The Choir With No Name is choir for people who are homeless or have experienced homelessness. It was set up in 2008 by Marie, who had a background working with homeless people and a passion for singing and decided to combine the two. It was founded on the premise that singing makes you feel good; it distracts you from the everyday and helps you to build up your confidence and abilities.
And the idea has worked really well. Marie and about 20-30 singers now meet once a week at a old theatre space in Kings Cross to practice. They sing allsorts from reggae to musicals, with members of all abilities getting involved with solos and having a hand in the musical direction. The evenings are an opportunity for everyone to enjoy themselves in an environment that is supportive, non judgemental and with a decent dinner at the end!
Outside the Monday rehearsals, the choir has put on several brilliant concerts and received lots of great publicity including playing on GMTV and Radio 4! Last year they raised over £20k and have a team of volunteers helping out with the music, administration and cooking food every week. The idea has worked so well that Marie is currently drawing up plans for world domination (well at least start some more choirs in the UK) ... which is where we come in.
This is a huge step forward considering just over a year ago she was running the charity on a showstring in her part time, but Marie seems to be starting off on the right track. Last year she recruited a board of experienced trustees and started the process of incorporating TCWNN as an official charity. She has produced a strategic plan for the next 3 years in consultation with choir members and trustees of which an almost finished version is attached below. Key goals for next couple of years include:
To improve mucially - provide more vocal tuition at rehearsals; begin to train members to lead choir rehearsal
To get better known - through recording and releasing an album; securing a TV documentary; enlisting a A-list celebrity supporter.
Recruit part time choir manager/fundraiser position in London
Begin a new choir in another city (2011/12), with a target of recruiting up to a maximum of 50 people in each.
Up to now, Marie has worked part time on the Choir, much of the time for free. Key to realising these plans are for her to be able to work full time for the Choir and our money would go toward providing a full time wage for Marie. In doing so, her time would be split as follows:
Music Direction (including album recording in 2010) – 40%
Choir member recruitment & management – 25%
Fundraising & Communications – 15%
Finance & Administration – 10%
Volunteer Management – 10%
The following strategic plan outlines plans for the next 3 years including financial results for 2008/9 and projections up to 2013.
