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Funding a Drum Corps


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If one wants a drum corps to be long-term financially stable, the model of B&B (begging and bingo) simply doesn't work. Legacy orgs with established B&B pipelines have an equally difficult time year to year.

The only way to start a drum corps is to start a business first. The profits of that business must go to fund the corps.

And, just like Bill Cook, one must have other sources of income available to help the source company stay alive. For most of us who aren't Bill Cook wealthy - and even for him, he said himself - that means that one has to have a career during the day and "moonlight" a second business to fund a corps.

As someone else just pointed out, there are tons of people out there who will field a corps - that's the least important consideration. When the business is up and running profitably, and a suffcient nest egg is built ($1 million, minimum, in the bank) THEN, and ONLY then, should one put the pieces together to field a corps.

Edited by garfield
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If one wants a drum corps to be long-term financially stable, the model of B&B (begging and bingo) simply doesn't work. Legacy orgs with established B&B pipelines have an equally difficult time year to year.

The only way to start a drum corps is to start a business first. The profits of that business must go to fund the corps.

And, just like Bill Cook, one must have other sources of income available to help the source company stay alive. For most of us who aren't Bill Cook wealthy - and even for him, he said himself - that means that one has to have a career during the day and "moonlight" a second business to fund a corps.

As someone else just pointed out, there are tons of people out there who will field a corps - that's the least important consideration. When the business is up and running profitably, and a suffcient nest egg is built ($1 million, minimum, in the bank) THEN, and ONLY then, should one put the pieces together to field a corps.

THIS... EXACTLY THIS...

Or you could find a Native American Tribe that needs a Drum Corps. You can do bingo, even a casino.

The real key is the sustainable business of ANY TYPE up front before you ever consider the corps. You also have to think that the $1 million dollars minimal is for ONE year and it will be gone forever after one year. You have to replace that $1 million dollars every year in some way.

So, You need a business that can make a cool $! million a year. It would actually be best to run that business for 3 - 7 years to make sure the business is secure. You can save up to three years operating expenses up for a Non Profit, which I would try to do and earn interest. So, about 3-4 million saved and about 3-7 years you can start thing about creating a drum and bugle corps.

All the Millions are based on top 12 corps... yes the smaller corps would be less.

Edited by Kevin Powell
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THIS... EXACTLY THIS...

Or you could find a Native American Tribe that needs a Drum Corps. You can do bingo, even a casino.

The real key is the sustainable business of ANY TYPE up front before you ever consider the corps. You also have to think that the $1 million dollars minimal is for ONE year and it will be gone forever after one year. You have to replace that $1 million dollars every year in some way.

So, You need a business that can make a cool $! million a year. It would actually be best to run that business for 3 - 7 years to make sure the business is secure. You can save up to three years operating expenses up for a Non Profit, which I would try to do and earn interest. So, about 3-4 million saved and about 3-7 years you can start thing about creating a drum and bugle corps.

All the Millions are based on top 12 corps... yes the smaller corps would be less.

And who, in their right mind, would front the money for such an operation which will yield absolutely no return at all to the investor?!? I mean even Cook. Mason, et al moved Star over to the for-profit world; and Cook even lamented in his latter years that it was not a good idea at all for any business or entrepreneur to invest in a drum corps!

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And who, in their right mind, would front the money for such an operation which will yield absolutely no return at all to the investor?!? I mean even Cook. Mason, et al moved Star over to the for-profit world; and Cook even lamented in his latter years that it was not a good idea at all for any business or entrepreneur to invest in a drum corps!

absolutely no one... my exact point.

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And who, in their right mind, would front the money for such an operation which will yield absolutely no return at all to the investor?!? I mean even Cook. Mason, et al moved Star over to the for-profit world; and Cook even lamented in his latter years that it was not a good idea at all for any business or entrepreneur to invest in a drum corps!

I've wrestled with this idea for years and, for me, the answer seems straight-forward, and it takes extreme commitment.

You can't run a business to fund a drum corps, you have to fund a business to be profitable. You simply dedicate yourself to giving "X" amount of the profits to the corps. You don't expect a return. The drum corps is an expense on the business's budget. This puts the whole endeavor in a different light. I want to start and run businesses to profitability because I love profit, not drum corps. I give my profits to drum corps because I love drum corp.

This notion fits well in the US because we have millions of small businesses, with thousands of new ones starting every year. We just don't have enough small business-people who love drum corps.

It works in real life and for each of us. You have a job, you have a great idea, you think of a way to make a business, you do, you make it profitable, and you give half the profits to drum corps. Notice I didn't say quit your day job. If it works, rinse and repeat. Then hire someone to run the first one and repeat. If it doesn't work, adjust, and try again. Adjust, repeat.

If you have no interest in starting a business or giving away profits, then you can go out and try to get other small business-owners to love drum corps (ala Bill Cook, although his business was already massively profitable before his son marched), or you might even take one hour per day to try to convince the company you work for to love drum corps.

You put 4 or 5 like-minded people together to solve a problem with a laser-like focus and, IMO, you'll be stunned at what can be accomplished. You look closely at the support group of any "successful" corps and you'll find this group of people.

Sounds hard. Obviously, it's as hard, or harder, than it sounds.

Who would take such a gample? People who love drum corps. Where there's a will...

