For Corps Directors, Staff & Boards
An Invitation to America’s Drum & Bugle Corps Leadership
A research partnership designed with your nonprofit status, your members’ well-being, and your operational independence in mind — governed by a clear, attorney-reviewed MOU.
Dear Directors, Staff, and Board Members,
DoublePenniesOnline LLC is a U.S.-registered research and development company — classified under NAICS 541720 — whose work centers on understanding how households maintain steady, stewardship-oriented consumer spending through the financial pressures of life. We write to your Corps because we believe the Drum & Bugle Corps community embodies, more clearly than almost anyone else, exactly what our research is designed to support.
Your Corps is more than a performance ensemble. It is a community held together by discipline, by tradition, and by the daily decisions of members and families to do the harder thing for the sake of something larger. That is what stewardship looks like. And it is precisely the kind of community we want to stand alongside.
We are not writing to ask for funds. We are not writing to recruit your members into an income opportunity. We are writing to invite your Corps to become a recognized Stewardship Cohort within the DPO research program — a designated community whose members participate, voluntarily and individually, on the exact same terms as every other participant, while DPO shares anonymized cohort-level research findings back with your leadership to support your stewardship and education work.
The sections below describe what this looks like in practice — the institutional case, what your Corps receives, the partnership process, and clear answers about what it is and is not. We hope you’ll read with care, ask hard questions, and decide whether the partnership fits your mission.
Why This Fits Your Corps
Three structural reasons the Stewardship Cohort framework aligns with how a healthy Corps already operates.
Stewardship Is Already How You Operate
Drum Corps members, staff, and families plan around resources, time, and commitment in a way few communities can match. The values DPO researches are already the values your Corps lives.
Cohort Findings Strengthen Your Education Work
Aggregated cohort-level findings from your members’ participation give you a new lens for stewardship education, member family communications, and demonstrating the community impact of the activity.
The Structure Protects Your Status
The partnership is built so your 501(c)(3) status is uncompromised: voluntary participation, no income-opportunity recruitment, no fundraising activity, no required member action, no funds flowing through your Corps.
What the Partnership Offers Your Organization
Six commitments DPO makes to every Corps partner, written into the MOU.
Cohort-Level Research Findings, Returned to You
DPO periodically shares anonymized, aggregated findings drawn from your cohort’s participation. Useful for stewardship education and member family communications.
Clear, Attorney-Reviewed MOU
The partnership is governed by a Memorandum of Understanding that defines what each side does and does not do — protecting both organizations from ambiguity.
No Funds Flow Through Your Corps
Your Corps does not collect, hold, transmit, or distribute any participant funds. All financial transactions occur directly between DPO and individual enrolled participants. Period.
No Commissions, No Referral Fees
Your Corps receives no payment, kickback, revenue share, or other compensation in connection with member enrollment. This is a research partnership, not a marketing arrangement.
501(c)(3) Status Protected
The structure is built to keep your tax-exempt status uncompromised: voluntary participation, no income-opportunity recruitment, no fundraising activity, no required member action.
Recognition on the DPO Website
Your Corps is recognized as a Stewardship Cohort partner on the DPO website during the term of the MOU, subject to your preferences on how that recognition appears.
How a Corps Formalizes the Partnership
Four steps from first conversation to standing partnership.
Initial Conversation
Director or staff lead reaches out to Wayne. We talk about your Corps, your community, and whether the Stewardship Cohort framework fits. No obligation.
MOU Review
We share the Memorandum of Understanding. Your board, legal counsel, and leadership team review it on your schedule. Edits welcome.
Sign & Recognize
Both sides sign. Your Corps is recognized on the DPO website as a Stewardship Cohort partner, with the language and prominence you prefer.
Annual Check-In & Findings
We meet annually to review the partnership and share cohort-level findings. Either side can renew, adjust, or end the partnership cleanly.
Featured Corps Partners
As Drum & Bugle Corps formalize their partnership, they’ll be recognized here.
Partner Corps #1
This space is reserved for the first Drum & Bugle Corps to formalize a Stewardship Cohort partnership with DPO.
Partner Corps #2
Additional Drum & Bugle Corps will be recognized here as MOUs are signed.
Want your members or families to see DPO’s message to them?
What This Partnership Is Not
A Corps partnership with DPO is not a fundraising arrangement, not an income opportunity for members, and not a flow of money between the Corps and DPO. Corps do not collect or transmit funds. There are no commissions, no referral fees, and no special treatment in the queue. DPO is a consumer behavior research initiative classified under NAICS 541720 — not an investment, securities offering, or revenue-producing arrangement.
Let’s Start a Conversation
A first conversation is just that — a conversation. No obligation, no paperwork, no pressure. If the Stewardship Cohort framework sounds like something worth exploring for your Corps, we’d love to hear from you.
Contact Wayne →