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Financial Impact of a Lost Season


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Touring is a money loser.  So as a standalone item, most corps are better off without it financially.

Fundraising is harder to figure out.  Cancelling tour gets rid of some fundraising opportunities, but also gets rid of the need for much of that fundraising to occur. 

My sense is that the greater economic environment is the challenge for most corps survival.

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49 minutes ago, rpbobcat said:

Does anyone know when corps order/receive their merchandise ?

If they are locked in and can't cancel,maybe DCI could work with them

to set up a way to easily link to each corps' "store",since some are on a separate site.

May not help a lot,but if they can sell what they already bought,its something.

 

 

It's early enough that most  corps would have nothing or very little already printed. 

In general, the timing on this was as favorable as it could be to the corps, since it's before many of the hard goods related to the summer have been fabricated, so their liability in paying for products/props/costumes, etc will be limited.

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3 hours ago, garfield said:

DCI has no money.

Most corps have no money.

You're going to tell the people who have made money on their own sweat and decisions that they have to give up those efforts to let those who have no money call the shots?

Socialism is not good in governments or in drum corps.

Besides, each org has its own tax ID number.  If DCI got the money, how would they divvy it up between the corps?  Evenly?  Pro-rata based on placement?  By demonstrated need?

This activity is a brotherhood of individual corps that utilize an organizing event manager to create a performance circuit on which to perform.  That's a LOT different that DCI being responsible for charitable fundraising and financial planning.  I can hear it now:  "We already do that really well.  Why should we pay DCI to do that for others who haven't demonstrated an ability to repeat it or even a willingness to learn from those who have already done it?"

Uhhhh....What?

So you don’t think there’s an opportunity for DCI to jump in and help with coordination, communication, support,  etc?  Did you actually read my post?  Pretty sure I said nothing about any corps giving up efforts, or DCI “getting the money” and divvying it out. I think you made that mental jump all by yourself. 

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3 hours ago, HockeyDad said:

And wouldn’t this be the perfect moment for a coordinated effort led or supported by DCI office, on behalf of all the corps?  I’ll answer my own question:  yes.  Of all the many things that are not Dan Acheson’s job, it seems like this is one area where a coordinated, global effort would benefit the entire DCI family of corps. Otherwise it becomes an *every man for himself* situation. 

 

3 minutes ago, HockeyDad said:

Uhhhh....What?

So you don’t think there’s an opportunity for DCI to jump in and help with coordination, communication, support,  etc?  Did you actually read my post?  Pretty sure I said nothing about any corps giving up efforts, or DCI “getting the money” and divvying it out. I think you made that mental jump all by yourself. 

Sure I did!  I read them all and ignore the ones I want to!  🙂 

(Pure fiction follows...)

"Dear Mr. Acheson,

Thank you for your offer to coordinate charitable fundraising.  However, we don't really need that help for Blue_______ and we question the wisdom of DCI staff expending this effort when corps are expected to be financially stable individually. 

We suggest that you concentrate on DCI's primary job of organizing the tour.

Thank you very much,

A Blue Director"

Very literally, if DCI does fundraising, they are competing against the drum corps.  

 

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5 hours ago, totaleefree said:

 Back in the fall there was quite a bit of discussion on here about the guidelines that DCI set for corps being approved for World Class and Open Class. A lot of that was in response to the situation with Pioneer but many of those ideas if put in place would help out the corps in a situation like this. One was a financial reserve I think it was 50k for World class corps. I don't think they were thinking of this happening but those that had that are better off now. It also said that corps should make efforts to ensure they have non tour or dues revenue I think the # was 40%.  I know that a lot of this was theoretical, I mean who doesn't want outside revenue,  However I think that there they recognized that that old models of running corps  needed to change.  Hopefully corps listened to what DCI (made of their own leaders) put out and will be able to weather this storm.  

There are lots of best practices that non-profits like drum corps should follow. For instance, you often hear that non-profits should maintain an endowment (investment portfolio) worth two to three times their annual operating budget, upon which they can draw down the earnings each year or each quarter. You often see 5% as the annual draw down figure. You draw based on the average value over the previous three years. And you can draw down that amount even when the market tanks, as long as you behave consistently.

So a corps who has a budget of $3 million and an endowment whose average value since 2017 is $6 million would be able to count on $300,000 over the next year, regardless of their activity in that period. That might be enough to stay solvent in this down time.

BUT it takes a lot of work to raise that money in the first place. And if you're always struggling just to scrape together enough money to fund your season, you don't have the time to raise these funds yourself, nor the money to pay a fundraiser to do it.

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20 minutes ago, garfield said:

 

Sure I did!  I read them all and ignore the ones I want to!  🙂 

(Pure fiction follows...)

"Dear Mr. Acheson,

Thank you for your offer to coordinate charitable fundraising.  However, we don't really need that help for Blue_______ and we question the wisdom of DCI staff expending this effort when corps are expected to be financially stable individually. 

We suggest that you concentrate on DCI's primary job of organizing the tour.

Thank you very much,

A Blue Director"

Very literally, if DCI does fundraising, they are competing against the drum corps.  

 

I was thinking more along the lines of this imaginary communication from Dan - “hey corps directors!  Corps director X had success getting some of that federal money. Here’s a copy of the grant request they wrote. Maybe you could use it as a template”

I don’t know. Call me crazy. 

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1 minute ago, HockeyDad said:

I was thinking more along the lines of this imaginary communication from Dan - “hey corps directors!  Corps director X had success getting some of that federal money. Here’s a copy of the grant request they wrote. Maybe you could use it as a template”

I don’t know. Call me crazy. 

Ahh, yes.  That's a good thought but it's not necessary.

The Corps Board Consortium has this covered.  Sharing, asking, getting help from others... All of this is done between the corps and most corps make their information available to the group for all to use.

It's a good idea, HD, but it doesn't require Dan or his staff.  If they nail down the 2021 tour then, of course, other tasks can be handled now.  But I don't think the corps want to distract Dan with efforts not in his job description or are being done already by the corps.

 

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9 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said:

There are lots of best practices that non-profits like drum corps should follow. For instance, you often hear that non-profits should maintain an endowment (investment portfolio) worth two to three times their annual operating budget, upon which they can draw down the earnings each year or each quarter. You often see 5% as the annual draw down figure. You draw based on the average value over the previous three years. And you can draw down that amount even when the market tanks, as long as you behave consistently.

So a corps who has a budget of $3 million and an endowment whose average value since 2017 is $6 million would be able to count on $300,000 over the next year, regardless of their activity in that period. That might be enough to stay solvent in this down time.

BUT it takes a lot of work to raise that money in the first place. And if you're always struggling just to scrape together enough money to fund your season, you don't have the time to raise these funds yourself, nor the money to pay a fundraiser to do it.

Being a NP is a tough job.  "Bingo and Begging" has roots in reality.

Can anyone name a single drum corps that maintains an endowment account that's even twice annual expenses, let alone three times?

I sure can't.

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Just now, garfield said:

Being a NP is a tough job.  "Bingo and Begging" has roots in reality.

Can anyone name a single drum corps that maintains an endowment account that's even twice annual expenses, let alone three times?

I sure can't.

I work in non-profit theater, and in our world, most don't have an endowment anywhere near that size.

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