# High School Stage Crew Fundraising Ideas



## chrispo86

Before I say anything, I want to acknowledge the fact that there's a couple other threads on fundraisers, but I'm looking for something a little more specific.

I work for a high school and unfortunately due to administrators in another local district misusing district funds last year (i.e. buying jewlery, taking vacations, adding extensions to their houses) there are some very tight financial constraints in place this year. The school never really gave us much money in the first place, but now the funding is almost non-existant.

Our equipment is well past the point where it needs replacing, but the school doesn't really seem to care because it's not athetics related (I have a bias, they dropped $2 million into astroturf and new bleechers for our crappy football team but won't spend $20 on the auditorium which rakes in ticket sales). I've been saying we need to do fundraising for a while, but now that the money flow has stopped completely, I want to do something about it.

So now to the question. What are some things that people have done as fundraisers for a high school tech crew? I'm looking for ways to not only raise some decent money (I know it's not going to come all at once), but also to raise awareness to the condition of our auditorium (falling apart). This is solely to raise money for new equipment. I've thought of the usual car wash, bake sale, etc, but I'm looking for something a little different. It needs to be something that high school kids can do.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!
Thanks!


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## Footer

Benefit Concert. That type of thing maybe?


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## ruinexplorer

I recommend searching for a grant. Try Foundation Center - Knowledge to Build On as a start. Also, at my HS (granted this was years ago) we courted groups that would use our facility (local symphony) to help in replacing some of our instruments. We had no operating budget from the school/district; our budget was funds from ticket sales and donations. You might be able to get businesses to place adds in your programs to get funding. That can be one of the most pain free fundraisers since you don't have to worry about volunteers not showing up for a car wash, nor people to bake goods and sell them. Obviously if you are looking for capital improvements, that is going to have to go through the district. 
Make the most of what you have. Make it a learning experience in nursing your gear back to health (cleaning lenses and reflectors, replace lamp sockets and worn wiring, etc.), this way classmates better understand how the gear works. Of course, you should have qualified supervision when repairing anything electrical.


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## lieperjp

chrispo86 said:


> Before I say anything, I want to acknowledge the fact that there's a couple other threads on fundraisers, but I'm looking for something a little more specific.
> 
> I work for a high school and unfortunately due to administrators in another local district misusing district funds last year (i.e. buying jewlery, taking vacations, adding extensions to their houses) there are some very tight financial constraints in place this year. The school never really gave us much money in the first place, but now the funding is almost non-existant.
> 
> Our equipment is well past the point where it needs replacing, but the school doesn't really seem to care because it's not athetics related (I have a bias, they dropped $2 million into astroturf and new bleechers for our crappy football team but won't spend $20 on the auditorium which rakes in ticket sales). I've been saying we need to do fundraising for a while, but now that the money flow has stopped completely, I want to do something about it.
> 
> So now to the question. What are some things that people have done as fundraisers for a high school tech crew? I'm looking for ways to not only raise some decent money (I know it's not going to come all at once), but also to raise awareness to the condition of our auditorium (falling apart). This is solely to raise money for new equipment. I've thought of the usual car wash, bake sale, etc, but I'm looking for something a little different. It needs to be something that high school kids can do.
> 
> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!
> Thanks!



I think a lot of the previous threads cover a lot of suggestions...

---start a concession stand: have actors bring in cookies, brownies, etc. as permitted by health code/school administration. Sell for profit.

---some sort of benefit performance

---sell ads in your program (at my high school we had a senior interested in sales do this, if you don't have the time. Then a group of students and parents put together the ads and took them to a printshop. Little work was done by the producer/director other than defining what it needed to look like and then final approval.)

---dinner theatre. See if a local restaurant or two would donate food, sell a ticket for dinner starting two hours before the show. At my high school, we got a local Italian restaurant to donate spaghetti and lemonade, a local bakery to donate rolls, a local Starbucks to donate coffee/hot chocolate, students were to bring in cookies/brownies for the dessert. $8 for the dinner (roughly) and $10 for the show. 

---hold a theatre camp for local grade school. Charge for sign-up, get students to lead the sessions with the goal of performing a short skit for parents - this will also help train future people for your program! Maybe combine the skit with a benefit concert.

---The traditional car-wash, bake sale, rummage sale, magazine sale, coupon book sale... Sometimes easier to do but not as profitable.

I guess the most important aspect is to *figure out the strengths of your program and capitalize them.* It sounds ruthless, but whatever works.


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## elite1trek

Footer4321 said:


> Benefit Concert. That type of thing maybe?



I do three a year and it brings a lot (for my theatre, anyway).

I also sometimes have a karaoke contest. If you have connections with a local DJ or karaoke person, see if they will donate their time in exchange for promotion. The last contest I held had a $500 dollar prize, and we made good money.

The only problem I see with these suggestions is that you are a student at a school, so you would have to get permission.


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## chrispo86

First of all, thank you for the responses! I appreciate the help that I can always find on this forum.


