The Legends REALLY Need Our Help!!!

[Stu]

1 minute ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Or maybe it went something like this:

...They hoped to find additional money during the season to cover the final two trips...

Even if that were the case it is still a horrible and deplorable business practice which has a high percentage chance of failing.  How is that really looking out for the best interest and welfare of the youth?

[Northern Thunder]

This is perhaps a sign of the times, but I find it unfortunate that the community of Kalamazoo (newspaper, television/radio) itself doesn't seem to have been a part of this story yet.

I remember in years past that the hometown (even though we know a corps hometown doesn't really exist like it used to) news outlets, be they in Rockford, Casper, etc., were all over these stories, rallying support as a sign of civic pride, if nothing else.  

[N.E. Brigand]

Just now, Stu said:

Even if that were the case it is still a horrible and deplorable business practice which has a high percentage chance of failing.  How is that really looking out for the best interest and welfare of the youth?

How is it not? I work for a non-profit arts organization. We start our fiscal year knowing we need to sell $X million in ticket and raise $Y million from donors. But sometimes what we thought would be a blockbuster show just doesn't catch fire with audiences. And sometimes long-time donors are fickle and decide not to give. If enough of those things happen in the same season, we have to consider canceling a production, or letting staff go, or taking any other number of steps to adjust and keep the organization around in the following year.

To me, it seems quite possible that Legends could have found themselves in the same boat.

[JKT90]

Non-profits are required, by law to file a 990 every year. Failure to do so = Organizations that do not file for three consecutive years automatically lose their tax-exempt status. An automatic revocation is effective on the original filing due date of the third annual return or notice. (Section 6033(j) of the Internal Revenue Code)

According to GuideStar, they have not filed since 2012. If they lost their status, then a tax bill is due on all income, and it is due pretty quick. Not saying this is what happened...

[MotoSurfBass]

1 hour ago, WaxDCIFan said:

So this is the central point.  How does a nationally touring OC corps make this argument?  Obviously it can be done, as Genesis just did with the BoD.  But in the years where a corps like Legends (or insert Musuc City, etc in a few years) is on the precipice between OC and WC,  it is a precarious position for these OC corps tour nationally with 150 kids, without the ability to benefit from the gate fees, sponsorships and other financial perks that WC corps get.

My only point is that it would be nice for Legends, and others, to share in some of financial benefits afforded to the WC corps whom they beat soundly every year.

I'm out...

Hey guys, remember that time Music City completely folded?

[Cleveland1]

1 minute ago, JKT90 said:

Non-profits are required, by law to file a 990 every year. Failure to do so = Organizations that do not file for three consecutive years automatically lose their tax-exempt status. An automatic revocation is effective on the original filing due date of the third annual return or notice. (Section 6033(j) of the Internal Revenue Code)

According to GuideStar, they have not filed since 2012. If they lost their status, then a tax bill is due on all income, and it is due pretty quick. Not saying this is what happened...

Guidestar is largely self reported. I recently went in an updated my org's guidestar profile, realizing that it hadn't been updated in about 4 years.

[Stu]

3 minutes ago, Eleran said:

 

• Immediate Crisis or brewing problem?  They have had specific campaigns on their website for new trailer(s), food truck appliances, uniforms, fuel, for at least a month (see the dates).  Possibly they had stuff up earlier.  None of the campaigns even reached 10% of their goals, other than the food truck appliance at 15%.  I think this at least clears up that the approximately 75% of what they are currently seeking (35K for trailers, 12K for appliances; 8K in rental vehicle; 15K for corps housing; 30K in equipment replacements) relate to long-term need items that they have known about for a while

 

This, if accurate, is the key to my hard-core position.  If he chose to go ahead and take the youth out on the road with this particular financial information being factual, Katy bar the door!!!!!!!

[drumcorpsfan4567]

12 minutes ago, Eleran said:

I've been biting my tongue on posting, but below are my two cents (since everyone is willing to give at least that much to this campaign  [note: it would take 5 million of us giving two actual cents to get them to their goal]), not in any particular order:

