Christian Band Concert Festival Fundraising

[sccrthlt]

I am organizing a christian concert festival that is going to involve many church's praise bands in my area. This is unique to my area seeing there is nothing of the kind and I feel like there will be a lot of support for it.

It's taking place during the summer of 2012, at a church owned park in a good sized field. Since the property only allows nonprofit organizations all the proceeds will go to charity. We have a basic sound system that includes 4 mackie SRM450's, 32 channel sound board, and all of the necessary cable to get by. We would like to make this an all day event, going into the night, so lighting is required. This requires truss, fixtures, light board, dimmers, lighting tech, sound tech, etc.

We are thinking around a $10 entree fee. We think a reasonable attendance would be 500 people considering all of the bands we ask to play and the built-in audiences they already have.

The problem is that gives us 5k of revenue but after equipment fee i'm thinking roughly 3.8k that would go to charity? This is a pretty low number and we would like to increase it. In what ways could we raise money to pay for the equipment? I was thinking of asking some of the churches we ask to play in it to sponsor. We could frame the stage with sponsor banners on the truss. Also another idea would be to have corporate sponsors but would this be distracting and inappropriate to the christian audience?

Thanks!

 

[Van]

Check out Jesus Fest North West. perhaps you could contact someone in thier organization for some pointers.
As to your second uestion I think that extremely dicey, in my opinion. I think the answers you get will be powerfully charged in both directions. I am sure, however, depending on your location there will be companies crawling out of the woodwork to advertise with you.

 

[sccrthlt]

Check out Jesus Fest North West. perhaps you could contact someone in thier organization for some pointers.
As to your second uestion I think that extremely dicey, in my opinion. I think the answers you get will be powerfully charged in both directions. I am sure, however, depending on your location there will be companies crawling out of the woodwork to advertise with you.

So you think having corporate sponsorship is controversial but there will be a lot of them wanting to sponsor it? Do you think there is a market for the churches that the praise bands come from to buy in on sponsoring it?

 

[chausman]

I would be curious how churches will be advertising. A church seems to be something that you choose to go to or not, not something you can advertise. I can see wanting to put a logo in a program, but an ad? Other then religious views, what could one church have over another?


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[sccrthlt]

I would be curious how churches will be advertising. A church seems to be something that you choose to go to or not, not something you can advertise. I can see wanting to put a logo in a program, but an ad? Other then religious views, what could one church have over another?


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Good point. What happens if one of the churches is struggling for new members and their trying out this new contemporary service that they want people to come to and by saying that the concert was brought to you by xxxx they get people interested?

 

[mstaylor]

If you ask churches to sponser, do a banner with all the church names on it. Another method is to go up the line, instead of asking the churches, ask the archdiocese or whatever it is called for that denomination. I assume you are doing a cross of different religions.

 

[MarshallPope]

Good point. What happens if one of the churches is struggling for new members and their trying out this new contemporary service that they want people to come to and by saying that the concert was brought to you by xxxx they get people interested?

For this type of event, though, I feel like your main audience will be members of the churches represented, so there would not be much of a reason (even ethically?) for churches to need to reach this market. Just a thought.

 

[sccrthlt]

How do Christian festivals of this sort normally get their funding?

 

[Van]

What I know is that Jesus Northwest has Big name bands and they sell just like a concert. They book in all sorts of groups and I think it'smostly spill over from the big names and corporate sponsorship of big names the funds the largest part of the costs. It's not really all that different than any other kind of promotion. While the goal is altruistic, the difference bewtween a Christian music festival, and Lolapalooza is target audience and music played.

 

[sccrthlt]

What I know is that Jesus Northwest has Big name bands and they sell just like a concert. They book in all sorts of groups and I think it'smostly spill over from the big names and corporate sponsorship of big names the funds the largest part of the costs. It's not really all that different than any other kind of promotion. While the goal is altruistic, the difference bewtween a Christian music festival, and Lolapalooza is target audience and music played.

But I don't have big name bands. So I guess i'll just have to promote and market like crazy and hope for the most ticket sales?

 

[MarshallPope]

Maybe you could work with churches to sell tickets. Maybe offer a reduced group rate if they buy tickets by a certain date. This way you will know how it is going as you get closer to the date.