Footer4321 said:


> Benefit Concert. That type of thing maybe?



I like the idea of this, but who would you recommend perform, student groups or an outside group? Getting permission to hold such an event would not be a problem (just to clarify, I'm not a student, though everyone seems to think I am. I'm a former student who now works for the school as a contractor for their shows). My concern is that we have so many concerts put on by students that only have so-so attendance (our big ticket sales are drama/musicals), I feel like throwing another one in the mix wouldn't do any good...



ruinexplorer said:


> I recommend searching for a grant. Try Foundation Center - Knowledge to Build On as a start.



I've always liked the idea of a grant. Who wouldn't love free money?! My problem is that I haven't been able to find any grants that I can use towards the purchase of equipment. I'll definately have to sit and take a look at that website though. Thanks!



ruinexplorer said:


> Also, at my HS (granted this was years ago) we courted groups that would use our facility (local symphony) to help in replacing some of our instruments.



Unfortunately, no outside groups use our space, otherwise I'm sure that would be a nice source to tap into.



lieperjp said:


> ---start a concession stand: have actors bring in cookies, brownies, etc. as permitted by health code/school administration. Sell for profit.



Unfortunately, student council AND Internation Thespian Society already have a monopoly on that market...



lieperjp said:


> ---sell ads in your program (at my high school we had a senior interested in sales do this, if you don't have the time. Then a group of students and parents put together the ads and took them to a printshop. Little work was done by the producer/director other than defining what it needed to look like and then final approval.)



A couple of people (including myself) have been pushing for this one for years. The director stands very solid on this point though and won't do it. He doesn't like the way it looks, feels that it clutters the program. I disagree and think it would be a great source of income, however he makes the program and has final say on the subject.


As I said, I appreciate all of the suggestions. It's also not helping that the school has very strict rules on fundraising. They're rather dumb as well. For example, I thought of the simple idea of putting a donation jar in the lobby during shows. But, we're not allowed to do that, though I didn't get to hear the specific reason as to why.

I know somebody somewhere mentioned showing movies, and this is one that we had thought of ourselves. Anybody have any luck with this kind of thing? We were thinking along the lines of kids movies once a month. How would you go about getting the rights to show a movie to an audiance (I assume you would need rights since we'd be charging admission).


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## cdub260

Is there any type of local fundraising organization that you could work with? In Laguna Beach there is a local organization called Schoolpower who's sole purpose is raising money for the local schools. If there is a similar organization in your area, you should approach them and see if they would be willing to work with you in raising money for your theatre. If there is not, are there any other local organizations you could approach? Even if they can't help you raise money, they may be willing to teach you about the process of raising money.

Be as specific as you can about what your needs are. The general statement "We need money for our theatre." is far less compelling to potential donors than "We need $15,000 for new lighting equipment."


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## seanandkate

Generally, copyright doesn't allow you to show a movie for profit, and I doubt Disney is giving ANYBODY rights to their stuff. 

Nothing is preventing you from showing a movie for free and charging for concessions however (heck, it's how _regular _film houses make their dough . . .)


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## derekleffew

seanandkate said:


> Generally, copyright doesn't allow you to show a movie for profit, and I doubt Disney is giving ANYBODY rights to their stuff.


The fact that _Beverly Hills Chihuahua_ has grossed $29mil in three days seems to contradict those statements.

Fundraising Idea of the Month - Movie Nights by Doug Nash


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## chrispo86

cdub260 said:


> Is there any type of local fundraising organization that you could work with? In Laguna Beach there is a local organization called Schoolpower who's sole purpose is raising money for the local schools. If there is a similar organization in your area, you should approach them and see if they would be willing to work with you in raising money for your theatre. If there is not, are there any other local organizations you could approach? Even if they can't help you raise money, they may be willing to teach you about the process of raising money.



I've never heard of anything like that around here, but I'll definately have to look into it.

As for the movies, the stage crew director of the school is also the TV Journalism teacher and he's the one who originally suggested a movie day. I know he said something about getting the rights, and that for older movies they're relatively cheap. I was just wondering if anybody knew how to get them. I'll have to have a chat with him one of these days...


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## LekoBoy

Showing this or this should certainly pack the house, especially if you advertised it at the junior high schools in your area.

Public Performance License for Showing Movies in Correctional Facilities & Prisons for more info.


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## seanandkate

I meant in a high school environment, not in an actual movie theatre. Of course a movie is produced with the _aim _of making money _there_. I was surprised at the Nash article -- good score there Derek. It does NOT stem my profound disappointment, however, that enough people saw Beverly Hills Chihuahua to have it gross 29 mil in three days.


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## lieperjp

Anther few things that I came across: 

A coupon book or card with local businesses in it. Our drama department did it, a local football team did it, a music department did it, There are companies out there that do it for you, or you can do it yourself (would be a lot of work.)

