A family friend told me this afternoon about a large company that grants money to kids who are doing special projects. I looked into it, and they had information on their website about how to go about asking for grant money. The website requested that you send an email answering specific questions. They also had very strict word-count limits!
I'm sure they gets thousands of requests for grants, and that it may be too late for me to get a grant from them, but I thought I might as well give it a try! Maybe they will be interested in my project.Here is a copy of the email I sent them, except for that I removed my personal contact information, the company's name, the price of the project, and the amount of grant money I requested:
Name of Nonprofit Organization: This is a personal project of me, Maria Jernigan with the goal of supporting Ear Candy, a non-profit organization.
Name of project: Head Indie Clouds
501(c)3#: I, the person doing this project, am not an 501(c)3; however, Ear Candy (the charity that my project is raising funds for) is: ID# 31536
Contact Name, Title: Ms. Maria Jernigan
Email address:
Phone number:
Answers to the Letter of Interest questions:
- The specific PepsiCo focus area my project addresses is Education.
- I, a 15-year-old high school sophomore, am recording, creating, and selling an album of music that I independently produce at home. I will then sell copies of the album to friends, family, and people of the community. All profits that I make from album sales will be directly donated to Ear Candy, a charity that provides youth access to music education by collecting instruments and giving them to underprivileged schools for student use. Throughout the whole process, I have been maintaining a public blog (http://headindieclouds.
blogspot.com), which allows me to document everything that I do during the project, share the experience with others, collect my thoughts and reflect on the process as I go, and get feedback from the followers of the blog through a comments widget I have at the end of every blog post. I chose to undertake this personal project because music is a key aspect of my life and identify, and it is my hope that I can make children's lives be touched by music the way mine has (and still is every day). In addition, this project allows me to learn about and gaining an appreciation for how music is made, recorded, mixed, and produced in a studio, because I have to research these techniques and teach myself how to create a high-quality album of music that people will be interested in. In regards to the time frame of this project: I began the project in June and the album release date is set for September 1, 2011. - The album features my own renditions of well-known songs. I have no special equipment to use, so I turn to unconventional methods throughout this process; for example, the microphone with which I record came with a Wii game! I am determined, despite these challenges, to release a high-quality product. Creating an album is the most innovative fund-raising method I know of! I plan on ordering seventy-five copies of the album if I am responsible for paying for the albums by myself. With the help of PepsiCo, though more albums could manufactured. If I had the funds, I would sell the album on Amazon.com so that the album is available to music education supporters across the country. For the project to be replicated, I could produce another album, this time perhaps with original songs because I will be more well-known in the community as a musician/artist. My musician best friend is featured in two tracks on the album.
The most significant way I collaborate on this project, though, is through the blog; when I need opinions or ask a question, readers of my blog are always leave suggestions and comments on the project's blog, http://headindieclouds.
blogspot.com. - I hope to sell as many copies of the album as I can afford to have manufactured so that I can donate as much money as possible to Ear Candy, a music education charity. The ultimate goal of this project is to make it possible children across the nation to have music in their lives. Music touched my life in an inexplicable way when I first pounded on a keyboard and sang into a microphone on my first birthday, so I know personally how powerful music can be in a child's life.
- The total cost of the project (song licenses, royalties, and CD manufacturing costs) is $
- I seek for a grant to cover the whole project ($ ), but I would be gracious for any amount PepsiCo would be able to grant me. Since I am not an organization, and I don't have an annual budget, there is no percentage of the budget this accounts for.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Do you think that was okay? Do you think I have a chance at catching their attention?
