Jazz for Peace Easy Grant Document

Jazz for Peace
Bring to your board

Phone: 212-947-1104 Email : info@jazzforpeace.org

The Jazz for Peace Benefit Concert Series Purpose and What We Offer You.

Through the Jazz for Peace Fundraising Grant program, Jazz for Peace has already helped over 650 organizations (click here for Testimonials!) to:

1. Raise Funds - as much as a quarter of a million dollars in one evening!

2. Generate much needed publicity and awareness to help you reach wider audiences.

3. Create new donors, supporters and sponsors; improve fundraising skills; and plant the seed for the beginning of a long term partnership that has proven to be a vital opportunity in this current economic environment - all at no cost to you.

Click here for additional details.

Click here to see how we offer free publicity and a pair of discount tickets to 5 of your favorite local businesses!

For NYC concerts the venue will be obtained and provided by Jazz for Peace. There may be a minimum (ex. 1 beverage or food minimum per person) depending on the venue chosen. For our expansion series concerts the venue will be provided either by Jazz for Peace with your advice or vice versa.

What we ask of you

After taking a few minutes to review our “Fast Facts” (click here), brief but informative Jazz for Peace Video Presentation (click here -these can also be viewed on our website) and choose your preferred date:

1. We require only a few minutes of your time to decide who your 25 favorite friends, family and supporters of you, your Board Members and your Organization are and simply email them the Jump Start letter which we create for you enabling these “Guests of Honor” to purchase or sponsor a pair of tickets at a significant discount!

Click here to find out “How to EASILY Jump Start your Event!” (https://jazzforpeace.org/howto.html) For your confidentiality we ask that you decide who this limited amount of “Honored Guests” will be and email our “Jump Start” letter (click here for sample) out to those special friends and supporters thereby enabling us to announce your event with money already earned for your organization! ****In addition this list of 50 confirmed names allows our board to secure our founder Rick DellaRatta (see http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=2289 for more info ) to appear at this event.****

1) We have reviewed this information and everything looks great! What do we do next?

The next step would be to pick an approximate date for our benefit concert for you to be held in your city.

Our studies have shown that it doesn't take more than one month to promote a successful event. With that said it is best to have the event on a month and date that your organization feels is best for you. Please give us a call at your earliest convenience at 212-947-1104 so we can talk in more detail.

2) One question our board had was our upfront costs. Can you outline those?

3) What has been the average revenues generated for the charities? (click here for answer)

6) How can we work together with our board to pre-sell the 25 pairs of discount tickets enabling us to "Jump-Start" our event with money already raised for our Organization? (click here for answer)

7) This sounds “too good to be true”. How are you able to offer to us this incredible service? (click here for answer)

9) How can we get the most possible promotion for our organization in conjunction with this event?(click here for answer)

11) How is this different from us hiring a great local band and then selling tickets ourselves?(click here for answer)

12) How does Jazz for Peace find out about wonderful organizations like ours and then choose us and others to be the recipients for the Benefit Concert Series?(click here for answer)

13) What size of venue do you recommend for this type of event? How many people do you expect to buy the tickets for you to meet your target and the over all cost?(click here for answer)

14) I wanted to get more information about the ticketing and the profits...(click here for answer)

15) Our organization has a global (or national) mission. Is there any way we can get publicity on a larger scale as well as raise additional funds with this event? (click here for answer)

16) We are expecting about 450 people to this event and the information you sent to us says something about a “buyout” for $3,950 or $4,950. $4,950 is a lot money. Even $3,950 is a lot of money. Please explain how this “buyout” program is to our advantage?(click here for answer)

17. How does this event fare in the current economic downturn?(click here for answer)

18. We would like to put the Jump Start letter on Facebook as well as send it out to over 5,000 people on an email blast! Is that OK? (click here for answer)

** Please note that pre-paid discount tickets do not count against future online sales and is non-refundable unless cancelled by Jazz for Peace. **

(please note that prices are examples only and are according to the current years contract)

Click here for full page of questions and answers - printable version

The soothing sounds of jazz are on their way to helping bring peace to the world, according to Rick DellaRatta of Locals 802 (New York City) and 85-133 (Schenectady/Amsterdam, NY), who found a way to turn his passion for music into a vehicle for both change and peace. The jazz composer, pianist, and vocalist is at the forefront of Jazz For Peace, an organization that performs to raise money for charities, instrument donations to schools, and music awareness. DellaRatta has spearheaded the project since he founded it in 2001.

“Jazz is a universal language that cuts through boundaries of language, race, creed, gender, and religion,” DellaRatta says. “Jazz for Peace seemed like an appropriate vehicle to bring people together through jazz music.”

DellaRatta led the band’s first successful Jazz for Peace concert inside the United Nations headquarters in New York City, where the band played in front of an international audience comprising Israeli, Middle Eastern, European, Asian, and American jazz aficionados and spectators. The UN performance was made more significant, DellaRatta says, due to its timing right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York. He says the band played with the following mission, which eventually became the slogan of the organization: “When we fill our souls up with creativity, artistry, and intelligence, we have a better chance at avoiding the behavior that leads to destruction.”

The first performance sparked more than 150 future benefit performances which began every Saturday in New York’s Upper West Side at “Jazz on the Park” and other venues in the city. Jazz for Peace soon grew to include concerts in other cities like Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, Chicago, and Dallas, and subsequently launched an international expansion series incorporating cities like Mexico City and Cancun, Mexico. When on the road, DellaRatta features local artists with the Jazz for Peace band, augmenting the group with local flavor. “Jazz has a history of having a positive effect on people,” he says. “Musicians may think this is obvious, but they don’t often realize how profound it may be to the rest of the world.”

In April 2004, DellaRatta released his sixth album, called Jazz for Peace. Dedicated to the organization, it features a compilation of the group’s performances. DellaRatta intends to donate half of the proceeds to the purchase of instruments for underprivileged children. Incorporating music in children’s lives is another of his goals, and he is currently working on a project with Local 802 to gather donations of unused instruments, repair them, and then transport the instruments to disadvantaged children through their schools. “Music is a proven stimulator of intellect, and we want kids to reach their full potential,” he comments. “They need to be supported through programs like these.”

His most recent donation request had two particularly unusual aspects: an accordion, which needed to be shipped to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. DellaRatta was on the subway speaking about his accordion search troubles to a friend, when a man from The Songbook Project (a nonprofit organization that supports arts for children through theater and musical performances) overheard his conversation and offered a well-used accordion to Jazz for Peace. Though the accordion is in need of repairs, he was thrilled, and immediately informed the school in Rio that the instrument would be on its way.

DellaRatta was recently honored in the book Jazz Singers by author Scott Yanow as one of the 500 greatest jazz vocalists of all time. Deemed a leader in the jazz world as both innovator and visionary by many in the industry, DellaRatta continues to perform concerts with Jazz for Peace. His shows include performances for worldwide organizations like School Supplies for Afghanistan, and he has been recognized by notables including Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and political writer Noam Chomsky for his contributions to the jazz world.

The continuation of Jazz for Peace is vital to DellaRatta, whose goals for the program include expanding the concert series—and the understanding of the significance of jazz—while working toward a world full of music, life, and peace. “We want to continue to broaden the audience for this art form, while at the same time supporting the wonderful causes that keep us going,” he explains. “Jazz for Peace hopes to spread the message that embracing humanity is not such a bad idea for change.”