We're actually doing a Haiti benefit concert THIS SATURDAY NIGHT!!! We already got the buy in from the American Red Cross, and they will have their peeps at the show. We're playing with 3 other bands, so it promises to be an awesome night out!
If anyone is in the southeastern New England area and looking for something to do, check out the show! Only $10 for 4 bands! The show is in New Bedford, MA!
Thanks BZ for helping us ALL get the word out!

We are playing two benefits this spring for local hospital to help raise funds for different departments. We have personal connections to this hospital so we are happy to use our talents for the benefit of patients.

We play a March Of Dimes benefit every year. We're also in a rotation of bands that play for the American Cancer Society. It's always nice to give back

I play a LOT of benefits. We've raised money to send kids
to the Mayo Clinic, money for Muscular Dystrophy and March
Of Dimes, money for musicians hurt in motor vehicle crashes
and, saddest of all, are the benefits we do sometimes to help
families who have lost young kids and don't even have the money
for burial expenses. Those are the benefits that hit me hardest.

The first one I did in that situation was for a family, whose
infant son was drowned in a flash flood. His mother had taken him
for a walk in his stroller on one of Denver's bike and pedestrian
paths. A freak flash flood overwhelmed the drainage and swept the
mom and baby away. She was rescued, but the baby died. I called
several musicians, newspapers, TV and radio stations, lined up a
venue and it was an emotional roller coaster. I hate those the most
but someone has to step up, and if not me, who? So I play through my
tears.

I'm teaming up with a Group of guys, and we are planning a Fest. for our local community. I'm a Gospel Hip-hop artist, and we currently run the ONLY 24/7 FM on air gospel hip-hop station (www.wlfq.org) and we are throwing what we call the Fusion Fest. (may 1st) This event will be held in a big park in the inner city, We have Gospel artist come out from all of the country (even some from Canada) and throw an all day event! This year we are bring out an entire Carnival with rides and stuff, because there is nothing like the for the inner city in our area. It's dirrected to provide a time of clean family fun, with OUT taking advantage of the people who come!

therhythmmethod wrote:

I play a LOT of benefits. We've raised money to send kids
to the Mayo Clinic, money for Muscular Dystrophy and March
Of Dimes, money for musicians hurt in motor vehicle crashes
and, saddest of all, are the benefits we do sometimes to help
families who have lost young kids and don't even have the money
for burial expenses. Those are the benefits that hit me hardest.

The first one I did in that situation was for a family, whose
infant son was drowned in a flash flood. His mother had taken him
for a walk in his stroller on one of Denver's bike and pedestrian
paths. A freak flash flood overwhelmed the drainage and swept the
mom and baby away. She was rescued, but the baby died. I called
several musicians, newspapers, TV and radio stations, lined up a
venue and it was an emotional roller coaster. I hate those the most
but someone has to step up, and if not me, who? So I play through my
tears.

This weekend I'm doing a Help for Haiti benefit show at The White Horse in Black Mountain, NC www.whitehorseblackmountain.com with several other bands. Next weekend I'll be doing a show I love to do (this is my third year): Bands for Kids Sake at The Grey Eagle in Asheville, NC www.thegreyeagle.com, a benefit for Boys and Girls Clubs - regional musicians come to this show as one of their favorite artists. This year I'll be playing Elton John, doing an Elton/Ray Cooper thing with my buddy and drummer Evan Martin.

These things don't pay money, but I always make new friends and have the satisfaction of doing something that feels like I'm making a small difference. The payback also is that I get my foot in the door at some remarkable venues - the Grey Eagle hosts shows by people like Chris Thile, Leon Redbone, James McMurtry, Iris DeMent, and other nationally touring acts - it's a world-class venue. The White Horse is also becoming known as a wonderful venue for touring artists. Doing benefits like this can certainly lead to paying gigs at places like these. Plus I meet other musicians and make great connections.

And for those of you touring in the Southeast, I highly recommend these two venues - both great rooms to perform!

BLACK STAR WHISKEY ~ AMERICAN HARD ROCKERS....Have been donating 10% of all merchandise sales, every month to the Red Cross.... while still in rehersal for the upcoming tour. Personally I have had a page dedicated to helping those in need (worldwar4 child protection) for almost a year now, long before the Haiti disaster...come see what we`ve been up to over the years.... browse the site, leave a comment and add some America Hard Rock to your collection!.... Its a WIN WIN for all. KEEP SPREADING THE GOOD, MY FRIENDS!!! Wade ~ BSW ~ FLORIDA

WWW.BLACKSTARWHISKEY.COM

I'm producing and playing an event that will raise funds for The American Diabetes Association next month. Live music/dance/comedy/painting/DJ. It's an awesome experience to produce an event like this!
HELL YEAH to fundraising through concerts!!!

We try to do several benefit shows every year. We have done shows for Relay For Life, Women and children shelters and are currently trying to work something out with Operation Homefront to help support our troops. There's nothing quite like being able to give back to the community!

We are doing a concert on May 8 for the American Heart Association in MN to kick off their annual Heart walk. Admission is free and all donations go to the Heart Association. I also use a Yahoo tool bar to promote my music and the Heart Association. How it works is if people download my toolbar and do their normal searching Yahoo gives 2 cents per search to the Heart Association. Its cool cause its no out of pocket money and my music gets heard and the Heart Association gets paid. If you want one for your band or non-profit look me up. www.youngmanmusic.com Its a Free tool bar. Be Blessed

Allison wrote:

For most musicians, making money is the top priority when gigging, but there are times when it’s just good to use your talent to give back.