Many local "big-box" or big chain stores have donations available in two ways. One is to apply for a donation. A second is getting onto a rewards card program. For example -- getting on the Target card donation program, where, I believe, when a customer gets a Target credit card and then when they use that card 1% of the purchase goes to a charity of their choice. Or with Kwik Trip (don't know if they have any around where you are...) you can get on the Kwik Trip card program where 3% of convenience store purchases and 3 cents from each gallon of gas go to the charity of your choice.

Do a recyclables drive - aluminum cans or even the pop-tops from the cans. Around here, if you watch the aluminum prices you can get a lot of money. If your school does not have aluminum recycling bins out for cans, put some out and save those cans!


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## Sayen

Wait, first problem - student government and Thespians already have a monopoly on concessions? Student government shouldn't be making money off your performances if you need the cash, and Thespians need to kick money back to the theater if that's the case.

Look for grants from local businesses. These are often unclaimed yearly. Wal-Mart, for all that they have a bad reputation, loves to dump money into the community. A local church hosted meetings for them, and they basically gave the church a blank check. Not exactly a grant, but that's the type of situation you can look in to.

Find out if your school district has a technology budget. Start meeting with district people in person and professionally, and redirect funding. Look for safety concerns as a foot in the door if necessary - think old lights with asbestos cables, for example.

Find out if your district has a facilities budget. If so, make nice with the people in charge of that for minor equipment. For a while I was buying lamps from that fund.

Look for a furniture budget - same as above.

Do you do any rentals? Look for where that money goes to the district.

Can students buy some sort of activity card, and get into events for a discount? I get a cut of money from the school from that fund.

- Post a wish list, online or in your programs. Every year we also hold a materials drive, and I get ladders, cables, and old tools this way. Every dollar not spent replacing worn out tools can be spent on theatrical equipment.
- Talk to local contractors and ask for scrap lumber at the end of housing projects. Free wood, and it's usually larger stock than what you buy at Home Depot. Two houses worth of scrap built most of my sets last year.
- I post "fun facts" about the production, including costs and ticket revenue. In my imagination I believe that patrons who notice the negative balance between numbers are more likely to donate.
- Put a donation box on a table patrons pass during intermission and after the show. A really good night nets me $50, which goes a long ways. The box took about 20 minutes to build.
- Sell flowers during intermission for patrons to give to performers afterwards
- Sell autographed pictures of the cast
- If your school is in a wealthy area, consider one of those programs where people buy a title and you list them in a visible place in the theater. You know, Directors - donations of $500, Actors - donations of $200, etc. For technical needs, maybe have them purchase equipment and name the light after them (The John Smith Source 4....).


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## Sayen

Oh, and...if the district does not listen to your requests to update old gear, consider upping your arguments. Get Dr. Doom's book and point out the necessity for safe equipment. As a last resort, ask a few parents to make phone calls for you. The reason schools listen to athletics is because football parents are scary. Squeaky wheel, unfortunately, gets the grease.

Halloween is coming - maybe rent costumes, or offer gory makeup for a small fee? Have your tech experts apply it before school or at lunch? Just thought of this, so I've never tried it.


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## seanandkate

This is from the perspective of a Canadian teacher here, so adjust as needed. Here, if you cry Health and Safety, people (particularly administrators) open the coffers a little more easily. Also, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation has grants for high schools, specifically for things that show off what the school does to the larger community. I get $500 each year that way for a thanks in the program and sending a couple pictures in for their newsletter.


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## ruinexplorer

Movies are great, though I would always preview the disk that you get from Swank. I was doing poolside movies for a resort hotel that rented from Swank and the disks were so often scratched beyond playability that we would use a rental from Blockbuster for the performance and the licensing from Swank. Didn't have those kind of troubles back in the day with 35mm films (just the scratches that you see in any theater). I would recommend charging next to nothing on admission so that people are more likely to buy concessions (depending on how the school deals with food in the theater) and it decreases the amount you have to pay for royalties. Since this is not one of the plays, you should also be able to get some of the advertising dollars through sponsorship (especially if you do a movie series, LOTR or Star Wars for example).

Something else we did a lot is working with a restaurant, the students would provide bussing service or act as wait staff or even dish washers and get a percentage of the night's revenue. Sometimes the business would require nothing more than advertising and provide all their own staff (health regulations I'm sure).


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## lieperjp

LekoBoy said:


> Showing this or this should certainly pack the house, especially if you advertised it at the junior high schools in your area.
> 
> Public Performance License for Showing Movies in Correctional Facilities & Prisons for more info.



For college or school: Try the Swank College Website instead of the Prision website. Although, yes, sometimes school does seem like a prison.


