Zimfest News Blog

Posts Tagged "Board of Directors"

Zimfest Off-Year Fundraising Campaign

Dear Zimfest Association Friends and Members:
We hope that you are enjoying your summer and that you are finding ways to enjoy Zimbabwean music and culture despite the lack of a festival this year. The Zimfest Board is making great progress on our off-year activities including: identification of a more sustainable and easier to maintain registration software system; broadening our approach to Zimfest marketing to reach new participants while ensuring strong attendance at future festivals; reviewing potential changes to festival structure in the interest of Zimfest sustainability; and considering new sources of income for Zimfest. We hope that you have already marked your calendars for August 9-12th, 2018 for next summer’s Zimbabwean Music Festival which will once again be held at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon. Over the coming months, our Festival Coordinator, Claire Jones, will begin the process of recruiting an organizing committee. We hope that you will consider volunteering! Please reach out to by writing , or directly to Claire at if you are able to help.

As we’ve noted in the past, no organization can survive without financial support, and the Zimfest Association is no different. We need your help to survive! Towards this end, we would like to announce the start of our off-year fundraising campaign which will continue through the end of the calendar year. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us continue to put on the best Zimbabwean music festival in North America. A strong fundraising campaign will help ensure that we go into our next festival in a strong financial situation. The funds raised will be used to help bring Zimbabwean teachers and guests to the festival, to help grow our endowment, and to raise operating funds for specific needs such as supporting the transition to our new registration software. If your company supports matching donations, please don’t forget to complete the paperwork which would allow your company to match your contribution – often dollar for dollar.

We hope that each of you will consider a donation – no amount is too small (or too big)! We would like to appeal to bands in particular to consider raising funds for Zimfest during your summer performance season. In addition, if each of you can find a willing donor within your extended network it will greatly assist us in strengthening our financial position. Contributions are tax-deductible in the 2017 tax year. Please visit the Support Zimfest page on our website (https://zimfest.org/about/support-zimfest) for instructions on how to donate. You may also wish to initiate or renew a Zimfest Association membership on the Membership page (https://zimfest.org/about/membership).

Thanks for all that you do to make Zimfest a success.
Best wishes from the Zimfest Association Board

Posted In: Zimfest Association News
Tagged With: , , , ,
No Comments

June Board Meeting Minutes

Minutes from the June 17th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.

Posted In: Zimfest Association News
Tagged With: ,
No Comments

May Board Meeting Minutes

Minutes from the May 14th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.

Posted In: Zimfest Association News
Tagged With: ,
No Comments

April Board Meeting Minutes

Minutes from the April 9th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.

Posted In: Zimfest Association News
Tagged With: ,
No Comments

March Board Meeting Minutes

Minutes from the March 12th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.

Posted In: Zimfest Association News
Tagged With: ,
No Comments

February Board Meeting Minutes

Minutes from the February 12th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.

Posted In: Zimfest Association News
Tagged With: ,
No Comments

January Board Meeting Minutes

Minutes from the January 8th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.

Posted In: Zimfest Association News
Tagged With: ,
No Comments

December Board Meeting Minutes

Minutes from the December 11th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.

Posted In: Zimfest Association News
Tagged With: ,
No Comments

November Board Meeting Minutes

Minutes from the November 20th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.

Posted In: Zimfest Association News
Tagged With: ,
No Comments

Zimfest Association Fund Raising

Dear Zimfest Association Friends and Members,

We hope you are doing well and have found a good way to cope with Zimfest’s absence from next year’s summer plans! The Holiday season is drawing to a close, but the Zimfest Association’s Annual Campaign and Membership Drive are just getting warmed up! This will be our fourth year running this campaign, and we are hoping that it will be our most successful ever. While the festival itself provides some income to the association, these funds are simply insufficient to help sustain and grow the Association and the Festival itself. Here are some ways that you can help.

