priceless paintings are stolen, and a major donor disappears. It’s up to Development Director, Lupe Reinowski, to solve the case while still reaching her fundraising goals and managing her team. Discover the truth while learning advancement best practices in this fresh and entertaining novel by Susan Madon.
This excerpt is from the book, The Disappearing Donor, to be released soon.
CHAPTER ONE
Lupe Reinowski looked over the Museum of Vegetable Culture's Fisker Gallery as her team, and the catering crew scurried about setting up for the evening's reception. Tonight would mark the most ambitious exhibition the small East Village museum had mounted. As director of development, she was justifiably proud of the critical role she played in ensuring the exhibition's success. Not only had she secured the exhibition underwriting, but she had also found funding for a security upgrade for the valuable impressionist paintings on loan for the show.
Lupe was happy to call herself a fundraiser. Her work in acquiring the necessary contributed income and resources for the museum was multifaceted and varied. She enjoyed every aspect, from working with individual donors to overseeing events, seeking grants, and spending time with the members and patrons. She managed a team of six other professionals and, for the time being, also covered the Museum's marketing while the search took place for a new marketing director. Occasionally she felt her head would explode while shifting gears rapidly from one aspect of her job to another, but she loved the variety.
Ariel Pensky, Lupe's membership and special events manager, stepped over, iPad in hand.
"All well?" Lupe asked the older woman. At thirty-two, Lupe was a bit young to head the department, but she had worked in development for over ten years. Mature beyond your years, her mother had always said. Lupe cultivated a sophisticated appearance by wearing simply cut business dresses augmented with vivid silk scarves. This evening, she dressed in a short-sleeved navy dress complemented with a Fuschia scarf she found on her favorite resale site, The Real Real. Dressing well on a nonprofit salary did present some challenges, but Lupe was always resourceful. She let her shoulder-length caramel highlighted brown wavy hair hang loose and added a pair of artistic gold earrings for a festive touch. She would later put on her roommate's Louboutin pumps to finish the ensemble.
"We're set. Henry and the other bartenders are bringing up the liquor and wine from the basement, and Esmeralda's team has the canapes all ready. They look delicious."
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Lupe spotted Morris ‘Moe” Schwartz, the chief of security, and went to speak to him.
"Hi, Moe. Any hiccups?"
Moe looked a bit concerned. "We have the extra guards posted, and the new cameras are working fine, but I'm worried the Wi-Fi keeps cutting out in the gallery. The pressure sensors are run by Wi-Fi, and the room is a dead zone."
"I thought you got a router extender to take care of that?"
"We did, but it's not consistent. I really needed more time to rewire the whole gallery for an ethernet connection, but Sarah insisted we move forward. The fog machine is on ethernet at the other end of the room and is connected to the panic button at the front desk, so at least we have that."
Museum security was a sophisticated blend of technology and physical deterrents such as visible and capable guards and special artwork mountings. Thanks to the special grant Lupe had secured, the Museum had recently upgraded all of the systems. However, since the building was over one hundred years old, retrofitting it was a constant challenge.
An hour later, after the guests had enjoyed cocktails and conversation, Sarah James-Howard, the Museum's executive director stepped to the podium.
"Thank you all for joining us as we preview the Museum of Vegetable Culture's newest exhibition, de Legumes: Vegetables in Impressionist Paintings. We are very grateful to the Wallraf-Richartz Museum and the Musee D'Orsay, who lent us the cornerstone pieces to this marvelous exhibition. Allow me to publicly acknowledge their curators, Helene Descard and Hans Lubdell, who were instrumental in making Legumes possible," crooned the glossy and petite Sarah James-Howard, through a cloud of Bulgari scent…. Lupe had provided the necessary talking points and reminded the director to keep her comments brief, but Sarah loved an audience and milked every opportunity in the limelight.
Sissy Truman-Ngao, the Museum's head curator, hissed into Lupe's ear, "Watch. She'll thank Ted in Maintenance before she acknowledges my work." It was a sore point for Sissy that the executive director preferred to pretend the Museum's award-winning exhibitions sprang solely from Sarah's genius, negating the brilliance of the acclaimed senior curator…
Lupe …scanned the room for the various donors she hoped to catch up with during the event. Standing erect and alert was Mary Montgomery van Clausen, the chair of the board of trustees. Mary, who was serving her third six-year term on the board, had outlasted five executive directors. Slow to change, but once committed, she was a force to be reckoned with. Mary was definitely an iron fist in a velvet glove kind of leader, much to the chagrin of her adversaries.
Mary was standing next to her old friend, Ingrid San Sebastian. Ingrid was battling aging with a fierce determination, even going so far as to marry the young artist Pietro San Sebastian, 35 years her junior. It looked to Lupe like the only thing she ate was the asparagus from the table setting accompanying the Manet pieces…
She saw two of her top prospects standing on the other side of the room—Stacy Leibman and her husband, Ralph. Stacy had recently had a successful Initial Public Offering on her tea company and was rumored to want to establish herself as one of the city's top philanthropists. Lupe considered it a personal coup that she wooed the Leibmans to the evening's vernissage and the prior week’s salon. Lupe had been courting the Leibmans for several years through Ralph, a youthful retiree who volunteered at the roof garden…
And, of course, Abby Winters was present. The writer from Global Art Review never missed an opening. She took particular pleasure in gloating over the Museum's theme and some of the lesser exhibitions. While Sissy strove for artistic excellence, she sometimes had to bow to the whims of Sarah and her favorite donors…
Ten minutes after she should have wrapped up her remarks, Sarah at last reached for the velvet cord to pull aside the curtain to reveal the Manet works. "And now, it gives me great pleasure to officially open de Legumes!" With a swift tug, the black curtain gave away to reveal an elegant table set with Limoges china and antique sterling on a provincial tablecloth. But the wall behind it was empty.
What do you think happened to the paintings? The plot thickens! Continue on this mysterious adventure next month with the second excerpt from The Disappearing Donor.