Hi all, I’m starting to look into fundraising for an Oxford Uilleann Pipers Club. The idea is to raise enough cash to purchase several (5-10) practice sets for beginners to loan and to pay a good teacher to give lessons, put up a website etc.
Anyone in England or the UK who can help or advise me bring piping to the masses ( 
) in Oxford please PM me. Thanks, Sean
Sean,
Great initiative, but I think you’re getting a little too ambitious. You’re talking of raising up to 6 thousand pounds (approx. $12,000) just for the practice sets alone.
I’m trying to do something similar in Quebec city. I’ve nearly got one practice set organised and will absolutely limit myself to two club sets, which will be loaned out on very strict terms (must be insured, only for a limited period of time, etc).
Paying a good teacher - forget it. You’re better investing in a few Clarke tutors and trying to get one or two intermediate players to volunteer time to give short classes to the beginners. Get the beginners to pay a nominal amount to cover the costs of the venue and the expenses of the teachers. This could also be used to fund the occasional (once or twice per year) visit by an advance piper who could give lessons to the intermediates.
A website is a good idea, but keep it cheap and simple. You don’t want people spending more times looking a pretty pictures of pipes on your website and not turning up to club meetings.
Once again, though, great initiative. Best of luck with getting the club started.
you know you all could just build a bunch of penny chanters. Might be cheaper.
Jeff
PJ wrote: I’ve nearly got one practice set organised and will absolutely limit myself to two club sets.
I see you have one set nearly organised, If you need a chanter for the next set your getting together I can make you one (no charge) to help you get your beginner program going.. It would be a narrow bore “D” ..
And it will have no key blocks seeing that it would be for a beginner and I would be making it for free…
Seth,
That’s a very generous offer. I’ll put it to the other members of the club and you and I can discuss the details.
Sean,
If possible getting a few good pipers to attend regularly is IMO worth more than money.
Also here in Manchester our teachers teach for the love of it and some travel a long way to do so. For which we are very grateful.
How many existing players do you have within say a 1 hour drive?
See if some of the better players will commit to some teaching. We have all been helped on our way by generous players and most are happy to put something back in.
David
Thanks for the advice all. I’ll what I can do over the next year. I’ve so far got a penny chanter and practice set bag ready for some bellows to create our first loan set.
Go for grants. 
Local Authority Arts council grant
Lottery grant.
Affiliate with your local branch of Comhaltas(primary function to promote Uilleann Pipes Harp and language)You could use their premises for practice +ye will have a ready base of youngsters to teach which will help ye with your grant application.
I run the Glasgow Pipers Club within the Irish Minstrels Branch of Comhaltas and have about six students.The branch has bought one practice set and will be buying some more soon.(all the students have their own sets,the one the branch has is a spare)The thing about being in the branch is that people can hear and see whats going on and are drawn to it,bees to honey.
ye will need to be very transparent about your dealings with pipemakers for the grant and try and be neutral or all sorts of problems could occur.
Good luck
Slán Go Foill
Uilliam
Ps ye could contact all the pipemakers explain what you are doing and ask if they would be interested in donating a practice set.ye already have one so a couple more out of the 30 or so makers should be achievable.
Thanks uilleam, some good advice there. I’ll certainly contact the local Comhaltas branch.
As Uilleam pointed out…
Going for National Lottery grants is a good idea, but you will have a MUCH greater chance of success if you can honestly say that you will match any grant pound for pound.
The match does not even have to be cash. If you can put a price on your time, for research, etc. and quantify that, then you can submit an appplication based on your notional outlay.
Just remember that the Churchill family got a Lottery payout of £13 million for some papers that they did not even wrtie!!!
Mike
Ye should also register your club as a charity which will help.Given ye will be working for free anyways that shouldnae be a problemYour branch o Comhaltas may already be registered which will save ye the bother.
BTW it is UillIAM(Irish) not UillEAM (Scottish)