Can a 501(c)(3) Charge Fees? If you spend enough time in band-parent groups, booster forums, youth sports pages, theater-parent chats, or basically any corner of the internet where adults are trying to finance expensive student activities, you will eventually see some version of this sentence: “They’re a 501(c)(3). They can’t charge fees.” It sounds authoritative. It sounds legal. It is also far too simple to be useful. The short answer is yes: a 501(c)(3) organization can charge fees in many...

There. I said it. And before somebody gets offended, closes the browser, and tells the booster president that Mike is being mean again, give me a minute. Your volunteer opportunities might not suck. But if you routinely struggle to get parents and students to volunteer while watching those exact same people enthusiastically give their time somewhere else, we need to stop automatically blaming the volunteers. Because maybe people haven't stopped volunteering. Maybe they just don't want to do...

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last week talking about last notes. I didn’t actually plan to. I went to DCI Finals this year for the first time in my life as a spectator. I’ve been to Finals before. But the other times, I was performing. This time I sat in the stands. And apparently that opened a door I had kept pretty firmly shut for almost three decades. I started thinking about the kids aging out. Then I started thinking about the kids coming home from tour and trying to figure out how...