Musical Family Tree Announces $100k Central Indiana Musicians Fund
Indianapolis-based 501c3 nonprofit Musical Family Tree(MFT) is launching a new fund to support music creators in Central Indiana. The objective is to help build a sustainable music economy that creates opportunities and income for musicians as well as increased awareness for original music both locally and internationally. The fund is being chaired by Musical Family Tree founder Jeb Banner.
The fund is based on the Canada Music Fund model which helped launch the careers of The Weeknd, Arcade Fire, Shania Twain and many others. Other communities around the world have taken note and followed this successful model of putting money directly into the hands of music creators.
“MFT is excited to launch this fund to support Indiana artists directly with easily accessible dollars going straight to fill the funding gap many musicians have faced relying on other funding streams and a heavily pandemic-disrupted traditional revenue model with their music” - Andy D MFT Board Chair.
Banner believes that central Indiana is overdue to have a similar fund in place. “Finding success as an original musician has always been challenging in our community. But the returns of a vibrant music scene, to our culture and economy, are undeniable. It is time to put central Indiana on the map as a music city. And to do this we need to support music creators.”
A $100,000 target is set for the first fund with a projected launch of March 15th. Grants will go directly to individual music creators to help cover recording, equipment, touring and promotion expenses. $25,000 is already committed. All donations to the fund are tax deductible. To donate to the fund please contact MFT Admin Adam Fonacier, afonacier@musicalfamilytree.org.
Musical Family Tree has been serving artists and audiences in Indianapolis since 2004. Through the years, MFT served a number of different roles in the community, from an online forum to creating blogs on music, creating physical media, zines and more. We have released tapes and cds, served as promoters, venue owners and a record store. MFT was a key to the creation of the Chreece hip-hop festival and a number of other events locally.
In 2020 as COVID 19 forced the closure of the music industry worldwide, MFT served as a leader, connecting music venues and the community to resources at a time of crisis. We helped found the Indiana Independent Venue Alliance, serving as their non-profit financial partner. We worked with the City of Indianapolis and the Indy Music Strategy to build out a grants program awarding almost one million dollars of CARES Act funding to cover operational costs for 27 music venues in Indianapolis.
Today we serve as a community organization for people passionate about Indiana music. We focus on our Legacy through maintaining and growing the archive of Indiana music, creating blog posts and other physical and digital media around our music history. We Educate artists and audiences, with skills training programming and offering opportunities for community discussions. And we Curate opportunities to bring artists and audiences together to celebrate Indiana music.