JimF-LowBari Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 I was brought up not to brag or talk about the "good deeds" you do in life (there's a Bible passage somewhere) but can't think of any other way to start this discussion. *sigh* Over the years I've supported corps and members with $$$$ and received different responses to the support. The three that stick in my head are: 1) Got listed on the corps website with other supporters. (Didn't know they did it until I googled my name a few months later. ) 2) Very nice PM/email from a member who ended up dropping out of the corps before the end of the season thru no fault of their own. Lost contact after that so think they were too embarrased to say anything but it didn't bother me. 3) Well............ let's talk about this one...... Have supported more than one member thru a process their corps has set up. I can partially understand the corps wanting to know what is going on and they wil eventually get the bucks anyway. But.... at no time have I ever received a thank you or even acknowledgement that the money has been received. Granted I'm not asking to be put on the corps Christmas card list but if you're running a business at least you can send an email (believe I gave that) saying "Hey we cashed the freakin' check". Wondering if not acknowledging donations is usual practice for corps or I just happened to find one that needs to get their act together better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sday88 Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 I can't speak about your situation directly, but I had a similar experience. There was a corps rehearsing not too far from my house a couple of years ago and I decided to go watch them. I thought I'd do something kind of nice and take them some home baked cookies. My wife then baked over 500 cookies and I dropped them off at the chuck truck. The guy had me give him my name and address. I didn't know why, nor did I care. I don't do things like that for "thank yous". Anyhoo, later that day before they did the final run through of the day they made annoucements with special thank yous for various people. One of them was someone who did something for one of the meals that day, so I was actually at that point expecting something to be said. Nothing. And we never received anything after that. I actually sent the corps an email stating my disatisfaction about how my wife made them over 500 cookies and not so much as a "Hey, thanks". Even after the email, nothing. Needless to say, I'll never do anything like that again for that corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkfdPRphan Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 I've had a range of responses. Booster Club membership - pretty much every year I've gotten listed for all 4 corps I am a club member of. Sometimes the list is compiled late, but eventually I see the list. Can imagine that the job of keeping up with the Booster Club is a volunteer position in most corps, so timeliness might not be possible. Sponsoring a corp member - did this for years. I always got paperwork back for tax purposes. Never saw a list of sponsors and never really thought about whether there should be one. I did, however, have one member who asked who his sponsor was and got my name. We had a long talk about how he couldnt have continued DC without my money. Wow. Its been almost 10 years and I still see him once a year and have been introduced to his wife and his kids. Very, very special. Housing - years back I housed corps members. My final year, I had a person 'turn up their nose' at my small, but comfortable house. I didnt have a pool. She moved into another house. Wow. At the end of drum corps season, when I got home from finals, there was a hand written note in my mail box. She apologized........I still have that note. ....but, as long as I have the money, I WILL SUPPORT my local corps!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted August 23, 2010 Author Share Posted August 23, 2010 Sponsoring a corp member - did this for years. I always got paperwork back for tax purposes. That's what really got me thinking What The Bleep on the whole thing. Over the years have gotten different paperwork from my church, colleges, college band (one whole semester and they found me ), Salvation Army, etc, etc. Paperwork runs the gamut of just about drooling over my donation to the SA guy who scribbed "couch" on the donation form. Can understand a member not having a tax form to send but when a non-profit (I'll assume) doesn't bother to send something, you have to wonder if they expect anything next season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsreps Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 I was brought up not to brag or talk about the "good deeds" you do in life (there's a Bible passage somewhere) but can't think of any other way to start this discussion. *sigh*Over the years I've supported corps and members with $$$$ and received different responses to the support. The three that stick in my head are: 1) Got listed on the corps website with other supporters. (Didn't know they did it until I googled my name a few months later. ) 2) Very nice PM/email from a member who ended up dropping out of the corps before the end of the season thru no fault of their own. Lost contact after that so think they were too embarrased to say anything but it didn't bother me. 3) Well............ let's talk about this one...... Have supported more than one member thru a process their corps has set up. I can partially understand the corps wanting to know what is going on and they wil eventually get the bucks anyway. But.... at no time have I ever received a thank you or even acknowledgement that the money has been received. Granted I'm not asking to be put on the corps Christmas card list but if you're running a business at least you can send an email (believe I gave that) saying "Hey we cashed the freakin' check". Wondering if not acknowledging donations is usual practice for corps or I just happened to find one that needs to get their act together better. Are you saying that the member didn't thank you or the corps didn't thank you or both? I can see the corps not feeling like it needs to or even should thank a sponsor of an individual member. All you are doing is paying their dues. The corps does not really benefit from that arrangement - other than getting a competent member who doesn't owe them money. The corps might feel it isn't their job to be communicating directly with a member's sponsor - and I can