Lins Collins
Fall 2024
Fundraising
We use an all-call fundraising system in both the middle school and high school I am at.
Both of these have a 100% profit margin for the group and are our most successful
fundraisers. The only expenses the school would really experience would be any rewards
for the students, which help encourage raising funds very well. At the middle school we
were able to raise over 30k for our group. It requires no delivery or back end
responsibilities, nor is their any cost to the group. For the highest success this did take a
day out of our learning to make these calls, which is at the expense of classroom time, but
other than that it requires minimal effort from the group. It is not necessarily music related,
but it does help students self advocate for the ensemble. Because of how straight forward
the activity is, it could be adapted in almost any school.
Budget
Most comes from band fees, fundraising, and district budget. Bylaws are cohesive
between all four orgs as of this year (middle schools and High school.) We have three tiers
of donors for the groups, and they donate a significant amount of funds. These are mostly
restaurants and families in the community. We have a very diverse school population, that
includes neighborhoods of multimillion houses as well as a significant amount of
apartments and some trailer parks. Uniforms are consistent between all 4 groups and the
purchase of them are made by the parents, private lessons are also paid for by students,
so are solo and ensemble and region fees. For all of these we have booster scholarships
and funding for students on free and reduced lunch.
Boosters
Our band boosters are a full organization that utilize Robert's rules and old/ new business
meeting formats- the major roles include president, several vice presidents, a treasure and
secretary. The boosters meet once a month for a full booster meeting, on occasion the
officers will meet bi-weekly. The boosters will often purchase materials for the group that
the funds cannot afford otherwise. There are also two para positions, techs, and lesson
teachers that are paid for by booster funds. The group’s funds are very large- as a result the
boosters are very on top of it, they are seeing a significant amount of money, as all four
groups go through the same account for their budget. Many requests come from
scholarship applications for students who need assistance, professionals are paid via time
cards with an agreed upon district rate.
