The Mockingbird Foundation has announced unsolicited donations of $2000 being sent to a music education program in each of the six cities in which Phish will perform this fall.
The $12,000 in new grants, including the Foundation’s first grant in Nevada, come from the all-volunteer, fan-run nonprofit which recently published the third edition of The Phish Companion, supplemented by matching funds from the band’s own WaterWheel Foundation. These grants help bring music from the Phish community to the local community, and are one of many ways fans contribute to the areas in which the band performs.
The six recipients include a wide array of settings, genres, and populations served – and are listed here in order of Phish’s tour dates (provided parenthetically):
- Sanders-Clyde Creative Arts School of Charleston, SC (Oct. 14 & 15)
- Douglas Anderson School of the Arts of Jacksonville, FL (Oct. 16)
- The Nashville Symphony’s Accelerando Program of Nashville, TN (Oct. 18 & 19)
- Creek View Elementary School of Alpharetta, GA (Oct. 21 & 22)
- South Grand Prairie High School Band of Grand Prairie, TX (Oct. 24 & 25)
- Gene Ward Elementary School of Las Vegas, NV (Oct. 28, 29, 30, & 31)
The Mockingbird Foundation is the leading provider of historical information about Phish and its music, having cultivated intellectual property through phish.net since 1994. A leading grantmaker in music education for children, the Foundation has now made 309 grants in 48 states, totaling $1,015,243.40. Funds for grant making are generated through donations from a loyal base of fans, as well as through books, recordings, artwork, merchandise, and special events. The Foundation has been operated entirely by volunteer fans of the band, without any salaries or paid staff, since its inception in 1996.
The WaterWheel Foundation was created in 1997 to oversee the band’s various charitable activities. Its primary effort then and now is a Touring Division, which raises funds for pre-selected non-profits in each community that Phish visits while on tour. The WaterWheel Foundation chooses non-profits from a large sphere of needs, including social services, environmental causes, food banks, urban gardening, and the like. Thanks to the generosity of fans, WaterWheel’s Touring Division has donated over $1,000,000 to more than 425 groups.
Phish first formed in 1983 at Goddard College in Vermont, and developed a large and fervent fanbase through tireless touring and unpredictable, kinetic live performances. Their 2016 fall tour begins tonight in Charleston, SC. Big Boat, the band’s 13th and most recent studio album, was released on October 7.