Salu International ‘Pedersen’ Band, a musical group based in Kisumu (Kenya), started as a church-based musical group in 2014 at St. Stephen Cathedral Church. However, given that the band obtained its members from church, it became difficult for the group to continue offering church services as it plays both gospel and non-gospel music.
Alex and Francis are the founders of this musical group where they act as songwriters, instrumentalists, and singers. The band was founded after different signing talents were unearthed in the church choir. The church-based choir was intended to help them grow in a spiritual way as they learn the adult way of worshiping and praising. However, the new band was formed after members realized they could use music to generate money, nurture talents, and give back to the society.
The main mission of the band is to nurture musical talents, create employments, and help the needy. The band does this by implementing things that youths love doing most during free time. Besides, the band encourages its youthful members to display their talents by giving them a platform to perform in different occasions. The event is authorized through the County government of Kisumu and church board that are mandated to organize for events that youths may use to find potential sponsors to further their talents and careers.
The band has been increasing in its capacity over the past few months. Initially, it started by 2 youths but now it has over 10 musicians. The band is composed of a drum player, two guitarists, a pianist and six singers. Due to the increased number of musicians joining the group, the band has been forced to raise funds for buying enough musical instruments and uniforms to support its cause. Currently, the band has only three microphones, a keyboard, a set of drums and two guitars.
The band totally depends on the concert fees to pay for its expenses including members’ salaries and operating expenses. In order to meet its goals, the band members sat down and saw the need to purchase more instruments and uniforms. Thus, the band had to find ways of raising funds for purchasing new instruments and uniforms.
From the meeting proceedings, the band decided to have a fundraising. The fundraising will involve holding a music concert. While the music concert will be intended to raise funds, it gives other youths a chance to display their talents and potentials to the sponsors. Various activities will be involved including purchasing of tickets to attend the concert. Every youth and active children will be allowed to participate in the event.
The Band Goals
The Band has a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. The initiative is meant to help the needy youths develop their musical talents and give back necessary support to the community in causes that the band believes are genuine. Given its affiliation with other musical groups and the church, the willing registered church members and affiliated bands will make a donation of $10 every month to go the welfare kitty.
The members will be allowed to make other materialistic donations such as clothes, musical instruments, and foodstuffs. For any youth to qualify to join the band and its welfare program, he or she has to be a registered member of the church and be part of a service group including ushering, hospitality, choir and security.
Conversely, to add to its welfare program, the band plans to adopt the Pandpieri children’s home in Nyalenda. Given that the founders were brought up in an orphanage, the plan will involve monthly visits to the children’s home. The band’s youthful leaders are preparing on how and when the visits will be conducted. The band members are also making plans on how to find other ways to be used for raising funds to offer sponsorship for some needy children.
Situational Assessment
The greatest achievement of Salu International ‘Pedersen’ Band is the increase in the number of youths actively involved in the band and its CSR activities. The achievement is apparent through the number of band members that are making sensible and good choices in life including musical career and relationships.
In fact, around 120 youths seem to depend on the band’s welfare program, which has seen many youths live healthy lifestyles that are free from crimes. The Salu International ‘Pedersen’ Band program intends to see most youths continue with their education up to the university level while at the same time nurturing musical talents.
From the difficulties that the band faces, this is the first fundraising activity that it seeks to hold hoping that it will be successful. The potential donors to the event are St. Stephen Cathedral congregation, Adawnage Band, villagers Band, and Kisumu County government. St. Stephen Cathedral board and Kisumu county government are always ready to support any activity that will be of great help to the spiritual and talent growth of the youths.
The board’s main interest is to see more youths grow in a way that is pleasing to God and free from crime. Adawnage Band and villagers Band deal with sound and musical production. The groups are always ready to help wherever need arises. The groups have been supporting upcoming bands by providing the necessary sound and video equipment needed during fundraising and live concerts.
Fundraising goals, objectives, strategies, and timelines
The overall goal of the fundraising is to raise enough money to buy enough music instruments and uniforms for the band. The objective of the event is to hold a live music concert at Kisumu social hall. However, the live music concert is just a name to some up all the activities that will be carried out during that day.
