Tim K Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 59 minutes ago, craiga said: Yes, Boston hasn't had bingo in over 30 years. There's been lots of talk about paid bingo workers, but back in the day, our bingo (called "Metrocorps) was staffed with volunteers including BAC staff and members who were 18+. I remember working it myself, and all the BAC staff and members would stand and salute whenever "I-27" was called. IYKYK! 😉 When you matched, I’m surprised Boston Crusaders Bingo sheets even had the number 27 on them!🙂 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craiga Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 8 minutes ago, Tim K said: When you matched, I’m surprised Boston Crusaders Bingo sheets even had the number 27 on them!🙂 We didn't have a uniform #27 until 2017. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOC Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 1 hour ago, craiga said: Yes, Boston hasn't had bingo in over 30 years. Does Boston still work Patriot home games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craiga Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 No. Not sure why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slingerland Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 (edited) Feh. Bingo, bourbon raffles, t-shirt sales (which ALSO have nothing to do with the core mission of any of the orgs), System Color instruments, Chinese Panda restaurant days (or whatever tf that restaurant chain is called) - if there's a net profit that drives costs down to the participants, it's fine. The 90s are dead, in the non-profit world. Thinking that anyone can go back to the days of 40% unearned/60% earned - which was the metric for many many years in the arts npo world - is a non-starter. Corporate donations for organizations that don't serve local kids is also going to be a hard sell - and unless and until the activity can figure out a way to package that in a way that makes sense to major corporate donors, it's a waste of effort. Corporate sponsorship is a much better area of focus than Gen Op support, since that's talking to the marketing people, not the corporate donor people, and the marketing folks understand brand building and affinity building and could give a rat's booboo about whether it's "building up people". It's what you'd hope DCI's new exec team is focused on, since selling the league should be their jobs number one, two, three, and fourteen. Edited March 5 by Slingerland 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scheherazadesghost Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 23 minutes ago, Tim K said: The question of whether the mission statement of a non profit is in alignment with Bingo is a legitimate question. In my case as a pastor (I’m a Catholic priest) I have had parishes with schools but we no longer had Bingo so I never had to make a decision about the game. However you still have to figure out ways to pay teachers a living wage while keeping tuition low for families who are barely scraping by. I know drum corps is a different situation than a school but funding non profits is not easy. In my neck of the woods (just outside of Boston) there are fewer Bingos. There have three major death knells for Bingo. One, when smoking was no longer allowed in public places, Bingos took a huge hit. Casinos with Bingo halls is a second. Third? Bingos have a hard time attracting volunteers. Volunteering at Bingo is a thankless job. Yes it's difficult work, generating nonprofit revenue. But there's no need to reinvent the wheel. Seasoned nonprofit development directors do it all day every day. A savvy, or even just industrious org need only read a book, search the interwebz, or reach out to other orgs. Or, call me crazy, just seek out alumni who have done time in the nonprofit world. The bingo swan songs you mentioned are legit and will only get worse with time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scheherazadesghost Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 22 minutes ago, Slingerland said: Feh. Bingo, bourbon raffles, t-shirt sales (which ALSO have nothing to do with the core mission of any of the orgs), System Color instruments, Chinese Panda restaurant days (or whatever tf that restaurant chain is called) - if there's a net profit that drives costs down to the participants, it's fine. Sure npos are unaligned all the time. But that risks important components of a healthy nonprofit like community engagement and donor trust. It's also a sign of flimsy strategic planning. I'm not just pulling mission alignment terminology out of my butt, it's a legit strategy that feeds every successful, similarly sized npo I've worked for. And it's fed the thing we call modern dance longer than most drum corps have existed. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/how-to-align-assets-with-mission-small-steps-that-nonprofits-can-take/ This article discusses large npos and investments, but the same principle applies to other income streams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabMaster Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 40 minutes ago, craiga said: No. Not sure why. Might have been getting a solid number of volunteers each game and game schedule played a part. There was a minimum requirement of people needed to be in the concession stand. The games could be at 1pm, 4pm or 7pm and you had to be in the stand 3 hours before game time and wound be there an hour after the game . Then be stuck in traffic. Made for a long hard day. Volunteers are the lifeblood of corps and corps support functions. Things need to be easy for most volunteers to devote a lot of time on a regular basis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HBD Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 21 hours ago, BigW said: The first huge case study of this at the DCI level was the Circle K sponsorship of Suncoast Sound. They wanted the corps to so some performance for them and they felt rehearsal for the next contest was more important, so they blew them off and lost that sponsorship. That was their "jump the shark" moment. Another little-known incident was a small NJ corps back in the early 80's known as Fantasia III. They got a Burger King sponsorship and flew their flag as part of the Main Guard as part of the deal. the DCE competitors grumbled, whinged and forced them to stop that. The corps pretty much died after losing that money. And, it also discouraged anyone else from seeking those kinds of connections. Stick to Bingo and raffles... It's rare that you get a huge sponsor in any activity that throws out a lot of cash and expects nothing in return. In Formula One when cigarette money was being thrown around like drunken sailors on liberty to teams, one of them was approached by FedEx for a major sponsorship and part of the deal would have been some tie-ins and events. The team told them, "No thank you" because they could get the same out of Big Tobacco with no strings attached and the tie ins were too much work. Sounds familiar to this! I marched in Fantasia III, the corps was never sponsored by the Burger King Company. A local NJ franchisee hired the corps to play at a small amount of gigs for a few $ and free food. A few overzealous administrators decided to paint the BK logo on the back door of the truck and announce we were sponsored by BK. One day by chance a corporate executive from the Burger King company saw the truck, found the owners and promptly contacted the administration to immediately remove the logo and cease and desist any claim of sponsorship with the BK company, that was in 1979, the corps folded in 1983. The corps ran a successful bingo game every week, ran 2 large Christmas tree lots every holiday, fundraised and marched many parade's and ran a successful DCE show every June to raise money. It was member retention that did the corps in. You need to check your sources on the history of Fantasia III since you couldn’t be farther from the truth. sorry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 4 hours ago, craiga said: You make good points here. Truthfully, the only part of your post which I don't agree with is your observation regarding small donors vs. large donors. I think we can agree that the days of car washes and bake sales are a thing of the past. While any well organized corps certainly won't turn down a few hundred dollars from individual donors, they would be guilty of fund-raising malpractice if they didn't AGRESSIVELY pursue large corporations. I do not the details of BD's sources of revenue, but BAC posts all the corporate donors on it's web page. (The full list is there.) From memory, I know it includes entities like John Hancock Financial Services, Putnam Investments, Fidelity Investments, several Massachusetts banks and credit unions, as well as the City of Boston itself. I think there are several dozen companies. As I've said before, I take no credit for this personally. We have a 48 member BOD which works 12 months a year to generate these funds, culminating in the Concert in the Park in mid June in downtown Boston. Most years, they pull in close to $800,000 at that event. As a recently retired person on a fixed income, I contribute $300 per year, not including t shirts and show tickets I purchase. The drum corps is happy to get it, and always has a corps member email a signed thank you note....but the corporations with their massive donations are who brings the fire. i still can't believe i was staying at the Copley and didn't think to look to see when the concert was....and i saw it had happened later that night. Then again after the Duck Boat tour and the awesome penguin display at the aquarium, i was probably hungry and or tired. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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