MAKE ACTIVISM APPROACHABLE
The overturning of Roe v. Wade has been a rallying cry across the country to get back to organizing as much effective opposition as we can. How exactly those of us in our music industry can have the biggest impact is up to each of us, to do the work to research, discuss and decide what feels like the right path to giving your support, using our platforms to educate and motivate others.
As a touring musician, I’ve spent a lot of my career integrating my activism into the fans’ concert experience to raise both funds and awareness for causes I care about. Back in 1991 and 1992, reproductive rights were again being threatened, and together with Tom Campbell, a pioneer of music industry activism, and his Guacamole Fund, we held fundraising receptions after my concerts to support Voters for Choice and Planned Parenthood. This was at a time when Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylania v. Casey was working its way through the Supreme Court (threatening the federal right to abortion as guaranteed by Roe v. Wade). I bought blocks of good seats and donated them to be sold at a higher price to folks wanting to support the cause. It was a very effective way to bring both attention and support to the groups without haranguing the audience from the stage. I respect that the audience is there for the music, and I know not everyone would agree with me, anyway. That said, after-show receptions and special benefit seats are terrific ways to raise funds and support.
Recently, we’ve shifted to more streamlined means of raising funds on tour, to both help save my voice and energy for the shows, but also to accommodate our COVID-19 touring safety precautions. Since 2009, we’ve built $1 for charity into the price of every ticket sold and we also offer premium seating with an up-charge for charity added to the face value of the ticket, which we affectionately call “scalping for charity.” We find these two avenues to be our most effective ways of raising money to give directly to our vetted charity and activist groups.
After playing the dates, we grant funds raised on tour to local, regional and national organizations we’ve carefully chosen for their effective work on issues that mean the most to me. Many don’t have access to huge corporate funding to buy ads, so utilizing our voices to present alternative positions is an especially effective way to level the awareness playing field. We invite local grassroots groups to set up tables at my concerts so the audience (if interested) can learn about issues affecting their community and decide if they would like to get more involved. I find concerts can often be a “neutral space” where people can ask questions they might not feel comfortable discussing in other situations.
It’s very important to vet the organizations to which we make grants, as we want to ensure that the money we donate mostly supports their stated mission and programs, not just their fundraising and operational expenses. This can be done by reviewing their financial information, usually required to be made publicly available (often on their websites; other good resources for vetting potential organizations are charitynavigator.org and guidestar.org).
Let’s hope that, with the latest rulings out of the courts and the need to address so many crucial issues, we’ll see a resurgence of activism in our music community that will once again show what a real difference harnessing the power of the artistaudience relationship can make.