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## jdandreas09

1. talk to any local music stores they will have many people you can contact
2. run a bake sale 
3 carwash


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## Pip

chrispo86 said:


> Before I say anything, I want to acknowledge the fact that there's a couple other threads on fundraisers, but I'm looking for something a little more specific.
> 
> I work for a high school and unfortunately due to administrators in another local district misusing district funds last year (i.e. buying jewlery, taking vacations, adding extensions to their houses) there are some very tight financial constraints in place this year. The school never really gave us much money in the first place, but now the funding is almost non-existant.
> 
> _*Our equipment is well past the point where it needs replacing, but the school doesn't really seem to care because it's not athetics related (I have a bias, they dropped $2 million into astroturf and new bleechers for our crappy football team but won't spend $20 on the auditorium which rakes in ticket sales). I've been saying we need to do fundraising for a while, but now that the money flow has stopped completely, I want to do something about it.*_
> 
> So now to the question. What are some things that people have done as fundraisers for a high school tech crew? I'm looking for ways to not only raise some decent money (I know it's not going to come all at once), but also to raise awareness to the condition of our auditorium (falling apart). This is solely to raise money for new equipment. I've thought of the usual car wash, bake sale, etc, but I'm looking for something a little different. It needs to be something that high school kids can do.
> 
> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!
> Thanks!



Dang dude, what high school you from? Sounds like you described my old high school!!

Our theatre program was funded solely by ticket sales, and what measly amount we got from the district. That's about all I know... Our director was adamantly against booster programs...


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## gafftaper

Not to be Mr. Negative but most of the ideas above are likely to earn you a few hundred dollars... a few are good for a few thousand. That's enough to buy a few new lighting instruments, replace some old lamps, buy you some gel. If things really are dramatically out of date... then you may need new dimmer racks, amplifiers, curtains, electrical work, raceways, repair work to the rigging system... you may be looking at several hundred thousand dollars... Making $200 on a car wash won't help. 

So first, I suggest we start this thread over by you posting a "help me asses my system needs" thread in both the sound and lighting forums. Tell us what equipment you do have, and how you use it. Post as many pictures as possible of your theater and equipment. Let some of the pros around here help you assess your system. Nothing personal but we've had a lot of threads in the past where a student says their system is junk when in actuality it's an excellent system but no one knows how to use it. A little training, and some maintenance and you may have some perfectly functional equipment. I know lots of theaters using lighting equipment that's from the 80's and getting through just fine. 

Second, if we determine that you really do need to replace a lot of gear, in order to earn that kind of money then you need grants and major tax deductible donations. In order to get those you need a organization with 501c3 non-profit status. Schools don't have that status so people who donate things to you can't get a tax deduction. It typically requires a booster club. Odds are good your band boosters or sports boosters have a 501c3. It may be possible for you to use their status... talk to them. It's not hard to set up a 501c3 of your own but you need several committed parents to be involved and operate it... I don't think it's legal for a student to set one up. Get the 501c3... and a better economy... and you'll find rich people are happy to give you money or donate things for you to auction off. I know a high school that has a drama booster club that raises over $25,000 in one night. It takes a lot of work, a lot of committed parents, and a lot of time but you can do it yourself. 

Finally going off on a tangent... but I'm suspicious it's relevant. Typically high school theaters with neglected equipment like yours are operating extrememly dangerous fly system and don't know it. Do you have a fly system where you can raise and lower things or are your pipes over the stage dead hung (attach directly by chain to the ceiling)? If you can fly things in and out, when was the last time it was inspected by a REAL professional? CB rules say I can't give you advice about rigging here. However, if you have pipes that fly in and out they need to be inspected by yearly by someone who knows what they are doing and a REAL professional needs to come in every 3-5 years for a full inspection (depending on the system age). Ropes wear out and need to be replaced... If no one in the school can remember when the ropes were replaced you've potentially got a very serious dangerous problem on your hands. If they haven't been inspected recently then the most important thing you can do before anything else is get them inspected. 

I emphasize the word REAL professional because some school districts send out a maintenance guy who normal fixes leaky roofs or cleans up graffiti and call it a rigging inspection. These people don't know how to do a rigging inspection. Out of the 700 or so active CB members there are probably 40-50 (like myself) who know how to do a good annual inspection. There are probably less than 10 members who are really qualified to do a full inspection. 

When lights fail the show is dark. 
When sound fails the show is quiet. 
When rigging fails people die. 
It's THAT important.


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## chrispo86

gafftaper said:


