That's how much money John and his agency are requiring the University of Montana to raise for John's AIDS Foundation, which has raised $125 million for AIDS-related work in 55 countries since 1992.
The requirement is spelled out in a memorandum of understanding between UM and the Howard Rose Agency, which represents John, who will perform a sold-out show on April 11 at the Adams Center.
Now, the Missoula AIDS Council, a nonprofit agency that serves HIV-positive Montanans, has also publicly questioned the requirement, feeling slighted by UM in its own locally based efforts for AIDS awareness, prevention and treatment.
“We have concerns that these efforts will directly hamper the fundraising opportunities for Missoula AIDS Council to effectively carry out our mission of preventing new HIV infections and supporting individuals with HIV/AIDS in Montana,” the council wrote in an open letter to UM President George Dennison. The letter was signed by MAC executive director Keri McWilliams and MAC housing coordinator Christopher Peterson.
Why, the council is wondering, would any negotiations to raise money for HIV and AIDS treatment not require that at least a portion of the proceeds go to local efforts?
That is a point the council made very clear Friday afternoon in a meeting with Adams Center director Mary Muse.
McWilliams, while calling the face-to-face session “a very good meeting,” said she wanted to make it clear the AIDS Council is disappointed that UM kept the fundraising requirement a secret.
“It does mean that $75,000 is leaving the community, and the fact is that there are hundreds of Montanans living with HIV and AIDS,” she said in an interview. “There is great need for money here locally. We feel that in negotiating a contract, that they could have talked about a certain-percentage thing locally.”
The Elton John AIDS Foundation granted the Missoula AIDS Council $14,000 in 1997.
Muse said UM did keep the fundraising quiet, and purposefully so.
Most of the money is coming from UM's contacts with the local business community, she said, and UM never had a doubt that it could come up with $75,000 over a period of five months, and therefore there was no need to run a very public capital campaign.
“The Missoula business community and UM have a very long, established relationship with mutual support,” she said. “From the time this notion came up, we've all felt a good sense of progress, that this is something we can do quietly through our network.”
In fact, said Muse, running a public campaign would only hurt other capital efforts, including those by the UM Foundation and the Missoula AIDS Council.
“We don't want to compete against the local community's efforts,” she said. “So we all agreed the approach we wanted to take is networking through our own personal contacts in the business community.”
Still, she did apologize on Friday to the AIDS Council for not informing it of the fundraising efforts.
As of Thursday, Muse said the fundraising is between 60 percent and 80 percent complete.
After the ticket debacle from last autumn's Elton John concert, in which thousands of Missoulians stood in line while nearly all tickets were sold online, UM began courting John for a second concert almost immediately.
“After the first ticketing fiasco happened, we were bummed that a lot of students didn't get them,” said ASUM Vice President Tara Ness. “After that, we were looking for any way to get him back,” including the possibility of a show the following evening.
That's when UM learned of the AIDS Foundation, though nobody is clear who first brought up the possibility of UM raising money for the charity.
“It was suggested that if UM could facilitate a donation, (John) would feel more accommodating to making room for a spring date,” said Muse.
UM administrators, Muse and ASUM then sat down to discuss fundraising strategies. ASUM was asked directly to do its own fundraising, said Ness.
That effort has largely fallen on the shoulders of Ness and ASUM President Dustin Leftridge.
Later this month, ASUM is sponsoring a “Mario Kart 64” tournament, a series of competitions using the popular Nintendo 64 racing game.
Ness said ASUM was asked to do whatever it could to raise money, but it was apparent from the outset that whatever money it could come up with wouldn't be much.
“It was made clear at that meeting that they didn't expect a lot from us,” she said. “They understand that we're students and we don't have a lot of money and time. We said we could probably raise $1,000, and they were fine with that. To be honest, I think we could hand them a check for $200 and they'd be perfectly happy with it.”
Muse said she doesn't know the consequences of not reaching the $75,000 mark, adding that she and the UM administration - members of whom have not returned repeated phone calls from the Missoulian - are completely confident the goal will be met.
“There hasn't really been any discussion about that,” she said. “I haven't had a need to go there. ... We haven't really felt that success is questionable.”
Muse feels the concert and the fundraising are both positive things for the community and AIDS prevention and treatment, raising important money for a good cause and also giving Missoulians another shot at seeing one of the greatest pop artists of all time.
“This is really a good thing,” she said, “to give something back to the community.”
Reach Jamie Kelly at 523-5254 or at jkelly@missoulian.com.
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