Equipment fundraising ideas

[Edwards]

First of all, I would like to apoligise if this is in the wrong place as I am new to this forum.

 

Now, my question to you all. As I am sure many of you are already aware, the tech department in schools often gets very little funding from the school as is not operated by a department. At my school, I am in charge along with another pupil in the sixth form like myself. We would like to raise around £2000 for a new pa system and equipment for concerts in our hall. Have people got any ideas of what we can do to raise this money. We have a meeting planned with our schools business manager on tuesday next week to discuss this so any peoples opinions would be greatly appriciated. Also are any people facing a similar situation. Do people know of any grants we could apply for to help us that are applicable to schools.

 

We would like to make the money as soon as possible as the quicker we get the equipment, the quicker we can stop using our rubbish stuff that we already have. The team is run and managed completely by pupils although our music teacher has said she will do as much as posisble to help.

 

Thanks for any advice you can give.

[cedd]

As usual in schools, it would appear that no staff are willing to take this one onboard as their own project. Back in my days of being a school tech I answered to so many people it was untrue. Drama and music predominantly, but then also senior management (prize night), english (shakespeare performances), languages (french and german touring theatre companies) and even PE (dance shows). Then there was also the PTA who ran quiz nights and social events. All of these people wanted a piece of the action, but none contributed any money to the upkeep of the equipment.

 

I suppose really we came under the drama umbrella, but no budget was allowed to keep the equipment going or to buy new stuff. Drama had no money as it was spent on photocopying, performing rights, costumes and books. In hindsight, these things are far more important when it comes to students passing the course rather than pretty looking lighting, but at the time, it was the end of the world, especially when our hall installation got electrically condemned.

 

In the end, it took a one off payment of £22000 from the school, rather than from any one department, to get the system safe, running and usable again. This money came direct from the school. I believe the PTA offered some money after I left, which was used on some profile spots.

 

We applied for an arts council grant, but for whatever reason were refused. The way the school techs work it now they have a working system is to take a little money from drama to buy replacement lamps and gels, then any hire comes from the school production budget, which tends to consist of the takings from the last production.

 

We had the added bonus of electrical unsafeness when bidding for our work being done, which gave us some more leverage.

 

I think one very good piece of evidence would be to list all the users of your system. I know I've discussed lighting, but it's equally applicable to sound. Once you can prove that almost every department in the school will benefit from the equipment and you can prove the teaching benefits, life may be a little easier. The headteacher's speeches being audible is also a good little one to drop in there.

 

There may now be some external funding available, I'm a little out of the loop in that department!

 

Don't go down the route of oranising an event to raise money for the setup. It puts you out when you should be studying, it doesn't actually raise that much money, it will take a lot of work to get support from senior management and can actually be counter-productive. Imagine the scene;

"We can't do concerts because our sound system is rubbish - let's do a concert to raise money to by a new one!" - I've seen it happen and I've seen bids get rejected on the strength of it.

[Ynot]

Don't go down the route of oranising an event to raise money for the setup. It puts you out when you should be studying, it doesn't actually raise that much money, it will take a lot of work to get support from senior management and can actually be counter-productive. Imagine the scene;

"We can't do concerts because our sound system is rubbish - let's do a concert to raise money to by a new one!" - I've seen it happen and I've seen bids get rejected on the strength of it.

Actually, I'd disagree with that statement somewhat.

 

As long as the production is properly directed, with a firm budget plan derived (and STUCK TO) right at the get-go you should have no problms getting a fund-raising show together, and making some reasonable cash for improvements - and make SURE that the target for spending the profits is clear at the start.

 

Here's an example - though don't quote me on figures.

 

School hall seats 500 bums.

Run the production with a decent sized cast, and pull in contributions from various departments - eg 30 in the school orchestra, 20 from dance course/club, dozen or so to do a dramatic work, maybe 5 or 6 in a rock band or some such - you see where this is going - the usual school variety gig...

You could easily put together a cast of 100 in that way. Each pupil has a target of selling 10 tickets. So if you hit that average, you've got 2 nights sellout with 1000 bums.

Charge them three or four quid a ticket, get the canteen staff (or PTA) to lay on refreshments and negotiate a split on their profits.

So before spending on the production you might clear 3 or 4 grand - OK - maybe a bit of a high estimate, but the theory still pans out.

