Charity Event Stage???

[TheLightsTech]

So I'm helping to plan this charity event... last year it raised over $100,000 and had like 2500 people attend. I need to find a company willing to pretty much donate use of the gear. We need a stage ~10' x 20', audio system that will cover at least half a football field, and some basic lighting. Any suggestions about how to go about asking? I worked with a similar event last year and they had a company donate all the gear and all of labor except $500 and I covered part of the event. I really have no clue who or how to ask. Thank you so much BR.

[mervaka]

wrong section?

[smalljoshua]

If you raised over $100,000 why can't you just hire it like everyone else? Asking for a freebie, especially one as big as that, which will probably cost the company a lot more than $500 to actually provide is false economy at the best of times.

 

People who run hire companies need to make a living too and sending a PA big enough to cover half a Football field out the door for nothing isn't the way to do it.

 

Sorry for the rant, but if you have raised $100,000 in the past, you obviously can afford to spend a bit (maybe 1/50th of the total) on hiring the Technical Equipment.

 

Josh

[J Pearce]

So its raising that much but they won't cover a companies expenses in wear and tear and transport and labour and tax and insurance?

 

And people wonder why businesses are going bust?!

[tolley1466]

Right. Although I agree with the above posts, where are you based?

 

And why can't the hire company that did it the previous year do it?

[boatman]

There's no location in the OP's profile but, from the spelling and chosen currency units, it looks as though he is across the Atlantic and is unlikely to get any useful hints from a UK based forum.

[Rob_Beech]

The company who did it last year probably don't want to do it again this year. It's not cost effective. I get at least 2 calls a week asking for freebies and if I said yes to them all I'd have been out of business a long time ago. I'd be working every weekend from April to October for nothing. EVERY ONE. As a very small company on the grand scheme of things I have overheads of over £1000 a month before I've put fuel in my car and been to Tesco. That's well before I even consider the idea of taking the better half out for a meal. A company who owns stuff to cover this is going to have overheads that make mine look like loose change, and if they say yes to every charity job they get asked to do they'll go the same way many more have over the last few months / years.

 

So, what can you do?

 

It's really difficult, you would have to consider a "clearout rig". Whereby the company sets aside certain stuff and you get, what's left on top of that. They can't turn down paid work for a freebie. Crew costs are essential. It's nice to volunteer and do charity work but I give money to charities so I don't want to LOSE money on a job for charity on top of that. I don't mind doing a few where I don't MAKE money, but I'm not loosing money. SO pay the crew, even if it's not a full rate. Pay for transportation in FULL. Pay any daily charges, hire costs for transport, anything that is costing the next person along in the chain money. At the end of the day, if the gear goes out for not alot of money it is better than sitting in a warehouse providing it gets looked after, but the people that are there to make it work would sooner be in the pub. Remember that.

[ChrisBogg]

Totally agree Rob

 

I would be MUCH more inclined to support an event more than once based on a deal where all our expenses such as crew and transport are covered.

 

giving gear on the shelf is a nice way to support a charity but giving crew and other things that me money in the long run makes me feel like im the charity and that shouldn't be the case.

 

Chris

[soundo26]

Totally agree, There are far too many people wanting everything for nothing these days especially in the name of charity. The funny thing is that most of these charities take their expenses, admin fees etc whilst expecting everyone else to run their kit & themselves into the ground doing it for free!

This is a particularly bad time for this industry and companies here need to make a profit to stay in business, making a profit seems to be a dirty phrase in this country and charities do tend to make you feel blackmailed into helping, but as earlier posters have stated, the calls from charities are flooding in more now than ever before and if we did them all there would be no industry left!

 

Personally, I choose a couple of events that I support and politely refuse the others, sorry, but that's business!

[TheLightsTech]

The co. from last year's event IS doing that event again... this is a different event I'm asking about. We have very strict regulations about how much we can spend-- we can spend no more than 10% of the total we raise on event costs (facility, security, stage, power, ect). If I am REALLY lucky they'll give me $1000 for the staging. However at this event we should be able to get several tech. theatre majors to help as well as I'll be there the whole time (I ran the larger rig at the event I did last year for about 8 hours by myself... so I can certainly handle a lot of this as long as there is a system tech there). Right now I'm mostly concerned about getting someone to give us the gear for free or cheap, and hopefully be able to pay someone out of what $ I can get for it.

 

Basically I was asking for advice on how to ask... I know you guys can't help me from the other side of the pond.

 

Thank You!

thelightstech

[pisquee]

OK, I would say that the key to getting the gear is in research. Look at what the charity event is raising money for, and/or what the charity in general raises money for, and then you need to find people in the industry/companies you could use as suppliers that may have an interest, affiliation, or connection with this cause. These are the people to approach. As the event raised so much money, and had such a big attendance, then I would assume that the charity running the event is big enough to have a full time staff, including a support manager/development co-ordinator/fund raiser - this person should be able to help with the initial ask and establishing and maintaining the relationship with the donor.

[waster]

It's nice to volunteer and do charity work but I give money to charities so I don't want to LOSE money on a job for charity on top of that. I don't mind doing a few where I don't MAKE money, but I'm not loosing money. SO pay the crew, even if it's not a full rate.

 

Why should the crew get a reduced day rate? They just work for the company... if the company decides to do some charity gigs the crew should still get their normal day rate, they are still doing the same work as usual if not more. They have to make a living and not lose money going to work!

[pisquee]

Unless there are crew who are sympathetic to the cause of the charity and volunteer to work the gig at a reduced rate.

[SPTTRIAL]

quite a few years ago (mid 80's) when I ran a hire company I was asked by CND to do an event for free, I was told how good it would be for me getting all that exposure and being assosiated with such worthy cause and how it could so obviosly lead to more work coming in. Needless to say I couldnt see it and asked him to name one charity event where it had done the sound company a load of good, needless to say he couldnt awnser this. so I gave him a hand and said, okay, whats the biggest live event in the world, let me tell you, its live aid, now you tell me who the hire company was? need less to say he couldnt awnser.

 

so my advice is to get a company to do it properly so they can get the right kit in, and the right people, and concentrate on selling and promoting your gig and get the ticket price right to cover all costs and make the gig bigger next year after your reputation has doubled.

 

if any one wants to know who did the sound at live aid????

[Stan Hope-Streeter]

<< if any one wants to know who did the sound at live aid????>>

This is fairly well known to people in the industry.

 

The original MHA hire company did Live Aid.

 

Malcolm's strong committment to Christian principles, plus the fact that they happened to have the rig available that weekend, were probably the motivation for putting themselves up for the job. They still went out of business about ten years later, so it didn't really do them much good in a business sense.

 

By the way, if you're doing an event on this scale, it's a good idea NOT to leave the mic trunk behind at the warehouse. One advantage of having a rehearsal day is that you get time to despatch somebody back to Maidstone to collect it, with nobody being any the wiser (until now...)