Small Dance group needs sponsorship ideas!

Amethyst_ice

Hello,

Was unsure which catagory to place this in so hope it is ok here!

In short, myself and my mum have set up a small dance group on a voluntary basis in a small town in mid wales. Our numbers have grown to over 100 kids and we are struggling financially. We often pay for costumes and hall hire out of our own pockets but we cannot keep doing this and are on the verge of closing.

We have thought about sponsors but being in a small town there are very few oppourtunities. We have performed with West End stars such as Phantom of the Opera star Peter Karrie and want to compete and travel more to international competitions but we cannot afford to. We aim to put on several shows a year but this has decreased also due to our difficulties.

If anyone has any ideas or tips how we could gain some sponsorship would be much appreciated! We have been officially going under our name since 2000 and are well known in our town.

So many children have gone on to study at GCSE, A Level and even University. Some of our students have gone abroad with their dancing and it is one of the very few things the children can do after school

Please help!

xxx

paulwf

Sounds like a very worthwhile thing you are doing

Can I ask what sort of figure you are looking to raise every year? And are you a registered charity?

Amethyst_ice

We have all the things to register us as a charity but because it is just me and my mum (and now im back at uni) its hard, if it was her actual job we'd have time. We just managed to set up a bank account and have finally ordered our first lot of hoodies

due to funds i had to design the logo..and i also cut all our music and play and record it. We both make all the costumes and we both share the choreography and have volunteers for front of house and backstage.

Thing is, with us being so popular but only a small town no1 has the money.

We have an idividual that sponsors us £100 a year but our hall hire costs well exceed that. We charge the kids term fees but these are around £1.50 a lesson to cover hire and insurance..but we dont always get fees in yknow.

Im not sure about the figure but i'd say if we had a grand a year then at least that would help a little. We charge for our shows but we never make a profit.

Where we live people dont always appreciate what they are getting and parents moan even at 20p term increases.

sigh.

Savvy_Sue

Your first starting point would be Awards for All, I think. Part of the Big Lottery Fund, but if you only want £1000 (for starters) it's fairly painless!

paulofessex

Just a thought, would it be worth contacting a local college etc to establish if they need placements for students who are on music courses to help with the music etc

jexygirl

Hiya,
oki, lots of things!
Firstly, you are making /paying for the costumes, stop it! Parents can and will support, even if you think they wont, (and they moan about a class fee) they want to see their little darling on stage, and so do the rest of the family, in order to do this, you need to survive, and they will pay to see it. Think about the show, choreograph routiunes that use basics such as a sailor theme or something, everyone has white tee shirts of some kind, tell them they need to cut up a white pillow case and buy £1 of navy ribbon or sequin string to make a "collar" and show them how to do it, make a pattern so they are the same (not saying do a sailor routine, just an example of simplifying it so that its somethign anyone can provide if shown, basic white skirts made from old white sheets and a fabric pen line or design drawn on them look great under lights, a bit of wonder web means you dont even need to sew a hem! cirlce of material, cut a "polo" hole for the centre, fold it over, machine or hand stich a channel and thread with elastic, your child has a skirt). ASk the mums, they want to see their kids in a show, design a basic outfit that anyone can make and ask them to provide it, something as simple as a tabard with a belt - its an oblong of material with a hole cut for the head. Make a prototype, show the parents, ask them if they could do it. You will be surprised at how many have skills to sew / design and want to help which will halve your costs / work. Also contact any local amdram companies, even if you need to travel to borrow things, they will have stuff you can use, including bits of set.
When you do shows, you should make money to keep you going. They are your chance to make sure you keep running.
Your ticket prices need to be based on your costs and a profit of sorts, not just doing a show. work out costs, including PRS ( theatres often charge 2% of the box office as standard I think, but dont charge it on tickets you sell yourself, depends if its a theatre or church hall type hire, I could be wrong on this, but it was how it used to be!) add on profit, it sounds harsh, but in order to survive you need to sell at a profit not a loss or even break even. Sell programmes, sell advertising in the programmes at a profit not cost. Include pictures of each child and rehearsal pics to fill space, also ads by you for sponsorship or help / volunteers to make costumes, people will help if they know you need it. The advertising you sell needs to cover print costs so that each programme you sell is profit towards carrying on, and people will buy a programme as a momento. Do a raffle, get local buisnesses to donate prizes.
Getting a sponsor is hard, but do able, but there are lots of things you can do, if you ask for volunteers to help you, even if its someone to canvass buisnesses for prizes or advertising.
I have been in or involved in amateur theatre for more years than I care to remember lol, the shows fund the continuation, and as in buisness, everything needs to pay for itself in order to continue. The program is one big thing that is pure profit done properly, the show also can, but you need to view it as a way to create revenue, rather than a way to simply showcase what you do. What you are doing is great, the community and parents should see that and see that in order to continue, you need help, be it volunteers or higher ticket prices, trust me, no one will say Im not paying that much to see my baby on stage.
Keep going, you have created something fabulous, but in order for it to survive you need help. Make it pay for itself at least!
JEx

cally6008

Amethyst_ice wrote: »

We have an idividual that sponsors us £100 a year but our hall hire costs well exceed that. We charge the kids term fees but these are around £1.50 a lesson to cover hire and insurance..but we dont always get fees in yknow.

Hard to do I know but no fees, no dancing

Amethyst_ice

Hia guys, thanks for everything..points one by one-

Savvy_sue- thanks for that, the place we dance in has had lottery funding but we didn't realise we could get ourselves

Paulofessex- unfortunately the only thing is GCSE PE which our kids already use their dance and our dancers for their dance part. The nearest college doing anything that is placement based is in the larger town 40 mins away that have their own attached theatre.

