May 2023
May 18, 2023, San Francisco
Last updated
May 18, 2023, San Francisco
Last updated
Review Agenda & Vote
Vote to approve previous minutes
Committee Updates
Events
Marketing
Committee updates
Fundraising
Sara Ferree: Current and Desired State and Start of Plan
Set date for board training
Fundraising committee update
Grant tracker:
Tech
Fastly
Board Development
Eddie’s board term ends in June
Caryn’s board term ends in July
Programming
Vote to update Music Committee name to Programming
Finance
Review Action Items
Need to find a date in May for gala.-
Caryn will do a couple of stakeholder interviews for the strategic plan; Amanda will share SOAR document.
Ben to send email to product support at Givebutter asking how to move monthly transactions from Kindful
Brandon to import Kindful history into Givebutter
Amanda and Eddie to meet re: besties bash - shows at the Alley may be discontinued, doing things at venues now so that may be the way forward.
Brandon and Amanda talk about Live 105 material and event/silent auction in the spring
Begin filling in metrics on a monthly basis -
Brandon reach out to NoisePop after festival is over re: 2023 partnership
Ben set up payment to Azurecast.
Follow up with Al on music in GGP? Have we missed our chance to get on the schedule?
The Secret Alley storage space upgrade
Strategic Plan update
What are we doing for our 10th Birthday?
Open for public comment
Any other business?
Present:
Amanda Guest, Chair, Executive Director
Caryn Kesler, Vice Chair, Creative Director
Irving Pham, Treasurer
Clair McDevitt, Chair of Fundraising Committee
Brandon Paski, Secretary, Chair of Marketing Committee
Ben Ward, Technical Director
Absent:
Erika Delgado, Events Director
Vote YES to approve the minutes.
Vote YES to adopt the proposed agenda.
Launching a new initiative called Charm School teaching DJs how to put on events, so they can create events to teach other BFF members skills on various things, like how to book a DJ.
Kicking off on Saturday with Noel and Forrest: how to do an event at Secret Alley.
Big Karaoke at Make out, small Karaoke at Pops, probably because of Mother’s Day.
Kilowatt residency started, went well, agreement was based on bar tab vs cover tab, not a lot of drinkers at the show, so this weekend we have a collab with lower world and look to having a Tip Jar on the stage, or pay what you want to support the bands. BFF.fm went $300 out of pocket.
Committee is very active. Lots of brainstorming ideas for content and articles. KQED Fest coverage came out really nice and DJ profiles continue to be a rich source of social media/blogs. Gilman St Fest went well, $100 in donations, only one staffer, which we hope to correct with the Charm School. Giveaways are running, Another Planet is a new contact.
Committee update first meeting last month, next meeting on Tue May 23. Divided into Grants, sponsorships (Jill/Peter/Lead Teddy).
Sponsorships going through a list of organizations suggested
Grants for the arts last week and two more in June.
Got Center of Creative Innovation, state grant up to $600, once a year. Should apply to this every year.
Sara Update- review document. Rundown on past fundraising to give us a base line then move into our desired state. Feedback from the board needed.
Fundraising plan in place to double budget of the organization. End of 2022, budget was smaller in year’s past, due to less events, less being out there. Goal is $250,000 as quickly as we are able to.
Phase two: Move from abstract ideas from fundraising, to having a concrete plan that the board and Amanda can work towards together. Possible calendar presented: a tactical calendar and strategic (what skills are needed and who could work on it and how the board can support). Calendar is work in progress.
Additional ways to communicate what BFF is and what BFF does, to appeal to a larger segment of people. As discussed in the retreat, talk more about the broader impact of the station, less about our involvement.
Last part: how to identify new donors and how to bring them in. Lots of research and a lot of socializing.
Look through donor roll and see who we recognize. Build pitches, board and volunteer development, person skill development, calendaring.
As we move forward in the plan, refer to calendar to make sure we stay on task and complete the tactics.
Review peers and competitors and see who is funding them.
Sarah was impressed with materials we have, messaging on point, but need to broaden audience. Build out some boiler plates, sponsorships for corp donors.
Find more “cold” opportunities, in your social circle, small events, nurture relationships with potential donors.
Currently at the input and ideas, encouraging ownership of fundraising.
