"The music industry needs to devise a single strategy to leverage new federal funding to mobilize fans to volunteer," blogs State Radio's Chad Stokes Urmston (with co-writer Matt Wilhelm) in the Huffington Post. Urmston, whom we interviewed recently here, provides an excellent roundup of the many ways in which musicians are leveraging their fan base to benefit nonprofits and provide other social service.
Stefan Lessard of the Dave Matthews Band led a beach cleanup in San Diego with the Surfrider Foundation to commemorate the September 11th Day of Remembrance & Service. Phish and the Waterwheel Foundation recently challenged fans to serve 8,000 hours in their communities before their Festival 8 over Halloween Weekend. EFFECT and The Voluntour spent the summer leveraging the President & First Lady's United We Serve campaign; pulling more bands and, in turn, more fans into the world of volunteerism. Our friends Brett Dennen and John Butler have teamed up with CLIF Bar's GreenNotes program and demonstrated what's possible when the private sector puts the power of the corporate dollar behind service to "protect the places we play."