Re: RAISING MONEY for Loopers Delight

[tEd ® KiLLiAn <tedkillian@charter.net>]

Well put Rick-o.

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