Re: RAISING MONEY for Loopers Delight (Donations drive)

[Revfever <revfever@ubergadget.com>]

Reading what Rick writes here below, I have reconsidered my previous  
thoughts, and that a regular subscription of any kind (yearly,  
quarterly, monthly, or..?)
may not be the best idea and that an occasional donation drive (or  
whatever it would be called?) when needed, could possibly be the  
better way and for
the reasons he has outlined below, and also considering the thoughts  
of some others on LD.  Just my 7 cents on the matter. I vote donation  
drives.

Cheers,
Rev. Fever
Portland, OR
http://www.spiritone.com/~rvfever

On Jun 30, 2010, at 1:36 PM, Rick Walker wrote:

> Rick Walker here.
>
> Please forgive me for jumping protocol and starting a new thread
> about the subject of donations to keep Loopers Delight alive
> but I feel compelled to send a strong message to the community
> based on my past experiences raising money for events, festivals and
> organizations over the years.
>
> Like lots of relatively anarchic digests (thanks, Kim for your  
> vision here), there have been a lot of suggestions made and
> everyone has come from the heart (which is very important to  
> acknolwedge)
> Unfortunately, there are many contradictory ideas and some are  
> coming from a well meaning but somewhat naive place.
>
> There are enough contradictory ideas that it's getting hard to sort  
> through or achieve consensus
> on this extremely important subject.
> So, from a position of considerable experience on this subject I  
> wanted to
> post a few comments and make a suggestion for a good way to proceed  
> (to save Loopers Delight, financially).
>
>
> ABOUT RAISING MONEY:
>
> A few things I've discovered:
>
> 1) contrary to popular belief,  benefit CDs , no matter how  
> wonderful and heartfelt,
> are NOT worth the effort and don't make money (unless you are on  
> the 'We Are The World'
> scale) Period, Point. Dot.   They also require a lot of energy on  
> the part of the people trying to
> put these things together.  Ask anyone who has led a CT Collective  
> CD project.
>
> 2)  Benefit concerts do NOT make money (unless you are on the  
> 'FarmAid' scale).
>
> Additionally, though many generous people here for whom I am  
> personally grateful,  are willing to commit to paid subscriptions
> (I being one of them),
> I STRONGLY URGE THAT WE  DO NOT ADOPT a PAID SUBSCRIPTION policy
> because it will have a deleterious effect on newcomers to our  
> community
>
> <okay, so much for the negative critiques, Rick, what's your solution>
>
>
> I've found it is far more effective to have DONATION DRIVES  
> periodically,
> when funds are needed.
> It raises a lot more money than subscriptions do and subscriptions  
> will definitely
> limit access by newbies to this community..............even 30 day  
> trial memberships
> are off putting to people who are just trying to lightly discover  
> this world.
>
> I've found that when people feel that a beloved institution is in  
> danger,  they really do open their
> hearts more and they give far greater quantities of money than they  
> would normally with
> a subscription service.   Additionally,  drives are a lot easier to  
> maintain by the people organizing them
> and require much less work than ongoing subscriptions services,  
> which , again, don't raise nearly
> as much money.
>
> The potential for having a deleterious effect on newbies to our  
> community is a vital reason
> why not to adopt a subscription policy.
>
> I've produced very large live looping festivals for over ten years  
> now and I
> never would have joined this community had Loopers Delight been a  
> subscription
> based website.........again,  even a free trial membership website.
>
> I think it is vitally important that we reach out to people who  
> have never been here
> before.   It is going to be one of the great strengths of our  
> community to reach
> out to new artists, young and old.      I just think of how quickly  
> artists like
> Sjaak Overgauw and Ricky Graham, to just mention a couple of  
> notable standouts
> became very positive and pro-active members of our community as  
> newbies in recent years.
>
>
>
> The important thing is that we all work with Violet to figure out  
> when a donation drive is
> necessary and put it on in a timely fashion to meet the needs of  
> the website.
>
> This is my strong advice to the list.
>
> respectfully, to all the people who have contributed to the  
> discussion so far,
>
> Rick Walker
> Y2K Live Looping Festivals
>