> Not to be Mr. Negative but most of the ideas above are likely to earn you a few hundred dollars... a few are good for a few thousand. That's enough to buy a few new lighting instruments, replace some old lamps, buy you some gel. If things really are dramatically out of date... then you may need new dimmer racks, amplifiers, curtains, electrical work, raceways, repair work to the rigging system... you may be looking at several hundred thousand dollars... Making $200 on a car wash won't help.
> 
> So first, I suggest we start this thread over by you posting a "help me asses my system needs" thread in both the sound and lighting forums. Tell us what equipment you do have, and how you use it. Post as many pictures as possible of your theater and equipment. Let some of the pros around here help you assess your system. Nothing personal but we've had a lot of threads in the past where a student says their system is junk when in actuality it's an excellent system but no one knows how to use it. A little training, and some maintenance and you may have some perfectly functional equipment. I know lots of theaters using lighting equipment that's from the 80's and getting through just fine.
> 
> Second, if we determine that you really do need to replace a lot of gear, in order to earn that kind of money then you need grants and major tax deductible donations. In order to get those you need a organization with 501c3 non-profit status. Schools don't have that status so people who donate things to you can't get a tax deduction. It typically requires a booster club. Odds are good your band boosters or sports boosters have a 501c3. It may be possible for you to use their status... talk to them. It's not hard to set up a 501c3 of your own but you need several committed parents to be involved and operate it... I don't think it's legal for a student to set one up. Get the 501c3... and a better economy... and you'll find rich people are happy to give you money or donate things for you to auction off. I know a high school that has a drama booster club that raises over $25,000 in one night. It takes a lot of work, a lot of committed parents, and a lot of time but you can do it yourself.
> 
> Finally going off on a tangent... but I'm suspicious it's relevant. Typically high school theaters with neglected equipment like yours are operating extrememly dangerous fly system and don't know it. Do you have a fly system where you can raise and lower things or are your pipes over the stage dead hung (attach directly by chain to the ceiling)? If you can fly things in and out, when was the last time it was inspected by a REAL professional? CB rules say I can't give you advice about rigging here. However, if you have pipes that fly in and out they need to be inspected by yearly by someone who knows what they are doing and a REAL professional needs to come in every 3-5 years for a full inspection (depending on the system age). Ropes wear out and need to be replaced... If no one in the school can remember when the ropes were replaced you've potentially got a very serious dangerous problem on your hands. If they haven't been inspected recently then the most important thing you can do before anything else is get them inspected.
> 
> I emphasize the word REAL professional because some school districts send out a maintenance guy who normal fixes leaky roofs or cleans up graffiti and call it a rigging inspection. These people don't know how to do a rigging inspection. Out of the 700 or so active CB members there are probably 40-50 (like myself) who know how to do a good annual inspection. There are probably less than 10 members who are really qualified to do a full inspection.
> 
> When lights fail the show is dark.
> When sound fails the show is quiet.
> When rigging fails people die.
> It's THAT important.



Thanks for all of the advice. First off, a lot of our equipment is in good working order and would be usable with some repairs or replaced lenses or other fix-ups of the sort, however, some of it, just is beyond it's useful limits. For example, we've had a company come in to help us fix up our sound system, our wireless system is notorious for dropping the signals, we're told due to the construction of the room. This is a reputable company we've been doing business with for a long time, they service almost all of the schools districts in the county, and our tech director worked for them for a while. They basically told us we have the worst installation for a high school that they've ever seen. They offered a few suggestions, but they said to see any major improvments, we more or less need to redo the system.

Lighting is it's own category, though it's slowly getting on the right track from some surprise upgrades that have been showing up (nobody's really sure where the money's coming from, somebody just showed up a couples weeks ago and was like I'm here to upgrade the brain on your dimmer rack. Our electrician hooks us up from time to time). The big problem with lighting is that we're finding we've outgrown our system. 48 dimmers has been very tight on the past couple shows. I have room to add another 48 dimmers in my rack, but I don't have the money for additional dimmers let alone additional distribution. We've also been starting to use intels in our shows. With all 48 dimmers loaded up and 5 mac's, it's somewhat of a hassel to use our Express 24/48, so we've been renting a 48/96 for the shows. We'd like to upgrade the board for that fact as well.

As for the rigging system. You bring up a very valid point, and one that we tend to overlook. The last time a true professional was in to look at it was when we noticed one of the pulley's coming off the ceiling, and this is when I was still a student at the school, so we're talking almost 7-8 years ago. I'll definately make the recommendation to have someone give us a checkup. We've been working on our safety issues over the past year, but that's one that I don't think has really occurred to any of us working in there. The district does have a contract with somebody who takes care of all the stage related things, but for the most part, he doesn't really know what's going on...


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## chrispo86

Oh, and before I get completely ripped apart for not having the rigging looked at in 7-8 (which I understand is a **** good reason to get ripped apart for), I should point out that when they were in the last time to fix the pully falling off the ceiling, they completely replaced all of the ropes and hardware because they determined it to be an accident waiting to happen. That and the fact that the rigging gets used _maybe_ 4 weeks out of the year, 6 on a busy year also lends to the fact that none of it should be worn out yet.

Don't take that as I'm not going to get someone in to give us a check-up though. I'll be sending that email out momentarily to make sure someone comes in hopefully before our drama at the beginning of September.


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## gafftaper

A dangerous situation can develop very quickly in a rigging system. If just one of those cables get's out of alignment a bit it'll start sawing it's way through things fast. Thus the reason someone with some basic training should look every year for major signs of wear. If you can, be there when the pro comes to check the system. Follow him around and ask him to give you the basics of what you should look for in a yearly inspection. 

