| 25 Fundraising Tips For A cappella Groups |
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25 Fundraising Tips for A cappella Groups By Jonathan Minkoff I don’t think I’ve yet met the group that doesn’t need more money. Recordings, t-shirts, touring, advertising and promotion, attending important aca-events like SingStrong and of course the party after the concert all take cash in hand. You need the green, so here’s how to make ends meet: 1) Alumni Giving. Alumni are the lifeblood of colleges and some high schools and they can be your lifeblood too -especially if you are a non-pro group. The key is to stay in touch you’re your alum. Keep them up-to-date on happenings with a monthly short e-newsletter. Give them discounts or free passes to your concerts. Invite them to participate in a group number once a year. My high school performed the Hallelujah Chorus at our holiday concert each and every year. Our director would invite all the alum to come onstage and join us for that number and the audience would practically disappear while the stage would be swarmed. These are the people, now earning more money than when they were students, that can support causes that are close to their hearts and you want to be close to their hearts! The opportunity you give the alumni to feel connected, see their old buddies and perform on stage again is priceless and if the each cough up a little to help you out, you’re well on your way. 2) Car Wash. Put on your skimpiest and scrub those cars. Soap and water are pretty cheap and this is a great bonding session for your group members, particularly in large groups. Not only will you make at least some money but you’ll also make some fans as you play your music through the boombox, pass out flyers for your concert, sell CDs and flirt with drivers! 3) Sell CDs. Make sure you always have CDs to sell and make sure everyone in the group has some absolute obligation to sell at least a certain amount outside of your normal gigs. Some people are shy and you need to give them a kick in the pants to let their family and friends know that this year’s stocking stuffer should be your music. 4) Sell Digitally. Some people don’t have their act together when your concert rolls around and they only decide at 2am that they want to buy your stuff. Thankfully the Internet does our bidding. Sell your tracks on your own site or acaTunes or some other site. The cost is incredibly low and that way you can grab even those with the strangest of schedules. You never know which insomniacs are your best fans! 5) Singing Valentines in Person. People want to show love on this day and after starting with flowers and candy there’s a giant empty financial void until jewelry starts. You are the middle ground. Charge less than a gold necklace and you’ve found your niche. Plus it’s like you are being paid to practice and promote yourselves. Don’t forget to hand out cards to everyone you sing for. Performances beget more performances 6) Singing Birthday Wishes by Phone. They pay you 20-50 bucks; you call a person to leave a happy birthday in harmony. If they are there, they get it live. If not, you leave a message. If you took orders for this service on your website and the only times you made yourself available to call were times in which you already scheduled a rehearsal, you could make money at every single rehearsal all year! 7) Singing Spoof Songs by phone. Take a song you have already learned the parts for and rewrite the lyrics of one verse and a chorus. They pay you for a short song. You can charge more for this service since you are writing original lyrics. Or make it easier: you tell them the song you’ll be singing and they have to re-write the lyrics. You may want to set some limits on this since your reputation may be affected by the lyrics you sing. Suggestive is one thing; explicit is another. 8) Combined or Multiple Garage Sales. You all have junk. Sell it and use the money for the group! If you put all that stuff together in one place, it’ll be a big draw. 9) T-shirts. CDs can get ripped to MP3 by those who disrespect you and your group, but anyone who wants a t-shirt has to get their own; sharing cotton “files” is pretty rare. 10) Gigs. Get paid to do gigs for others. People need entertainment all the time and they are usually willing to cough up something for it. At the very least it’s a new place to sell your wares. 11) Bake Sale. Tried and true. And like the car wash, you can promote your CDs, T shirts, singing valentines and gigs at the same time. 12) Grants. There are lots of funds out there for groups that use their music to give back to the community or groups that help kids stay off the street or that focus on the music of a particular culture –even if only for a given concert. The biggest lesson about grants is apply! You don’t have to be the best in the world, just the best of those who apply and many, many people and groups take themselves out of the running by never applying at all. 13) Pre-orders. Take pre-order money for items that haven’t come in yet, like CDs and T-shirts. Just be sure you deliver the goods when they do arrive. 14) Help Others. Raise money for a more attractive cause than your group and split the proceeds. You offer an organization with a performance space a performance where you will split the door with them. They promote to their own organization and contacts. You help them and help yourselves at the same time. 15) Corporate Sponsorship. Big corporations have millions to spend on getting their name out there. That’s done through advertising, but also through association. They want to be associated with good things and you can be one of those things! You need to write to them and demonstrate why you’d be a good match and what you need from them in terms of support and how they’ll benefit. It can take a while, but it’s not an impossible task. Corportaions want to get in good with communities and specific demographics. If your audience is 99% high school or college students, that’s a valuable demographic. You may get cash, performance equipment or other valuable support. But stick with it. Go both locally and nationwide. 16) Donations. Become a federally recognized not-for-profit organization, or a program organized under an already existing not-for-profit organization and accept tax free donations. 17) Represent! Represent your school or town officially. Negotiate a fee to perform at every one of their functions. Better learn a good arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner! 18) Commercial Work. It’s not easy to come by, but it is lucrative. Drop a CD off with every casting agent, recording studio and advertising agency around your area. Your low rates, the fact that a cappella groups are almost always non-union and your youthful exuberance, combined with how different your sound is compared to individual singers or bands should land you something! 19) Concessions. Sell water and candy at your shows. These can be marked up heavily and people are just as happy to buy from you as from the candy machine. 20) Java. Sell Starbucks Coffee at your shows. People are addicted to that stuff and there’s a large mark-up. 21) Back it up. Sing back-up harmonies for singer-songwriter’s demo tapes for a fee. There’s not that much of this work, but there is some. 22) Nobody Home. Sell answering machine outgoing messages. 23) Call Me! Sell ring tones. 24) Teach. Teach people at a lower level than you how to do what you are good at. 25) Parents. Parents are accustomed to paying for their kids. They’ve been doing it since you were born. If your group puts together a written proposal with a budget for how you’ll use the money responsibly, and if all the member’s parents put in equally, you’ll have a good shot at getting a parental grant or at least a no-interest loan. Try these 25 tips and keep your eyes on the prize. You’ll have the coffers full in no time! |