February 28, 2012
Official Announcement
from the BBJF

Dear Friends and Supporters of the BBJF:

Our effort as a foundation began in 2007 when we learned that Dwight Dillman intended to sell the Bill Monroe Music Park in Bean Blossom, Indiana and had indeed placed the park on the market.  We were deeply concerned about the future of the park and we knew many of our friends were as well.  We had seen too many historical landmarks of music culture disappear during our lifetimes, and we were committed to do everything we could to make sure the park at Bean Blossom did not suffer that same fate.  Through various meetings and strategy sessions, we arrived at the conclusion that a non-profit foundation to raise funds to preserve the park would be our best strategy and would give us the best chance to ensure that the park continued in its current purpose, which is maintaining the history of Bill Monroe and his legacy in bluegrass music, particularly through festivals. 

We embarked on that effort by creating the BBJF in late 2007-early 2008, and with a small core group of less than a dozen extremely committed individuals, worked tirelessly for three years advertising our efforts, promoting the park so people could understand why it was important to preserve, making inroads with potential sponsors and donors, and working with Mr. Dillman to develop a plan to preserve the park.  We reached an agreement with Mr. Dillman that if we could make a down payment of $500,000, we could take over the park as a non-profit venture and pay the balance of his $3 million asking price over a term.  Raising that $500,000 down payment became our sole focus. 

The first step in our strategy was to elicit modest donations from individual donors, so we could boast a long list of individual supporters to potential corporate/civic donors or sponsors.  We knew that while it would be nearly impossible to raise $500,000 from individual bluegrass fans in the short time frame we had available, we also knew it would be unlikely to attract major corporate or civic support without first proving that bluegrass fans were behind us.  Our drive to enlist individual donors took place mostly in 2008 and 2009 and was very successful.  Hard economic times also surfaced, and it may have put a damper on some individual donations in retrospect.  However, we remain very proud of how the Bean Blossom community and bluegrass fans all over the world came to our support.  Through that outreach to individual donors, we raised approximately $75,000 of start-up capital and a long list of hundreds upon hundreds of individual donors. 

In 2010 and 2011, we shifted our focus to the end goal: acquiring the $500,000 we needed to make a down payment on the park.  That would have to be done by corporate/civic involvement, because individual donations were understandably tailing off despite promotions such as the Memorial Brick Wall and our merchandise drives.  We utilized the funds we had raised to publicize our mission in many ways and to reach out to artists, corporations, civic leaders, and others in position to make large donations.  We explored the potential for grants and applied for the ones we believed were most likely to be awarded to us.  We also hired a professional fundraiser to help guide us and give us the best chance possible to reach those important large donors.  Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we could not locate sufficient corporate/civic commitments to reach our $500,000 goal in the time allotted to us.  The feedback we received was nearly uniform: The deep economic downturn had shifted virtually all donations to disaster and poverty relief, and even a very historical bluegrass music park was not a top priority for donations in such an economic climate.

As a result, we have had to make the difficult decision to stop actively seeking donations of any kind toward this goal and shifted our focus on how best to meet our mission of promoting bluegrass and traditional music with our remaining assets.  Since the Memorial Brick Wall is on park property, we are conveying it to Mr. Dillman as he has promised to use future proceeds for charitable purposes such as the Bill Monroe Scholarship Fund.  We are making all the funds we have left available to the Youth Bluegrass Boot Camp so it can continue educating our children in bluegrass music well into the future.  We are also exploring the possibility of the BBJF remaining open as a fundraising vehicle for the Boot Camp because its tax exempt status and mission could help the Boot Camp long term.   

We cannot thank our supporters and donors enough for the commitment they showed through their donations, word of mouth advertising, and moral support.  We are disappointed we could not reach the goal that you shared with us.  We hope that the time we spent in operation has helped demonstrate the love that exists all over the world for Bean Blossom and, in a way, helped to ensure its survival.  To that end, it is notable that Mr. Dillman has not placed the property back on the market and has informed us of his willingness to maintain ownership and operation of the park. 

We also must thank the BBJF’s dedicated all-volunteer force of officers, board members, fundraisers, and volunteers.  No BBJF officer or board member ever accepted a salary or any compensation of any kind for their services.  Included in that work are literally thousands of hours of free legal services, advertising, marketing, website maintenance, communication, fundraising, and too many other efforts to mention.  No one gave more in terms of time, talent, and treasure than that small group of committed individuals, and no one’s disappointment is greater at not meeting our goal.  That being said, we are encouraged in the fact that although we did not meet our primary goal, we accomplished these many other important things that have been mentioned here. 

Again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all manners of support you have given us over these last few years, and whatever you do, keep supporting the festivals and activities at Bean Blossom.  This is the way we will make sure they continue for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.  We look forward to seeing you there.

Regards,

The BBJF Officers, Board of Directors, and Advisory Committee        

 

 

The Brick Wall Project at Bean Blossom
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