Online Instrument Drives® - Launching in 2012
After three years of conducting Instrument Drives® in the Phoenix area, Ear Candy is making a revolutionary shift. In the early 2012 we are switching over to
ONLINE INSTRUMENT DRIVES®.
Online Instrument Drives® will no longer rely on physical instrument donation sites. This is a both a significant change in our internal operations and an enormous leap forward as an organization. The mission remains the same,
Providing Youth Access to Music Education, but the method we will use is more efficient and effective.
The beta version of the system is nearly complete and will be available to music programs in the Phoenix area beginning in March.
Below you will find an overview of the Online Instrument Drive® system, an explanation of why we are making this change and how YOU can get involved to make this a success.
To request an
Online Instrument Drive® Sponsorship Package, please email a request to
Sponsor@EarCandyCharity.Org
Online Instrument Drive® Process Overview
- A Music Teacher from a qualifying Music Program posts a request for instruments on the website (Limit of 4 instruments per program request at a time).
- An Instrument Donor browses the program requests and selects the Music Program they want to donate their instrument to. They input details about the instrument with the option of including the instrument's story and why it has been important to them and their family.
- After committing the instrument to a Music Program, the Donor prints a prepaid shipping label from UPS or FedEx, attaches it to the instrument case and either drops the instrument off at the shippers local office or contacts the shipper for a pick up.
- The instrument is shipped to a Central Repair Facility for assessment, cleaning and if necessary, repairs.
- The Central Repair Facility ships the instrument to the Music Program selected by the Donor.
- The instrument arrives at the Music Program and is placed in the hands of a child or, depending on the type of instrument, multiple children!!
- The Donor is notified immediately when their instrument arrives at the program, and receives updates from the students and the teacher!
Online Instrument Drive® Fundraising
Placing each instrument has a cost. In order for Online Instrument Drives® to work, Ear Candy must raise an average of $150 per instrument.
$110 – Average Cost of Repair
+ $40 – Shipping (2 ways)
$150 – Per Instrument
As soon as a program request is posted in the system, a fundraising campaign begins to cover the costs of shipping and repair. To spread the word and raise funds, teachers and donors are provided with easy to use fundraising tools and strategies. These tools include social media tie-ins (Facebook & Twitter) as well as prepopulated emails to forward.
While donating to the fundraising campaign is not mandatory for teachers or instrument donors, sharing the request with others in their social networks is strongly encouraged. Instruments will be shipped to the Central Repair Facility as soon as they are committed to a program, but they will not be shipped to the school until that instruments shipping and repair cost has been fully funded.
Individual instruments will ship to the requesting music program as soon as funds are raised to complete each instrument fundraising goal. That means a music program requesting 2 Flutes and 2 Trumpets could have raised all the money for the trumpets and received them, while the flutes are still in the fundraising stage.
If a request is not fully funded after 90 days, Ear Candy will remove the request from the system, and the funds committed to the program will be available to the donor to allocate to an alternative program request of their choosing.
Three Reasons We Ship and Repair Every Instrument
1. We Only Place High-Quality Instruments
The last thing we want to do is place a damaged or inadequate instrument in the hands of a child. All instruments must be at least cleaned and disinfected prior to donation. Many instruments also require tuning and repair before they are ready for placement. Having all instruments assessed by a professional ensures they are in optimal condition for the children who receive them.
2. It is Easy for Donors and Teachers
We realize both donors and teachers are very busy. For this reason, we have made the process of requesting and donating instruments simple and convenient. By providing prepaid shipping, any donor can easily donate their instrument without financial hardship or great effort.
3. The Process Works the Same Anywhere in the Country
With shipping logistics and a centralized repair station in place, Online Instrument Drives® work the same for every music program and instrument donor anywhere in the country. While Ear Candy is committed to serving the Phoenix area and Arizona first, the Online Instrument Drive® model has the ability to support music programs in every community across the country.
