FortWayneMusic.com

Sharkman or Anderson, make this a sticky, okay???? Pretty Please???!!!

I am interested in starting up a not-for-profit whose goal is the promotion and support of local music. Areas of focus would be - in order:

A - a healthcare fund to help out with catastrophic medical bills for local musicians without health insurance. At this point I don't see it being used for day-to-day healthcare costs, but strictly catastrophic losses, such as emergency surgeries, on-going medical costs associated with sudden, extreme illnesses, such as cancer, kidney/heart/liver failure, MS, etc...

B - education - conservatory scholarships, establishing a local fine arts school, private music lessons for those who simply can't afford them, etc...

C - promote the more creative, ambitious and non-commercial musical ventures, such as jazz, world music, experimental, classical (an overused generalization, but you know what I mean)

D - Open to ideas....

I'm willing to take the point on this, but I need some other people on board. If you are serious, please email or PM me and/or post your reply on this thread.

Hey Brad,
Have you thought of trying to get a grant? I'd love to hear what your plan is to get it off the ground. If you get a chance stop in the store sometime!
Jen

Made stuck by al*****

I think it is a good idea. The whole process can take alittle while, as I found with BTS (Built to Shine). That may have been because of the goal of BTS though, trying to be an all inclusive org is much harder then I thought. This may be much easier / relalistic.


Good luck.

I think it's a swell idea. Do any other cities have organizations of the sort that you could refer to for ideas?

I'm thinking something like the Ark in Ann Arbor, which would require a physical locale.

Jen, I'll stop in sometime. It might have to be after the holidays though. I have a friend who is a grant writer - part of the group that bought the Rialto. I know a couple of other people in town as well. We'll have to get organized and legal before we can start writing grants.

Thanks for the replies. After New Years, we'll have a meeting and see what we can get going.

Why not utilize Jam Crib as the locale for such an organization? It is designed for these sort of things. The Unity Performing Arts Foundation is already using our facility for some of their activities. We have plenty of available space tp provide additional services.

Tim-

You rock.

-j

Thanks Tim.

I was going to come see you after New Years. I'd eventually like to see something like The Ark - http://www.theark.org - which means a permanent locale set aside specifically for shows that would seat 300-400 people. The Jam Crib would be perfect for starting out though. I'll come see you after the holidays.

give me a call after the holidays. I may be able to donate some legal assistance to setting up the not for profit.

Just so you all don't think I've abandoned this...

I'm working on something right now, and I'll let you all know ASAP what's going on. No details yet. I know, the suspense is going to kill you...

Bass: got plans Sunday?

Chris

I do this week. It's my daughter's awards banquet for basketball and I'm not going to miss that. During the day, I'll have her by myself as Mrs. Jones is out of town on business all weekend.

Have you checked out the MANY benefits offered through the Nashville Musicians Union..?? If you haven't....check it out, it will be well worth it.

This is the sort of thing I'd like to get rolling here.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthrea ... cians+fund

I'm done with school in December, after which this is going to be put into motion. I'm still working on it, but it's slow going right now. I've got too many other irons in the fire.

A little more from that organization... BTW, this was started when one of the posters on talkbass.com found out another bassist was having some serious medical issues (which they still haven't diagnosed) and was selling off equipment to pay medical bills. When it got to the point that he sold his Matthew Garrison signature Fodera 5-string, this other person PM'd a bunch of people on talkbass and they raised money to have a custom bass built for him - to his specs, only they didn't tell him they were actually building it... They raised enough to get that built, plus an additional $3600 to go towards medical bills, and then the guy that started it decided to create a permanent not-for-profit fund to help musicians in need. This has kick started my desire to get something like this going locally. I've highlighted some areas I think we could adopt or adapt to fit our local needs a little better.

We already have an application package including Human Resources things she normally deals with like FMLA documentation, health benefits analysis, State Disabilty documentation, financial disclosures, doctors certifications, etc.

Through this paperwork we will be able to insure that the recipient is in fact in need of the funds and help guard against fraud.

We will have the scholarship criteria established within a few weeks.

On www.musiciansfund.org people will be able to setup automatic monthly donations of virtually any dollar amount. If we can get 1,000 monthly donor's to contribute $10 a month we will be able to raise $10,000 a month. I can tell you that that amount of money will go a long way to help people in need.

We will have an area for donating used gear that will be sold and the proceeds going into the fund.

Remember, because we WILL be a 501(c)(3) Charity, all donations of cash and gear are tax deductible and you will receive all necessary documentation so you can write it off of your taxes.

We will be talking to manufacturers about making annual contributions to the fund. We will be talking to schools about offering tuition as part of our scholarship package.

The initial cost of starting this charity is around $1,500 and we are working to raise that now. Also, we will need office machines and "stuff". As per 501(c)(3) rules all charity related equipment, furniture, etc. must only be used for that organization. So if you have a printer, fax machine, laptop or desktop computer or whatever you'd like to donate to get the office up and running please contact me. Right now I will be using one our home office and equipment to start us off.

I think $10,000 a month is outside of our reach, but if we can get 100 people to commit to $10 a month, we can really get something established.

Instead of manufacturers, perhaps we can local stores to donate or give us some permanent wall space or something like that. Perhaps IPFW would be willing to donate one scholarship a year for a music student.

I've got some ideas flowing again. Remember, this will likely not happen until after the first of the year.