The Sacramento Valley Choral Coalition has been a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation since 2014, and is governed by a Board consisting primarily of representatives of choral organizations. Take a look at the many ways the Coalition has found to fulfill its mission, serving choruses and reaching out to the general public.
Those who helped plan the first SacSings in 2014 eventually became the Board of the Sacramento Valley Choral Coalition, and once organized, we began to see there was a pressing need in the Sacramento performing arts scene that we were uniquely positioned to fill. Choruses needed an umbrella organization: an advocate, a representative, a unifying force. And the Sacramento public needed an organization that would work consistently to bring choral music to their attention and help them appreciate this multi-faceted art form.CHORAL SHOWCASES. SacSings - The Sacramento Choral Festival was held in 2014, 2015 and 2016, the first two years at Harris Center and the last year at Sac City College. Spread over multiple days, there were concerts that consisted of 20 community and college choruses (15 in 2015), involving about 1,000 singers in each (800 in 2015). The purpose of these events was to introduce choral organizations to each other's work, build a sense of community among singers, and give the general public an opportunity to hear a diverse selection of choruses at a single concert.
The mission of the Sacramento Valley Choral Coalition is to promote choral singing throughout the Sacramento region. A major part of that mission is to support the work of choirs and choruses: community, college, school, church, and children's choral organizations. Another major part of our mission is to build public interest in and appreciation of all forms of choral music.
CHORAL CONCERT REVIEWS: To date, we have planned our programs to be self-funded, in the sense that they will generate enough funds (admission fees, on site donations, sales revenue) to cover their costs. An exception is the reviews published in the Sacramento Choral Calendar. These are detailed summaries of each concert, running from 1200 to 2000 words, and require 3 to 5 hours to write, not counting time for travel and attendance at the concert. The reviews not only give feedback to each chorus, a reward for their effort that outlasts even the most enthusiastic applause, but they provide a resource for publicity: links to the review in the chorus's website and Facebook page, and quotations of the reviewer in print media, brochures, posters, etc.
In past years reviews have been contributed by volunteers, but the work is so demanding that no reviewer stays long. In the fall of 2017, we ran a GoFundMe campaign to pay $50 for each review. New reviewers were attracted, and we raised enough to fund 19 reviews. However, we would like to fund 60 reviews per year, which would require $3,000.
Any major project we undertake involves front-end financing. For each community chorus-based SacSings, for example, we had to provide $4,000 to $6,000 in advance payments for venue reservation, program & brochure printing, paid advertising, etc. Currently, we don't have the resources to make a commitment to a new SacSings-type project.
INSURANCE: Because so many of our recent activities have generated no income or little income, we had to let our insurance (D&O and liability) lapse during the past year. Reinstating these policies will require $2,000.
The Coalition has relied from the start on professional-quality services from dedicated volunteers. The day will come when those volunteers will be gone. Other volunteers may be found to contribute their skills on an occasional basis, but there are time-intensive roles (executive director, website management, accounting, and maybe some others) that will require compensation to get talented, committed people to fill them. Until we have annual income of at least $20,000 we are at risk of a crisis when these key people have to be replaced.
We need storage space for material we collect in the course of our activities: currently 60 banker boxes of music and 6 free-standing metal signs. We don't need on-demand or frequent access, so a closet or other space, preferably lockable, would be welcome. A 5'x5' space in a commercial operation would cost about $600 to $800 per year.
We also need meeting space. Our Board (currently 10 members) meets 4 to 6 times per year for 2 hours on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, and we currently don't have a place for these meetings. Occasionally, we hold meetings for representatives of choral organizations. From past experience, these meetings involve from 15 to 30 people.
Organization name
Sacramento Valley Choral Coalition
Tax id (EIN)
46-4005924
Mission Category
Arts, Culture & Humanities
Organization Need
Funding: Program, Space: Office or Other, Funding: Other, Funding: Unrestricted
Address
1873 Hiddenview Ln.