Jamnesty
Amnesty UIUC is my college’s chapter of Amnesty International USA. Among other things, they put on educational events and fundraisers for various humanitarian causes. Our biggest fundraising event of the year is a biannual benefit concert– Jamnesty. As an executive board member of the organization, my main responsibility is organizing this concert.
The Ask
As an org, we need to plan a benefit concert. This will involve booking a venue, finding bands, creating marketing materials, and staffing the venue.
What I Did:
I’ve planned three of these concerts during my time in Amnesty, but will only talk about my planning process for the first one. The other two basically mirrored my original plan, so I didn’t find it necessary to explore those insights.
To start, I made myself as knowledgeable about the UIUC DIY music scene as possible. This meant going to shows most weekends, building connections with both bands and venue owners. After finding the biggest venue who’s owners would be interested in helping, I got to work on booking bands. When looking for bands, I typically looked at Instagram postings for shows that potential bands played at, seeing how many likes they would average and how many positive comments they got. This allowed me to find bands that were incredibly popular in my community.
Once my lineup was set, the promotion would begin. Something that has become a ritual for our organization is a “teaser” post one month before the event. This post is a very short reel that just has a date. Because we have been utilizing this same tactic for years, frequent DIY concert attendees likely know what we’re getting at, and thus will put the show into their calendars before most competing venues have begun promoting their shows. Closer to the event, we get far more serious about marketing. We post a collaborative Instagram post with all of the bands and venue staff two weeks out, and couple that with an extensive out-of-home campaign. We will traverse campus to put up promotional posters in areas with high foot traffic, primarily based on our own observational research. We also post promotional content on our Instagram story during the lead up to the event, whether it be highlights from past shows or information about the performers. We also make a point to talk about where we’re donating our money in our marketing material, encouraging people to choose our charity show over other venues.
In addition to organizing our marketing efforts, I help build out a staff for the show. This involves reaching out to both the venue owners and my personal connections to build a team of bouncers, security, and bartenders who can ensure that the night runs as smoothly as possible.
The outcome of this preparation was a benefit concert that raised upwards of $2,500. We had well over 200 attendees, and made a huge impact in our local community.
