Dear Zimfest Association Friends and Members:
We hope that you are all doing well in the new year and have marked your calendars for August 11-14th, 2016 for the next Zimbabwean Music Festival which will be held at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon.
We wish to remind you of Zimfest’s Annual Campaign and Membership Drive. Memberships can be purchased and donations made at any time, and only 12 people have taken out or renewed memberships since our call in December. The festival itself provides some income to the Association but the funds are insufficient to sustain and grow the Association.
Become a Member of the Zimfest Association
Two years ago, we changed the way membership to the Zimfest Association is handled. The term of membership now runs for a full calendar year from January 1st until December 31st. Our goal is to have all recurring Zimfest participants be members of the organization. The minimal fee of $25 will allow a Regular member to attend the festival without paying a registration fee of $12. In addition to Regular memberships, Family, Couple, Teacher and Lifetime memberships are also available. Members may choose to have their names published on the website and in the Festival Guide. Please refer to the membership page to renew or initiate a membership. 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.
Provide Charitable Donations to the Zimfest Association
While fees from membership are a great start, our long term financial stability will take more money than membership fees alone can raise. For this reason, we are also soliciting tax-deductible donations to the Zimfest Association. These donations have proven invaluable to ensure our financial health. Please consider a donation to help the Association continue its efforts to put on the best Zimbabwean music festival in North America. Your contributions really do make a difference! 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 you will seriously consider becoming a member of the Zimfest Association for the 2016 calendar year, as well as making or enabling a charitable contribution. If each Zimfest member can find a willing donor within your extended network, we will be well on our way towards sustainability! Your contributions are tax-deductible either in the 2015 or 2016 tax year, depending on when you make your payment. Please visit our Membership and Donation page on our website at https://zimfest.org/membership for instructions on how to make a contribution.
Other Ways to Contribute
Finally, we’d like to remind you of two ways that you can donate to Zimfest on a ongoing basis. First, when shopping on Amazon you can support Zimfest by choosing 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/). 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://givingworks.ebay.com/charity-auctions/my-causes for more information.
Details will be coming soon about some exciting new fund-raising ideas – stay tuned!
Thanks for all that you do to make Zimfest a success.
Please contact us to learn more at board (at) zimfest {dot} org. We also encourage you to review recent board activities on the Zimfest blog which can be found at https://zimfest.org/blog/
Best wishes for 2016!
—The Zimfest Association Board
