That brings us to you, our loyal and devoted fans and supporters. JOI has no paid staff, utilities, rent, or other overhead costs which would qualify us for current federal relief programs like the PPP. Of course, not having overhead is a good thing right now because we didn’t have to lay anyone off. However, we DO still need to fund our programs coming up. There are a couple of ways you may wish to help.
One way of course is to provide funding for our programs directly. These include the funds each “Buzzin’ In Brass” costs over and above The Smith Center’s partial grant. All students who attend the Las Vegas Youth Orchestras pay an annual tuition and our LVYJO is no exception. It would be wonderful if anyone would like to sponsor a student or students for the $250 per year tuition. Another way is to help both JOI and UNLV completely cover the costs of the Essentially Ellington festival. Each year, we do better than the year before, both in the quality of the festival and the funding to pay for it. This year we were short approximately $6,000 which JOI and UNLV covered by splitting the costs. We’ll be starting earlier this year on dedicated efforts to net zero the cost of this incredibly valuable event to the community and with your continued support and sponsorships, I’m confident this year will be the year we break even.
There’s another way you may want to help. As JOI has expanded, so has the need to move from a working board model to a governing and fundraising board model like the larger nonprofits have. As our Board Secretary and Executive Director Donny Thompson has completed his Masters Degree in Nonprofit Administration, it is important that we properly align his role exclusively in the leadership position as Executive Director and find a suitable experienced Board Secretary to replace him on the Board of Directors. Likewise, our Vice President Gary Cordell is also the Program Director and Director of Operations. We want to allow him the ability to focus his considerable talents on developing, leading, and expanding our outstanding programs. We are also in need of someone who has both the time and proven success in obtaining grants. And we’re looking even at a limited Board expansion. If you have the “Time, Talent, and Treasure,” or as Wynton Marsalis puts it, the “Three W’s: Wealth, Wisdom, and Workers,” you can reach out to Donny directly to begin a discussion about how your service may fit our current and future needs and we’ll begin the process of interviews and consideration for your approval to the Board. As you can see, this organization is truly going places and is serving a great need in the community. If you share our passion, consider “JOIning” us! Our email address is Info@joi-lv.org.
Please “Like” and “Follow” both our Jazz Outreach Initiative Facebook page and the Las Vegas Youth Jazz Orchestra Facebook GROUP page to stay tuned for this recording, news about our industry, videos and master classes done via Facebook Live, and of course announcements you’ll not want to miss!
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