 

[chausman]

Talk to local churches to put up posters, give flyers out to members, and ask the church to announce it during the service.


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[sccrthlt]

Maybe you could work with churches to sell tickets. Maybe offer a reduced group rate if they buy tickets by a certain date. This way you will know how it is going as you get closer to the date.

That is a very good idea. I need to know how much I can rent without going bankrupt and this helps.

 

[shiben]

I am organizing a christian concert festival that is going to involve many church's praise bands in my area. This is unique to my area seeing there is nothing of the kind and I feel like there will be a lot of support for it.

It's taking place during the summer of 2012, at a church owned park in a good sized field. Since the property only allows nonprofit organizations all the proceeds will go to charity. We have a basic sound system that includes 4 mackie SRM450's, 32 channel sound board, and all of the necessary cable to get by. We would like to make this an all day event, going into the night, so lighting is required. This requires truss, fixtures, light board, dimmers, lighting tech, sound tech, etc.

We are thinking around a $10 entree fee. We think a reasonable attendance would be 500 people considering all of the bands we ask to play and the built-in audiences they already have.

The problem is that gives us 5k of revenue but after equipment fee i'm thinking roughly 3.8k that would go to charity? This is a pretty low number and we would like to increase it. In what ways could we raise money to pay for the equipment? I was thinking of asking some of the churches we ask to play in it to sponsor. We could frame the stage with sponsor banners on the truss. Also another idea would be to have corporate sponsors but would this be distracting and inappropriate to the christian audience?

Thanks!

See if any Christian publishing houses want to put some sponsorship opportunities out there. If your worried about distractions, perhaps work out some sort of deal so that they can have a booth or something near the back... It might actually work for the event to have a place to buy sheet music and CDs. Zondervan has deep pockets, might want to get involved, perhaps have a little bible booth in the back. There are plenty of companies that make products that not only would want to advertise to the possible audience, but also the audience might actually WANT to get products like that. If your going to go down the road of corporate sponsorship for a religious type event you want to actually find companies that sell products the audience will actually want. Instead of a sponsorship arch go for booths or programs or something. Booths are nice because you hear a new song and then you can go buy the music. Or you could go and find a good deal on Bibles or whatever else you happen to want. Another idea might be find some midsized bands who do that kind of music (Casting Crowns, Etc) and have them do some newer songs that they have written, so that people have incentive to come? I think that churches might also be interested in providing some level of sponsorship in exchange for a program mention or something. Doubtless some youth group or church has lighting gear you could probably get... The biggest expenses I see you having is staging and power. You will want a generator and a nice large stage so that you have room to set a couple bands in the same kind of area and ease of transitions. For light do a line of MR-16 strips for the front (I wouldnt bother with ground supported overhead truss, too much work and money and liability), have them R119 - R60 - R02 or whatever you want. Or use LEDs for the same reason. In the back, get a couple 10' sticks of truss with nice heavy square bases, and throw some LED cans on there. Then you can get some nice lighting looks during the day and night, plus not tons of overhead work which is more expensive and harder to do. A church might have this stuff in stock and might donate it to you for the day. Who knows. If you need sponsorship, look to Christian publishing houses and music distributors. They will probably be your most bang for your buck in terms of least distracting vs actually having products that people want to get advertised to for, if that makes sense.

 

[sccrthlt]

