Jazz to go?

A local group of teenaged musicians called the Calabasas All Star Jazz Band is soliciting donations to pay for a trip to China. Based purely on the tune played on their front page and the commercial I saw, they're a pretty talented group.

It's unfortunate that their money raising strategy is so horrendously bad. By May 2^nd of this year, kids who aren't even playing knew they were going. Until last night, I had no idea anything like this was happening and there's almost no information on the web. Secrecy isn't a useful attribute for a money raising campaign.

The failure here is a lack of understanding that I blame on the advisors. Local parents respond well (perhaps too well) to begging for money (we're conditioned to it starting around the time they enroll). The current model asks us to give money without anything in return, with no guarantee that the trip will actually take place and nothing to commemorate it actually happening. The strategy ignores the idea that once it expands beyond certain geographic boundaries (where parents are obligated), it becomes a marketing (sales?) problem and requires something in return for the investment. Inevitably, people will ask, "What's in it for me"?

There doesn't seem to be (and never was as far as I call tell) an opportunity to overpay to attend an event to help finance the trip. I can understand that it's expensive to book a venue and guarantee gate receipts, but I believe that some locations (like our local Civic Arts Plaza) have special deals in place for exactly this reason.

The biggest problem (and easiest to solve) is the music itself. Jazz is certainly popular enough to keep our local public radio station, KCLU running. I should be able to check a few samples and buy a CD (worst case) or a download of a bunch of MP3's (or better yet, AAC's) of the groups work. I'm quite willing to overpay to support their efforts.

There are a lot of well connected musicians in this area who could have helped out in some way. Imagine what could have happened had people like Tim Heintz (he's the only one I know because he lives just up the street) been involved earlier? I fear it's too late for significant money raising, but I'll ping Tim none the less (even though I know he's busy with LoVEFest tomorrow).