In keeping with our Christian mission, the successful Waves of Mercy concert, held in Alumni Park Saturday, attempted to blend an SGA-sponsored event with charity. As a religiously based university it is particularly admirable that a good portion of the students supported the event.
Approximately 1,300 paid the $12 to $25 price to see the acts and support the concert’s causes. Some even bought tickets in an effort to contribute to the charities, although they did not intend to attend the concert. They may be surprised, however, to learn that money may not be going where they intended.
Advertised as a “Christian Benefit Concert,” Waves of Mercy featured popular Christian artists Caedmon’s Call and Mark Schultz, and the proceeds were to benefit Hats Off for Cancer and The Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association.
Early figures show the event didn’t break even and SGA is working to find additional funds and donors to help pay for the event. All donations that were not specifically earmarked for a charity will actually be going to subsidize the concert’s expenses, instead of to charity, as many probably assumed.
While we certainly commend SGA and the Programming Board for their well-intentioned attempt to combine student entertainment with philanthropy, it does raise the question of where the lines should be drawn and how student funds should be used.
Previously, philanthropic events were mainly left to the Volunteer Center, Greek organizations or other clubs on campus. Students’ $45 SGA fees are supposed to be used for activities to benefit the students. And while most Pepperdine students would probably not be against putting part of their SGA fee toward charity, it seems it would be easier to “cut out the middle-man” and have the money go directly toward charities instead of concerts.
SGA did not have final attendance or income statistics on the concert at press time, but it was noted by Student Activities Coordinator Michael Houston that approximately 1,300 tickets were sold. After ticket sales and other donations about $10,000 is still needed to cover the costs of the concert. At the student rate of $12, SGA would have had to sell 833 more tickets, exceeding the number of tickets sold for the successful Third Eye Blind spring concert. That probably was never an achievable goal, so breaking even was never a realistic possibility.
SGA President Jason Palmer reasoned that ticket sales were not going directly to the charitable organizations, the concert would hopefully have a trickle-down effect by raising awareness of the causes. But the people who donated might not feel the same way. The ambiguousness of the advertising, that said “All money raised will benefit Hats Off for Cancer and the Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Association” likely led many to believe that their contributions would be directly passed on to these organizations.
But that wasn’t the case.
Until the concert is paid for, all collected funds, except those specifically directed to one of the charities, will go toward the concert’s deficit. It is unclear whether outside donors, such as the Lily Grant, were aware that their donations would be spent in this manner.
It seems that the situation could have easily been handled differently. If students wanted to plan an event benefiting Hats Off for Cancer, it seems appropriate that the Alpha Phi sorority would have taken the initiative to plan the event, possibly with some support from SGA.
On the other hand, SGA could have planned a concert similar to last year’s Third Eye Blind concert (which was a big success in the Pepperdine community) and featured a band slightly more recognizable than the artists who played last Saturday.
As far as the “raising awareness” goes, last week’s Convocation program was an example of a very effective way of informing students without using SGA funds.
Let it be stressed again, however, that as a concert, Caedman’s Call and Mark Schultz put on an excellent show, and SGA’s efforts should be commended in that respect. But as a fund-raiser, its merits are shaky at best.
The fact is, there will not be any more concerts sponsored by SGA this semester, and it seems like the costs of the concert outweighed the anticipated benefits of pleasing Pepperdine students and raising money for a good cause.
It is clear, based on these events at this point in time, that SGA is not able to accomplish both entertaining and fund-raising at one time, so perhaps the organization should either work to plan events aimed at the students and leave the philanthropy work to other campus organizations. While their hearts were certainly in the right places, perhaps SGA got carried away in the spirit of the concert and did not fully think through the implications of their actions.
In future endeavors, we hope they will be more mindful of how student funds are spent and responsible in their financial planning. A smaller-scale philanthropic event could have been successful and they will surely learn a valuable lesson from this event. Additionally, we urge the SGA to be clearer in what manner donations will be handled and distributed. Students are obviously supportive of their effort, but may not be so supportive of the financial arrangements.
September 18, 2003