Become a Member of the Zimfest Association

Our goal is to have all Zimfest participants be members of the organization. It is our hope that a healthy dialogue about the festival and Association can emerge from a membership that feels a sense of ownership in the Zimfest Association. Membership covers January 1st through December 31st. Membership dues are an essential part of keeping Zimfest alive and vibrant. From as little as $10.00 per year for our Youth/Student membership, there are membership categories to fit any budget and situation! Consider Regular, Family, Couple, Teacher, Lifetime, and Lifetime Family, memberships. Members may choose to have their names published on the website and in the Festival Guide as a public display of support for Zimfest. Membership fees are also 100% tax deductible. Please refer to the membership page to renew or initiate a membership — https://zimfest.org/about/membership/.

Provide Charitable Donations to the Zimfest Association

While Membership dues are a great start, in order to insure long-term stability Zimfest needs a wider base of support. For this reason, we are asking for everyone who is able to make a tax-deductible donation to the Zimfest Association. These donations have been essential for the festival in the past, and your support of Zimfest now will help secure the future of the festival and sustain our financial well being. If your company supports matching donations, find out from your supervisor or Human Resources department how your company can match your contribution– often dollar for dollar!

If you are a regular attendee of the festival, this is the perfect year to make a donation. Without a festival this year, we hope that you consider donating even a small fraction of what would normally go towards travel expenses, workshops, meal cards, etc. to help keep the momentum in this gap year. Your contributions really do make a difference and help the Association continue its efforts to put on the best Zimbabwean music festival in North America! To donate, go to https://zimfest.org/about/support-zimfest/.

Other Ways to Contribute

Finally, we’d like to remind you of two completely painless ways you can donate and help Zimfest on an ongoing basis.

AmazonSmile

First, when you shop on Amazon, you can support Zimfest by choosing the Zimfest Association as the organization you would like to receive 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases. See https://zimfest.org/blog/2014/support-zimfest-when-you-shop-at-amazon-com/.

eBay

Also, for anyone who sells items on eBay, you can choose to donate a percentage of the final sales price to the Zimfest Association. See http://charity.ebay.com/charity-auctions/charity/zimfest-association/72685/ for more information.

If you’d like to learn more about this festival and what goes on during the other 360 days a year, please contact us at or review our recent activities on our blog which can be found at http://www.zimfest.org/blog/.

Thanks for all you do to help make Zimfest a success. Best wishes for the new year, and we’ll see you at Zimfest 2018!

–The Zimfest Association Board

Posted In: Zimfest Association News
Tagged With: , , , , ,
2 Comments

ZA Call for Interest in Hosting 2018 Zimfest

Dear Zimfest Community,

As you may know, The Zimfest Association Board decided earlier this year to not hold Zimfest in 2017, to allow us to focus on the long-term success and sustainability of the festival. At the same time, we’re looking forward to Zimfest 2018!

Current options include returning to Western Oregon University (which would require less planning effort than a new site) or identifying a community that can commit to organizing and hosting the festival at some other location. However, because of the lead time required to book facilities, we would like to identify the 2018 festival site and dates by the end of January, 2017. With 2018 taken care of, the Board will continue working on how best to select and rotate among festival venues after 2018.

Thus, we extend a call to all communities to consider organizing and hosting Zimfest 2018. The community will have festival coordination support from the Zimfest board and additional festival volunteers. Information—including pros, cons and/or deal-breakers—on a number of potential venues has been collected over the years here: Venues Researched As Potential Zimfest Sites.

Should you be interested in organizing and hosting Zimfest 2018, we’d love to hear from you via by January 8, 2017. Individuals or communities that express interest will be contacted by the Board for further discussion. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions as well.

With all best wishes,

The Zimfest Association Board of Directors
Rujeko Dumbutshena
Jacqueline Fallon
Chris Halaksa
Tapiwa Kapurura
Claire Jones
Daniel Lockley
Dana Moffett
Evelyn Mukwedeya
David Simon
Alex Weeks
Janis Weeks

Posted In: Festival News
Tagged With: , , ,
6 Comments

Village Meeting and October Board Meeting Minutes

The Zimfest Association board of directors has posted minutes from the Village Meeting at Zimfest 2016 and the October 9th board meeting.

Posted In: Zimfest Association News
Tagged With: , ,
No Comments