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a proposal to the _______ Foundation from
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
1100 Rock and Roll Blvd.
Cleveland, OH 44114
Contact:
Katherine Harper, Manager of Foundation Relations
216-515-1234
kharper@rockhall.org

2. RRHFM—page 1
The proposal that follows provides a case for support for a general operating grant of $15,000 to
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. This one-of-a-kind institution, now in its 15th year, engages
its visitors through informative, visually interesting exhibitions; community festivals and other outreach;
and a variety of innovative education programs. Within the setting of the great glass pyramid, these
ingredients combine to produce a museum experience like no other—one that delights and teaches to a
rock-and-roll rhythm.
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The Museum, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, exists to educate visitors, fans and scholars from
around the world about the history and continuing significance of rock and roll music. It carries out this
mission through the operation of a world-class museum that collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets this
art form and through a library and archives and extensive educational programs.
In 1983, a group of influential music-industry figures created a foundation to honor the men and
women who made unique contributions to the energy and evolution of American culture through the music
form called rock and roll. Their brainchild became the world’s first museum dedicated to the living
heritage of rock and roll music. It is housed in an I. M. Pei–designed glass pyramid that contains 150,000
square feet of interactive displays, performance spaces, and exhibits showcasing the archives and
collection.
More than 8.3 million visitors of every age and nationality have toured the Museum since its
opening in September 1995. In that same period their patronage of area hotels, restaurants, and businesses
has had an economic impact of more than $1.7 billion on northeast Ohio. The operating expenses to which
that figure is tied total just under $14 million annually, an amount that the Museum cannot raise solely
through ticket sales and special events. As a result, the institution continuously seeks operating and
program support from foundations, corporate giving programs, the government, and other sources, to
which partners it hopes to add the ______ Foundation.
CCOOMMMMUUNNIITTYY AANNDD EEDDUUCCAATTIIOONNAALL PPRROOGGRRAAMMSS
The Museum offers a variety of educational and outreach programming. Its main intent, as stated
in the mission, is to demonstrate rock and roll’s influence on modern history and culture to audiences
ranging from three-year-olds to senior citizens, from Cleveland residents to high-school classes in France
or Guatemala, from rabid rock-and-roll fans to people whose interest in popular music lies only in jazz or
rap. And in this, it succeeds:
 Rockin’ the Schools, the largest program, provides one-hour on-site explorations of topics in
science, history, literature, technology, business, and other subjects through the prism of popular
music. Classes are free of charge and include Museum admission; groups from the Cleveland
public schools are also eligible for free bus transportation. Approximately 19,249 people came to
at least one RTS class in 2010–11.

3. RRHFM—page 2
 On the Road, a winner of multiple teachers’-choice awards, offers programming similar to RTS’s
to school, lifelong-learning, library, and other groups through videoconferencing (distance-
learning) technology. In 2010–11, the Education staff made 254 On the Road broadcasts across the
country and around the world. Demand was so high for classes that 53 requests had to be denied.
 Toddler Rock, an innovative partnership with University Hospitals, uses music therapy to provide
at-risk children aged 3–5 with the building blocks of literacy. In 2006 it was named a Coming Up
Taller semifinalist by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. In 2009 PNC
Bank named it a Grow Up Great program and funded a three-year expansion, as a result of which
it now reaches around 940 children per year.
 The annual American Music Masters series offers a week of lectures, concerts, school classes, and
other explorations of an influential U.S. musician’s impact on global culture. This fall’s tribute to
Aretha Franklin will, as always, culminate in an all-day academic seminar at Case Western
Reserve University and an all-night, all-star concert at downtown’s Palace Theater. Ms. Franklin is
expected to play an active role in the week’s activities.
 The weeklong Summer Teacher Institute gives educators from kindergarten to college level the
tools they need to connect with their students using music. Optional graduate credit is available
through Ashland University, and the already-low attendance fee is waived for Cleveland public
school teachers. A quarterly Teachers Rock program provides similar evening training at no cost.
 Any visitor with an interest can attend free panel discussions, interviews with figures from the
music world, lectures on cultural topics, and films through the periodic programs Rock and Roll
Night School and From Songwriters to Soundmen.
 A series of five community festivals celebrates the local influences of Latino and African cultures,
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Cleveland’s many ethnic communities, and the talents of CMSD
schoolchildren. All are well-attended and serve to teach as well as entertain.
The Museum also provides a Friday afternoon summer concert series on its front plaza and frequent
weekend concerts, films, Legends Series oral-history tapings, and other events throughout the year.
TTHHEE CCOOLLLLEECCTTIIOONN AANNDD EEXXHHIIBBIITTIIOONNSS
The Museum’s collection is one of the most important of its type in the world. It includes
approximately 25,000 musical instruments, costumes, sheet music, recording devices, original album art,
correspondence, and personal artifacts of every sort, one-fifth of which are in use on-site or in a traveling
exhibition offsite at any one time. Thanks to the generosity of the men and woman of the music industry,
the collection becomes larger and more impressive with every passing year.
Special exhibitions are dynamic and reflect the diversity of rock music itself. Over the years, these
have explored iconic figures in rock and roll, how the music of historically and culturally important eras
related to the larger social context, rock’s visual impact, and the stories of influential bands and landmark
recordings. The 2011 exhibit schedule is slightly less extensive than usual because of renovations being
made to the gallery spaces, but our visitors are enjoying:

4. RRHFM—page 3
 Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power (May 2011 – March 2012), a massive installation
filling the Museum’s top two floors, uses artifacts, images, and oral histories to illustrate the vital
role played by women in the popular music industry from the 1920s through the present day. Its
goal: to find commonalities among its subjects by comparing and contrasting the experiences of
very different women, from Bessie Smith to Lady Gaga, from rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson to
“Poet Laureate of Punk” Patti Smith, from 13-year-old Brenda Lee to R&B powerhouse Mavis
Staples, who remains a concert favorite at age 72. Women Who Rock highlights the female spirit as
the engine of creation and change in rock and roll.
 A companion exhibit to the above, Girls on Film: Photographs by Anastasia Pantsios (through
September), showcases a local photojournalist’s images of the many female artists who have
performed in Cleveland over the years.
 Radio in Color (opens November) will feature never-before-displayed color photos of the stars
who visited Cleveland disk jockey Tommy Edwards’s radio station from 1951–59.
As always, the Museum is dedicating the display cases in the Hall of Fame to the year’s honorees: Alice
Cooper, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Jac Holzman, Darlene Love, Art Rupe, Leon Russell, and Tom Waits. In
addition, thanks to the cooperation of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and the estates of John Lennon and
George Harrison, the Beatles installation in the main exhibit hall has had its contents completely changed
out for the first time in 15 years. It is now the largest single collection of Beatles artifacts on exhibit
anywhere in the world.
TTHHEE LLIIBBRRAARRYY AANNDD AARRCCHHIIVVEESS
The Museum’s mission statement has always included mention of a Library and Archives. This
was originally intended to be housed in the pyramid, but prior to the grand opening the space set aside for
that purpose was repurposed for additional administrative offices. The staff never gave up on their dream
of a state-of-the-art repository: for the next dozen years they collected papers and memorabilia in hopes
that they would eventually have a place in which to house them. Their efforts were rewarded in late 2007
when the Museum broke ground for a separate Library and Archives on the campus of Cuyahoga
Community College.
When cataloguing is complete and the facility opens to the public in April 2012, the library portion
will give casual users access to a large collection of books, periodicals, and recordings dealing with rock
and roll and other types of music. The secure archives will give qualified scholars access to rare posters
and promotional materials, the corporate files of businesses such as Atlantic Records and VH1, never-
released film footage and audio recordings, and the personal papers of music-industry figures such as Alan
Freed, Ahmet Ertegun, Curtis Mayfield, and Art Garfunkel.
Program/class planning is under way for the new facility. Among other things, the Museum
envisions collaborative classes and activities with Tri-C, Cleveland State University, and CWRU; training

5. RRHFM—page 4
in the use of primary source materials for high-school and college students; and, in time, an annual
conference for scholars of popular music.
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Each spring since 1985 a new class of performers and other influential music figures has been
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, usually in a ceremony in New York City. In 2009, however,
the foundation that originally created the Hall of Fame agreed that Cleveland, the physical home of the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, could host the event on a triennial basis if funding were secured.
The New York Inductions take place on a single evening before a small invited audience in a hotel
ballroom. Cleveland’s venue of choice was massive Public Hall, so in 2008 the Museum administration made
an ambitious decision: to make the event accessible to all by opening the ceremony to the public and filling
the preceding week with free lectures, concerts, classes, films, and other programming. The City of
Cleveland agreed that this would be greatly beneficial and pledged $1 million in monetary support plus
refurbishments to the hall. Positively Cleveland, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, and the Downtown
Cleveland Alliance contributed an additional $600,000 to make the public programming possible.
The result was a week that will live in Cleveland history. Tens of thousands of visitors attended
the pre-ceremony events, and 8,420 of them enjoyed free Saturday admission to the Museum and the
premiere of an extensive Bruce Springsteen exhibition. At an evening celebration of gospel legend Shirley
Caesar, a whole new audience—the area church community—learned for the first time about the good
work the Museum does for the City of Cleveland through Toddler Rock and other programs. With
Ideastream’s help, On the Road was able to broadcast a special class with Darryl “DMC” MacDaniel to a
record 85 schools simultaneously. As promised, the Museum opened the Induction ceremony and concert
to the public for the first time in the event’s history. People unable to attend were still able to enjoy the
Hollywood-style spectacle of past and new Inductees parading the red carpet.
Others took the chance to publicize Cleveland during this very special week. Local restaurants and
hotels created Induction Week packages and marketed them nationwide. Team NEO and Positively
Cleveland chose that time—earlier in the year than usual—to show off the city’s charms to site selectors who
were considering bringing business to the region. Team NEO’s Carin Rockind reported that her visitors
“marveled at the party logistics, and how well organized everything was” and “made it very clear that they
had a different perception of our region after the weekend that would open up new opportunities.” In all,
Team NEO estimates that $13,266,237 flowed into the local economy as a result of Induction Week 2009—
an amount above and beyond the $107.1 million the Museum generates even in non-Induction years.
Two years have passed and the Museum staff are hard at work planning Cleveland’s event for 2012.
The next group of inductees will be announced late this year, at which point potential performers for the final
concert will be contacted. But Induction Week will include much more. An all-star evening gospel concert is
again being planned for Playhouse Square. Rockin’ the Schools and On the Road will present special
Induction-themed classes in the week leading up to the event. The Museum will again offer a special

