This is the ninth fundraising blog in a series aimed at helping musicians find the different paths towards achieving funding for their recordings. This is primarily to assist those involved in the Freedom Solutions Recording Plan or FSRP.

It takes a creative approach to fundraise money. Ask any professional fundraiser or non-profit organization. You have to have the drive, creativity and the ability to take a lot of no's before even a single yes.

There are a lot of other avenues to finding funding besides just going directly to individuals. This is key since most people will exhaust all options with the individuals they go to directly before they have achieved their full budget.

Visit the previous fundraising blogs that are posted each Wednesday for different ideas and approaches on how to obtain the capitol you need for your project.

Fundraising Shows

Another way to help to raise the money for your recording budget is to put on and perform at fundraising shows for your project. Whether you are doing the FSRP program or just raising funds for recordings, fundraising shows can truly show people what they are donating to.

Setting up a show that is going to be the most effective and most lucrative is where the effort on the part of the group or the artist has to take place. Marketing the show as an event and not just another band playing out one night will help bring people out and hopefully bring them to donate.

Finding the help to put on the show the right way is part of the initial donation that you can get from the club and local media. Remember this is not just a normal show. If you are doing the FSRP, you are doing a performance to raise money for a project that will serve as a benchmark for independent musicians, and a percentage of the product that you are fundraising for will be giving constant donations to a charity you believe in.

Addressing the venue, the local papers and discussing the different elements and what your goal is may get you help early on by maybe getting the club donated for free or reduced, or getting a greater amount of the door profits. Contacting liquor sponsors to donate kegs is an effective approach as well.

Putting out a press release at the right time to stir up press and bring awareness about the project even if some don’t come to the show, can help with the search for new donors and make other donors aware of what you are doing.

Starting out of the gate early is a great incentive as well. A group that is fundraising to give a percentage to charity from their recording, also giving a percentage of the event night to a charity, can bring a great deal of media attention and show your commitment to the concept and the project. It can also help to get others to market and promote the show.

Give a dollar away per seat or per head that night. In doing this, you can approach other local businesses including the venue and ask for matching donations. All those businesses will aide in the marketing, because for one it is a good cause, and two, it is strong marketing for them. It is all about widening the scope of marketing. How many ways can you….

Bring people through the door?

Get more donations at the show?

Bring awareness about you and your project to people that won’t even be at the show?

Bring more exposure and awareness to your project and your plan?

All these elements need to be addressed to create the most effective show. It is not just about filling the room, it is about filling the minds inside the club, outside the club and all around about your project and bringing it to people that might not have heard about it yet.

You are raising awareness. A fundraising show should serve a number of purposes around bringing in more than just money that night. Create a show that is a performance, an event, something to stand out and something where the marketing will reach out and make people aware of your project. That will make the event as a whole something that begins weeks before the actual show and has residual results for weeks after.

 

© Loren Weisman