Great instrumental music departments are supported by tremendous professional artists and and funded by energetic, “get-it-done” parents.  In the DSA Department we accomplish all we do with the help of committed parents.  The following is an overview of fund raising through the school and specifically in the Bands Department.
Fund raising efforts at Denver School of the Arts go to 2 overall categories:  1) the school’s general fund or 2) the individual art area that your student is involved in.  Bands fund raising goes into 2 further sub groups: 1) Band general fund and 2) Individual student accounts for band students.

All School Fund Raising Efforts

The non-profit organization “Friends of DSA” is the primary fund raising arm for Denver School of the Arts. Their work includes, but is not limited to, writing grant proposals, cultivating patrons, and coordinating “big event” fundraisers. An example of their efforts, DSA is being featured on “Colorado Gives” in December 2011 on PBS. The goal is to raise enough money to hire a permanent marketing person and generate enough income to completely eliminate the need for individual departments to do fundraisers. The Department of Bands needs to support this since ultimately, all students and parents of the school benefit.

DSA Bands Fund Raising Efforts
The band general fund is the heart and soul of the band program. It funds all of the practicing and visiting artists, new music, theory materials, new instruments and maintains the instruments we do have.  All these things are essential elements to a department with national status. The band students meet weekly with tremendously inspiring local professionals we call Band Practicing Artists and are often and regularly exposed to Band Visiting Artists.  Students of the department benefit greatly from this as these individuals are experts at their instruments, professionals working in the music business today and they have immeasurable knowledge.  This fund is essential to the success of the department. The practicing and visiting artists program costs between $20,000- $30,000 a year, with the addition of other materials in the form of equipment, music and music theory the overall cost of the department runs close to $50,000 each year.  Each band family is asked to either give a direct contribution of $250 or to raise this base amount with the offered fund raisers.

Individual band student accounts are only used for band trips. We set these accounts up for parent convenience when we are planning a band trip.  Some DSA Band fundraisers will contribute to both the individual student account and the general band account.  Your $250 contribution toward the band general fund mentioned above is not part of the individual band student account.