definitely see that point. If you are talking about the member, well that's another story. I can make a lot of excuses for them but, well, it is just plain wrong. Oh and to the person who said something about tax purposes - individual member sponsorships are not tax deductible. There was a time about 10 years ago where corps would provide a receipt but the IRS has clamped down and corps should not - and probably do not - treat the sponsorship as a contribution to the corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted August 23, 2010 Author Share Posted August 23, 2010 (edited) OK, I stand corrected thinking about tax credit (good thing I forget about anything I don't have the paperwork for). Just so we're clear, donation went directly to the corps to help pay a members dues and the members name was specified. But I will disagree that this does not help the corps. I knew someone connected with the corps and asked if they knew of anyone who needed help with paying their dues. Yeah, nothing would have probably changed if my money hadn't been sent but who knows. Also the money was sent for that member using a mechanism set up by the corps. This wasn't "Hey here's a check for member X". The donation process had to follow the corps "rules, regs and paperwork". Guess I was mistaken in ###-u-me-ing that if the corps had that complex of a donation set up, they would put some effort into letting the donor know the money got where it was inteded. Have no idea if the member knew anything about the donation so don't think they were ungrateful. Let's be honest, I have no way of knowing if that is where my money went. All I know for sure is I sent a check made to that corps donation account and it was cashed. Almost forgot.... this has happened twice in the last three year. Next time I think about helping a DCI member, I will be asking around at other corps. Edited August 23, 2010 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkfdPRphan Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 With the way drum corps is run today, I would give ALL the money that I used to sponsor members with to the Booster Club. I know that for the corps I give money to that IS TAX DEDUCTABLE - altho you must deduct the value of anything the Booster Club sends to you for your donation (shirts, tickets, food, passes....). I think this is the best way to go to help your favorite corps or corps (how do you spell more than one corps???? corpses - NO thats not good........) Anyway, most of the corps need a lot of money for transportation and food. The member fees dont cover as much as they used to!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsreps Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 With the way drum corps is run today, I would give ALL the money that I used to sponsor members with to the Booster Club. I know that for the corps I give money to that IS TAX DEDUCTABLE - altho you must deduct the value of anything the Booster Club sends to you for your donation (shirts, tickets, food, passes....).I think this is the best way to go to help your favorite corps or corps (how do you spell more than one corps???? corpses - NO thats not good........) Anyway, most of the corps need a lot of money for transportation and food. The member fees dont cover as much as they used to!!! corps is both singular and plural. Agreed booster club is the best way to go if you want to help the corps and get a tax deduction. The corps should send you a receipt by Jan 31 of the following year listing the amount of your contribution and the value of anything you got for the contribution. Sponsoring an individual member is a good way to help someone march who might not otherwise do so. Yes this does help the corps but primarily it helps the member. This is not deductible. Otherwise, I could sponsor your kid and you could sponsor mine and our dues would be deductible. The third option is to donate to a scholarship fund. Some corps have this or maybe through their alumni association. This has the benefit of helping a member in need (but you don't get to pick who) and being deductible. A variation on this is to establish a scholarship where you can specify criteria. For example, you might want the money to go to a vet in the pit or anyone marching from a particular school. This gets more complicated if the criteria boils down to one individual so you have to be careful. The corps would have to help you figure out appropriate parameters so that they are comfortable issuing the receipt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted August 23, 2010 Share Posted August 23, 2010 (edited) i've given to kids and corps. the kids are always very grateful, and usually respond with a hug when they see me at a show. the corps....being acknowledged has been hit or miss. Some corps do great at this, others not so much. So those that have done great, I keep a list, and they keep getting $ when I have some to spare. one corps I've never given anything to, but they still mail me stuff all the time, even when I've asked them to stop Edited August 23, 2010 by Jeff Ream Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted August 23, 2010 Author Share Posted August 23, 2010 (edited) Well the problem with me donating to a DCI corps is I don't like the direction DCI has gone in the last few years. Wouldn't open that can 'o worms here. But I have no problem supporting a member under certain conditions (IOW - they really need the help). The tax write off wasn't of consideration to me as I could do that elsewhere and it really wouldn't help me that much (the F doesn't stand for FullOfMoney). But it just blows what's left of my mind that a corps wants monatary help for one of their members to flow thru their control, make a donor jump thru hoops to ensure control, and doesn't do squat to let you know anything. My heritage is PA Dutch and to use a stereotype we're not cheap, but we are #### careful on what we spend money on. And if that money is spent for a reason we want to make sure as we can that the money actually went to that reason. And it ain't like there are not other corps/youth groups that could use the money. We could say this corps was in competition for my money. And I used the past tense ("was") because they will not be considered next time. Bottom line is: I sent a check to a corps and no idea where it went..... And yeah, I'd (like to) take their word on it.... but I didn't get any "word". Edited August 23, 2010 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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