Other activities will include drama presentation, fashion show, art gallery and talent search show as well as music only session. There will be t-shirts to be sold on that day and a food stand for selling foods at affordable prices. The event is scheduled to take place on March 15, 2015. It is to be a whole-day event commencing at 8.00am and ending at 7.00pm with a 15-minutes break at 11.00am and one-hour lunch break at 2.00pm.
The newly formed band expects to raise about $20,000. The fundraising concert is for everyone including church members, government officials, Adawnage Band members, villagers Band, and other interested parties. Thus, the fundraising event targets everyone from all walks of life especially Kisumu town dwellers. The fundraising activity will be held during the day so that children will be able to attend.
The event will be broken into two parts namely the morning session and evening session. However, to attend the event one will have to purchase a ticket. For the two sessions, a ticket will cost $15. For those who will attend only one session, a ticket will be worth $10. The morning session will start with a music concert followed by drama and then the art gallery session. The afternoon session will start with a Fashion show and then concluded with another session of live music.
Selling printed t-shirts will also be a source of raising money. The t-shirts are made for all sizes of people. The t-shirts will be branded with the band’s logos and the event date. Furthermore, the t-shirts will be of different colors. Each adult’s t-shirt will cost $5 while a kid’s t-shirt will cost $3. During the breaks, snacks and food will be made available for purchase at various food stands.
There will be various delicacies such as humbuggers, fries, sodas, pizzas, ice creams and donuts. Sealed boxes will be availed for people to make donations. However, this will not be compulsory but only those willing to donate will do that (Bowden, 2008).
The event will be made public via social networks besides fliers and billboards that will be made for the event (Sargent, & Shang 2010). The fundraising committee will reach the targeted audience through these media. The advertisements will be done until the day of the event. The band members will be involved in the preparation and ensuring the success of the fundraising event. Despite the recognition as members, the participation of individuals will be on a voluntary basis.
Anyone, who wants to be part of the event, will have to register with the band’s registrar. Each participant will have to specify the area in which he or she will want to serve in during that day. For instance, the fundraising will need ushers, sales people, and security people. For a person to be in the sales team, one has to be part of the band. The partakers will also have to prove their integrities (Botting-Herbst & Morton, 2007).
Each member of the fundraising team will have to display various skills (Barker, 2006). For instance, they will have to be interviewed to ensure competence. The participants should be able to manage a large team, have great interpersonal, financial management skills and great oral communication skills since they will be expected to associate with the donors.
Each one has to be committed to this cause and be willing to sacrifice time and energy to serve those who will attend. The participants must be willing and ready to follow the necessary instructions and protocols to the latter.
Sources of funds and expenses
The fundraising for the band is founded on the expenditure side of the budget. The expenses define the costs of musical instruments to be purchased, travelling expenses, and related activities such as venue costs. The fundraising event aims at raising enough funds to meet the expenditures in all functional segments of the financial plan.
Salu International Band
Budget for the fiscal 2015
Monitoring and evaluation plan
Each activity will be monitored closely through the help of band members to ensure that everything goes on as planned (FitzHerbert, 2004). The band will have to practice each day for four hours. Every talent and new songs which are to be showcased, will have to be registered a month to the event.
The success of the fundraising event will be evaluated through the number of people that will attend the event and the submission of monetary pledges made by sponsors. The number of talents, to be showcased will also ensure the band’s success. Finally, being able to raise the targeted $20,000 or a figure close to the same amount will show the event’s success. In conclusion, the band believes that this event will raise money needed to purchase the required musical equipment.
References
Barker, A 2006, Improve your communication skills, Kogan Page, New Jersey.
Botting-Herbst, N & Morton, M 2007, The complete fundraising handbook, Directory of Social Change, New York.
Bowden, J 2008, Writing a report: how to prepare, write, and present really effective reports, Sage Publishers, Hoboken.
FitzHerbert, F 2004, Effective fundraising: an informal guide to getting donations and grants, Directory of Social Change, New York.
Sargent, A, & Shang, J 2010, Fundraising principles and practice, Jossey-Bass, UK.