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When do you stop donating to a corps?


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I feel my answer requires a backstory. I am Crossmen alumnus. I was at the very first practice of the corps—before we even had a name.  I am still an active alumni.  Over its 40+ years of existence the Crossmen (1) rose to the top 12 in its third year, (2) dropped out of the top 12 a decade later and were in danger of folding, (3) came back and were finalists for another decade and a half, (4) dropped out of the top 12 and moved to Texas, (5) Came back into the top 12.  

The corps has a motto, “when all else is gone, the Bones remain.”

it’s based on this history of always coming back from possible extinction.  

I have never stopped supporting the corps. When they moved to Texas, I flew down to participate in History Night.  The alumni maintained the continuity of corps traditions.  

It is #### hard when a corps is down to come back up. It’s when they are down, that they need the most support—not just financial support, but emotional support  

Whatever it is you don’t like, can be changed, but dead corps stay dead. 

(Footnote:  The Crossmen were the result of two struggling corps in the Philly suburbs joining together.  They were soon joined by remnants of other dead or soon to be dead corps like the Bracken Cavaliers and PAL Cadets)

Edited by barigirl78
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5 hours ago, kdaddy said:

At what point do you decide that your donation, however small, should go to a different organization that makes better decisions? Let's assume "good" refers to hiring talent and making design choices, and that an axiom is that members are safe, taken care of, having a good experience, and so on.

It’s ok, I can help you find a new one if it comes to that...

Mike

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4 hours ago, Tim K said:

There are two OC corps and one WC corps that call my area home. I do donate and do not feel my donation is misspent. That being said, the WC corps is not as financially strapped as it once was, and is doing rather well competitively and financially. I would love to see this corps use smaller donations for scholarships. The donations from people like me I am sure are appreciated, and acknowledged,  but for a corps that has top, well paid staff and everything is state of the art, smaller donors who are fans, alums, or simply like supporting drum corps would love to know our donations are used are used to help kids march who can’t afford it.

Two things I no longer do: when corps ask you to bring bottled water, Gatorade, paper products, etc. to a show, I no longer do it. I’ve done this with four different corps in the past couple of years and it is treated as if it is an imposition by the people collecting it. My guess is it sounds like a good idea at the time but it’s not practical. I also avoid Amazon wishlists. They can be problematic with a traveling group.

odd. 2 years ago I showed up to a Boston rehearsal with a ton of granola bars, water and some, uh snacks for staff, and i was thanked by many people...and allowed in the stadium to see something i was sworn to secrecy not tell I saw since it was a few days away from being made public

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Donating straight to members is amazing. I know my kid could not have marched if he hadn't had donors. And he went above and beyond the normal note to say thank you and to include them in his journey each year. The last two years he marched he had an Instagram page specifically to share his season with them.

That said, please remember that member dues/tuition do not come close to covering the cost of putting a corps on the road. (And I'm not talking about the big boys. The little fish have to do major fundraising as well.) So if you feel frustrated by the corps you currently support, but still feel the tug, and feel it's time to take your money elsewhere, then look into the giving opportunities in other corps. I know there are many corps now that allow you to sponsor a specific item, such as "a Mile" or "a Meal". I know my hometown corps, The Academy has a Feed your Favorite Corps Program, that covers food costs, you can even sponsor fresh fruit. Heck, one of the buses of the members sponsored a fresh fruit at a meal on tour this season. All the various DCI corps websites are linked on the DCI site so you can look around various websites and see what's in place for various corps.

If you would prefer to sponsor an individual, some corps do have scholarship funds that you can contribute to. And you can also reach out to corps this off season, after they've had a chance to catch their breath, and ask them point blank if they have a system in place to identify kids having trouble paying their dues that they can direct donors to give specifically for those kids. If they don't bother responding, move on to another corps. (BTW Academy person to talk to is Carol Balk. I have no idea if they do or not direct potential donors to specific kids, but Carol would know.) 

 

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5 hours ago, desertrat68 said:

 

That said, please remember that member dues/tuition do not come close to covering the cost of putting a corps on the road. (And I'm not talking about the big boys. The little fish have to do major fundraising as well.) So if you feel frustrated by the corps you currently support, but still feel the tug, and feel it's time to take your money elsewhere, then look into the giving opportunities in other corps. I know there are many corps now that allow you to sponsor a specific item, such as "a Mile" or "a Meal". I know my hometown corps, The Academy has a Feed your Favorite Corps Program, that covers food costs, you can even sponsor fresh fruit. Heck, one of the buses of the members sponsored a fresh fruit at a meal on tour this season. All the various DCI corps websites are linked on the DCI site so you can look around various websites and see what's in place for various corps.