Edited by garfield
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Here's a thought...

It's a truth that many companies are strongy profitable and, in fact, are LOOKING for losses to help soak up their profits so they can minimize their taxes. I would suggest that the associated benefits to such an organization to support an activity like drum corps would make the social expense of a loss like drum corps very attractive. The company gets a financial write off against profits on which the IRS would otherwise take 30%, and they offset that loss with the exposure, benefit, and good will of funding something as wholesome as a drum corps.

What if you started a business that identified those business with profits and a do-good attitude, and you pitched them on the benefits.

We, apparently, can stand electronics; surely we can stand CocaCola's logo on the flags for the opening set...

Edited by garfield
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Here's a thought...

It's a truth that many companies are strongy profitable and, in fact, are LOOKING for losses to help soak up their profits so they can minimize their taxes. I would suggest that the associated benefits to such an organization to support an activity like drum corps would make the social expense of a loss like drum corps very attractive. The company gets a financial write off against profits on which the IRS would otherwise take 30%, and they offset that loss with the exposure, benefit, and good will of funding something as wholesome as a drum corps.

What if you started a business that identified those business with profits and a do-good attitude, and you pitched them on the benefits.

We, apparently, can stand electronics; surely we can stand CocaCola's logo on the flags for the opening set...

One major issue with this... RISK. If it were ten to twenty years ago I might agree with you but now RISK is the major concern of these major sponsors.

We have kids 14 - 22 years old kids to adults on buses traveling around the country without parental guidance. That is your RISK. If one thing happens, the sponsor company gets a phone call, even worse - negative media coverage, even worse boycotts.

What could happen? A kid could die, underage drinking, sexual abuse, a lost kid... All this risk for relatively low exposure of potential customers. It is easier, with less effort and money to advertise directly to their target audience - and there is no risk in that.

While I love the idea - this is a reality of today.

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I remember a "marketing ideas for DCI" thread a while back that talked about major ad agencies and contacting them and how NASCAR got their agency of record. There are major agencies that do LARGE pro bono work every day. There is one issue in this and that is the same RISK that I just mentioned. Many folks think it is the upfront money to pay these agencies, actually it is not. Drum and Bugle corps is not a CAUSE that helps gain sponsors or pro bono work.

For example: Ogilvy donate millions of dollars in time and work to WWF (world wildlife fund)and to many zoos across the country. This is their cause, They happen to be very careful in choosing the correct animal group to fund. Why? Imagine if they picked PETA - They would probably lose their largest account NESTLE (its not just chocolate folks). Imagine if they did something for a corps that also jumped out and got a pepsi Sponsorship... They could lose another major paying account - Coca-Cola.

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I remember a "marketing ideas for DCI" thread a while back that talked about major ad agencies and contacting them and how NASCAR got their agency of record. There are major agencies that do LARGE pro bono work every day. There is one issue in this and that is the same RISK that I just mentioned. Many folks think it is the upfront money to pay these agencies, actually it is not. Drum and Bugle corps is not a CAUSE that helps gain sponsors or pro bono work.

For example: Ogilvy donate millions of dollars in time and work to WWF (world wildlife fund)and to many zoos across the country. This is their cause, They happen to be very careful in choosing the correct animal group to fund. Why? Imagine if they picked PETA - They would probably lose their largest account NESTLE (its not just chocolate folks). Imagine if they did something for a corps that also jumped out and got a pepsi Sponsorship... They could lose another major paying account - Coca-Cola.

Since you brought up NASCAR and sponsorships, high dollar sponsors also want decision power control. Example: Sterling Marlin was driving a car for the Chip Ganassi team sponsored by Coors Light (he was even in the lead in points until an accident sidelined him for a few races); the next season Sterling was ready to go after the championship, however the Coors company wanted to market their product to a mid twenties crowd and Sterling was in his 40's; Coors told Ganassi to hire a younger driver or they would pull their sponsorship; Sterling was fired rather quickly. Do not think for one second that this would not happen in DCI if a corps secured a high dollar corporate sponsor. ABC high dollar sponsor of a corps wants to target to XYZ demographic, so they state to the corps Board "get rid of the current director/staff, hire this other director/staff, and change the show concepts to playing our jingles or we pull our millions in sponsorship"; Board then, without reservation, complies: I guarantee this type of power control will happen.

Edited by Stu
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Since you brought up NASCAR and sponsorships, high dollar sponsors also want decision power control. Example: Sterling Marlin was driving a car for the Chip Ganassi team sponsored by Coors Light (he was even in the lead in points until an accident sidelined him for a few races); the next season Sterling was ready to go after the championship, however the Coors company wanted to market their product to a mid twenties crowd and Sterling was in his 40's; Coors told Ganassi to hire a younger driver or they would pull their sponsorship; Sterling was fired rather quickly. Do not think for one second that this would not happen in DCI if a corps secured a high dollar corporate sponsor. ABC high dollar sponsor of a corps wants to target to XYZ demographic, so they state to the corps Board "get rid of the current director/staff, hire this other director/staff, and change the show concepts to playing our jingles or we pull our millions in sponsorship"; Board then, without reservation, complies: I guarantee this type of power control will happen.

Love ya', Stu, but you did read the G7 proposal, didn't you?

:ph34r:

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