Section C:
Frequently Asked Questions
Click here for
full page of questions and answers - printable version
1) We have
reviewed this information and everything looks great! What do we do next?
The next step would be
to pick an approximate date for our benefit concert for you to be held in
your city.
Our studies have shown
that it doesn't take more than one month to promote a successful event. With
that said it is best to have the event on a month and date that your
organization feels is best for you. Please give us a call at your
earliest convenience at 212-947-1104 so we can talk in more detail.
1a) How does
Jazz for Peace help our organization?
(click here for
answer)
2) One
question our board had was our upfront costs. Can you outline those?
There are no upfront
costs. Jazz for Peace uses our own donations to put on this concert for the
purpose of raising funds, publicity and awareness for your organization
at no cost to you as well as
to create the foundation
for preparation to meet opportunity through this world class cultural event
between our organizations for a long term partnership creating the
possibility for bigger and better things to come (SEE EXAMPLE at
http://www.jazzforpeace.org/bringtoyourboard.html ).
3)
What has been the average revenues generated for the charities?
(click here for
answer)
Because of our unique model to “Empower” our recipients in the numerous benefits listed on our “Empowerment Tree (http://www.jazzforpeace.org/tree), it would be quite difficult as well as impractical to try to tally a specific dollar figure. However to more realistically give you a better idea of an example of the impact of this Benefit Concert Series: Six years ago we were contacted by the Centro Ecológico Akumal environmental organization in Mexico to see if we could help them save over 2 million endangered Sea Turtles and a coral reef whose habitat and spawning grounds was being threatened by human development, Promoting their mission of environmental sustainability through the cultivation of eco-friendly tourists, we put on an event for them in Feb. of the following year utilizing as well as sharing with them all of the building blocks of our Empowerment Tree as outlined in the link above. This original event for them has been repeated every year since at this same Feb. timeframe and last years event
ALONE raised over $70,000. The enormous publicity and awareness raised has not only saved the sea turtles and the coral reef but has generated numerous improvements making the entire region in BETTER shape than before. Sponsors that came on board for their very first event are still sponsoring them today.So as you can see it is the opportunity for recipient organizations to benefit in sustainable ways both in the near term as well as for years to come that is one of the most exciting aspects of this grant.
4)
With what
charities have you partnered before?
What was the experience like for the partnership charities?
(click here
for answer)
5)
How do we present yet
another event to our already exhausted Donor Base? We are in
the midst of planning quite a few events at this time, and cannot commit to
selling tickets to a concert as well. Our database is just not that large that
it can sustain the promotion of more events within a 12 month period.
(click here
for answer)
6)
How can we work together with our board to pre-sell the 25 pairs of discount
tickets enabling us to "Jump-Start" our event with money already raised for
our Organization?
(click here
for answer)
7)
This sounds “too good to be true”. How are you able to offer to us this
incredible service? (click
here for answer)
8)
How do we go about obtaining a venue?(click
here for answer)
9)
How can we get the most possible promotion for our organization in conjunction
with this event?(click
here for answer)
10) How much lead time
do we need to book our concert?(click
here for answer)
11) How is this different
from us hiring a great local band and then selling tickets ourselves?(click
here for answer)
12) How does Jazz for Peace find out
about wonderful organizations like ours and then choose us and others to be the
recipients for the Benefit Concert Series?(click
here for answer)
13) What size of venue do you recommend
for this type of event? How many people do you expect to buy the tickets for
you to meet your target and the over all cost?(click
here for answer)
14) I wanted to get more information
about the ticketing and the profits...(click
here for answer)
click here for - SAMPLE JUMPSTART LETTER
News Article
International Musician feature article for August, 2005 Issue
Changing
the World through Jazz
The soothing sounds of jazz are on
their way to helping bring peace to the world, according to Rick DellaRatta of
Locals 802 (New York City) and 85-133 (Schenectady/Amsterdam, NY), who found a
way to turn his passion for music into a vehicle for both change and peace. The
jazz composer, pianist, and vocalist is at the forefront of Jazz For Peace, an
organization that performs to raise money for charities, instrument donations to
schools, and music awareness. DellaRatta has spearheaded the project since he
founded it in 2001.
“Jazz is
a universal language that cuts through boundaries of language, race, creed,
gender, and religion,” DellaRatta says. “Jazz for Peace seemed like an
appropriate vehicle to bring people together through jazz music.”
DellaRatta led the
band’s first successful Jazz for Peace concert inside the United Nations
headquarters in New York City, where the band played in front of an
international audience comprising Israeli, Middle Eastern, European, Asian, and
American jazz aficionados and spectators.
The UN
performance was made more significant, DellaRatta says, due to its timing right
after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York. He says the band played with the
following mission, which eventually became the slogan of the organization: “When
we fill our souls up with creativity, artistry, and intelligence, we have a
better chance at avoiding the behavior that leads to destruction.”
The first performance
sparked more than 150 future benefit performances which began every Saturday in
New York’s Upper West Side at “Jazz on the Park” and other venues in the city.
Jazz for Peace soon grew to include concerts in other cities like Boston,
Philadelphia, Houston, Chicago, and Dallas, and subsequently launched an
international expansion series incorporating cities like Mexico City and Cancun,
Mexico. When on the road, DellaRatta features local artists with the Jazz for
Peace band, augmenting the group with local flavor. “Jazz has a history of
having a positive effect on people,” he says. “Musicians may think this is
obvious, but they don’t often realize how profound it may be to the rest of the
world.”
In April 2004,
DellaRatta released his sixth album, called
Jazz for Peace.
Dedicated to the organization, it features a compilation of the group’s
performances. DellaRatta intends to donate half of the proceeds to the purchase
of instruments for underprivileged children.
Incorporating music in children’s
lives is another of his goals, and he is currently working on a project with
Local 802 to gather donations of unused instruments, repair them, and then
transport the instruments to disadvantaged children through their schools.
“Music is a proven stimulator of intellect, and we want kids to reach their full
potential,” he comments. “They need to be supported through programs like
these.”
His most recent donation request
had two particularly unusual aspects: an accordion, which needed to be shipped
to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. DellaRatta was on the subway speaking about his
accordion search troubles to a friend, when a man from The Songbook Project (a
nonprofit organization that supports arts for children through theater and
musical performances) overheard his conversation and offered a well-used
accordion to Jazz for Peace. Though the accordion is in need of repairs, he was
thrilled, and immediately informed the school in Rio that the instrument would
be on its way.
DellaRatta
was recently honored in the book Jazz Singers by author Scott Yanow as
one of the 500 greatest jazz vocalists of all time. Deemed a leader in the jazz
world as both innovator and visionary by many in the industry, DellaRatta
continues to perform concerts with Jazz for Peace. His shows include
performances for worldwide organizations like School Supplies for Afghanistan,
and he has been recognized by notables including Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and
political writer Noam Chomsky for his contributions to the jazz world.
The continuation of Jazz for Peace
is vital to DellaRatta, whose goals for the program include expanding the
concert series—and the understanding of the significance of jazz—while working
toward a world full of music, life, and peace.
“We
want to continue to broaden the audience for this art form, while at the same
time supporting the wonderful causes that keep us going,” he explains. “Jazz for
Peace hopes to spread the message that embracing humanity is not such a bad idea
for change.”
—for more info, visit
www.jazzforpeace.org.
Click here to view our Jazz for Peace Fundraising Tree
Jazz for
Peace planted the seed now lets see how it grows!