Thoughts from the board on what Sarah has laid out so far: Ben-Seems through, nice to see the historical framing to help us move forward. Ben wonders, when we think about what donations come in, what is the realistic potential, especially thinking about expanding our reach, and how to get a better handle on that and where do we target? Amanda- once of the things that we discussed there is probably a lot more untapped potential from our current audience. Use more warm touches, talk to close connections. Irving- skeptical of the goals, but we have not really tried to up the fundraising goals. Steady with fundraising and grants, income has hovered around $100K, so just a little nervous about the jump to $160K. Amanda- hasn’t really been a concerted effort to fundraise with the board. Not going to happen overnight, better to have loftier goals and go for it and see what happens. Getting to a budget of $250000 seems attainable. Current audience may be able to give at a larger level, we just need to help them along to get there. Clair- this is very much a process. We haven’t been careful or organized, so time to take a big leap. Amanda- previous consultant also had $250000. Focus focus focus. Once we meet with Sarah, and determine priorities, we can get actionable goals. Caryn- wants to focus, there are lots of “shiny things” in the document so welcomes any guidance on how to pitch in. Amanda- example: “We want to do an event, how do we get the resources to make that happen. “ Clair- who do you have in your database that can help reach this goal, how do you engage those people to make that happen? This isn’t just about the 7 board members, how do we engage our volunteers to reach out as well. Ask for everyone to add questions on the plan so Sarah can give us guidance in the correct way.
Fastly, networking infrastructure, set us up with free use of their service when issues with Creek, set us up as a non-profit, but that program came to an end. New program is only on open source projects, which we are not. Slight bandwidth panic, did a scramble, and they are going to keep the support up for us (Fast Forward). They just want to formalize their support of us, how does the support they provide intersect with the underwriting program. Currently costs are about $6000, can we find a proper fit for them for that level?
Amanda- let’s get something off the shelf, not try to create something new.
Ben- they have a product called Glitch, that might be a fit. Pitch it to our community and see if there is any interest. Possibly someone on the tech committee. Waiting to hear more about Glitch
Committee meets next month, working on an analytics project. Focus on that project.
Everything is pretty stable.
Eddie and Caryn terms are up in July. Will discuss in the next meeting. In meetings with Sara, we should expand the board to help with fundraising. Rename the music segment to Programming, so we can update on new shows, how full the schedule is. Amanda suggested, Caryn seconded, vote is approved.
No longer delinquent! $85 fee, but we are all set. First year filing taxes, tailoring it to our needs. We are $22K in checking $25K in savings. In 2022 we were at $13K. Grants and fundraising in the pipeline. Dig into the DJ dues/give butter.
Need to find a date in May for gala.- Focus on working with Sara.
Caryn will do a couple of stakeholder interviews for the strategic plan; Amanda will share SOAR document. Amanda did it.
Ben to send email to product support at Givebutter asking how to move monthly transactions from Kindful
Brandon to import Kindful history into Givebutter Brandon needs to do
Amanda and Eddie to meet re: besties bash - shows at the Alley may be discontinued, doing things at venues now so that may be the way forward. RIP Besties Bash
Brandon and Amanda talk about Live 105 material and event/silent auction in the spring Sept Gala
Begin filling in metrics on a monthly basis - take to slack channel to sort out who will do what.
Brandon reach out to NoisePop after festival is over re: 2023 partnership
Ben set up payment to Azurecast. Done
Follow up with Al on music in GGP? Have we missed our chance to get on the schedule? Would need to work directly with Illuminate
$350 a month micro studio to store promo items, mail order. Would bring total rent to $1990. 5’x5’ Month to month.
Work to get ahead of expenses (mosswood, new tent, ipads) Grant for the arts is $12K, should cover those events.
Secret Pirate storage for live events.
In studio A, the secret compartment is not accessible. Adding that space into the secret pirate storage. Amanda suggested to vote on the storage space, Clair seconds. Board approves.
We are close! It’s written and will be presented at the next meeting for ratification.
Gala, string of shows (Knockout, Kilowatt, etc). Outreach/PR.
Revamp, imagining of the home page, mainly carousel. Moving things around are fairly easy, but entire re-do may not be feasible.
BFF.fm big party hats
Maybe t-shirts for DJs.
none
Narcan training May 24th. Register now!
Vote to amend bylaws to take the board to 10.
Irving- streamline Category Names in Transaction Log
Brandon- move fundraising into GiveButter
Clair- Events worksheet dashboard
Brandon- reach out to NoisePop after festival is over re: 2023 partnership
Brandon- Add 10 year anniversary to next marketing committee.
Naloxone training on May 24. Looking for a volunteer to check people in at the door from about 6:40-7:05 pm. Register here:
The next meeting of the BFF.fm board is scheduled for 6pm on July 20, 2023. See for more information.