Klarinet Archive - Posting 000100.txt from 1995/06

From: John Henninger <bunky@-----.COM>
Subj: Re Fund Raising
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 1995 18:21:02 -0400

I mentioned before that I belong to 3 community performing arts groups
that more or less have solved the problems of being somewhat in the
black. the groups are: Northwest Community Chorale which has two
performance series a year of major oratories, masses, requiems etc.
There are 70 people in the chorale and we use a community symphony (the
Thalia Symphony) as accompaniment. The King'splayers a theatrical group
that has its own pit orchestra. This group does Broardway shows (we
recently completed "Annie") and Gilbert and Sullivan. Associated with,
but seperate from King'splayers is a choral group, King'schorale. The
chorale performs medium sized works such as Britten's "Ceremony of
Carols", John Rutter's "Gloria", etc.

Basic to all the groups is the idea that in addition to increasing and
maintaining income we also have to manage and reduce costs. This should
be self evident. If you are paying through the nose for a rehearsal
space in a hall or school, consider striking a deal with a church or
social group such as the Elks or a Woman's Club. All three of the
groups I belong to rehearse for free at churches. It's sort of a
symbiotic relationship we keep their pianos tuned, if we are doing
something that can be performed in a church we'll do it and they get
acknowledgement in the program. The Thalia Symphony practices at
Seattle Pacific University (their director is a professor there) with
the agreement that the symphony mentions the university in its ads and
programs. In King'splayers wqe really push advertising in our programs
charging $30 for a business card sized ad. Our programs are thus self
supporting. Whenever possible we control concessions such as soda,
cookies and/or coffee. As for performance materials, qualify if at all
possible for tax exempt status. This frees you from paying any state
taxes that youy might incur in a production, it can often get you a
break on royalties for the performance materials and with
suppliers.Once you find find a printer that does your programs, tickets
ads etc or anyother supplier keep using them. There have been time when
we have gone over budget on a show and the printer has written it off
as a donation and a VERY big ad and word of thanks in the program.
Churches often give very favorable (if they charge at all) deals as
performance sites. My church is brand new and is being used as the
performing arts center for the Lynnwood/Edmonds WA area. Because we are
non-profit and often raising money for a charitible group we usually
aren't charged anything for dress rehearsals or performances.

Now where can you get money in this time of austerity? There are
several sources in the corperate world. Many companies will match
dollar for dollar the amount one of their worker gives to a non-profit
group. In the Seattle area if a Boeing worker gives one of the groups
$50 and shows the receipt to the proper person Boeing will donate a
like amount. Microsoft does the samething. Second some companies
actively support the arts with one-time grants. You have to inquire
around for this , we did and found the Target Stores gives such grants
as well as several of the local stores and media stations. This
requires someone going around and pressing the flesh. Third if the
purpose of the group is to simply perform, try getting a tie-in with a
charity. The NW Community Chorale has gotten tied in as a fund raising
arm of Northwest Harvest, the local Seattle area food bank system. We
don't get any money from the food bank, but it gives something that we
can put on a letter head. Because of our "mission" we were able to
arrange an agreement with a company for matching funds to help us
perform. So if we raise $2500 as we did last year with rummage sales
and car washes, the company will match the $2500. All the chorus pays
dues of $15 a year, the company matches that. At 60 people in the
chorus that's another $900.

A third idea is to develop a mailing list. If you have over 200 people
on your mailing list you can qualify for bulk mailing rates from the
post office. Where do you get a mailing list? King'splayers records
every address off every check the people pay us when they buy tickets.
We keep this list of over 900 people informed about what we are doing
with a quarterly newlatter. When It's time for our next concert or show
these people have been informed, we give them a $2 break for ordering
early tickets. As a result King'splayers and King'schorale can have
over 1200 people show up for a revue we wrote and we broke even. We had
an estimated 2400 people see 6 performances of "Annie" and we showed
over $3000 "profit" over costs.

The goal to surviving as a performing group is to market yourselves
shamelessly. Every address is important, schmooze every chance you get,
establish a network of suppliers and patrons, try establishing some
sort of corperate support, keep expenses down, take every monitary
opportunity that comes your way. You can't be lackadasical and be pure
artists, you have to become a social group that works well together.
lots of luck to all of you....
break a leg John