End-of-financial year plea for donations!

Well, it’s the final week of the financial year and just four and a half weeks til we set off on our grand Edinburgh Fringe adventure. We couldn’t be reaching this amazing dream were it not for the buckets of support from all of you thus far. Thank you SO much, we can’t express how grateful we are.

This email is just a quick plea for tax deductible donations to help with our final tour expenses. We’re still listed as an eligible arts project on the Australian Cultural Fund through the Australian Business Arts Foundation, so any donations made are tax deductible.

We still have to pay outstanding marketing and accommodation bills, as well as ridiculous amounds of excess baggage costs for Lauren’s cymbals so any donation, no matter how small, will help us on our way.

You can read more about the fund here.

You can donate online here.

xxx the blackcat team

So busy we forgot to blog… On the road to Edinburgh #2

Wow, what a big 6 weeks we have ahead of us! Not long now before we set off. The Ladies behind the scenes (Phoebe and our amazing production assistants, Karly and Erin) have been busy booking accommodation, paying all our bills, booking epic bus trips (trains are for schmucks! schmucks who can afford them…), hiring microphones, weighing boxes of CDs to work out excess baggage, purchasing a drum kit (hoping we can sell it afterwards!), and debating the merits of various badge sizes so the Edinburgh streets can be filled with people proudly sporting Lady Sings it Better badges on their happy little chests! It’s a glamourous life we lead…

We’ve got some really exciting gigs coming up. First up, we can’t wait to sing with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir on June 30 at their SGLC Pops Out! concert. Apart from the obvious draw card, namely Sydney’s 21 yr old stalwart of the GLBTQI community, the choir itself, here are a few more reasons to come:

• Maeve’s mum, Louise, is in the choir. Two Marsdens: one stage. Bring it!
• For those of you who have been listening to our rendition of You Shook Me All Night Long for the past 3 years, you must come see our seriously pimped version, completely with choral chorus amazingness.
• We get to sing a song by a woman! It’s a song from the choir’s repertoire and, let’s just say, it’s fabulous *cough* Whitney *cough cough*
• It’s Jenni and Monique’s Lady debut! Fabulous!

Book tickets to SGLC Pops Out! here.

In mid-July, we’re road trippin’ to Mittagong to sing at a conference. You can’t come as it’s a private party, but we just love that we’re considered appropriate for government conferences. The public sector is all grown up and sexy now!

Finally, if you’ve even glanced at our facebook page in recent weeks, you know our exciting farewell gig sold out its Friday 20th July show in a mere 5 days. We were so excited we scheduled a Thursday gig as well; it’s about 40% sold, but you can still book tickets here, on the Factory website.

Last but not least, we ain’t to proud to beg! We could really do with a little cash injection as the end of financial year approaches… As we’ve mentioned before we are currently eligible for TAX DEDUCTIBLE donations. A small (or not-so-small) donation via ABaF’s Australian Cultural Fund will make a huge difference to our fundraising and help send us on our way. You can read more about the process here, or simply head to our ABaF profile and donate!

Thank you SO MUCH to those who have donated so far. We can’t tell you how much we appreciate the support we get from our friends and fans.

So that’s the latest from blackcat HQ… What’s been happening with you?

xxx

Thank you to our ABAF donors!

We are thrilled with the response to our eligibility for the Australian Cultural Fund tax deductible donations. This month we’d like to thank the following people for their contributions:

• Lily Cammaroto
• Lena Nobuhara
• Angela Khodeir
• Kirsty de Groot
• James O’Reilly
• Adam Schober
• Annabelle Taillandier
• Michelle Heathe
• Aditya Chordia
• Annie Maynard

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to Lady Sings it Better to help with our tour costs for the Edinburgh Fringe you can do so here, on the ABAF website.

You can read more about our participation and how we will spend the funds here, on our blog.

Thank you all so much for your support.

xxx the blackcat team

Thank you to our first donors!

We’re thrilled to have received generous tax deductible donations from Siegrun Krauss, Dinah Cohen, Stephen Buckley, Tim Jorgensen and Elaine McCarthy.

Thank you all so much! We’re enormously grateful.

To donate to Lady Sings it Better and help send us to the Edinburgh Fringe, please visit our ABaF profile here.

Read more about the Australian Cultural Fund and our project here.

xxx the blackcat team

Lady Sings it Better now eligible for tax deductible donations

We’re thrilled to announce that Lady Sings it Better (our feisty, playful, feminist cabaret) is now an Artist Project for the Australian Cultural Fund, of the Australian Business Arts Foundation. And we couldn’t have done it without you! To be eligible, you need to have raised 50% of project funds and it’s thanks to your indiegogo donations, raffle tickets buys and show ticket sales that we were able to apply.

What this means is that you (or any rich, philanthropic sorts you might know) can donate to ABaF, preferencing Lady Sings it Better, and your donation is tax deductible!

What are we fundraising for?
In case you missed the 5,732 memos, Lady Sings it Better are Edinburgh Fringe bound!  We will perform a 4 week season at Gilded Balloon, no doubt a career changing experience for us all. We are beyond excited about this opportunity, as we’ve been working towards this moment for the last three years!

Our tour’s budget is $50,000 and we have already raised 50% of funds through performances, crowdfunding, sponsorship, a Sydney Gay Lesbian Business Association grant and our own personal savings. We have fundraised enough to cover flights and accommodation for our 6 singers, 3 piece band, sound operator and commander in chief, Ms Phoebe Meredith.

But we still have another $25K to raise, for venue costs, Edinburgh Fringe registration, instrument and technical hires and, marketing expenses.

Lady Sings it Better intend to use the tour to establish important connections with UK and other international cabaret presenters, promoters and programmers. This networking is essential in developing the company into a resource for local women and queer cabaret artists and crew.

So what is the Australian Cultural Fund?
The fund was established to encourage people to donate to the arts and enable performers like us to benefit from this generosity. All donations are made to the Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) which considers donor preferences when allocating grants.  In the past eight years more than $9 million has been donated to AbaF and granted in full to more than 705 artists and cultural organisations – it is a great program for groups like ours.

How to donate
Check out our profile on the ABaF site: abaf.org.au/donors/artist-projects/maeve-marsden.html

All donations will make a difference, no matter how big or small. We have provided some examples of how your support can assist:

• $10 or $20 helps pay for our online advertising!
• $50 pays for one month of facebook advertising – ensuring the UK audience hear about our shows!
• $200 pays for a banner ad on the Edinburgh Fringe site, encouraging ticket sales
• $500 pays our Fringe registration fee
• $1,000 helps to pay for instrument hire, so that our talented band can show off their skills on the best equipment
• $2,500 pays for a week of venue hire
• $5,000 pays for all our printed marketing materials – flyers, posters and distribution
• $10,000 pays our venue costs for the month!

You can donate:

• Online, by visiting our profile on AbaF’s website and completing an online donation form
• By cheque or credit card, by completing this form. Post, email or fax it to AbaF: AbaF Donation form 2012 – Maeve Marsden
  NB: Family of artists involved are ineligible to donate.

You can contact the Australian Business Arts Foundation for more information or to send in your form:
Manager NSW: John Godfrey | Coordinator NSW: Melinda Holcombe
A: Level 1, 372 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
T: 02 9215 9313
F: 02 9215 9075
E: nsw@abaf.org.au

Thank you for considering supporting Lady Sings it Better, blackcat productions and Australian queer and women’s cabaret. If a financial contribution is not possible for you, you can still help by passing on this information to others, coming along to a gig, or following us at facebook.com/LadySingsitBetterFans or twitter.com/lady_sings_it.