Re: [Organizers] Breaking even

In St Louis - we operate in the black nearly every year (unless we make a big equipment purchase or  something like that) We view all of our dance programs together.  Some of the newer once are still finding their audience and lose money - others come out a little ahead most weeks.  Each year, if we don't lose too much, a local arts grant makes up the difference. We have avoided the expense of bringing in a big name band for our dance weekends and use our best local bands instead.  This coming weekend we will have 10 local / regional bands - with dancing Fri, Sat and Sunday from 8pm until about 3am and still pay less than flying in a out of region band who would play far fewer hours. As a result - these weekends contribute a nice profit.  Other dancer donations and corporate grants are also received.  We look for special opportunities to allow the dancers to donate to support us.  A couple years ago there was the suggestion to purchase an AED for the hall.  We received over $2500 from the community which allowed us to make the purchase and have some left over for the ongoing maintenance costs.  It also allowed us to have a group get together for AED/first aid training with the local fire department. That give us a nice cash cushion and we invest part of it to slowly build it up I hope that helps Mac McKeever ________________________________ From: Chrissy Fowler <ktaadn_me(a)hotmail.com> To: "organizers(a)sharedweight.net" <organizers(a)sharedweight.net> Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2014 9:02 AM Subject: [Organizers] Breaking even How does a dance series BREAK EVEN?  (Or, better yet, run in the black!) WHAT successful strategies do you use as dance organizers? And HOW do you make those specific strategies happen? (For example, if "generate substantial income from admission" is a specific strategy, how do you do that?  Do you get a ton of dancers, is your admission rate high, other?) Cheers, Chrissy Fowler [This is another one of the NEFFA topics, and it's closely related to a recent thread.  While many terrific and relevant ideas have come up in response to Emily A's (Ottawa) queries, I thought I'd post anyhow. -CF] - 2014 NEFFA session ** Please RETAIN SUBJECT LINE in all replies!  Especially IF YOU GET THE DIGEST! ***                         _______________________________________________ Organizers mailing list Organizers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers