Quincy, Al. – Derick Adams has been having a hard time supporting all of his favorite band’s crowdfunding efforts. “When this first started I was glad to see bands that have been off of the radar for a while making a comeback”. Derick thought it would be great to hear what a band sounded like after a long absence. ” I was really glad to be a part of helping bands that I grew up with make some new music, it was like being 17 again”. Derick’s participation in his first crowdfunding campaign set him back a few hundred dollars but he thought it was worth it for a once every ten year event. To his surprise the day after the campaign ended the same band started another one before the first project was even recorded. Derick thought this was great but needed to scale back his contribution if his budget would let him contribute at all.
Three days into the second campaign Derick received a phone call from one of the band members asking if he would contribute to the second campaign. Derick explained that he would try at a lower tier but couldn’t do it at this moment. The band member, a bit agitated at this point said they would call back in a couple of days and talk to him again about it. Derick was happy to talk to one of his heroes, in fact a reward for pledging in the first campaign was a personal phone call from one of the band members.
The next phone call from a band member came at the first of the month, this was payday for Derick but it was also time to pay the mortgage and he also had to tithe. After the band member got Derick to talk about how some of their songs had ministered to him for years he then asked Derick for a higher tier support. Derick explained his tight budget and the band member asked him to hold on a second. At that point someone else was on the line. Derick thought it was another band member but it was actually someone they hired to help potential supporters make room in their budget for crowdfunding.
Derick still star stuck by being in such close contact with the band went though his budget with the consultant. The consultant made a strong argument that a 10% tithe was not Biblical but that didn’t sway Derick. The consultant worked on Derick until Derick decided that he could give up supporting a child in Africa. The consultant found out that the organization that supported the Children also gave their employee’s same sex spouses health insurance, so that was all Derick needed to make the switch.
Derick said the phone calls from the band members stopped after he contributed to the second campaign and has tried to contact the band several times wondering about the status of the first project since it’s well past their promised deadline.