If you have dreamed of offering music therapy services to clients in your organization, but just haven’t found a way to work it into your tightening budget, you are not alone. Music therapy is an innovative, transformative, and often ultimately cost-saving addition to your services, but finding the funding to get started can be challenging. Perhaps you’ve wondered if there are ways to bring these valuable services to your clients without a significant upfront cost. The good news is, there are!
1) Co-sponsor a workshop or series geared towards a target population. If an ongoing group is beyond your scope, a workshop or series is a great way to introduce music therapy to a target population for your organization. Costs are low for short events, and if needed, participants can be asked to contribute.
2) Offer an educational presentation to your staff. We offer a wide variety of affordable CEU-ready trainings and presentations that target the needs of your group or organization. While it takes significant training/degrees to become a music therapist, anyone can learn tips and techniques for using music to improve the lives of others.
3) Be a referral partner. The best music therapy outcomes often begin as referrals from healthcare and education professionals who understand the specific needs of a client/family and understand how music therapy may help. Referrals don’t cost your organization anything, but may be priceless to a client.
4) Grants, donors, sponsors. Music therapy can be a perfect fit for grant makers looking to sponsor innovative, evidence-based programs. The combination of arts, medicine, & education often align closely with the interests of grants, donors, or sponsors. At Modulations Therapies, we have experience partnering with non-profits to write (and receive!) grants, and in designing fundraising campaigns.
5) Brainstorm ways a music therapist might fill an existing staffing need. Music therapists are highly trained members of healthcare and education teams. With skills in assessment, counseling, goal setting, documentation, and evaluation, a music therapist may be the perfect fit for an existing position at your organization with a different title.