We were able to raise this amount for Mike Fredericks
$3,689.86!
Simply Awesome. This literally only took two weeks to raise. the initial week and a half before Mike knew and since this past Monday when everyone else found out.
I want to once again thank everyone involved in the building of Mike's Fredericks Bass and all that contributed to the fund. I am praying that Mike's backslide and renewal of symptoms is temporary.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
You can still continue to make donations to the fund.
www.musiciansfund.org "should" be up within a few weeks at the most and we will have are 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Charitable Organization status within about five weeks.
The Musicians Relief and Scholarship Fund will become a reality shortly.
There are
several other people (I won't name names) just on TalkBass that need our help. Two fighting cancer another helping a family member with medical bills, another whose daughter has medical problems, Pat Wilkins just yesterday told me about someone who he does business with (in THIS industry) whose wife is going through some serious medical problems, my wifes co-worker found out her sister was stabbed to death, in their home, by some maniac here in L.A. a few weeks ago RIGHT IN FRONT OF her sisters 13 year old daughter. Now that aunt (a young gal) is going to be a mother to the 13 year old girl.
There are so many things we could fix and or help out with. There are musicians in New Orleans still without instruments because they lost them during Katrina; their livelihood.
There are small music schools and studios who teach kids and young adults that could use funding.
There are people with great talent that would love to go to Musician Institue or FullSail but can't afford the tuition.
Literally there are so many thing this organization could do with the money we raise.
I believe I already have the 4 other people I need to help oversee and make decisions on where the assistance will go.
My wife is a Human Resources Director and will be the HR Director for this as well. She will be handling all the documentation for establishing whether or not someone is truly in need.
We already have an application package including Human Resources things she normally deals with like FMLA documentation, health benefits analysis, State Disabilty documentation, financial disclosures, doctors certifications, etc.
Through this paperwork we will be able to insure that the recipient is in fact in need of the funds and help guard against fraud.
We will have the scholarship criteria established within a few weeks.
On
www.musiciansfund.org people will be able to setup automatic monthly donations of virtually any dollar amount. If we can get 1,000 monthly donor's to contribute $10 a month we will be able to raise $10,000 a month. I can tell you that that amount of money will go a long way to help people in need.
We will have an area for donating used gear that will be sold and the proceeds going into the fund.
Remember, because we WILL be a 501(c)(3) Charity, all donations of cash and gear are tax deductible and you will receive all necessary documentation so you can write it off of your taxes.
We will be talking to manufacturers about making annual contributions to the fund. We will be talking to schools about offering tuition as part of our scholarship package.
The initial cost of starting this charity is around $1,500 and we are working to raise that now. Also, we will need office machines and "stuff". As per 501(c)(3) rules all charity related equipment, furniture, etc. must only be used for that organization. So if you have a printer, fax machine, laptop or desktop computer or whatever you'd like to donate to get the office up and running please contact me. Right now I will be using one our home office and equipment to start us off.
Finally, this is not a TalkBass only thing. It may have started here but the more musicians (and other people) that know about this, the more donor's we get, the more manufacturers that contribute, the more we can do.
I am going to be talking to the good people at NAMM about donating a booth. If they can't then I will talk to some big manufacturers about putting up the funds to get us there.
Thanks to all who have helped thus far and for all those who have offered to help in the future. Lots of work to do but I know we can do it.
