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Auckland launches a fundraising campaign to support music professionals

Owing to the cancellation of cultural events, organizations in the music industry based in Auckland (New Zealand) have joined forces to provide support to music professionals impacted by the current outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inspired by an Australian initiative, the city of Auckland, a UNESCO Creative City of Music, in collaboration with ‘MusicHelps.org.nz’ launched a fundraising campaign to assist music professionals with additional resources. Established by music industry partners, the registered charity ‘MusicHelps.org.nz’ has also set up a new online platform advocating for public and corporate donations. With this new platform it has enhanced its support to music professionals as well as its MusicHelps Wellbeing Service, a 24 hour helpline providing free professional counselling service for kiwi music people experiencing emotional distress.

Having raised over $200,000 NZD (approximately 122,000 USD) in the first week of the campaign, the initiative has been able to provide support to many music professionals.

With the ultimate goal of raising $2 million NZD (approximately 1,2 million USD), people can choose to participate through a crowd funding website, a PayPal micro site, or even by simply texting the word ‘music’ to a specific number to instantly donate $3 to the cause. The website also provides links for people to buy directly artist merchandise and encourage direct financial transactions with their favorite artists.

The city of Auckland invites other UNESCO Creative Cities to replicate this fundraising initiative by creating similar websites, and broadening the outreach and support to the music professionals.