3 / 24
3
COUNT ME IN
Your donation makes the Folklife Festival happen. Donate today!
FRIENDS— WE NEED TO TALK...
...WE NEED TO DECIDE
Today, WE are sitting on the grass here at Seattle Center, enjoying music, cultural
showcases, crafts, and food vendors from all over our region. We are having a
wonderful time, and we are glad to be here together.
Not long ago, the national landscape was filled with large scale regional arts and
culture festivals. These were not national commercial, “headliner” music festivals,
but celebrations of local arts and artists. That landscape has changed and the
Northwest Folklife Festival is one of the last remaining major community owned
festivals in the nation.
Our Northwest Folklife Festival is one of even fewer that remains committed to the
idea that this experience belongs to everyone – not just to those who can afford
the price of a ticket.
This is only possible now and can only remain possible in the
future if our VERY modest costs are supported by our community. Either we want our
festival to continue or we don’t.
At this year’s festival, we only need to raise $350,000 to pay for the costs. There is no
other arts and/or culture organization that has found a way to bring over 5,000 artists
on 25 stages representing over 100 communities to about 250,000 of you for such a
small amount of investment. We are efficient, effective stewards of every dollar we
receive.
We asked all of you for a modest daily donation when you entered the festival. If
every person gives that amount, we can guarantee the continuation of the festival
each year.
Last year, we estimate that only 17% of the people attending the festival
made this voluntary donation.
We also know, and we celebrate, that there is no
economic barrier and that, for some, making a donation can be very tough. We are
so glad you are all here and we are grateful for whatever you are able to “chip in”.
But
17% is not enough to sustain this event.
For those who have the means and the passion for what this festival is all about,
we, the Board, ask YOU to consider what the
VALUE
of this festival is to you, both
as an individual attending and as a member of this community who believes in this
awesome event and believes it must be open to all. If that value to you is more than
$10 a day, then please – give an amount commensurate with how you value your
experience and the experience you are making possible for others. Join the Friends of
Folklife.
Ultimately we must decide if the Northwest Folklife will continue and only YOU can
make that happen.
What you do today, when you decide to give or not give, will
determine the future of our festival.
This is a choice about the future – does this
wonderful event that distinguished this region from everywhere else in the nation
continue? Or will it become a memory of yesteryear?
Together, we celebrate this joyous festival, the opportunities provided, the
experiences shared. We believe it needs to continue. Do you? Please, walk over to a
donation station, make that gift, get a receipt, and sign the banner that says “
COUNT
ME IN FOR FOLKLIFE –
for this year, next year and all the years to come”
— The Board of Northwest Folklife
HOW CAN I GIVE TODAY?
✔
Become a Friend of Folklife
• Make your “Count Me In”
donation at a Donation Station.
• Get a receipt
• Sign and Post Your Ribbon
✔
Make a daily donation of
$10/person, $20/families
✔
Donate at any Donation Station with:
•
Cash • Credit Card • Checks
✔
Visit the Credit Card Kiosks at the Friends of
Folklife Donation Station on the Fisher Green
✔
Give on-line at
give.nwfolklife.orgPhoto credit: Christopher Nelson