We are six weeks away from our winter concert. But more importantly, we are less than two weeks away from holiday season, and the traditional season of giving. And although we love our audience, and have one of the most amazing, dedicated, and fun choirs in town, the fact is we’re a non-profit. As we shared with our audience earlier this week:
Yep. We look like that en route to rehearsal. via A Life (More Awesome)
We sing for three reasons. It makes us happy, it’s a good thing to do in the world (and our community), and we sing for you.
When you come out to see our ambitious, unique, traditional-with-a-twist artistic choices and make us bring out the overflow seating, you have no idea how awesome it feels up on those risers. Your warmth and applause makes it all worth it: the weekly time commitment; the weeks of note-pounding; the looking really weird on 495, mouths hanging wide open to practice that one crazy note …
All of it is one big happy on show night when it is clear that you, our audience, appreciates and is well served by our efforts.
But here’s the thing. It gets expensive. Our combined income doesn’t keep up with what it takes to pull off the shows that you deserve and have come to expect – and that we love to deliver. Ticket sales, in fact, are only a fraction of our total budget. And as the rare choir in Northern Virginia that frequently bridges the gap between classical and modern, highlights modern composers, and in one case premiered an international composer in the US, we have to work extra hard to make every dollar go further.
Can we count on your support so we can continue to make concert nights an amazing experience again for you this season?
Indeed, can we count on your support? You can help in several ways:
- Through the Combined Federal Campaign – our designation number is 72195
- Online via Razoo
- On #GivingTuesday (more about that in a bit)
- By check – the old fashioned way! Mail your check to us at 374 Maple Avenue East, Suite 300, Vienna, VA 22180.
And if you’re wondering about #GivingTuesday – We now have Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, that whole shopping weekend, and of course, Cyber Monday. So someone came up with the idea of a national day of giving to kick-off the holiday season and support non-profits like VCS. Enter Giving Tuesday.
Of course we think this is a fabulous idea! We like to think of ourselves as the choir that does good in the community (which is why we will sing again this season – weather and schedules permitting! – at local nursing homes, Town of Vienna’s Church Street Stroll, and Meadowlark Botanical Gardens’ Winter Walk Of Lights.) And we support the idea of giving back. We hope you do too.
Whichever method you choose to give back, and support us, THANK YOU – for being such a supportive, wonderful audience. We cannot do it without you, and we couldn’t imagine singing for anyone else!