Since your system is 8 years old it's definitely due for inspection but I've seen school theaters that haven't had an inspection since the ropes were installed 30+ years ago... so it could be a LOT worse. 

As for your dimmer needs, I'm no pro but I would guess you are looking at $75k+ to install the other 48 dimmers and distribution. Add a console and some new fixtures and you are over $100k really fast. You can't possibly raise that much money on bake sales and car washes. You need grants, large fund raisers, and donations from rich people. So start looking at that 501c3. 

You might actually find it easier to start working the school board to be included in the next capital improvement project they are working on. Get a bunch of parents and students to support you and start pushing pressure on to support the arts. They will listen if they think someone cares. All they know is a lot of parents and alumni go to football games. If no one ever goes down there and says, "Hey you spent $2 million on astroturf, Give us $400k to upgrade the theater!", they won't even consider giving you the money. Maybe find an alumni or parent who is an architect to help you put together a package of what could be done. Good things happen to those who dream big and push for big things.


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## WestlakeTech

Two of our main fundraisers...

1. Battle of the Bands.
7-8 student bands compete for the title of winner with judges picked from the local music scene. Tickets are $10.

2. Stadium Clean-ups. Saturday mornings (after home football games) we clean up the stands, recieving the money that the school would otherwise pay some people or company to do the same work. I'm not exactly sure how much this brings in, but I can find out if you think this is something you may be willing/able to do.


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## Chris Chapman

To show a movie, you need to obtain licensing. Firms like Swank Film will license you film for profit and non-profit use.

If you have video projection capability, get a hold of the latest "in" game and hold a pay for play game tournament. Halo 3 or Gears of War at 25x30' is always gathers a crowd. A Madden Bowl works EXTREMELY well too. For audience fun, hook up DDR or Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Then you can charge for audience admission. ($10-$15 to participate, $1-$3 for audience). You will make a nice tidy bundle and get great buzz in your school for the program.

To placate annoying administrators, use E or T rated games. Stay away from M rated titles.

You need one nice prize, see if a local GameSpot will Sponsor the event and Donate a Console for the Grand Prize (360, Wii, or PS3).

There can be some considerable planning to make it work well, but it can be a big hit.


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## WestlakeTech

At the Battle of the Bands we've had a Guitar Hero tournament the past couple of years.


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## blackfriartech

Our theatre has used ads in the program since forever. The director sets a goal for the cast and crew, and they go out and sell the ads. Our average ad income for a full scale musical is $3-4000! I'm sure your director wouldn't mind the cash cluttering up the program.


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## chrispo86

blackfriartech said:


> Our theatre has used ads in the program since forever. The director sets a goal for the cast and crew, and they go out and sell the ads. Our average ad income for a full scale musical is $3-4000! I'm sure your director wouldn't mind the cash cluttering up the program.



Unfortunately, nope, he's completely against the ads, even if it will bring in a decent amount of money.


On a side note, I found out there's a bit of a hitch with fundraising of any sort in my situation, as in we're not allowed, period. Allow me to explain:

Our stage crew (tech), stage craft (sets), and the performers are all considered one "club" in the eyes of the school, The Masque and Wig "club". I put "club" in quotations, because it's technically not a club, which means there are technically no funds anywhere for the group to use, no reserves to tap into. Technically speaking, the group is a district organization, which means our funding comes directly from the school district (and therefore every dime we spend needs to go through a BOE vote for approval). The differences financially speaking are that a club has a maximum operating limit financially of $2000/yr whereas a district organization doesn't have a cap as the money is coming straight from the district, which is why as a group we are able to spend $10k on a show.

If we want something, we can ask to purchase it, but we have to go through the painstaking process of getting BOE approval for each individual purchase. All purchases over $400 (independent of who you are; i.e. club, organization, department, whatever...) have to go through the BOE, it's just in our case we're asking to use district money as opposed to funds that were raised by the club. And if we propose something large, well, either we need to have reasoning along the lines of "our show cannot go on without this" or it tends to get shot down by the BOE. 

I found this out in a discussion with my friend who was the LD before me who now teaches at the school. Explained a lot to me about why we always have so much trouble getting things. I hate school politics...
Does anybody else's district do things this way or is our school just retarded?


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## WestlakeTech

That's ridiculous. I can't believe they would limit you guys so much. I mean honestly, this is money we're talking about here. Most people wouldn't turn down free money...


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## cdub260

WestlakeTech said:


> That's ridiculous. I can't believe they would limit you guys so much. I mean honestly, this is money we're talking about here. Most people wouldn't turn down free money...



I have turned down "free" money on occasion, when it came with strings attached. Sometimes free money isn't quite so free.

No I'm not going to go into details, as this was so long ago that I don't really remember all the details and clearly wasn't important enough for me to keep them in mind.


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## philhaney

chrispo86 said:


> ... I hate school politics...
> Does anybody else's district do things this way or is our school just retarded?