 

What would be the costs of this oh-so-familiar event type?

Well, directly very little at this stage.

I wouldn't splash on any hire gear for the fund-raiser unless absolutely necessary.

 

The next show you do, make it more structured and use the profits from the first gig to hire in some decent generic lanterns, control and if required a PA.

You can then up the door price a little, and cover the hire costs, meaning more is left for future shows.

 

As the performances gather quality of content and the tech facilities improve with hired gear you can then start to suggest that maybe the PTA could raise funds for the purchase of sensible kit, and wouldn't it be useful if the school could pay to have some IWBs installed, or get some decent dimmers etc...

 

Takes a while to get going but once the school starts to get a rep for half-decent productions you're only limited by your own talents...!

[cedd]

In principle the idea works very well, and I've seen other schools pull off some great events. I suppose though that it depends on the attitude of the school to this kind of thing. Speaking from personal experience, we tried this and it was like dragging your feet through mud. This wasn't a "sir, I'd like to do a rock concert" sort of thing. It was properly planned, a case was made for the event planning everything, even down to who would empty the rubbish bins. We had a comittee ready to get things rolling and then couldn't get any staff who would turn up on the night apart from the head of drama and head of music.

Perhaps my views are tainted by my own personal experiences, but there was just no drive from higher up the school to do the show. The show was set to be an all inclusive cabaret show, very similair to what you describe. We even had a "big name" ex student organised to come back and perform.

 

The way schools look at performance seems to differ so much. My own school were lucky if they could put a cast of 20 together, all of whom were girls. There was no seperate budget and no real support for the project. I also have worked in a local school where auditions have to be held for chorus members because over a hundred people wanted to be in the thing. Boys in abundance, all of whom were willing to sing. They had a budget, hired staging, set and costumes and performed at least one "big" show every year.

 

If your school is the kind of one that will jump at this and rally round then go for it, ignore my post above and listen to YNOT, it will be a great event and will be talked about for a long time. If, however, it's a school that doesn't have the drive to do this, you'll end up getting very frustrated and putting a lot of work into something that won't get off the ground. I know I did. Sorry for sounding negative in my above post, it was late at night and I only speak from my own limited experience.

 

Try some bids to higher up the school. If you can get the better equipment from them, you can use it to do a better job of a fundraiser to get some other stuff!

[Swizzuk]

We did a Quiz Night to raise some funds for new equipment. Our group is probably a little older, but even so, kids can get their parents to 'buy a table' and bring their friends along.

We provided a cheap meal as well, (Baked Potato with a choice of filling) and patrons brought their own drinks and nibbles.

I'm unsure on costings, I only set up a simple PA so they could hear questions and music in between rounds.

It was only a small gathering, but we managed to get £400 roughly out of the night. Something is better than nothing!

Throw in a good old cheesy raffle and sell tickets, they are always good money spinners.

 

Good luck!

[Jivemaster]

Be very careful that the establishment are willing to insure the use of the extra equipment, and can and will ensure it is properly installed before use, iInstallation often costs as much as the kit.

[Ben Langfeld]

You will struggle to find grant funding from the likes of the Arts Council for this. Most of these organisations will not consider funding statutory organisations such as schools. There are, however, other options you could pursue if you were willing to make some organisational adaptations. PM me if you want to discuss this sort of fund raising (I have a reasonable amount of experience in this field).

[mac.calder]

The school variety show is a great fundraiser - but instead of just waltzing up to the principal/headmaster/whoever about it, run the idea past all the departments that use the facilities on a semi regular basis. Mentioning how it would be a great way to pool resources, display the alternate learning methods used (ie french using drama etc instead of just reading from a text book) and promote their subject. Don't do it in an underhanded way (to manipulate), but if you manage to warm some teachers up to the idea, chances are they will be willing to help you take it to the person that matters. Don't spin it as a fund raiser, however do mention that you hope to put proceeds towards improving the performing arts facilities so that departments will be able to better stage their own events in the future. There is a great upside to this too - if you do it once, you can turn it into an annual event. Part of the proceeds from the subsequent events can maintain the existing equipment.

[Edwards]

Thanks for all your help so far.

