fighterkit Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 5 minutes ago, BlueStainGlass said: If someone tries telling you that souvies barely make money I always say $1 is better than $0. 300k could be 25% of your yearly costs so id say that's a win when you could be making $0 sitting out. Agreed. Any show we sold anything at was a win for us. That was one less tshirt or sticker, or pair of sticks sitting on the trailer. Less weight and less things in the trailer and it made our lives easier in the future. A lot of these souvie trailers are packed so full that you would have no hope of putting anything else in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cixelsyd Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 So SCV will be a voting member... or not. They will get appearance money on tour... or not. Revenue sharing stays as is... or is lost for at least a year. They can fundraise... or they have to wait until cleared by the state. This is great news! Or a total disaster. 2 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scheherazadesghost Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 (edited) While I'm not here to argue merch ROI, I will say it's generally about just that for nonprofits. ROI. And the ROI is not high considering the extreme costs of doing business (including peoplepower needed to push the sales and cuts taken by 3rd party vendors.) If Crown, Bloo, (and now, hopefully Vanguard) have busted that trend I've seen in my nonprofit experience, more power to them. More money earned in compliance is a good thing and we all agree on that. It should be noted, however, that $300k in sales is not the same as $300k in the bank after all other expenses going into sales are calculated in. My point is made clearly here: https://www.oneninedesign.net/blog/nonprofits-sell-products Quote Given a choice between events, annual fund drives, product sales, or any other fundraising activity, I'd choose major gift fundraising every single time. However, adding product sales to your mix of revenue-generating activities is not a bad idea. It simply requires forethought and intention to ensure that the time spent on the venture does not detract from other, more pressing (and more effective) means of raising money. In VMAPA's case, relying on merch sales instead of major gift giving is contrary to normal nonprofit models. Perhaps not in drum corps, but they set the bar low. Healthy nonprofits invest in major gift giving to survive and thrive. Edited September 20, 2023 by scheherazadesghost 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weaklefthand4ever Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 1 hour ago, fighterkit said: They’re with pepwear. Souvie sales will be dramatically cut after various parties take their cut per contract Long gone are the days of local shops printing your t-shirts for sale at the source booth, autographed pin stripe drum heads and some logo Silver Fox sticks I guess lol. It got so.....complicated in the past 30 years. God I'm old.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fighterkit Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 Just now, Weaklefthand4ever said: Long gone are the days of local shops printing your t-shirts for sale at the source booth, autographed pin stripe drum heads and some logo Silver Fox sticks I guess lol. It got so.....complicated in the past 30 years. God I'm old.... If it makes you feel better we still sell sticks at the booth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 32 minutes ago, DAL-27 said: Yes other organizations got SVOG money. Ok what does SVOG stand for? Had a good guess that was pretty bad. 😫 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IllianaLancerContra Posted September 20, 2023 Author Share Posted September 20, 2023 5 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said: While I'm not here to argue merch ROI, I will say it's generally about just that for nonprofits. ROI. And the ROI is not high considering the extreme costs of doing business (including peoplepower needed to push the sales and cuts taken by 3rd party vendors.) If Crown, Bloo, (and now, hopefully Vangaurd) have busted that trend I've seen in my nonprofit experience, more power to them. More money earned in compliance is a good thing and we all agree on that. It should be noted, however, that $300k in sales is not the same as $300k in the bank after all other expenses going into sales are calculated in. My point is made clearly here: https://www.oneninedesign.net/blog/nonprofits-sell-products In VMAPA's case, relying on merch sales instead of major gift giving is contrary to normal nonprofit models. Perhaps not in drum corps, but they set the bar low. Healthy nonprofits invest in major gift giving to survive and thrive. Question- For merch sails on tour, is the amount of $ needed for souvenir vehicles, fuel, feeding the souvenir staff, etc figured into whether selling souvenirs is profitable? If you make $25k from souvenirs but it costs $26k to run the souvenir operation, then it is a net loss. I understand this applies to sales on tour, not on-line sales (which at least some Corps have apparently outsourced), but are all the costs of the souvenir operation tracked? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg_orangecounty Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 If what they say is true in that "they hope to be in compliance by January 2024" I also hope the CA FTB & DOJ are willing to wait that long. They've received two warnings already and there won't be a third. Perhaps they're in communications with both agencies(?) I was hoping to hear they've already submitted past due filings. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IllianaLancerContra Posted September 20, 2023 Author Share Posted September 20, 2023 4 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said: Ok what does SVOG stand for? Had a good guess that was pretty bad. 😫 Acronymophobia happening here 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fighterkit Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 1 minute ago, IllianaLancerContra said: Question- For merch sails on tour, is the amount of $ needed for souvenir vehicles, fuel, feeding the souvenir staff, etc figured into whether selling souvenirs is profitable? If you make $25k from souvenirs but it costs $26k to run the souvenir operation, then it is a net loss. I understand this applies to sales on tour, not on-line sales (which at least some Corps have apparently outsourced), but are all the costs of the souvenir operation tracked? I cannot speak for other corps, but I can speak for Boston since I was on merch last summer. Yes. Everything is tracked for merch sales. Corps would not be running merch booths if it was not profitable. I know there are a few smaller corps who choose not to do merch booths at shows and instead sell online. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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