Last modified by Keith Swenson 9/1/2009
Public Description (Wiki Format)
See also Board - Bylaws - Finance - Fundraising - Sponsorship - STMAA Home
What is Sponsorship?
One option to support the band is to get third parties to donate money on behalf of your student. A sponsor can be a relative, a neighbor, a community business or anyone.
From the sponsors point of view, there are several reasons why sponsorship is better than just giving the money to the student.
- The sponsor knows that the money is going directly to an educational program.
- Because the payment is donation made directly to STMAA which is a 503(C) non-profit organization there are possible tax advantages which could stretch the value of the donation further. We are not in a position to advise anyone on their on particular tax situation, but you should check with your financial adviser to see if such a donation would be tax deductible.
- Many businesses and community members would be much more willing to donate to support this publicly recognized program which enhances the community and the school, than to simply give money to a student without being sure how it will be spent.
Regardless of where the donation comes from, we will keep track of the student that goes and finds the sponsor, so that the donation amount will subtract from the student's obligation to fund-raise. It is possible, and several families have done this, to get the entire obligation covered through sponsorship. So it counts as if the student had made the donation themselves.
How to get a Sponsorship
There is a standard letter that has been prepared which you can use to send to potential sponsors. The letter is useful because it explains the details, but it is not necessary to that exact letter.
The most important thing is to identify potential sponsors and ask if they want to do this.
Please check again back on this site soon, because we are currently in the process of add information on how to get sponsorships on this site, and expect to have the fomr letter and other details available soon.
In the mean time, feel free to contact any board member about how to get started.