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Creative or highly effective funding mechanisms


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23 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

 A couple of DCP'ers on here would have us believe that " millions of dollars " are needed to participate as a unit in DCI... as if only the elite Corps in DCI exist. I guess we can assume either they never heard of the Soundsport approx. 50 groups, or they think little of them. In Open Class too, ( for example ) the Nashua Spartans have selected a model that works for them, and has for over half a century now. And they fund raise at considerably less than the small numbers of elites corps do. By CHOICE. And no, despite what a few DCP'ers on here might want us to believe, while hard, the process to raise their needed funds to operate their Corps the last half a century was not ( and is not ) an annual " extremely convoluted process "at all... lol! As for the smaller group of DCI elite Corps, nobody has put a gun to their heads to force any of them to raise the millions it takes to compete at that level. The cost to compete at THAT level was determined by them.. and them alone. They voted for all the expensive instruments, increased Corps sizes, staff sizes, increased travel, increased kitchen trucks, trailers,  large props and on and on and on. So sure.. the costs to run their mammoth Corps has increased exponentially the last few decades, and so the conventional means of raising funds becomes a more challenging enterprise for these few DCI Corps. But the vast overwhelming majority of the DCI/WGI, Soundsport units operate their fund raising in a manner that is traditional, conventional, efficient, and by no means a " extremely convoluted process " as a couple of misguided DCP'ers on here would have us all believe... lol!

Ahhhh.. conflation, deflection, and downright avoidance.  Typical.  The way BD is ran as multi-million dollar business is commendable; but you also claim that it is not complicated at that level and it is so easy other corps can and should do as they do.  So to enlighten all of us who are misguided; if it is not complicated for BD to raise funds why did BD feel it necessary to put forth a proposal which would have taken a lot of DCI revenue and support away from the overwhelming number of other WC corps and taken away all revenue and support from all of the OC corps in order to sustain their own agenda?

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14 minutes ago, Stu said:

Ahhhh.. conflation, deflection, and downright avoidance.  Typical. 

 ok.. you stick with your assessment that ( for example ) Open Class Corps like the Nashua Spartans for over 60 years have utilized conventional fund raising means to successfully raise their needed funds each season is an " extremely convoluted process " for YOU to understand, Stu.( lol!)  Maybe upon my further reflection, how the Nashua Spartans LaFlamme family were able to successfully raise their Corps funds for over 60 years, ( while undeniably hard on the sweat equity side ) was indeed a " extremely convoluted process " for YOU personally to try and understand how they actually did it, Stu.. lol!

Edited by BRASSO
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14 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

 ok.. you stick with your assessment that ( for example ) Open Class Corps like the Nashua Spartans for over 60 years have utilized conventional fund raising means to successfully raise their needed funds each season is an " extremely convoluted process " for YOU to understand, Stu.( lol!)  Maybe upon my further reflection, how the Nashua Spartans LaFlamme family were able to successfully raise their Corps funds for over 60 years, ( while undeniably hard on the sweat equity side ) was indeed a " extremely convoluted process " for YOU personally to try and understand how they actually did it, Stu.. lol!

It was/is still a difficult process for Nashua, or any other small corps for that matter, to raise funds. Funding at any level is complicated and anyone who has dealt with the legalities, rules, regulations, of non-profit funding will attest that the paperwork is convoluted; especially the more revenue/expenditures a corps has to deal with. However, at this juncture the conversation is not about Nashua; it is about BD.  So please do not avoid nor deflect and answer the question at hand: if it is so easy and uncomplicated for BD to raise funds at the million dollar level each year why did they have to propose yanking revenue from most all other corps in order to sustain/grow their own agenda?

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1 hour ago, garfield said:

Not necessary...  oh, the heck with it. 

I learned my "Brasso lesson" long ago, or should have, I guess. (Lol!)

Because the obvious inconsistencies are never obvious to the can of polish at all.  I'm thinking it's all a KBG plot!  

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4 hours ago, garfield said:

You can report posts, but you can't request a thread be closed unless you are the OP.  Otherwise, the mods know how to do their job.

Now, do you have any creative or highly effective fundraising ideas to share?

 

Is it your intent to pick a  fight?  Really? Is that that what YOU have to offer? Always being judgemental of other posters?   Demanding everyone appease your self-importance and self righteousness?  Are we to comment always with seriousness you approve of? How about YOU stop telling everyone else what to say and how to say it.  I for one am sick to death of you and I doubt I am alone.  You are consistent at least in acting like a condescending know it all.

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On ‎3‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 4:31 PM, steelchops said:

what novel ways have you seen that might help with this never-ending problem?

 Not much. If there was a fancy, new, novel way to fund raise for Corps, some saavy brainiac in one of these Corps over the last 100 years would have thought of it by now, imo.  Maybe some bright bulb whizz in some Corps might come up with some newfangled way to raise money that's not been thought of before, or implemented successfully before, but so far, theres been nothing new under the sun as to what works better than the tried and the true, that has stood the test of time over the long haul. Also, even if a new, novel way to raise funds was found, we'd have to ask ourselves if it was a short term fix that quickly fizzles out, or would the newfangled fundraising idea be repetitive over the long haul. Unless its a long term benefit to Corps over many years, its hard to envision any novel idea as being a panacea for Corps long range fund raising challenges, imo.

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25 minutes ago, LabMaster said:

Is it your intent to pick a  fight?  Really? Is that that what YOU have to offer? Always being judgemental of other posters?   Demanding everyone appease your self-importance and self righteousness?  Are we to comment always with seriousness you approve of? How about YOU stop telling everyone else what to say and how to say it.  I for one am sick to death of you and I doubt I am alone.  You are consistent at least in acting like a condescending know it all.

 Bingo.. Could not have said it any better myself.. and yes, you are NOT alone in this perception either, imo. Notice too, that Garfield, ( &Stu) have not offered up for us a single solitary new novel idea for fundraising for us to consider. Instead, for 24 hours its been just a verbal blast of attack on others who have provided some general thoughts on what does tend to work for organizations in fund raising, and what attributes and characteristics that successful organizations tend to have. But THAT commentary input was considered " worthless " . It got so silly, that even a harmless joke was attacked ( lol!). So yes, Garfield ( and Stu ) have basically offered up a nothing sandwhich on this thread... no novel fund raising ideas from them. They come up totally empty on THAT. But that does not prevent them from telling posters that have made commentary on what success looks like in fund raising that their commentary was " worthless " ( to these 2 anyway.... lol!)

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51 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

 ... If there was a fancy, new, novel way to fund raise for Corps, some saavy brainiac in one of these Corps over the last 100 years would have thought of it by now, imo....

You make this claim; then in your very next posting you type a blasting remark stating that Garfield and I have not presented any new novel ideas.  And still you avoid as to why BD wanted to take revenue and support from most all other corps to sustain/grow their own agenda even though it is, according to you, so uncomplicated for them to fund their own million+ dollar organization.

Edited by Stu
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Ok, I previously skimmed, but I got curious enough to read the whole thread (less any single paragraphs that exceeded 10 lines) and I have a few responses below.

Quote
On 3/9/2017 at 2:35 PM, Stu said:

Your response to the inquiry posed by OP is to state that raising millions of dollars each year is not that complicated; and preface it by implying that the corps staff merely needs to rob banks, because that is where the money is at, and then hope they do not end up in prison.  Nice.

The analogy was clear, but does not address the question. Mechanism is a specific tactic that can be used. This is a philosophy, and while a philosophy is very important in any marketing strategy (that's really what we're talking about here, marketing strategies) it is by no means an executable tactic. At best, it's a target to aim yet-to-be-said tactics.

 

18 hours ago, Stu said:

There are three main ways to maximize funding within a non-profit setting; you need to engage in all three; they are all difficult as well as complicated... so much so that the information is way too lengthy to provide in a forum such as this. They are Patrons, Grants, and Business Ventures.

