Giving Back: The New “Volunteer”

If something is supremely fun and you love doing it, are you really being charitable? Does “good work and giving back” have to hurt?

Terry Donnelly is a hugely successful executive in a high-powered executive recruitment firm. But his little known secret is, he was once a rock star. Well, sort of. His first love is music and before he decided that earning a good living during daylight hours was a better way to live, he was a professional musician, playing more than 300 shows in his seven years on the road. Despite how fabulous that might sound to a teenager playing Rock Star, the appeal wore off.

“It’s not a great life and gets really old really fast,” says Donnelly. “I felt I had achieved everything I wanted to in terms of performing – I’d played in front of crowds of over 500,000 people, big concert shows, recorded albums, and done some interesting gigs with some really famous stars, so I felt I’d done everything I wanted to or had envisioned when I started out.”

“I’ve been very successful, but still have my passion for music,” says Donnelly. “But if I were to start a band and go out and play pubs on a Saturday night, it would be a lot of hassle, with little appreciation and very little money. And based on what bar bands get paid, I just don’t need the extra $40 a week that much. I probably wouldn’t even make enough to cover a round of golf.”

So, the call of the bar band didn’t appeal, but the idea of making music with friends was still niggling.

“So it started small, with a couple of former pro musicians on my street. We got together to play our kids school fair, and things just sort of grew from there,” says Donnelly. That first small band was called the Grateful Dads, and they helped raise money and give a bit of panache to school fundraisers and community events. But the idea, to Donnelly, could be bigger than that.
And so he assembled some of his old pals from his professional days and has put together the Community Soul Project, a 13 piece band which works exclusively for charities.

Band member Steven Bochenek says he gets as much as he gives. Maybe more.

“The popular response to “why do you do this for charity” is of course that I wanted to give something back. That’s why the band was formed: to do something genuinely good which we also love doing,” he says. “And, yes, I wanted to give back but, on a more selfish, honest note, I also wanted to play with these others, all of whom are really good players. It’s an opportunity to keep learning and growing.”

Having a great time, learning, growing and giving back – it’s a heady mix.

“At a recent gig more than $100K was generated in revenues in one night,” says Donnelly. “That’s more than the Dads raised in three years.” The Community Soul Project played at The Royal LePage Shelter Gala, October 3 in Toronto, helping to raise not just money but awareness for women’s shelters. The Royal LePage Shelter Foundation is Canada’s largest public foundation dedicated exclusively to funding women’s shelters and violence prevention and education programs.

For Bochenek, “giving back feels good. I keep forgetting that we’re doing that because I’m having so much fun.”
But more than that, he says: “Music is something that is absolutely essential to people. It’s in our DNA. Being able to play live for a receptive audience feeds the soul – but knowing that the funds we help raise could actually help others? That’s the cherry on top. What’s more, in these economic times… hopefully we’re creating some positive karma.”