It's All About Connecting T & X
Nate Anderson, Ear Candy's Founder and Executive Director, breaks down the future of Ear Candy through Online Instrument Drives® at a recent TEDx talk.
How YOU Can Help
To fully develop Online Instrument Drives® and expand access throughout Arizona will cost
$350,000. These funds will cover the costs of ongoing web development, vital staff positions, and other related expenses necessary to development and administration.
$350,000 is small price to pay to perfect a system that will impact hundreds of schools and tens of thousands of youth throughout Arizona. This is the most efficient and effective method available to put thousands of instruments in the hands of deserving young students.
If you agree with our vision for Online Instrument Drives® and you would like to play a vital role in the early development and launch this revolutionary system, please step-up and support the Online Instrument Drive® project in any of the following ways:
Donate Financially
The cost to launch the Online Instrument Drives® throughout Arizona is $350,000 in the first year. To reach this goal, we need the financial support of everyone in the community who understands the value of music education for our youth. No amount is too small.
Ear Candy Charity is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all contributions are tax deductible.
To request an
Online Instrument Drive® Sponsorship Package, please email a request to
Sponsor@EarCandyCharity.Org
Checks payable to
Ear Candy Productions, Inc., can be mailed to:
Ear Candy Charity
PO Box 2555
Tempe, AZ 85280
Spread the Word
Share the Online Instrument Drive® vision with your network and encourage others to support the effort.
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Use Email, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media vehicles to inform your network about Online Instrument Drives® and ASK them to stand with you in financially supporting the project.
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Create a Causes Wish for Ear Candy Productions, Inc. Facebook users, this is a VERY EASY way to create a fundraising campaign to benefit Ear Candy’s Online Instrument Drive®. Choose from Holiday Wish, Birthday Wish, Run/Walk/Ride, Memorial or Personal Wish. In minutes you and your network can be raising funds to support this project! Causes.com
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Write about an article or blog post about the Online Instrument Drive using information from this page and link to this page.
Volunteer
Do you have expertise in any of the areas this project covers – Web Design, Graphic Design, Instrument Repair, Marketing, Fundraising, etc? If so, we need your help! Get involved as an official
Ear Candy Roadie, attend an orientation session and put your skills to work advancing the cause.
Additional Info
The following section provides more detailed information on Ear Candy’s decision to create Online Instrument Drives®.
Brief History of Ear Candy Instrument Drives®
In 2008, Ear Candy created Instrument Drives to provide low-income youth in public schools, grades K -12, with music instruments they would not otherwise have access to. At first Instrument Drives consisted of a few local businesses acting as donation sites.
In 2010, Ear Candy partnered with the Phoenix Fire Department to collect instruments at 50+ fire stations throughout the city. This relationship standardized and streamlined the donation process at strategically located donation sites. This partnership was so successful that in 2011 Ear Candy expanded Instrument Drives® to fire departments in five cities throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Fast forward to the end of 2011, and Ear Candy is partnering with Fire Departments in the cities of Avondale, Glendale, Phoenix, Tempe and Scottsdale, collecting instruments at 80+ donations sites.
Through these partnerships, Ear Candy has collected thousands of instruments and will impact over 15,000 youth this year! The current model of Instrument Drives® is obviously working, so why change it?
The Reality of Physical Instrument Drives®
Logistically Complex
- 80+ donation sites in 5 cities is a lot to manage.
- Fire stations are not always open to accept instruments donations during regular business hours. (Fire fighters are occasionally out fighting fires, saving lives, training, etc.)
- Not all fire fighters are knowledgeable of the Instrument Drive® process, leaving some donors feeling uneasy about leaving their precious instruments.
- Ear Candy (EC) often receives instruments with no donor information attached and has no way to thank the donor or provide a tax receipt. Was the donation intentionally anonymous, or was the donor card lost in transit to EC?