This applies more to colleges and universities than high schools, but it does explain a lot about school district administration.....


> *New Element Discovered*
> 
> The heaviest element known to science was recently discovered by physicists al Cal-Poly. The element, tentatively named _Administratium _(Ad), has no protons or electrons, which means that its atomic number is zero. However, it does have one neutron, 125 assistants to the neutron, 75 vice-neutrons, and 111 assistants to the vice-neutrons. This gives it an atomic mass number of 312. The 312 particles are held together in the nucleus by a force that involves the continuous exchange of meson-like particles called memoons.
> 
> Since it has no electrons, _Administratium _is inert. However, it can be detected chemically because it seems to impede every reaction in which it is present. According to Dr. Phillips, one of the discoverers of the element, a very small amount of _Administratium _made one reaction that normally takes a few seconds take over four days.
> 
> _Administratium _has a half-life of approximately three years, at which time it does not actually decay. Instead, it undergoes a reorganization in which assistants to the neutron, vice-neutrons, and assistants to the vice-neutrons all change places. Some studies have indicated that the atomic mass number actually increases after each reorganization.
> 
> _Administratium _was discovered by accident when Dr. Phillips angrily resigned the chairmanship of the physics department and dumped all of his papers into the intake slot of the university's particle accelerator.
> 
> Research at other facilities seems to indicate that _Administratium _might occur naturally in the atmosphere. According to one scientist, _Administratium _is most likely to be found on college and university campuses, near the best-appointed and best-maintained buildings.


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## ruinexplorer

What you will have to do to get around this is what the other programs often go through. You will need some parents to set up a booster club that is a 501c.3 not-for-profit organization that can then donate supplies to your program. In that manner, you can set up wish lists and raise money for your program. You won't be able to make improvements to the facility.

more later


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## chrispo86

philhaney said:


> This applies more to colleges and universities than high schools, but it does explain a lot about school district administration.....



That's great!


As for a booster, I'm not overly familar with how they work. I know that the music department just recently set one up, but I really don't know much of anything about them. From the suggestions here, it does seem like a good idea though.

And from my understanding (again, I'm not technically faculty so I don't know all the nitty-gritty details of how this all works) the issue with fundraising is that the money doesn't have an account to go into once we were to get it, and apparently because of how things are organized, they're not willing to give us an account. All of the ticket sales go through student council straight back to the district. It's such a mess, and they've implemented so many new rules this year because of other districts administration mis-spending, it's like trying to break through a concrete wall with a toothpick.


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## ruinexplorer

chrispo86 said:


> As for a booster, I'm not overly familar with how they work. I know that the music department just recently set one up, but I really don't know much of anything about them. From the suggestions here, it does seem like a good idea though.
> 
> And from my understanding (again, I'm not technically faculty so I don't know all the nitty-gritty details of how this all works) the issue with fundraising is that the money doesn't have an account to go into once we were to get it, and apparently because of how things are organized, they're not willing to give us an account. All of the ticket sales go through student council straight back to the district. It's such a mess, and they've implemented so many new rules this year because of other districts administration mis-spending, it's like trying to break through a concrete wall with a toothpick.



Booster organizations are set up entirely separate from the district. They would have their own bank account as part of their non-profit status. The difficulty you will find is having enough parents dedicate their time to it. Since the band usually has much larger participation (on a regular basis) than theater, there are more active parents. Once they get set up, they can also qualify for donations from some grocery stores (who use the shopper cards to donate to specific charities). 

Once you have the parents of the theater program develop the booster club, a whole world of opportunities come to you for fundraising.


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## ruinexplorer

Has anyone checked out this book?

edit: oops


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## LightingPenguin

While not exactly the same, my school has similar restrictions.

My school is a private school, but even still for some UNKNOWN REASON, our theatre department cannot raise money for itself. it has nothing to do with a district or BOE, but it seems to be the schools ruling. if anyone could give me a reason as to why, I would love it.

But at the same time, I'm extremely confused. While we cant fundraise for our theatre, we can fundraise for our USITT high school student chapter for us to go to Cincinnati this year. WHY?


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## waynehoskins

LightingPenguin said:


> But at the same time, I'm extremely confused. While we cant fundraise for our theatre, we can fundraise for our USITT high school student chapter for us to go to Cincinnati this year. WHY?



I'm no expert (I try to stay away from money politics as much as possible; life is much easier that way) -- but the first thing that pops to my mind is that your USITT chapter is a separate student organization rather than a department of the school. The rules (at least on your campus) may be different for the two sorts.

Or it could be the effects of Administratium.