Callly and Jexy-

sigh the amount of times we have given parents letters telling them we are on the verge of closing. Unfortunately EVERY club in my town- gym, brownies, football, dance all struggle to get fees in on time or up to date. Many parents have several kids that come and we do tell them that what they pay is fraction of what city clubs pay.yet they simply dont and as a result the kid loses out.

We have volunteers who do front of house for us and chip in when they can but its not enough.

In relation to costumes we have tried making the parents make costumes, pay for them (and kid gets to keep)..none works. The odd parent will do their kids brilliantly and another wont even bother and then on show night when the kid turns up with no costume the parent complains. We are a voluntary school, not a business so its our motto to let every kid have the oppourtunity to perform, in front of an audience on stage. We have kept costumes simple, brought in examples, made patterns easy...even asking a parent for black trousers and coloured tshirt produces like 3/4 jeggings and vest tops! We have the odd retired teacher that can do things but with over a 100 kids now many cannot commit the time to us. One year when we had one costume throughout the parents evn complained that there were no costumes havign agreed to not pay for any!

We have also tried programmes. Again, i used to do it and the local businesses wernt interested in having an ad plus the time to do these and print them is too much when we have everything else to run..like posters to advertise and newspaper articles.

The problem we also have is that a 'rival' group owns the theatre we perform in and come show time take away all the sets and props and staff and make it as difficult for us to dance. They have many of our own dancers and utilise their knowledge, steal our routine ideas and have a whole theatre company budget for fancy costumes and sets and advertising. Its so silly because they are more singing based and we are more danced based yet they seem to create a 'rivalry' and we dont see why because we are different things!

Believe us, we have tried all the methods you suggested. Our town is very small and you'd be suprised the amount of people that are willing to make life hard for us.

In regards to ticket prices, most the time we get the hall hire free by doing the show as part of carnivals, festivals and then the profit gets split between us. We have tried putting on independant shows but even parents have refused to come when a ticket is just £5! seriously!

we usually buy simple costumes like you suggested..even when the kids have the option to keep the costume the parents wont pay out. We dont have a uniform as such...we did have a leotard type one but kids grow so fast and most families are low income they couldnt afford to..and to keep a kid from dancing just because they cant afford a leotard is ludicrous.

I appreciate all your suggestions but we have tried hence why we are going down the route of sponsorship. Just the business' in our town are pretty much just farm shops we are still going to try them but wondered if we would have any luck with some of the larger companies.

we have bene invited to son many international competitions or just to showcase our work but even trying to fundraise cannot gather the funds.

The kids dont seem to recognise the standard they are recieving...even now, we have a show next week and have over 20 kids just pull out because the weather got nice and mum n dad are takign them on holiday! Even though they signed an agreement to be free....

we stopped for a few months due to funds and that worked for a small time but there are only so many threats we can give.

sigh

jexygirl

Wow Amethyst, can't beleive you still keep doing it with everything that you are up against!
Drop me a PM with your whereabouts. OH still has alot of contacts at the Alex in Birmingham, (he used to be Tech manager there). When shows go in and out things get left / thrown out that may be of use to you, or there may be other things that could help, even if its an old backcloth that you can tart up or cut up for costumes. His mum is still in that area too, and she is involved in amdram, so maybe there are people there that may be able to offer some help at least.
Let me know where abouts you are.
Jex

lincroft1710

Some thoughts from someone completely dispassionate.

If the parents won't contribute and are apathetic, then why should a third party be interested who probably are going to get very little back for their money. You say the kids will suffer but 20% aren't that committed as they're off on holiday. The size of the troupe seems completely unworkable, logistics must be a nightmare! And you are undermined by a rival company!

What will happen if you don't get sponsorship? It's obvious that you and your colleagues are very passionate about this, but there comes a time when enough is enough, and you can no longer to afford to run this. You closed once, what made you start up again.

Amethyst_ice

Hehe lincroft you made me smile

what keeps us going is that dance is my life. I got diagnosed with crohns disease 2 years ago and when i dance its what perks me up.

I have watched many of the kids grow up nd watchign them develop is so rewarding. To teh ones that go on to do it as a career seeing their names up high and in reviews makes us proud taht they started with us.

We have a victorian theatre and most kids wont get the chance to perform in front of an audience let alone a old theatre!!!

Like i said, kids use dance for gcses and a levels. we have people who have used us for stagemanagement at uni.

It seems a shame to close when most the kids are dedicated..maybe i was a little harsh..but u do always focus on bad things than good i suppose.

we stopped because me mum was goign through a divorce...i managed to get her to start up again and it helped her get over it (funny thing my dads new kid now comes to us for dance lol)

at the moment we are making enough to hire the hall and a few costumes.

The recent hoody order we just did got literally everyone buyign one and we have made a profit from that- saved money on me doing the logo too

The books are actually easy to manage suprisingly lol we have enrolement at teh start of term where the parents fill in details and i pop this into a database. when they pay it gets ticked off and i can produce a table at the end with who hasnt paid.

its a small town as well dotn forget so everyone knows everyone and their business lol

in regards to the 'rival company'..as i said..most people think they actually are affiliated to us, it is them who think we are rivals lol they have about 13 kids...we have over 100..i think if anyone should 'retire' it shouldnt be us! plus they sing we are dance based.

jexy i will pm you

i was thinking maybe if we went to companies like sports drinks etc things that we use in dance may be worth it. plus with us ahvign so many international oppourtunities would be advertising abroad no?
xxx