Are you considering holding a charity event to raise funds for the Mockingbird Foundation? A number of music fans and lovers have held such events over the years, and any contributions would be gratefully received. We do, however, offer some tips and suggestions  that may be of assistance to you:

1. You have to line up performers, usually musicians who will donate their services for a benefit.  Performers could be school recital type musicians (good for getting parents to attend), or local rock, folk or electronica musicians like djs (good for their friends and the general public).  Depends on the community you’re in or who your pitching music to. We’ve had a lot of “Phish or Dead cover bands” do benefits for us over the years, for obvious reasons of the “jamband” audience connection, but “recitals” with school groups work as well if you can get lots of parents to attend.
2.  You have to line up a venue where they can play.  A public building such as a school auditorium or library can work, but you can’t raise money through alcohol sales there, just non-alcoholic refreshments (which net less money).
3. A bar or club with a stage and PA will usually let musicians play there for free and provide you with a cut of the bar sales, especially on a non-weekend mid-week night when they would not normally have entertainment, such as a Tuesday or Wednesday.  Those nights are “gravy” to them, because you can fill a room that would ordinarily be empty or dark.
4. You can do a poster or merch (commemorative T shirt) to raise additional funds for your event, but it helps to have an “in” with an artist who is experienced with such things as amateur efforts may not sell well and make money.
5. You obviously have to plan an event long in advance and have enough time for publicity by newspaper articles, flyers handed out in clubs and schools in advance of the event, and posters.
6. You can use our logo and “benefit to the Mockingbird Foundation” in publicity and merch, but you have to run it by us first in advance for approval by email.
7. We will publicize your event on the mbird.org and phish.net websites as appropriate.
8. You can sell advance tickets or just collect a contribution at the door.  You can also have a table inside with a jar for additional contributions.  A large gallon mayonnaise jar or 5 gal. water bottle works well for the table.
9. If people want to make large donations by check (>$10 or $20), we can provide them with a tax-deduction receipt as we are a 501-c-3 registered charity.
10. We can also send you some Mockingbird Foundation vinyl stickers to sell.

Our grantees and volunteers holding benefit events for the Foundation are free to use our logo and name in connection with their advertising and printed materials, provided they request and receive our written permission in advance by email. Please email any requests with details of proposed use to “[email protected]“. High quality logo files for printing and web publishing uses can be found on our website at “About Us > Logo“.

Thanks for your kind interest in helping. Please let us know if and when we can be of any assistance, about the above guidelines or your plans beyond them.