Rock Band Land Save Our Staff (S.O.S.) Fund

Brian Gorman is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Though us donkeys at Rock Band Land are remaining positive and proactive, the sad and undeniable truth, is that the extended closure of shelter in place, the expected loss of summer revenue (even with creating The RBL Donkey Camp Show as an online alternative), and the uncertainty of when we might again be able to host our in-person classes and camps, has left Rock Band Land in a dark and cold room without a blanket and just our fingernails to eat. Many of you know that I am prone to hyperbole and exaggeration for comedic sake, please know that I am being dead serious when I say that this crisis is potentially going to financially ruin us, and we are facing the very real potential that Rock Band Land might have to close permanently.

We are not giving up, we have applied for every single loan and grant that we qualify for (so far the results have been less than emboldening), we are designing an entirely virtual summer camp option and we are looking ahead to every possible opportunity to keep the business afloat. Since the first day of SIP, Marcus and myself have reduced our pay to 50% and we have been able to keep our staff fully employed and fully paid through our business savings. At the end of April however, everyone will be taking a drastic pay cut, and by the end of May, without a renewed and reliable revenue stream those pay cuts will be made even more severe. Because we know that without our staff RBL would never have become one of SF’s great community arts resources as it has grown to be, we have agreed to sink or swim as a team.

As you know, the RBL staff consists of some seriously phenomenal people (Rebecca, Taylor G., Alejandra, Taylor M., Maira, Kyle, Florie, Jake, Caitlin, Michael, and Marcus and myself). In honor of these fine folks who have done so much great work for your kids and the kids of SF, I’m respectfully and humbly asking you to consider making a donation to the RBL Save Our Staff (S.O.S.) Fund so that we can keep everyone employed, even at lower wages, and maintain the castle.

Please know that RBL is an LLC, not a non-profit, so there would be no tax break for donations made to our cause.

Please also know that in the history of RBL we have never borrowed a single penny. We have never had a loan or ran up a credit card. We have zero debt. We started the company with a big idea and just $120 (our first paid enrollment fee) and, with your support, we have built it into the community-minded artistic oasis for all the young creative donkeys of SF to assemble, share, and make great art and music. I can’t tell you how much it pains me, and goes against every D.I.Y punk rock bit of my soul, to be asking you, our beloved community, for financial assistance to help us weather this storm. I can tell you that I would slow dance with a hungry crocodile, shave my butt hair, braid it, and wear it daily as a headband, or pretend forevermore that I love cats, if it meant that we could keep from losing the incredible people who work at Rock Band Land as well as to keep from losing the amazing castle that we built for our students.

For some perspective on what we are facing, we maintain a 4500sq ft castle with rents that are almost $13K a month. Our most streamlined payroll runs between $36K - $54K per month (depending on the number of pay periods per given month). If you figure in other essential expenses, utilities, and unexpected expenses (i.e. repairs, necessary purchases, etc…) it easily adds another $5-6K per month, bringing us to $46K - $61K per month in expenses (depending on the month). Simply put, it costs quite a bit just to keep the doors of RBL “open” while we are closed. We are hoping to raise $400K with this campaign as that is roughly the amount it would require, should we lose the majority of our summer camps (our primary source of revenue) and should our fall session of classes be impacted by limitations of the numbers of people who can safely assemble, for us to make it to December 31, 2020. That number would allow us to cover rent and essential expenses as well as maintain our staff, all of whom would be taking a significant pay decrease. Should we be fortunate enough to receive any of the loans that we have applied for, and / or should there be any donations coming in from cancelations to current enrollments, we will of course be adjusting the total of the donation amount that we are asking for.

We have always been responsible with our money, and, even though our profit margins are relatively slim, we’ve always managed to save with plans towards greater expansion in the near future. With those savings close to exhausted (they will be gone by June), and those future plans now on indefinite hold, after making countless artistic creations with our RBL donkeys, making more videos than the security team at SFO, and writing nearly 500 entirely original stories and songs, and, we now find ourselves singing a most unfortunate cover song, “Brother Can You Spare A Dime?”

Where will your money go? All donated funds will go to helping us make rent and pay the staff and cover those essential expenses. Rent takes top priority as we’ve all agreed that, if need be, we can figure out a way to hustle as individuals for a bit and still remain a team. If we were to lose the castle however, then all is lost and we simply could not afford to restart RBL elsewhere. Should we be able to avoid a crash landing, once this plane has leveled out, any remaining donated funds would go towards a RBL Scholarship Fund directed specifically to kids of families within the vast RBL community whose parents might have lost work due to the crisis and therefore could no longer afford to attend RBL.

I can’t express to you how grateful we are for all of you in the Rock Band Land community. Part of our mission is to be a positive support for SF families, so it sure stings a bit to be asking you to support us now financially, especially when we know that many of you need help now too. Any and all donations would be immensely appreciated. If you happen to know any billionaire donors, who are looking for constructive causes and community-minded businesses to support or to loan money to, please send them our way. Or if you know any witches who can make a pile of money without stealing any souls, or know any pirates with treasure that they maybe just found on a beach somewhere and didn’t necessarily kill anyone for, then please give them my number as well.