 

The Crossmen Alumni spontaneously began a "sponsor a meal" program after the season began this year.  It has been amazingly successful.  Almost all the meals have been sponsored.  Some are by individuals.  Others are by alumni from a specific year pooling resources.  I think people really respond when they know their money is going to something specific.

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13 hours ago, kdaddy said:

Say you're a small donor to a corps of which you've been a long-time fan. And say that corps has dropped competitively, moreso due to several years of bad design decisions and bad staff decisions that produce those bad designs. And say that you don't care as much about competitive placement, so long as (i) you like what's being produced, (ii) show design is competent in the neighborhood that the corps should be competing in, and (iii) sufficiently talented members are still opting to be in the corps. That is, I'm not about unrealistic competitive expectations. Also, I'm not a boomer that's upset about dancing on the field, or electronics, or amplifications, or any number of other things that might drive drum corps fans away in general - this is corps specific.

At what point do you decide that your donation, however small, should go to a different organization that makes better decisions? Let's assume "good" refers to hiring talent and making design choices, and that an axiom is that members are safe, taken care of, having a good experience, and so on. 

Or do you always say "they keep getting my donation - they're my first drum corps love, and the members deserve it"?

 

(If you've noticed any of my posts, you probably know the corps I'm referring to, though I think this can be a sufficiently general conversation)

I'm reminded, speaking of the benefits and drawbacks of small-town banks: "When you have $100 in a bank, you're a depositor.  But when you have a million dollars in a bank, you're an owner."

Your emphasis on "...no matter how small..." likely provides much of your guidance.  No ED is going to be happy to see you go as a "depositor" (small donor) but, by the same token, your very real concerns about design direction or corps leadership are issues best addressed to the Board of the corps, if you care to share at all.  The ED is their employee; if they feel that your concerns have sufficient merit and weight, they can interact with the ED, well, immediately.  A good board won't dismiss such comments, even if it means keeping a "running count" of such comments that come his/her way.

Your decision to leave should absolutely be based on your charitable heart and gut.  You can take a stand and give elsewhere or, there is another way few talk about: restricted funds donations.  Direct your desired use of the funds and, by law, the corps must comply if they accept the donation.  It's a different way to support the kids directly.  You can even tell the ED (or Board member) that you'll return to unrestricted donations when and if the direction changes to suit your viewpoint of your observations  (and yours alone - it's YOUR money and they should earn it, however you define that).  There are financial instruments that allow you to make annual charitable contributions without directing the money to the recipient - allowing you to direct the donation if, and when, the corps demonstrates what you want.  (If you care, you should PM me directly for the vehicle name and then Google is your friend.)

If you care about the organization primarily and not a specific student, you can simply withhold and accrue in your bank account, and let the appropriate corps rep know.  You're still supporting the corps of your choice but just not giving money to fund bad decisions.  The key is letting them know with a realistic sense of what your donation dollars mean to them in today's world of $600thousand to $1mil corps budgets.

If none of that suits you, then you can consider giving directly to DCI and direct your funds into one of their student programs.  Because DCI doesn't itself make money, all of your donation goes toward their work to improve the activity (such that it is) and the remainder finds its way back to the individual corps (in something approaching a "pro-rata" methodology).

 

 

Edited by garfield
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1 hour ago, barigirl78 said:

The Crossmen Alumni spontaneously began a "sponsor a meal" program after the season began this year.  It has been amazingly successful.  Almost all the meals have been sponsored.  Some are by individuals.  Others are by alumni from a specific year pooling resources.  I think people really respond when they know their money is going to something specific.

Yep that’s like what I see from the corps I donate to. Besides meals (breakfast $, lunch $$, dinner $$$) there are options for hydration ($) and transportation ($$$$). Forget but think there might be other options. Think it does help if you know where the $$$$ are going. My old Western PA college has been using the option checklist for years so must work for them.

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13 hours ago, ThePlanets said:

If you are unhappy with decision making you need not feel obligated to donate.

I'd be more apt to move my donation to a small corps that's making entertaining choices and providing a good learning environment to help students grow vs moving my donation to one of the big dogs.

And add to the fact that your financial donation amount likely has more impact, that you can add service to your dollars in any number of volunteer ways and actually have a greater impact at a "smaller corps", and you can have as much vested ownership in your corps without having to cut significant checks.  Ask about Board or Advisor positions, volunteer... so many jobs need done that are not a direct result of the ED and design team's choices.  

Seeing the kids play the heck out of a crappy show is heartwarming when dollars aren't doing it for you.

 

Edited by garfield
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