This is the tenth 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.

The garage and online sales of older and secondary items is a great way to raise funds for your recording budgets. This leans toward the more passive approach and often times is very effective in the early stages while you are getting up the confidence to ask for money.

Some states do not allow or make having raffles a challenge and in these cases online sales of donated items through Ebay or in a backyard garage sale can help you raise cash.

Going to friends, family and various stores to get donated items for these sales is not unlike the raffle fundraising concept and can help you get the items you need to make the cash you need. Start with your own stuff, it being spring and all now. What could you get rid of or clear out as you do your spring-cleaning and get ready for summer?

Talk to friends. Some may not be able to give you money for your FSRP budget, but they may have old items or things that they were going to get rid of or sell that they might donate to you. Remember the old saying, one persons trash is another’s treasure. It all comes down to how you spin it and how you market the sale of the items.

A musical garage sale, where your band plays while you sell, is one idea. Try to think up creative ideas and concepts that will make your tag sale or garage sale stand out. The more you use creative marketing, the more people will come by to check it out. Oh and by the way, postering telephone poles in a four-block radius is not exactly what you would call creative. Be different, be original, be you!!!

The same goes for online. Post items on your website or Myspace for sale. Talk about the project and about how the proceeds are going to your recording project. See if you can get some fans to bid for something like an old action figure or toy on Ebay. It might even be something that might not be worth all that much, but perhaps you can also offer the winner something crazy or something to involve them in the album or the credits as a thank you or whatever.

In your credits, imagine having a thanks to Jimmy Walters for buying my younger brothers old Lego set. It’s a little obscure, a little out there and in the end it might be something that might bring a little more media or interest your way.

What item do you have that you could put a sticker of your band on?

Again, think of the different ways to approach the sale and bidding of an item. The more creative and more original it is, the more attention the items may get and then sell for. Don’t get lost in the basics of any idea whether it’s a garage sale, a tag sale, online bidding or however else you try to achieve a portion of your funding.

Take a creative approach, give it your own touch and you will find the results will be better. At the same time, you may see more attention and more press given to your project that could draw in potential investors or donors that were unaware of you before.

So head to the basement and see what you can get rid of, and ask around to those people that might want to be getting rid of things or are willing to donate items to you, because in the end, one person’s trash could turn in to cash for your recording budget.
 

© Loren Weisman