2024 Annual Report
Introduction
Dear Michigan band community,
This is the 5th annual report for the Michigan Drum Corps Scholarship Fund. We were founded shortly after the 2019 season but we feel this is only our second year of routine operation. COVID canceled the 2020 season and our 2021 was still defined by recovery from the canceled season as well as the death of our cofounder Jason Fritz. We then spent 2022 trying to define what routine operation meant for us and 2023 executing on that routine for the first time.
In 2024, we awarded $3250 in scholarships across seven students marching The Battalion, Seattle Cascades, Jersey Surf, Mandarins, Spartans, and Vessel. Of these, 2 scholarships were awarded to winners of the Jason Fritz Memorial Scholarship. This is a step back from our 2023 totals in terms of the number and cumulative value of our scholarships. This season, we decided to award larger scholarships in response to rising tour fees - our average scholarship in 2024 was more than $100 greater than 2023. We are proud of all of our scholarship recipients and hope they each had a great experience!
We’ve learned a lot about how to run our organization over the last 5 years. Much of this past fiscal year was spent behind the scenes, reflecting on what we can do better, how to build a more robust internal infrastructure, and how to make our stretch goals come to life. So while we didn’t change much in our public-facing operations and disbursed fewer scholarships, we are more confident about our long-term future. There are three primary reasons for this.
First, we are welcoming a new member, Spencer Aneshansel, to our board! Spencer is an active color guard instructor and the first Michigan Drum Corps Scholarship Fund recipient to join our board. We are very excited to have him and look forward to learning from him and his experience as he brings his thoughts, skills, and energy to the board.
Second, we will be more active on social media! You can find and follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and we may add more to our presence in the coming year. We will be posting updates and content on our social media channels throughout the year and hope you’ll join us!
And third, we are making the first major programmatic change in our history: we are no longer going to offer scholarships for DCI auditions. The biggest reason is that these scholarships were not in demand - we’ve only received 3 audition applications in our entire history. This change will not impact our overall ability to serve students, but will allow us to focus on our more impactful scholarships and shift our calendar and application window to be more condensed and efficient.
We anticipate further challenges in 2025 for our organization and the activity as a whole, but we’re optimistic about the future and believe in the opportunity a drum corps experience provides for students to learn and grow as performers and people. Applications are now open and we welcome donations from those looking to support the next class of performers.
Thank you to the entire Michigan band community for your continued support!
Sincerely,
Evan Graham-Murray
Board of Directors - Chair
Michigan Drum Corps Scholarship Fund
Financial Summary
We remain committed to financial transparency. All of our monthly financial reports are available on our website and we welcome those with specific questions to contact us. This section will contain a more general overview than what is available in our latest financial report. The following table provides an overview of our financial activity for the 2024 fiscal year.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Total Contributions | 3,977.72 |
| Investment Income | 3,639.94 |
| Net Program Expenses | -3,250.00 |
| Administrative Expenses | -355.89 |
| Jason Fritz Memorial Endowment | 15,175.59 |
| Other Net Assets for 2025 | 1,648.26 |
As always, our Board of Directors is staffed entirely by volunteers and nobody is compensated for their time. Administrative expenses include items like web hosting, transaction fees, and investment fees for the Jason Fritz Memorial Endowment.
Since 2021, the Michigan Drum Corps Scholarship Fund has followed the 100% model, which means that 100% of the individual donations we receive fund either scholarships for Michigan students or the Jason Fritz Memorial Endowment. The board covers 100% of administrative expenses, which include things like hosting our website and transaction fees.
Separate from the endowment, we currently carry just over $1600 in currently spendable, unrestricted assets, although we anticipate some donations before the 2025 scholarship season kicks into high gear through the spring. The endowment currently has a spendable balance of nearly $900 available for Jason Fritz Memorial Scholarship awards during this season, regardless of investment performance. We may have more funds available if the investments perform well.
Overall, we are in a very strong position heading into 2025. We forecast that we’ll have the ability to exceed our total disbursements from 2024, accounting for donations we expect to receive throughout the season. We are also in the process of increasing our online fundraising footprint through social media and online shopping platforms like ShopRaise.
Diversity Equity, and Inclusion
When applying for a scholarship, applicants may provide demographic information (if they are comfortable) to help us track the diversity in our applicant pool and in how we award scholarships. We do not take this demographic data into account when awarding scholarships but this allows us to track some basic diversity statistics at the end of each season to make sure we are succeeding in our mission of making drum corps more accessible to all Michigan students. In each of our annual reports, we have published basic diversity statistics for our scholarship awards and this year is no different.
While we are only publishing data regarding our scholarship awards, our historical application data suggests that the demographics of those who have received scholarships are close to that of our wider applicant pool.
Outlook for 2025
We consider our 2024 season to have been a success and we expect to have an even better 2025! Our overall financial position is strong, we are forecasting a good fundraising year, and we will have improved back-end processes this year that will make us more efficient.
However, this report would be incomplete if we did not acknowledge the continued economic challenges facing the activity. We can see this in data. DCI Prelims has been the biggest show on the DCI calendar since the format was changed to allow participation by both Open and World Class corps in 2011. In 2024, a record low number of 31 corps competed at Prelims, lower than the previous record low (32 corps competed in 2023). The 2024 season was the fourth consecutive competitive season which saw fewer corps participating than the year before, stretching back to 2018. While there are reasons to hope for increased participation in 2025, there are also many reasons that we could see a further decline in DCI participation.
This drop in participation, set against the backdrop of ever-increasing tour fees, highlights the need of the Michigan Drum Corps Scholarship Fund (and similar organizations) to succeed in our mission. Students in our community need help, and we will provide it for as many as we can. In 2024, we articulated a goal to build more robust funding streams, such as a general scholarship endowment. We made good progress on this and will continue the work in 2025.
But it will take more than just us - indeed, more than DCI and its member corps - to help the activity rebound. We need all individuals (drum corps fans, members, staff, and alumni) and all organizations (DCI, its member corps, scholarship and granting organizations, media groups, and more) in our community to step up. Together, we can build the activity back up and look towards a stronger future.
To that end, our major programmatic goal for 2025 is to increase community engagement, through things like social media, attending DCI shows, and other forms of outreach. We expect this to help our fundraising, but this is not our goal - we feel that simply being more actively engaged with our communities is enough. We hope you’ll join us.
Thank you for your continued support and please donate if you can. We look forward to a successful 2025!