How can you help?

The Scots Music Group was informed by the Scottish Arts Council in April 2008 that our application for continued funding from March 2009 was not successful. We appealed against this decision, but in October 2008 learnt that our appeal had been turned down by the SAC.

We are now focusing on finding other sources of funding to allow us to continue to develop and grow beyond the end of March 2009

Below are just some of the ways you can help us ensure we can continue to share our music, song and dance. Many of these ideas cost nothing, and take little time. Many people have already offered us help in all sorts of ways – read below to find out how you can join in!

Become an SMG member
Take out membership if you haven’t already done so, and encourage others to join. For SMG, as well as the income from membership fees, being able to demonstrate increasing membership numbers will help us in our discussions with potential funders. Membership costs just £15 a year (£7.50 concession) and brings a whole host of benefits:

  • Members rates for all SMG events, classes and merchandise
  • Occasional offers on tickets for other events
  • The right to vote at the SMG AGM
  • The satisfaction of knowing you are supporting an organisation that will continue to develop the traditional music community in Edinburgh and far beyond.

You can join the Scots Music group online here or contact Sheila in the office

Make a donation
Your donation could be worth almost 25% more to SMG, at no extra cost to you.
If you are a UK taxpayer, Gift Aid lets Scots Music Group reclaim tax on donations you have made to us.

You can make a donation online to SMG here or contact Sheila

Tell others about our classes and events
Word of mouth is our most effective way of advertising what we do. More people attending classes and events brings more money into the organisation, allowing us to maintain a wide variety of classes and events, and thus giving opportunities for everyone to be involved in a way that works for them. We have small fliers and cards with our details on which can be given to anyone who is interested in finding out more. There are plenty of these available to take away, at classes and events. If you’d like some and can’t collect them from classes, contact Ros. Many folk first find out about us through hearing students playing at events or in sessions – go prepared!

Community music
If you know of any organisation/worthwhile event that might benefit from some live traditional music from some of our members, please contact Ros with details. We have had students playing, singing and dancing at all sorts of events such as the Edinburgh Marathon, Doors Open Day, fundraising events, Ceilidh Culture events, busks, etc etc. The more people hear SMG students singing and playing in the community, the more people are interested in joining our classes or coming to events we run.
If you are going to play, sing or dance at an event, please take SMG fliers, and talk to people about the Scots Music Group if possible. If it seems appropriate, you could also suggest the organisers might like to make a donation to the Scots Music Group. Event organisers may also be able to donate a raffle prize to SMG, or include the Scots Music Group in any event publicity. Contact Ros if you would like a copy of the SMG logo for posters etc

Share your skills with us
Have you got experience in fundraising, research, or marketing? We are also particularly looking for people with experience of writing effective press releases to help raise our profile. Contact Clare in the office to find out how you can help

Legacies
By including SMG in your will you would be supporting our important community building work into the future. It would allow us to continue to support all the worthwhile events our traditional musicians get involved in when they take their music out into the community to share it with others at fundraisers, community events, family celebrations and much more. Your gift would help the organisation to build on its work of the past 17 years, and to allow others to continue to take part in the enormous variety of opportunities the Scots Music Group has to offer.

Employer benefits
Are there ways your employer or business can help? For instance, we know that RBS is willing to augment the voluntary efforts of its employees with donations, and Scottish Widows have a scheme where they will pay part of the fees for anyone enrolling in a class. Anything helps! If you think your employer may have a scheme that we could benefit from, please let Ros know

Gifts
The Scots Music Group has tune books, a song book and CDs for sale – they make great gifts! We will be expanding our range of merchandising over the coming months

Spread the word
Talk to anyone else you know of who may be interested/concerned about Scots Music Group funding.

Testimonials
Send a written testimonial to Ros detailing why the Scots Music Group is important to you. We can use as supportive evidence for any future grant applications we make. You can email Ros for more information about this

Performers
We’re gathering information on any current and past performers and bands (amateur and professional) that have come from the Scots Music Group, going right back to the early nineties when classes first started under ALP. This will be useful to us for future grant applications, and also to give us an idea of who is currently out there peforming. If you’ve started performing in public, and feel this has been influenced by your involvement in SMG, you can give us some information here

anything else creative and constructive you come up with – be sure to let us know!

and lastly…
Keep informed
Shortly after we heard about the funding problem, we set up a contact list so we can keep people informed of our plans. If you would like to be kept up to date with developments please complete the contact form stating you would like to be added to our Funding Developments Contact List.

We prefer to contact you by email but if you do not have an email address please use the ‘comments’ box on the contact form to give us your postal address.