Allison,

As well as being the vocalist for Morpheus Rising, I'm still a serving member of the British Armed Forces and have served in Iraq and Afghanistan among others. I have lost friends over the years and know many who have been injured. Over the last year or two we, as a band, have released two singles in aid of forces veterans charities, including the recent Fighting Man which acheived #2 in the Amazon UK CD Singles Chart, and we're playing in 3 festivals in May this year which are in support of various veterans charities in the UK.

It's great to be able to give back in some way, and doing it with something that you enjoy makes it even better!

If anyone's interested in helping raise funds the single is still avaialable from:

iTunes - http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/fighting-man-single/id336148037
Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fighting-Man-HEROES-Poppy-Appeal/dp/B002U221XU
and
BandCamp - http://morpheusrising.bandcamp.com/

Cheers,

Grae
Morpheus Rising

Great job Adam! I'm also doing something of like mind. I'm touring with fellow artist Deborah Crooks on "The Great Idea Tour." Our mission is collect great ideas from various
communities and reward them as we can. We are playing regular venues, as well as pairing with Lululemon Athletica. Our tour kicked off on Thursday in the San Fran Bay Area
and will take us to Austin/Dallas and back. Tomorrow we play for the Andre House, a homeless shelter in Phoenix, and then Cup O'Karma in Mesa, where all proceeds go to
battered women's shelters. Our ultimate goal is to raise enough money to fund some of the great ideas in order to foster community betterment and communication. You can
read more about it at http://www.TheGreatIdeaTour.com.

Great ideas everyone!

Jean Mazzei
www.flyingvenus.com

Talina, whose site is www.talinaworld.com is an 11 year singer who is overcoming autism, and her story is quite incredible. She will be playing at many fundraising events nationally and is donating proceeds to autism foundations.

As long as I can remember, and having been a professional performer continuously from 1968, when something bad happens to people, musicians have always stepped up and volunteered their time for any number of problems, usually affecting a total stranger. These causes have run from helping pay medical bills for children to helping pay for housing for a family that has lost their home to fire. Raising money for Jerry's kids to raising money to pave the parking lot at the local old folks home. During any of these events, I've never heard a complaint from the musicians. It's one of the responsibilities of whatever-level of success you have achieved.
All of my life, I've heard it said that music is the universal language. If that is the case, and I'm inclined to agree, those of us lucky enough to actually speak that language well, pretty much owe it to the rest of the world to interpret it for them to enjoy. I've also heard it said that music is healing. I've seen this proven on many occasions. With these facts in mind, it only makes sense that music would, and should, be a large part of community relief. It's part of our job.

So many great events and fundraisers here!!! It's very heart warming. Zoogle members ROCK!!

Over the past 12 months we've played 4 canned food benefit concerts. We also played a fundraiser concert for a private school. Lord willing, In May, we are playing a free concert for the veteran's hospital in Richmond, Virginia. We look forward to giving back to our soldiers who put their life on the line for us!

On March 27th theCAUSE will be playing at D Jam the 11th annual benefit for Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. I am the D (David) in D Jam. We have a great time playing music with lots of local musicians who come and share their time and talents.

Allison,

We are taking our tip jar money and donating every dime to the local troops that are putting everything "on the line" so we can enjoy our freedoms. These fine people are willing to give their all for our country and we all owe them our support. We started the "Tips for Troops" campaign to give back to the local men and women that serve our North East Florida and South East Georgia area. We are making donations to the Greater Jacksonville Area USO (United Service Organizations) to participate in the "Help on the Home Front" program.

The money collected from the "Tips4Troops" campaign is going to help send packages of much needed supplies and comforts from home to our active duty troops in the field. The Jacksonville USO takes things like sun screen, lip balm, coffee, sunflower seeds, etc. and packages them in boxes destined for Afghanistan, Iraq and anywhere there are local troops in the line of fire.

We've posted this above information on our website and continue to take collections during the shows. So far we've collected over $377.00 in a few short months. It not a lot, but they can pack a lot of boxes with the money that we've sent over so far! I encourage other bands that might not be "Living from the tip jar" to do the same thing. There is a USO office somewhere close to you and the idea had a lot of support from them when I pitched the idea!

Anyway, I saw this post and wanted to let you all know what the 5X7 Band is doing down here in Jacksonville, Fl.

Tom
5X7 Band

We are Jerry Jones Ministries, and also do many Benefit Concerts through the year for Senior Centers, American Cancer Society, Fellowship of Christian Artists,( www.fellowshipofchristianartists.net ), Women's Ministries, Hospice, and on and on. We don't mind. We love what we do, and those benefit concerts have afforded us other singing opportunities. It's just what you do in the Ministry. I think we have 5 coming up this spring. God Bless. Jeannie Jones, Coordinator, Jerry Jones Ministries

Hey everybody!
On Friday, March 26, 2010, I'll be performing at a charity event for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). This all happens at the CnB Pub, 975 Cattlemen Road (between Bahia Vista & Palmer) in Sarasota, FL. I'm kicking off this event at 5:30 PM and the benefit / music goes 'til ??? I'll be performing along with some great musicians & bands ~ all for this worthy cause! A $10 donation gets you in the door and access to all the music & some planned surprises! Not only will you feel good from helping out JDRF but with the CnB's special drink & food discounts for this event you'll feel 'even better'! I hope to see you there!
Peace,
Mike Solo

My husband is the chairman for the Habitat For Humanity Chapter in our county and we're putting on our first annual Music Festival and all proceeds are going towards
HFH!!! We have a band from NY called The Sunstreak coming down to Va to play for us as well as about 4 other local bands. We are still looking for a few others to join.
We're so exited and can't WAIT!!!