- Instrument donations are not directly connected to the instrument needs of music programs. Example, while a donated box of kazoos is great, finding a music program in actual need of kazoos is unlikely. Fire stations currently receive all manner of obscure donations EC is responsible for storing and attempting to place .
- Many instruments are donated in varying states of disrepair. For some instruments the cost to repair is greater than buying a new student model. For other instruments the average price of repair ranges from $20 to $350 depending on the instrument and the work needed. All instruments, regardless of condition, need at least a cleaning and disinfect prior to placement.
- Few donors realize the costs associated with placing their instrument when they drop it in a box at a local fire station.
Labor Intensive
- EC must regularly pick up instruments from one donation site at each of 5 fire departments across the Valley.
- EC relies on the departments to bring the instruments to this one central fire station.
- Some instruments sit at fire stations for months before EC receives them. We have no control over how long this takes.
- When EC does receives the instruments, each one is manually assessed and inventoried by staff.
- Instruments are then either placed in storage or taken to specialty repair shops throughout the valley (strings here, brass there, woodwinds over there, etc.).
- EC is constantly matching hundreds of teacher requests against a hodgepodge of inventoried instruments that are either in storage or out for repair.
- Concurrently EC coordinates instrument delivery events with multiple schools and school districts.
- Each school district has different procedures, permissions and administrative hoops EC must comply with in order to place instruments.
- As a result of all these factors, the whole process from donation at a fire station to placement in a music program can take anywhere from 2 months to a year.
- On average, with all administrative and labor costs factored in, it costs Ear Candy over $200 to place each instrument.
- Under the current drop-off model, few instrument donors give financially towards the cost of placing their instrument.
Lacks Transparency
EC sends a donation letter and tax receipt when the instrument is received by the organization and another letter when the instrument is placed in a music program.
- After donating at a fire station, aside from one letter, instrument donors have no idea where their instrument is or what is happening to it.
- If the instrument sits at a fire station for months before EC receives it, the instrument donor has had to wait with no information on the status of their donation and has not received a tax-receipt.
- The instrument donor has no say in what program or what part of the valley their instrument is placed.
Geographically Limiting
- EC is at maximum capacity managing the current 80+ donation sites.
- Just to cover all cities in the Phoenix metropolitan area EC would need to hire additional staff.
- To expand the current model outside of the Phoenix area would require establishing branch offices and hiring multiple staff members for each new area served.
- With the current model it would be impossible to assist schools in rural areas.
Online Instrument Drives®
Efficient
- Music teachers post requests for instrument their students actually need.
- Instrument donors browse the requests and select the programs they want to donate their instruments to.
- Shipping to and from one central repair facility is free and convenient for donors and teachers.
- It is just as easy for a donor to support a music program across town as one across the state.
- All instruments are professionally assessed, cleaned and repaired prior to placement.
- Working with one central repair facility means costs are consistent and discounted 50%.
- Teachers, donors and the public clearly understand the cost associated with placing donated instruments, including EC’s operating costs.
- Convenient tools and strategies are built into the system to help teachers and donors raise the funds to cover placement costs.
- The entire request and donation process is visible in real-time.
- The time from donation to placement is standardized at 2 weeks.
- The process can be managed by small EC support staff from one location.
Effective
- The donor decides which program to support.
- Every instrument donated matches a specific program need.
- Every instrument received by a school is cleaned, prepped and ready to play.
- Donors and teachers are able to communicate and connect through the program request post.
- Donors and teachers are engaged in the process through raising awareness and funds.
- EC can place more instruments and impact more youth in more communities than ever before.
More to Come
There is far too much thought, planning and detail behind this system to share it all here. For that reason, we invite you to keep up to date on the progress of the Online Instrument Drive® by Liking Ear Candy on
Facebook, Following Ear Candy on
Twitter, or Subscribing to
Ear Candy’s Newsletter.
To support the development of this revolutionary new Instrument Drive® model, donate below!