See if any Christian publishing houses want to put some sponsorship opportunities out there. If your worried about distractions, perhaps work out some sort of deal so that they can have a booth or something near the back... It might actually work for the event to have a place to buy sheet music and CDs. Zondervan has deep pockets, might want to get involved, perhaps have a little bible booth in the back. There are plenty of companies that make products that not only would want to advertise to the possible audience, but also the audience might actually WANT to get products like that. If your going to go down the road of corporate sponsorship for a religious type event you want to actually find companies that sell products the audience will actually want. Instead of a sponsorship arch go for booths or programs or something. Booths are nice because you hear a new song and then you can go buy the music. Or you could go and find a good deal on Bibles or whatever else you happen to want. Another idea might be find some midsized bands who do that kind of music (Casting Crowns, Etc) and have them do some newer songs that they have written, so that people have incentive to come? I think that churches might also be interested in providing some level of sponsorship in exchange for a program mention or something. Doubtless some youth group or church has lighting gear you could probably get... The biggest expenses I see you having is staging and power. You will want a generator and a nice large stage so that you have room to set a couple bands in the same kind of area and ease of transitions. For light do a line of MR-16 strips for the front (I wouldnt bother with ground supported overhead truss, too much work and money and liability), have them R119 - R60 - R02 or whatever you want. Or use LEDs for the same reason. In the back, get a couple 10' sticks of truss with nice heavy square bases, and throw some LED cans on there. Then you can get some nice lighting looks during the day and night, plus not tons of overhead work which is more expensive and harder to do. A church might have this stuff in stock and might donate it to you for the day. Who knows. If you need sponsorship, look to Christian publishing houses and music distributors. They will probably be your most bang for your buck in terms of least distracting vs actually having products that people want to get advertised to for, if that makes sense.

Those are some great suggestions. Thank you. Only problem I see is that this is a nonprofit event (because of the property rules) with all proceeds going to charity so booths with vendors wont work. So Christian publishing houses and music distributors would go for banner sponsorship? I'm seeing most of sponsorship money coming from banners and mentioning in the program. Thanks!

 

[shiben]

Those are some great suggestions. Thank you. Only problem I see is that this is a nonprofit event (because of the property rules) with all proceeds going to charity so booths with vendors wont work. So Christian publishing houses and music distributors would go for banner sponsorship? I'm seeing most of sponsorship money coming from banners and mentioning in the program. Thanks!

They might. I was just thinking that if I had a worship band that I was working with and I heard a song that I didnt have, I might want to go buy that songs music. However, they might really just go for banners and whatnot. Churches might as well, especially for programs that might be unique to them, like my parents church has a disability ministry that they might want to advertise, I dont really know that much about how churches sponsor things, mainly because I dont go to one. However, they must, right? And there is an entire industry devoted to selling widgets to Christians and church-goers, so they might want to advertise their business...

 

[museav]

Just to throw a wrench in the works, this is not a 'worship service' and you are charging an entry fee so unless you already have that addressed you better see how much you are going to have to pay for performance rights and factor that in.

As already mentioned, how are you addressing power for all the FOH sound, backline, lights, etc? A bunch of extension cords laying on the grass for hundreds of feet may not be viable or practical (or accepted). Do you have sufficient power where you need it or might a generator be required?

What are you doing for a stage? To cover equipment and FOH in case of inclement weather? For restrooms? For parking? For trash? For food and beverages?

Does the church's property and liability insurance cover such events? Might a rider be required to cover it?

I hesitate to ask, but if you charge an entry fee how are you going to control entry? It's nice to assume people will do right but if someone finds a way around paying you may soon have a great number of attendees not paying and many others who did pay that are rather unhappy about that. A similar issue applies if you have to limit attendance due to zoning, insurance or other restrictions and somebody needs to enforce those limits. Slightly related, may you have to or want to hire off duty police for traffic control and/or security?

Four SRM450s may not cut it for contemporary praise music outdoors to 500 people, although they may suffice for monitors.

Almost conversely, I don't know the area you are in but you likely also want check noise ordinances as you may be severely limited in the levels you can generate at the property line if not outright prohibited from having such an event. Or you may have to get a special permit or waiver. Similar for the lighting especially if it might in any way interfere with or cause problems for nearby traffic (but I swear I thought I had a green light right before I hit them, it must have been from the concert).

While the 32 channel console may be fine for one band you will probably have to completely change over between bands, so you might want to plan on longer periods between bands, a second console to alternate with or a digital console so you can store and recall the settings for each band.

These are technical and operational issues but they can significantly impact the cost and even the viability of such an event. It is probably much better to address these things before you get too far along and especially before you start trying to get people to commit to sponsorship. If you get people to commit and then cannot deliver that puts you in a bad position.

How do you envision marketing the event? If it is "Sponsored by" or "Brought to you by" your church then that may discourage other sponsors.

You say that all the profits will go to charity but what charities? The charities being supported may affect the potential attendees and sponsors, so it may make sense to identify the charities before advertising the event or trying to get sponsors.

