I am getting ready to start, for the first time, a HD position in a growing 3A community. After using reaching out to resources, I am starting to learn the cost of marching band. I knew it was costly, but I'm not sure my administration is aware of how costly it is.
What are some good, really good, fundraising ideas to help offset the cost of marching band, mainly music and drill?
Thank you in advance.
Re: Fundraising Ideas?
Posted by Stoopid Trumpet Player on 5/5/2022, 1:20 pm, in reply to "Fundraising Ideas?"
I have been at small schools for many years now. The most successful fundraiser we have done is a "Marchathon" Parade around town to cadence, then park and bark at intervals. Advertise when and what route...the community will be out and supportive. Have a donation bucket out, but have pledges collected before hand. Kids can reach out to extended family in far away places to raise money without totally taxing the local population.
You can also sell mini-concerts along your parade route where you perform non-copyrighted music, like your fight song, alma mater, etc. We sold these for a donation of at least $500 and made a couple thousand extra from the businesses that supported.
Re: Fundraising Ideas?
Posted by MSBAND on 5/5/2022, 12:51 pm, in reply to "Fundraising Ideas?"
Check out Vertical Raise. By far, the best and easiest fundraiser I've ever done!
If you want some more info, email me at agarza2@bcisd.us. I teach in a 3a district and we used with our 1c MS band. We made over $900 in the 1st hour after we started.
If you write your own drill, and you stock arrangements from major publishers, you can do marching band for under $200 a year. Don’t ever think that all of these extra bells and whistles are required to put on a successful seasons show.
If you want to be competitive at the state level then yes you will need to fund raise and hire a drill writer, techs, and arrangers.
For a first time program, I don’t think you have any sort of mandate from your district to be competitive at that level. Furthermore, if I may be so bold, your program won’t have the pedigree or experience to be successful at area and state contest right away. Your kids won’t have the experience in marching to go straight up to that level of competition within one or two years. The very best programs build their program’s success up over an entire generation worth of kids at school. Your freshmen next year may be a part of an area placing band during their senior year.
Take the first year or two with your program and worry about good fundamental teaching. Teach them how to march and move at the same time. Teach them how to project sounds outdoors. Teach them what it takes to be successful, and don’t worry about trying to keep up with that other 3A program “down the road” that makes it to the state marching contest every year. They didn’t get there in a day, you won’t either.
If you were talking about needing to obtain uniforms and equipment, the school district really should be providing those if they are insistent upon you having a marching band.
PEDIGREE - LOL - Yes it is important - BUT I BELIEVE that one of the most successful band programs in TEXAS from right outside DENTON won the State UIL Marching Contest the VERY FIRST YEAR as having a high school in their school district (prior to that all the HS students went to Denton ISD). Now that being said... yes there is a very special things that set that up but PEDIGREE was not in it (is now though).
Community, Administration, Parent, students and teaching staff all make it happen (SAME FOR THE PEDIGREES)
Those kids that previously went to Denton ISD high schools weren't untaught or completely without band before that other school opened. Lots of great things are happening in Denton and have been for a long time.
Also, that other district you mention had had JH/MS kids in band, too, building the program up over years. I went to college out that way and had classes that observed at that middle school *years* before that SMC champion year. It didn't spring up fully-formed out of nowhere one year. They didn't create a program out of nothing and expect to win. That's simply not realistic.
And yes, the immediate success of that HS program speaks to the quality teaching that was going on at said JH there, and their ability to build up that program. There have been great things going on in that school now for well over twenty-five years. That's what "pedigree" is. A history of success creates future success.
tl;dr: That other district's kids weren't starting a marching band completely from scratch. OP is. Depending upon how long OP has been at their school, it may not blow the doors down right away. And that's OK.
Since you're a 3A school, you're likely needing something that works in a small town. Catalog sales/stuff from a traditional "fundraiser company" IMO aren't worth it in your situation. Selling popcorn and candy only gives pennies on the dollar to your program and you have to contend with and keep up with/count a ton of cash. Cookie dough may work, but it's a complete pain to store, too, for those kids that "forget" to come get it the day it comes in.
One of my most successful fundraisers - over $1500 made in a 2A (now 3A with the classification bump) school in a four hour time period - was doing a community garage sale. People donated items to the school, we stored it, set up in the gym, and then people came and paid a buck or two an item (except for big ticket stuff). Only issue here is with storage. If you do this end of October/beginning of November, you're likely not hitting any major animal shows since the State Fair is over with, and you may be able to get the ag folks to share some space.
I've also seen mattress sales - but in a smallish town, that only works once. I've seen someone sell light bulbs, but if they're good quality, they won't need new in a year either.
We also made $750 in one evening doing a spaghetti dinner during Open House. We pre-sold tickets for $5 and charged $10 at the door per adult. Lots of parents showed up to Open House and then wanted to have dinner while they were there - and the cost of ingredients for that is very very low. If you make the sauce yourself (it's actually very easy) it's much cheaper than buying pre-made sauce out of jars. Grab a couple giant bags of salad and you're good - and your local Wal-Mart or Brookshire's may be willing to donate 100% of your ingredients.
Check with your district on simply using sites like DonorsChoose and/or other crowdfunding sites, and write the closest medium to large town to publicize it. Lots of people in those towns are "from" those small towns and will chip in $10-20 at a time.
Finally, there are tons of energy companies that are looking for tax writeoffs every year throughout Texas, and you can get a lot of very profitable companies to throw you $10k without blinking an eye. Don't go with the big names like Oncor or the like, but figure out who owns the closest power plant and give them a call. If in an area with oil wells, figure out who owns the rights and call their folks.
Your goal should be to get as much money coming in as possible with as little overhead/upkeep around it. My net cost for the garage sale was $50 for sale tags and price tags. The next year we even got a local BBQ place to donate a couple briskets and sold chopped brisket sandwiches too, but we didn't make quite as much money because the weather was pretty poor that day.
