Free (cash or check only)

A central theme of this project is Vermont’s treasured sense of local community. I want to celebrate and also support the enduring vitality of Vermont’s many village centers and downtowns. In that spirit, I was clear from inception that the concerts should be free. My own time I would consider part of my service as a faculty member of a land-grant institution, and I hoped that the venues would waive any facility fees. (As so far they all have, from the $50 church rental charge to the $1000 performance center fee.)

Another key theme is to encourage an active response to the climate crisis. And from the beginning, everyone wanted to know if the concerts would be fundraising events. This seemed a natural idea, but in some tension with the “free” bit. (In my experience, billing such as “free will offering” or “donations at the door” or “pay what you can” all send the message that one is supposed to pay.)

At first I compromised by deciding not to say anything about money in the promotion or on stage, but only include a note in the program that read:

We are glad to be able to offer these concerts free of charge. 
Please consider a donation to one of the following groups…

Then I played in Strafford. As it happens, the church there has monthly concerts and always puts out a basket for donations. Without me saying anything, we collected $381 for 350Vermont.

So I decided to continue to advertise the concerts as free, but to speak my donation solicitation from the stage as well as write it in the program. That led to a similar haul for the next public concert (Berlin). 

Then I figured that there were likely to be people present who might be inclined to donate but had come without cash or check. I realized we ought to include a solicitation heads-up in the promo after all. Still concerned about the implication of “free will donation at the door” and the like, I’ve settled on:

Admission FREE 
Donations will be accepted to benefit...

In the meantime, there have been a couple of concerts where I have not solicited donations, for one reason or another. But if the per-concert receipts so far turn out to be typical, it will add up to a fair chunk of change for climate orgs over the course of the next 240 or so concerts.