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## Nightowl

Wow. Lots of great fundraising ideas. A couple more that I have used:
We do an annual show for kids' audiences. I generally take traditional fairy tales and create a story-theatre kind of script with them. It's fairly easy to do and gives lots of roles for as big or as small a cast as you want. Then we sell 9 matinee performances in our 200 seat studio theatre to the elementary schools in our area at the rate of $3 per person. The show always sells out. 
And we do a couple of evening performances (same night...one at 5:30 pm and one at 7 pm) for $5 a person....also sell outs....and we make about $6000. The costs for the show are usually under $1000 so we make a nice profit.
Also I don't know if you've ever tried theatre sports (two teams of competative improv actors sort of like Whose Line is it Anyway) but after training your acting students, it's an easy show to stage when you have down nights during the year, and it has proven to be very popular with student and general audiences.
Hope that helps. 
Neal


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## Shillyer

while it does not sound like my theater is in as bad of a situation as yours I can relate. It seems our administration only likes to give money to the theater when something completely fails or needs to be replaced. They do not seem to believe in preventive maintenance or any sort of real regular maintenance except for our fly system for safety reasons. I believe it is because of this lack of care that our 15 year old theater is falling apart.

The most aggravating part of all this mismanagement is that the people who make the decisions know nothing about the space and refuse to listen to those below them that do. I think this problem is mainly caused by the fact that our theater budget (not drama) fall under the music department and is controlled by the music department head.


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## achstechdirector

We are going to try selling advertisemnts, and a battle of the bands. Please see my thread on battle of the bands I need help


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## underdark27

Also if the movie is old enough there are no royalty fees but i don't remember the date.
royalty fees


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## natethegreat

At my high school we run into this problem to. What can help is to join the actors and the stagehands together and put on shows here and there. For example, actors can present monologues and short scenes while techies present designs they've made for previous shows (models, CAD drawings, etc.), and look into your lighting guys putting on a light show with the sound guys creating the music for it. if you have robotic lighting, even iPros, it'll look spectacular. Also look at taking uncopywrited folk tales and start from scratch for childrens theater shows. it can be an accumulation of small folk tales done on a blank stage with lights, sound, costumes, and a narrator. VERY cheap to do, and all the money you make goes straight into your pocket. and of course, rent out what ever space you have as much as possible to other people/traveling groups. sometimes school districts make you return that money, but who's to say that you cant charge money for your students helping out and have the money go to the theater department.


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## dalton

We are starting a program through eScrip. You just get parents and even students to use cards at stores and the stores give money to the program. You can even tag on your debit or credit card and the card company pays the organization too. People sign up and don't even realize they are helping when they go out and use their cards but the downside is you don't get the money until about 3 months later so it isn't a quick fix, just a long drawn out steady fix.


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## draco17315

That sounds exactly like our situaton..to the "t".....we do the normal, like sub sales and all that, but you could do a carnival, or a cool idea would be to hold a dinner where all the crew parents could make a dish and a dessert and you can charge people for a ticket, to boost it, if you have any support from your director, ask them to have a few students write a few one acts and do a dinner theatre. Another thing that they do at the other school I work for is a coffee night where they have some sofas and such on the stage along with other comfortable seating and some little end tables with nice fabric on them and lamps with soft lights in them (or just use your stage lights for atmosphere. Put down a carpet or somethig and give it a coffee house feel then line up some acts, guitar player, singers, comedians, ect....let the theatre kids or your own crew kids be the acts. Then have coffee and snacks and charge for admision. This is something htey do once a month. You could probably even get local vendors for either the dinner idea or the coffee house idea to donate goods. You could also do a Yard sale. Parents could bring in goods to donate, furnature, antiques, good clothing, ect. and then hold a yard sale using those donated items. (I know in some states, people don't even know what a yard sale is. Just in case, it's when you take gently used goods and put them on tables and such in your yard "or parking lot" and sell them for a huge discount. Example is around here, especially with the economy, kids clothes is a big seller, put out the clothing on a table folded neatly, by size and sell them for .50 a piece or whatever...) WEll, good luck, I feel your pain.... 
Joe


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## Chris Chapman

underdark27 said:


> Also if the movie is old enough there are no royalty fees but i don't remember the date.
> royalty fees



Uhhh.... no. Film copyright is being guarded pretty tough right now. Very few films actually have moved into the public domain. The few that have are pre-1930. That can be a hard ticket to throw together to attract an audience today. You can get into some pretty serious copyright infringement issues if you screen films, charge admission, and do not have a license for it.


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## shayward

I really like the idea of showing movies through Swank. We have a great projection system in our theatre and this could be really cool......has anyone done this before? How much does the average license run through this company?


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## Chris Chapman

Swank is really easy to deal with. I general site license is going to set you back a couple of hundred bucks to show any film from their catalog for a "no admission price" for your audience. You then raise funds on concessions.

When you charge admission you have to pay for the film title (cost ranges based on the title) from around $100 to over $350. That rental rate or 50% of your gate goes to Swank. Again, subsidize with concessions.

In the film industry, movie theaters make most of their money from concessions, not from the ticket price.

I'm looking at this for next year and am lining up sponsors for the rental packages. I'm playing with either the AFI 10 greatest films or a seasonal pick for everymonth.


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