That's an old philosophy, tried and true. Does it work? Absolutely! Does it work as well as it used to? Short answer: no. Longer answer: sometimes.

Discretionary incomes, on the whole, are decreasing across the board, and the sources of income like you've mentioned are either drying up, or, more often, are committed to other NPOs/foundations/etc.. Can corps compete with those NPOs for these limited resources? Absolutely. But there's other organizations being successful adopting different methods that are less competitive, and I believe this thread's intention was to identify those methods.

 

5 hours ago, Stu said:

Point was not missed.  Brasso stated that we need to go where the money is at using what could be considered a silly analogy, and also stated it is not that complicated to raise funds.  While the first statement is an obvious 'duh' like Garfield said, the second is far, far, far from accurate.  Raising funds, as in the millions of dollars it takes each year to run one qualitative and competitive corps within the non-profit realm is extremely convoluted, difficult, time consuming, etc....  there is no magic easy creative mechanism to generate the revenue.  Only hard, long, smart, complicated work, blood, sweat, etc... can garner that much capital.

No one asked or mentioned easy. Something can still be creative and still require hard, long, smart, complicated work. Though to the point, some ideas are easier to accomplish than others.

 

1 hour ago, BRASSO said:

 Not much. If there was a fancy, new, novel way to fund raise for Corps, some saavy brainiac in one of these Corps over the last 100 years would have thought of it by now, imo.  Maybe some bright bulb whizz in some Corps might come up with some newfangled way to raise money that's not been thought of before, or implemented successfully before, but so far, theres been nothing new under the sun as to what works better than the tried and the true, that has stood the test of time over the long haul. Also, even if a new, novel way to raise funds was found, we'd have to ask ourselves if it was a short term fix that quickly fizzles out, or would the newfangled fundraising idea be repetitive over the long haul. Unless its a long term benefit to Corps over many years, its hard to envision any novel idea as being a panacea for Corps long range fund raising challenges, imo.

Ya, I'm going to wholeheartedly argue against this one. The majority of corps staff I've known are not business savvy. Not on the level you're thinking. They're music people. If you put an experienced CMO into a corps director role, you'll start to see some new ideas, guaranteed. And honestly, that person will struggle too, because new ideas are hard. Expecting people who haven't gone through the traditional trials of the making money business world to brainstorm these out-of-the-box ways to make money is absolutely ludicrous; instead you'll see a handful of anomalies that thrive (because there's always anomalies) and the rest struggle with what they don't know they don't know. That's exactly what we see now.

Final thought, nothing to reply to though

Let's break this discussion down. What we're talking about here is "alternatives to Bingo" *(which is traditionally how corps have made a lot of their money, just like a lot of businesses make money). We're talking about new funding mechanisms that can take advantage of the resources corps have without inducing excessive additional costs. There are literally always going to be new ways to accomplish that feat. To think that there aren't is to say that business innovation is at an end.

I should note that I've met and worked with many people who do truly think that business innovation is at an end. Those people rarely make it far in business, are always proven wrong, and ironically always say "wow, why didn't we think of that before" when innovation presents itself. New ideas will always be around, and can be as groundbreaking as developing a better mousetrap or as mundane as doing the exact same thing but putting it in a shinier package. 

Edited by ouooga
I had an extra line space I didn't like
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Hi All, I'm the OP......There have been many tangible, constructive and great ideas.  For example- explore relationships with those in the community with "deep pockets," how can we create "win-win" scenarios with them, and can this spur others to explore and improve upon? An example could be a private company owner has a National Sales Meeting...these things always start with excitement...what better way to open a meeting than a drum line in front of 500 fat old guys exuding cool?  In exchange for that, the company owner gives a donation.   I am hoping, for the benefit of those corps that don't have major cash flow streams that we can give creative fund raising ideas like that, which can benefit all...your creative thoughts are important because maybe a few haven't thought of them.....please keep thinking and pass on your ideas, even if untested...I know they are all appreciated!!

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