04/10/2022
Our decision to not ship our fundraiser products this year has already upset and disappointed several people and this is only the second day of the fundraiser. We apologize to everyone who would like to purchase a painting, but cannot do so because of their (or our) location. I will further explain what led to the decision of not shipping the paintings, while trying to keep this as short as possible.
1. Winter Kot Siberians is not a business, it's a hobby. We don't have a shipping department or access to hundreds of free packing/shipping supplies. We purchase all of the packing and shipping supplies with our personal money every year for these fundraisers and pack/ship/deliver everything on our personal time using our personal vehicles.
2. Shipping costs are very high. Winter Kot Siberians spends a lot of our personal money on shipping fees for the fundraiser products because, if we charged the actual shipping fees, nobody would buy the products. We pay part of the shipping fees for every single fundraiser item that we sell, every single year, with our personal money.
3. Packing and shipping paintings is very complicated and expensive. It requires specialty products to protect the paintings, a lot of extra packing materials, and specialized methods of shipment (including temperature control). We have purchased the products to protect the paintings during transit for in-person delivery, again with our personal money, but we are not able to pack and ship them with a shipping company.
4. These are original acrylic paintings on canvas that was stretched around a wooden frame. They cannot be rolled for shipping. They are fragile. They would have to be shipped flat and protected, and therein lies the problem.
5. Every year some of the fundraiser products get lost or damaged during shipment, which means that Winter Kot Siberians needs to replace and ship that lost or damaged item with our own personal money every time this happens. We do not want to take money away from the shelter animals because the shipping company messed up, so we pay for it.
6. These paintings took two months to create, are all original paintings, and cannot be replaced. If they are lost or damaged in transit, there is no way to replace them. Again, money will have to be refunded, using our personal money, and the person who purchased the painting will probably be upset.
7. Winter Kot Siberians has decided that the risks of shipping the paintings outweigh the benefits. The money that we will spend to pack, ship, and potentially refund the cost of the paintings would be better used as a donation to the animal shelter.
8. We do this every year simply because we love animals and we want to make a difference in their lives. We donate 100% of the money that we raise every single year and we add in an additional donation of our own personal money every single year.
9. If our paintings do not sell because of this "no shipping" decision and this year's fundraiser turns out to be a waste of two months of work, Winter Kot Siberians has a monetary donation amount in mind and we are prepared to personally donate whatever is necessary to give the shelter that amount in November.
If you are in the Western New York, Finger Lakes Region, or Central New York area (or can meet us in one of those areas), please consider participating in our fundraiser. If you cannot purchase a painting because of our shipping decision, buying a few raffle tickets or donating a few dollars to the shelter will also help the animals in need.
Thank you to the people who have already purchased paintings and raffle tickets! ❤️ This will most likely be our last fundraiser. Next year, we will just quietly make a donation to a shelter.
For our 2022 fundraiser to benefit animals in need, Michele at Winter Kot Siberians has created many paintings to sell, sometimes with the help of her Siberian cats. In addition, Michele made the painting below, Lapis Lazuli, to raffle off during the fundraiser. As always, all of the money raised wi...