 

As said we dont really fall under the umbrella of any department although report to our head of music who was the only person willing to take us on. The equipment is pretty much used for everything. Drama do a drama week, pe do dance shows, the system is used as simple pa for assmblies everyday and house conserts and shows as well as our school production. We have often had our point proved that the equipment is dying as wireless mics are forever cutting out and the desk is forever being totally unprdictable (sometimes connections work and sometimes they dont). We would not be wanting to permantly install the equipemnt as this makes it more flexible and allows it to be used all over the school which is a big plus for getting this equipment. We currently have no portable pa systems as all are permantly installed in hall and drama. The only portable system belongs to music who reluctantly lend it out as they have to pay upkeep for it when other departments damage it. We would leave the old pa set up in the hall for likes of assemblies but would use the new system at concerts and bigger events.

 

Another case for getting this equipment is to allow us to do shows more easilly. Students are very willing to orgainse concerts and such which raise about £500 a time but due to restraints on equipment we often have to tell them to hire equipment in as we cannot meet their needs. We still operate it for them though. Currently we dont even own any of our own corded mics. We have to borrow from our schools recording studio (music) and have a total of two good handheld wireless and one lapel.

 

Keep the ideas coming as this will be a big help for our meeting on tuesday which I am not looking forward to as our business manager is one of thsoe big headed and power hungry people who cannot be bothered to help students at all do anything.

[boswell]

our business manager is one of thsoe big headed and power hungry people who cannot be bothered to help students at all do anything.

 

If he reads BR then you may have shot yourself in the foot! :P

[Edwards]

our business manager is one of thsoe big headed and power hungry people who cannot be bothered to help students at all do anything.

 

If he reads BR then you may have shot yourself in the foot! :P

 

 

Maybe but he probabaly does not even know what my name is and if he does, I have not mentioned what school it is at. I am fairly confident he doesnt read BR anyway and if he does, he will finally know how frustrated we are with him. ;)

[tokm]

Current Employment or place of study - Holy Trinity Sixth Form

Full Name - Sean Edwards

He would now..

 

Publicly slagging off the 'money man' at your school or workplace isn't exactly the best thing to do. Imagine if say a teacher from your school who was interested in learning a bit more about technical theatre came on here, saw this and reported it to the person your making reference to.

 

I'm sorry to hear your not having much luck raising funds for a new PA, but you don't see any of us lot slagging off our employers.. specially when who we are is so publicly, so if you know whats good for ya', neither should you!

 

T

[SoLiEn]

if your school like my old place has a thriving "band scene" then try putting on a band night. I used to do these once a year, and selling tickets at £3.50 each gave me £1050. I have a local organisation I got all the pa gear from for a nominal sum for hte night, and used the in house lighting gear, gives something back to the students and also gets you towards your target!.

[congoblues]

You could always try setting up some form of sponsorship. If you don't have them already then names (personal or company) slapped on seats, plaques in the foyer, big thank you's in school publications/web site and even rooms or theatres named after people or companies could be attractive propostions in return for donations of equipment or funds. The higher the profile = more tempting for people to open their wallets!

 

Also ask around about parents who work in related industries - one school I worked for had a parent that donated some decent, if a little aging, AKG condensors for free because they were sat in a cupboard, never in use.

 

Oh, and never slag anyone off like that - especially if they hold the key to the safe!

[cedd]

I'm sort of going back on what I initially said now, but I went to a fundraising concert last night at a local school. I have connections with the school through family and lent them a little bit of gear (multicore and 2 mackie sa1521's).

 

It was a great evening! The crowd were well behaved, lots of staff there and lots of kudos for the organisers (the school technical team). They had chance to play with a different type of job to their usual school play and concerts and it looked and sounded really good.

 

That said.........

Portable staging was given from a local primary school, I lent them kit, a local hire firm did them a great deal on a hazer and lots of students brought in their own kit. 5 students put in a 13 hour day, lots of staff did as well.

 

Takings from the night; £550.

 

Worthwhile?

Actually perhaps it was, for all the great experience and the good time had by all the people there. I'm sure that's what extra curricular activities at school are really about.

 

The point is though, if you're aiming to raise a large amount of money to get a job done, it isn't going to happen from a one off gig. If you're just looking to buy a few more bits and pieces and have a good time, it's a great way to go about it.