6. RRHFM—page 5
edition of Rock and Roll Night School dedicated to an Induction-themed topic. A free public concert for
14,000 spectators will again be held at the Wolstein Center. Community leaders, donors, and Rock Hall
inductees will enjoy a gala reception at the Museum the Friday of Induction Week. On Saturday, April 14,
Induction Day, Museum admission will again be free and a major two-story exhibition will premiere. The
ceremony will be held that evening at Public Hall, with general admission tickets available to the public,
beginning with a cocktail reception and dinner for donors, then alternating inductions and performances by
new and past inductees. As in 2009, the ceremony will likely be broadcast live on Fuse TV and streamed
online to audiences around the world.
Between these events and visitor patronage of area hotels, restaurants, and other businesses, the
Museum expects Induction Week 2012 to have a direct effect on the Cleveland economy of at least $13
million, plus an additional $20 million or more in media impact.
SSUUSSTTAAIINNAABBIILLIITTYY SSTTAATTEEMMEENNTT
Each summer, the Museum revises its education program curricula based on audience reaction, staff
observation of how well students comprehended the academic material, and teacher comments (oral or on the
post-class questionnaire provided in their information packets). If a topic or approach is found to have been
ineffective, it is trimmed. Entire classes may be added or cut based on teacher reactions. The Department
maintains records of the numbers and grades of visiting students. It is difficult to establish quantitative results
because the museum/student contact is so brief, but the Education staff recently received focus-group training
from a professional evaluator and they plan to employ this tactic in future.
As stated earlier, outside support is necessary to keep the Museum at full operating capacity. The
institution has traditionally had only a small endowment fund, but in early 2010 the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame Foundation contributed the $5 million proceeds from its 25th Anniversary concerts for that use. The
Museum is now contemplating moves that would increase its endowment funds substantially and fund its
educational and public programs in perpetuity.
In the case of the Inductions, the Museum has requested support from the City of Cleveland, the
State of Ohio, and other backers of the previous event. The Museum created a $500,000 reserve fund with the
proceeds from Induction Week 2009 that will be used as seed money for 2012. This time around it hopes to
increase the fund to a $1 million reserve for 2015. If it can build momentum in this way from year to year, in
time the Cleveland Inductions will become wholly self-supporting.
CCOONNCCLLUUSSIIOONN
At this time, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum respectfully requests a grant of $15,000
to support its full range of classes, exhibitions, and public programming. The _____ Foundation’s support
will ensure continued strength and innovation for an institution that in its first 15 years has become both a
vital cultural link and an economic engine for the city it calls home.

7. RRHFM—page 6
OOPPEERRAATTIINNGG BBUUDDGGEETT 22001111
Compensation $ 7,457,836
Artist Fees/Honoraria 333,208
Event Production 198,110
Insurance & Settlements 204,818
Travel and Entertainment 852,092
Other Employee Costs 140,089
Multimedia 446,431
Communications 85,500
Advertising 523,486
Trademark and Filing Fees 77,814
Office Expense 217,273
Utilities 619,187
Exhibit Maintenance and Upkeep 618,028
Professional Fees 413,676
Rentals & Storage 182,228
Facilities Maintenance and Upkeep 800,771
Other Facilities Expense 51,345
Charitable Contributions 30,000
Merchandise Inventory Costs 81,291
Membership Benefit Costs 111,387
Interest and Other Expense 599,513
Taxes (100,000)
Total Operating Expenses 2011 $ 13,944,083