How to Put on a Musical
Fundraising
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 2003)
My sincere hope is that you won't have to worry about fundraising.
If you are can skip this page, more
power to you! School and community groups with an ongoing tradition of
stage shows often cover production costs as part of their annual
budgets. However, when you are trying to establish a tradition, an overhead
of several thousand dollars can inspire administrative reluctance, whatever
the potential profits may be. You can sit and moan about this reality, or you
can turn it to your advantage. Keep the fundraising process as
positive and upbeat as possible. You don't want everyone involved in your
project to wind up burned out before you even go into production.
Fundraising can do wonders to build up advance interest
in your production, and anything that gets people talking about
your show can add to your eventual ticket sales. What sort of
fundraising should you engage in? You have all sorts of options. Work by
this yardstick – any fundraising effort should raise at least
twice as much as it costs. Otherwise, what's the point?
Here are some suggestions –
- See what other groups have done in your region. If car
washes, candy sales, bake sales and the like have worked before, odds
are they will work for you too. But don't be a copy cat – find
something that sets your efforts apart. For example, if a local
organization has an established bake sale, you can try a competitive
bake off.
- If your production is
affiliated with a school, you should verify whether
contributions to your school are tax deductible. Some
businesses looking for a deduction may be willing to underwrite all
or part of your expenses. When approaching businessmen, remember that
you are not a salesperson or beggar. You are an advocate offering these
businesses a chance to be affiliated with a worthy community event.
- If you plan a dance, concert or
other fundraiser, remember the basic rule – if you are not likely to
earn twice as much as you spend, you may want to find a more effective
way to invest your energy.
Benefit Performances
A concert can be an excellent way to raise funds, one good show
paying for another. If you have the talent on hand to stage a musical,
you'll have what's needed to stage a benefit concert. An
assortment of songs, scenes, skits, etc. will do the trick, as would a
more formal themed evening (i.e. - songs of one composer or era). Two
hours of material is plenty, with an intermission thrown in.
Please spare your potential audience any three or four hour marathons –
they are the kind of event that gives amateurs a bad name! There is no
need to obtain the services of established professionals. Go with your
volunteer talent pool, and put together an enjoyable entertainment. We
have more on this in our discussion of concerts in
Low Cost Options.
If you lose sight of the bottom line, fundraising events can
backfire. Some years ago, the associate producer for a theatre festival
I worked on insisted that a gala night at a dance club would make an
excellent fundraiser. A reigning disco diva agreed to perform for free.
By the time the person in charge of the event had finished providing
this performer with a limo, backstage buffet and other amenities (none of
which had been asked for), our profit margin for the evening was shot.
Once the other costs had been figured in, our so-called benefit ran at
a loss.
Example: Higgins and Pickering
put on a cabaret concert in November. It costs less than $400 (posters,
misc. supplies), and act as a dry run for the tech crews.
With a variety of acts, they have two performances the weekend before
Thanksgiving. They sell a total of 800 seats at $5 each, raising $4,000.
Their fundraising goal is met, and the concerts have raised community
awareness of performances at the school.
On to Publicity
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