Donate 2019

As you may be aware, the Cincy Blues Society has been going through a rough patch. We could really use your help and support to get back on our feet, while we work hard to reorganize and make improvements.

We’re hoping to raise a total of $24,000 to clear up a few debts and to fund several events and programs in 2020.

There is a $500 matching grant – donate now to double your impact!

For more details on what’s needed, and why, read on.

The Cincy Blues Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. Your donations are tax-deductible.

Blues in the Schools Program

The Cincy Blues Society created a “Blues in the Schools” program shortly after the Society was founded in 1990, to help keep the Blues alive for another generation, an integral part of the group’s mission.

The Society’s educational program, known as BITS, has two areas of focus: presentations by professional musicians and performances by young musicians learning to play the blues.

BITS offers a free one hour music presentation to school children on the history of the blues through words and music.

The “BITS Band” is composed of musicians, under 21 years of age, who enjoy the blues. They have performed at many festivals and events such as the Cincy Blues Fest. The BITS Band has also traveled to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN to participate in the Youth Showcase.

$6,000 will help send 6 BITS musicians to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN in January, 2020.

Cincy Blues Fest

The Blues Society was formed in 1990 by a group of blues aficionados to bring an outdoor summer blues festival to Cincinnati. We have over two decades of experience producing this festival. We’re proud of the many blues greats we’ve brought to Cincinnati, and how many of these “alumni” return to tour our area year after year. Thanks to the Cincy Blues Fest, Cincinnati is now on the blues map, instead of being bypassed, which means more great live music for you!

For next summer’s Cincy Blues Fest, $10,000 will help pay for artist deposit fees, park rental, sound rental, portolets, and other expenses. We need seed money to book artists now for next summer – the good ones get snapped up early!

Fall Blues Experience

Our members have been asking for another event like the Blues Challenge – a more intimate outdoor experience under a pavilion with good local bands. We recently had the first Fall Blues Experience at the beautiful Donauschwaben facility in the Colerain area.

If you’d like to do it again next fall, $4000 will help pay for band fees and advertising.

Website

In this digital age, the main way you communicate with your audience is through your website, social media, and email list. It’s imperative to our mission to maintain a robust online presence.

It’s been an unusually busy year for our websites, cincyblues.org and cincybluesfest.org. We’ve had to recover from two websites hacks, we moved to a new more secure website host, we redesigned both websites for better mobile usability, and we changed to a more cost efficient email provider. We have an outstanding bill for this work.

Looking forward, we anticipate needing average expenses to cover the domain name, website hosting, and email provider fees, as well as website maintenance for the next year.

$4000 would help clear up the outstanding balance and provide for a continued web presence next year.