• Why 24 hours?  An obvious speculation would be that they set themselves a deadline to make a decision on the remainder of the tour, before they would leave for their next show on Saturday.  They problem with the 24 hour appeal - it doesn't give people like hear on DCP an adequate time to evaluate the facts, leading to nebulous speculation going either way which isn't the fault of the speculators since that's all they have to work with.
• Immediate Crisis or brewing problem?  They have had specific campaigns on their website for new trailer(s), food truck appliances, uniforms, fuel, for at least a month (see the dates).  Possibly they had stuff up earlier.  None of the campaigns even reached 10% of their goals, other than the food truck appliance at 15%.  I think this at least clears up that the approximately 75% of what they are currently seeking (35K for trailers, 12K for appliances; 8K in rental vehicle; 15K for corps housing; 30K in equipment replacements) relate to long-term need items that they have known about for a while
• Keeping Up with the Joneses?  Someone cited that as a necessity in today's age.  And THAT is the fallacy that leads entities to live beyond their means and end up in these holes.  Artists may want what they want to created the grand masterpieces in their heads, but a businessperson needs to know when to rein them in. DCI may be heading towards amps, speakers and mics for every member, and props for every inch of the field, but only if the organizations collectively let it happen and follow along like sheep.    If you can't afford it, then you can't do it.  Pursuit of GE scores cannot override the reality of finances.
• Tour decisions?  Why take a one week jaunt to Alabama, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee unless you knew money would not be a concern?  Look at the other corps at those competitions, and aside from Les Stentors coming down for the last two, they are all southern-based open corps.  As with the Joneses comments - live within your means.
• Uniforms?  the corps has only been around for 9 years, I believe, and according to one Reddit poster, they've already had a number of different uniforms.  When was the last time Raiders got a new uniform?  And I question if they were even new at the time they got them.   Battalion is using hand-me-downs.  Again - don't live beyond your means.  
• Transparency?  I believe any corps which seeks sufficient funds from donations should be willing to make their finances easily available to the public.  Garfield has done a lot of work previously with 990s, but it should be right their on their website.  If they are unable or unwilling to be that transparent, it will always leave the public with doubts about how their donations might be wasted.  A $100k desperation campaign like this should come with more than 5 bullet point needs, especially as vague as "... and additional general operating expectations"
• Personally, I don't like begging.  I don't like Go-Fund Me campaigns.  I don't like when corps make members cough up 50 names and addresses of friends and family for the corps to pursue for donations.  It's just not something I am personally comfortable with.  I get that the charitable culture considers it  natural, but I am much happier when people who want an experience (for themselves or their children) work hard to raise the necessary funds to pay for it themselves, or if necessary forego the experience as one beyond their means.  I know lots of people believe DCI should be cheap or free so all can experience it, but youth sports aren't free; college isn't free; marriage and kids aren't free; world-travel isn't free; few if any great live experiences are.  If there are 150 marching members in Legends, then $667 from each member would reach $100,000.   That may seem like a lot of cash, but last minute air-plane tickets home from mid-tour might cost nearly as much, and if these problems were long term (which frankly, it seems many were), then that $667 should have been built into the tuition, even if it meant that a few of those kids would have to pass on the season.  I sent my son out with Raiders in 2014, the year following their mid-tour financial crisis, knowing that if there was another problem it might fall upon ME to come and get him, at my own expense.  That was my choice.

Full disclosure - I have never managed a DCI corps.   I did found and run for 5 years (outside of my regular job) a youth sports organization of ~100 kids that included paid staff, uniforms, equipment, facility fees, tournament registrations, etc.  The overall budget was not the same as DCI nor the element of road trips, but we lived within our means, were never out of the black,  managed to offer the lowest tuition among our competitors, and had competitive success - all paid for by tuition of the members, not donations, sponsors, etc.  And we watched competitors fold during that time, stiffing their staff, and cancelling tournaments they couldn't afford to go to - usually because they were lead by former athletes that may have known the sport but couldn't handle running a business.  Not so dissimilar, if you ask me.

This times 1000 and by the way, I'll add that I was on the staff of the Raiders that year (who I also donated today in addition to Legends) and the choice with that show was made SPECIFICALLY not to have any new props, uniforms, equipment, etc. because we knew that the corps' financial solvency had to be the #1 priority.  We also stopped attending shows in Massachusetts and other places on the east coast before leaving for tour because of the cost involved in that.  I haven't been with them since and I think they might have had problems in one of the other years since, but the point is that you need to live within your means as a drum corps and if you are promising a full tour to your members and asking a certain price from them for it, you need to be able to guarantee that you can back that up.

[Northern Thunder]

6 minutes ago, MotoSurfBass said:

Hey guys, remember that time Music City completely folded?

They made it through the 2013 season (5th place OC finals), and then immediately announced they were pulling the plug on the corps.

They came back in 2014, slipped a few places in the standings that year, got stronger, and have been around ever since.

What ever they figured out during the Sept, 2013/June, 2014 span must have been a miracle.

[jwillis35]

54 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Suppose that, as I suggested earlier, Legends had done this back in February, that they'd put out a call at that time saying, "We need $100,000 to have a full season."

Would you have donated then?

As someone else said, would they have fewer dues-paying members now because of that message?

Would they be in worse financial shape for having done the "right thing" that way?

I would certainly donate. Now, I don't know when they realized they needed the money. If this really was an emergency that just caught them off guard, and suddenly, them by all means I am fine with the emergency fund raising and am happy to take part myself. 

As for dues-paying members, I never consider whether a corps should have fewer paying members. All members have dues.  Period. If someone is getting a scholarship (or sponsorship) those things must never come out of the corps' operational expenses. That is money coming from a donor or other source.  

As for sentence no. 4, I'm not sure what you're getting at. Fund raising is a year around activity. They can ask for the money whenever they wish. I think what people are concerned about is whether they left home base (for tour) knowing they would come up short, or whether these were unforeseen expenses that caught them off guard.  I will wait further clarification. My first wish for them is that they do raise enough emergency capital to pay off any debt or expenses owed. For the health of the corps that is the most important thing. Whether or not they can continue to tour is a bonus if they can raise that money.