Consider that you may be able to trade off goods and services for advertising. Someone donating or reducing their fees for goods or services that you would otherwise have to pay for in return for a banner or whatever is the same as them donating that amount in terms of the profit for the event.

Food vendors may not be practical but donated food and beverage being sold may be. Think concert/bake sale. Maybe different churches or other organizations that want to support the charities could set up booths to sell food, drinks, etc. with all proceeds going to the charities. Even if the concert broke even that might generate some decent donations. It may also get back into needing permits or similar in order to sell food.

 

[sccrthlt]

Just to throw a wrench in the works, this is not a 'worship service' and you are charging an entry fee so unless you already have that addressed you better see how much you are going to have to pay for performance rights and factor that in.

Thanks for all of the information! For the performance rights, doesn't that only apply to events that make a profit? Also none of this is going to happen unless I devise a plan to fund it all. The scale of it will depend on how much money we can possibly get. Very informative feedback though. Thanks!

 

[Footer]

Thanks for all of the information! For the performance rights, doesn't that only apply to events that make a profit? Also none of this is going to happen unless I devise a plan to fund it all. The scale of it will depend on how much money we can possibly get. Very informative feedback though. Thanks!

No. It applies to anything and everything. If you are charging admission, its a show, therefore you have to pay for rights, profit or not. Any public performance of any song anywhere with few exceptions require the purchase of rights to perform that work. Most venues have this fee built in, however, one off shows usually do not and have to buy rights. "Shout to the Lord" don't write itself.

http://www.ascap.com/licensing/general/generallicensing.aspx

 

[shiben]

Thanks for all of the information! For the performance rights, doesn't that only apply to events that make a profit? Also none of this is going to happen unless I devise a plan to fund it all. The scale of it will depend on how much money we can possibly get. Very informative feedback though. Thanks!

How big is your church? The one my parents go to has about 2000 members, and they have legal and other staff specifically for getting this kind of permit work done properly. Your church probably does too, if its decently sized. Possibly talk to them about before going much further. The reality is, your church probably has a PR group and lawyers, so they might have something to say. As for licensing songs, you might be able to get artists to let you use them, or they might be public domain. Legal can again help address this.

There is a good point about the food, I know for my parents church's events they have had catering people and local businesses provide food for free/reduced price so that you can sell it for charity reasons. Also at that point, you need to have food because 500 people in a field want to eat.

As for brought to you by a church on a banner, that *probably* wont bring too huge of a problem IN MY EXPERIENCE because the US tends to have a lot of people of faith and supporting faith based groups is not seen as a bad thing for most businesses. Often times if the charities being supported are fairly generally accepted, lots of people like working together to make things happen. A praise concert will probably be your biggest issue in this situation, with certain groups not really wanting too much religious association. Just a fact of the situation.

For traffic control and security, you probably have cops that go to your church, so they can probably assist in that regard. I know one church in Grand Rapids advertised for ex-military to serve in this function as well (which I thought was an interesting skill set requested for traffic control people...), and any church has ushers of some stripe, so manpower can be added with them as well.

For what its worth, events like this are done all the time. Summer VBS programs, Summer Attendance Boosters and the like regularly do this kind of work, so it is something you can do. In fact, a bigger church will have people specifically to plan this sort of events. If one of your churches is a big one, their people will probably be a big help. I think the key to make this kind of event good and profitable (in terms of whatever kind of "profit" you want to get out of it, in this case to giving to charity groups) is to make sure it doesnt look too much like a "church event" sort of thing. No one wants to really pay money and donate more money when the event has 4 speakers on sticks and you cant hear, a bunch of not-so-great praise bands with old songs and people who cant sing, and generally low production value. On the same token, you dont want to be too ostentatious, and have a stage with a big roof and tons of MLs, as that kind of makes it less "worshipy" if you will. Also since your liable to be slinging around a not insignificant amount of money (1200 bucks is not buying you much in the way of staging, truss and lighting, by the way) so there will doubtless need to be a committee to oversee the money and spending. Again, this is not really a problem so much as something to think about. Its done a lot, but you just need to make sure you have your bases covered or you might get in a pile of trouble.