There are several possibilities within your existing community for fundraising. Having popular, and profitable regular activities are the easiest way, by having the activities (collectively) self-sustaining After that, the most important action you can take is to ask for help, in the form of money. All too often people have allowed an organization to falter because they did not have the courage to ask for money from their friends, and from strangers, to support and sustain the organization's activities. And to ask again (and again) later. It takes time to built a culture of sustaining support. Many collections of people have a population, say ten or fifteen percent, that have significant capability to give money. But even without those people of means, most any organization can figure out how to welcome five to ten additional dollars from each of its entire community. A hundred times five or ten dollars makes for a variety of possibilities to a humble organization. As an organization, offer, and invite participation in various "magnanimous" membership levels. Having only ten people give an extra one hundred to five hundred dollars each can make a huge difference to a small dance organization. One simple example, is for all events, make it easy to donate an additional amount. For pre-registration events, have a line, or check-box(es) for "additional donation". Membership Examples (indicating the standard individual membership and highest suggested magnanimous membership) - Country Dance Society, Boston Centre http://cds-boston.org/membership-form.html ($35 to $500) - New England Folk Festival Association ($30 to $5,000) http://neffa.org/membership_form.htm - Country Dance and Song Society http://www.cdss.org/member-indiv.html ($50 to $5,000) - Bay Area Country Dance Society http://www.bacds.org/organization/membership/ ($25 to $150) - Dance Flurry (Albany, New York) Membership & Annual appeal ($25 to $1,000 and more) http://www.danceflurry.org/pubs/newsletters/DanceFlurry%202013%20News%20and… There are some dance communities that have a tradition of asking for an individual among their members, dancers and supporters to (perhaps anonymously) sponsor particular activities or items: Examples have included donations for: - $1,000 to $5,000 towards purchasing a sound system - varying amounts of a few hundred to $1,000 towards sustaining an annual monthly dance series - a few hundred dollars donated to make a particular dance event occur. Working for the organization There is an interesting tradition at the New England Folk Festival, where some dance groups organize a food booth, within a standard part of the Festival. The NEFF Association has exceedingly modest fees for allowing capable vendors to serve their population, and the dance volunteer groups obtain the appropriate food handling certifications and so on. Some dance groups make this their primary source of annual income, which can amount to $10,000 for a weekend of volunteer work (supplied by 30 or so volunteers) plus many hours of preparation, pre- and post-event planning, purchasing, and organizing. Perhaps there is a some kind of mass event or festival in your region where a similar kind of effort could work for you. I consider the effort to obtain grants for the arts to generally a waste of effort that could be better spent developing your own community...unless you have some dedicated individual already cognizant of likely grant-giving organizations. Some municipalities and regional governments and have programs devoted to sustaining local folk arts. But eventually the grant will end, and the grant may have induce complacency, and the organizers lose a compelling urgency (for the time being) to figure out how to sustain their organization's activities without a grant. I think it is better to consider your community of interested people your best grant-making organization, and for you to cultivate that community accordingly. You know a lot about organizing an event. Consider yourself an expert at having a special, perhaps semi-annual fundraising dance or ball, but with the tickets prices with opportunities to pay for amounts varying from perhaps $250 to $25, with young people (say 22 and under) invited to participate at a more usual rate of say $10 or $15. Perhaps you have popular callers and musicians who are willing to aid your organization by donating their services. (Bear in mind that musicians never are paid their full value at your size of event.) And in the long run, bequests, meaning gifts from an estate, from individuals who have had their life changed by an organization's activities, have sustained more than a few arts organizations. It is never too early, nor too late to suggest that people consider drafting a bequest to your organization, or like minded organization in their will, so that in the future, others can experience what the donor-bequester experienced, thanks to that organization's activities. ~Mark Jones ** On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 12:39 PM, Emily Addison <emilyladdison(a)gmail.com> wrote: