Saratoga Springs, NY – The Mockingbird Foundation has announced a grant of $5,000 to the Center for Latino Arts, a project of Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion, a dynamic community-building agency located in Boston, MA. The Foundation — incorporated by fans of the rock band Phish and named for the title character of a Phish song — has now contributed almost $200,000 to music education for children.

The Center for Latino Arts is a cutting-edge, multi-functional, community arts complex designed to provide high quality and affordable performances and arts education programming for at-risk youth in music, dance, theater and the visual arts; advocacy, coordination and incubation for Latino artists and arts organizations; exhibition, work, rehearsal and performance space; and opportunities for cross-cultural collaboration between Latinos and the rest of the city’s diverse populations. The Mockingbird Foundation grant will support instruction in Puerto Rican musical styles (Jibaro, Bomba, and Plena) and Latin percussion through a new Latino folkloric youth music education program.

The Mockingbird Foundation was incorporated in 1997 as a nonprofit (501c3) fundraiser and grantmaker. The all-volunteer organization raises funds mainly through sales of The Phish Companion (a 928-page book about Phish and their music, written by over 1500 volunteers), Sharin’ in the Groove (a double-CD tribute album exploring influences on Phish’s music), and related projects. The grant announced today represents the sixth round of competitive grantmaking by the Foundation, and brings the total funds distributed by the Foundation to $195,121.40. Additional grants will be announced later this year.

MOCKINGBIRD ANNOUNCES NEW GRANTS IN MUSIC EDUCATION
Raises Total Funding to nearly $200,000

Saratoga Springs, NY – A foundation incorporated by fans of the rock band Phish has announced plans to distribute $7,500 in Burlington, Vermont, and Tuscon, Arizona. The Mockingbird Foundation, named for the title character of a Phish song, has now contributed almost $200,000 to music education for children, and is already preparing to disburse new grants in early 2004.

The Foundation will give $4,000 to the 242 Main Street Center in Burlington, VT. The nonprofit teen center recently staged a summer camp to teach 40 young musicians how to play rock music. Students were instructed in non-classical music theory and learned to perform in a group setting. The camp was staffed by Tammy Fletcher, Greg Matses (of No Glue, Tammy Fletcher and the Disciples, and the Dude of Life’s band), Phil Abair (Pork Tornado, Tammy Fletcher and the Disciples, and the Dude of Life band), Gabe Jarrett (No Glue, Jazz Mandolin Project, and Smokin’ Grass), Ted Pappadopoulos (Happytowne, Lost Posse, and Go to Blazes), and Bobby Hackney (Lambsbread).

The second grant, in the amount of $3,500, will go to the PRIME School in Tuscon, AZ. The funds will support the “Catch a Rising Star” program, which removes financial and accessibility barriers to participation in music for over 200 students in third through eighth grades. The monies will pay for scholarships to expand the program, broaden its offerings to continuing students, and help add a summer term.

The Mockingbird Foundation was incorporated in 1997 as an all-volunteer non-profit fundraiser and grantmaker, and is operates primarily via the Internet. It raises funds maily through sales of The Phish Companion (a 928-page book about Phish and their music, written by over 1500 volunteers), Sharin’ in the Groove (a double-CD tribute album exploring influences on Phish’s music), and related merchandise. The two grants announced today bring the total funds distributed by the Foundation to $189,521.40.

PHISH FANS GIVE $13,000 MORE TO MUSIC ED
Internet-based Foundation’s Grants Top $184K

Moorpark, CA, Mar 7 — An online group of Phish fans announced today that it will make four new grants in music education. The group is giving $13,000 to fund new instruments, instructors, curricula, and professional development for teachers to a wide range of settings:

• A $5,000 grant to Play It Again Memphis will purchase musical instruments for economically disadvantaged students from Memphis and Shelby County in Tennessee, help expand the program’s outreach to low-income youth in both public and private schools, and help provide a local coordinator for a partnership with the national Little Kids Rock organization which will introduce guitar classes in Memphis City Schools.
• A $5,000 grant to Little Kids Rock in Montclair, NJ, will help provide instruments and training as part of an effort to put 20 new guitar workshops into New York City Schools by September of 2003.
• A $2,000 grant to the Music Resource Center in Charlottesville, VA, will support Imagination to Fruition workshops at a drop-in center for at-risk youth. The center serves nearly 500 youths annually.
• A $1,000 grant to A Placed Called Home, in South Central Los Angeles, CA, will help provide access to instruments and practice space for inner-city Latino and African-American youth.

The funds come primarily from sales of a 928-page book (The Phish Companion), a double-CD tribute album (Sharin’ in the Groove), and generous donations from both individual contributors and larger foundations. Donations are tax deductible and help finance future grants currently under consideration.

The funds are disbursed by the Mockingbird Foundation, an entirely unconventional organization with no salaries, paid staff, or office, that donates virtually all of its income directly to worthy charities. While its works are manifested through its products and grants, at an organizational level the Foundation exists solely online, utilizing the Internet to avoid travel and other expenses typically associated with grant-making entities.

The foundation has received over 600 new inquiries in the last several months alone. “There’s a tremendous amount of need, and tremendous energy among Phish fans,” according to funding director Kristen Godard. By putting those together, the Foundation has disbursed over $184,000 so far, and anticipates new projects in the coming year. Additional details about the Foundation are available on its website, www.mockingbirdfoundation.org.

PHISH FANS DONATE $170,000 TO MUSIC EDUCATION
Dave Matthews, Jimmy Buffett, IRS Lend Hand to Unusual Effort

A group of Phish fans has donated over $170,000 to fund music education for children, including eight new grants this week that benefit low-income, minority, and gifted children from California to Connecticut and Kentucky to Kosovo. The funds will bring new instruments, instructors, curricula, and professional development for teachers to a wide range of settings and musical genres.

The funds come from sales of the 928-page Phish Companion and the double-CD Phish tribute Sharin’ in the Groove. Each was produced by the Mockingbird Foundation, an entirely unconventional organization that has no salaries, paid staff, or office, and donates all funds possible to charity. Other than products and grants, it exists almost entirely online, utilizing the Internet to avoid travel and other expenses typically associated with grant-making entities.

The Foundation was recently granted tax-exempt (501c3) status by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Donations are tax deductible and will immediately help finance future grants currently being considered. For donations made as a gift, the Foundation will send an acknowledgement letter to the gift recipient as well as the donor.

The Foundation also recommends Sharin’ in the Groove as a “stocking stuffer” for anyone. Sharin’ features Phish covers by 24 acts, including Dave Matthews, Jimmy Buffett, Arlo Guthrie, Hot Tuna, the Wailers, Tom Tom Club, Little Feat, John Scofield, a marching band, a symphony orchestra, and a barbershop quartet. Since the artists donated their time and expenses and no record labels were involved in the release, the 2-CD package retails for only about $12, most that for charity.

The Foundation’s newest grants support a community-wide instrument loan program in Yucaipa, CA; bluegrass master classes for at-risk children in Flemingsburg, KY; a performing arts center in Richmond, CA; a summer music program for low-income teens in Philadelphia, PA; a world drumming program in New Haven, CT; a jazz residency program in Flushing, NY; a Zimbabwean miramba ensemble in Sioux City, IA; and the Kosovo Children’s Music Initiative. Additional details about Mockingbird grants are available on the Foundation’s website: www.mockingbirdfoundation.org.

MOCKINGBIRD DONATES $36K MORE TO MUSIC EDUCATION
Eight new grants fund diverse programs nationwide, internationally

An all-volunteer group of Phish fans announced today that it will donate an additional $36,466 to music education for children. Eight grants will fund instruments, instructorships, curriculum development, and professional development for teachers. The funds will benefit low-income, native-born, and gifted children from California to Connecticut, and Kentucky to Kosovo.

The Mockingbird Foundation, which has no salary or paid staff, generates funds through the 928-page Phish Companion (Backbeat Books) and the double-CD tribute album Sharin’ in the Groove (independent) and donates all net proceeds to charity. This is the Foundation’s third round of competitive grants, and brings the Foundation’s total disbursements to more than $170,000.

The eight newly announced grants include bluegrass, jazz, orchestral, Caribbean, African, Latin American, and Kosovar music:

• $3,500 to Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District (Yucaipa, CA) to purchase additional instruments for Toot Your Own Horn, a community-wide loan program for fifth grade students who want to learn to play but whose families cannot afford to rent or purchase instruments. The grant matches funds collected by parents.
• $5,000 to Shropshire Music Foundation (Litchfield, AZ) for the Kosovo Youth Performance Project, a summer-camp-based program of the Kosovo Children’s Music Initiative which will involve Kosovar Albanian, Serbian, Bosniak, and Roma (Gypsy) youth (ages 7 to 16) in the composition, staging, and public performance of a musical production promoting human rights and multi-ethnic tolerance in Gjakove in summer 2002.
• $3,946 to Riverview Elementary School (Sioux City, IA) to fully fund Jambo!, a six-week-long unit of hands-on participation in a traditional Zimbabwean miramba ensemble for the 240 native-born minority students, ESL (English as a Second Language) immigrant students, and low-income students in grades 3-5.
• $5,000 to Harcum College (Bryn Mawr, PA) to provide eight full scholarships for low-income teens (ages 11 to 17) from Philadelphia public schools to attend a residential Summer Music Program during the summer of 2002.
• $4,500 to Feed God’s Children (Flemingsburg, KY) to provide instructors, instruments, and other needs for the implementation of “Music for Kids”, a set of master classes in banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and bluegrass vocalization for 40 at-risk chilidren (ages 6 to 18) in Kentucky’s economically distressed Appalachian counties.
• $5,000 to the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts (Richmond, CA) to purchase keyboards for a new introductory music class for new students, percussion instruments from various cultures (Brazilian, Caribbean, West African, and Mexican) for a World Percussion class, and an accordian for Resident Company director and master Mexican folklorist Artemio Posadas.
• $4,970.22 to Conte West Hills Magnet School (New Haven, CT) for the instruments and curricular materials necessary for a World Music Drumming program that will reach more than 670 students with the music of Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
• $5,000 to Colden Center for the Performing Arts at Queens College (Flushing, NY) for the Jazz Residency Program, which introduces jazz to high school youth, to develop a teaching curriculum for six jazz clinics, develop and produce a student handbook, and establish a professional development workshop for high school band teachers.

For more information on these and other grantees benefitting from Mockingbird proceeds, see our list of grantees.

PHISH FANS DONATE OVER $100K TO CHARITY
Third Round of Funding Serves 26 Groups in 16 States

The Mockingbird Foundation announced today that it will give away $116,134 in proceeds from a book and album about the band Phish. The grants will purchase instruments, hire instructors, pay for scholarships, defray costs of rental space, and introduce digital technology for a wide range of music education programs in 16 states.

The funds support traditional programs at both urban and rural schools at the elementary through high school levels, as well as innovative programs offered by community centers, churches, and progressive nonprofits. Many of the 26 grantees serve children with special needs, such as instruments for a homeless program in New York City; support for a jazz-program for inner-city youth in New Orleans; and instruments and lessons for abused, neglected, and foster children in the greater Seattle area.

The Mockingbird Foundation is an all-volunteer group incorporated by Phish fans in 1997. Grants are funded by The Phish Companion, a 928-page book, and Sharin’ in the Groove, a double-disc tribute featuring Jimmy Buffett, Dave Matthews, the Wailers, Arlo Guthrie, John Scofield, Little Feat, and 18 other artists. All net proceeds from both projects are donated to music education for children. The current round of funding brings the total amount of Mockingbird grants to nearly $135,000, with another round planned for October. For more information, please see http://www.mockingbirdfoundation.org/album

Phish is an improvisational rock band formed in 1983 in Burlington, Vermont. They became one of the most consistent touring acts of the 1990s, until a hiatus of unknown duration began after their October 7, 2000, performance. For more information, see http://www.phish.com or The Phish Companion.

GRANTEES:

• Alaska: Petersburg Children’s Center, in Petersburg
• Arkansas: St. Joseph Junior High School, in Pine Bluff
• California: Santa Cruz City Schools; The San Francisco Arts Education Project; The School of the Madeleine, in Berkeley
• Connecticut: Fairfield University, in Fairfield
• Florida: Smart School, in Lauderhill
• Idaho: Garden Valley Schools
• Illinois: The Merit Music Program, in Chicago; Perez Elementary, in Chicago
• Louisianna: The Saint Marks Community Center, in New Orleans
• Massachusettes: Arts in Progress, in Boston; Codman Square Health Center, in Dorchester; Service Net, in Northampton
• Maine: Youthlinks’ Rock City Rollers, in Rockland
• Michigan: The Grand Traverse Band Of Ottawa, in Suttons Bay
• New York: The Learning Project, in NYC; The Portraits Project, in NYC; The Schenectady Symphony Orchestra
• South Dakota: St. Joseph’s Indian School, in Chamberlain
• Texas: Youth Orchestra of San Antonio
• Virginia: Hilda J. Barbour Elementary School, in Front Royal
• Washington: Boys & Girls Clubs of Bellevue; Seattle Symphony; Treehouse, in Seattle; Wellpinit School District

For more information on these and other grantees benefitting from Mockingbird proceeds, see our list of grantees.