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National donations: see which states are going green!

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Show-Me State donations: see which counties are going green!

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International donations

Watch international jazz supporters turn the whole world green!

Welcome to the “We Always Swing”® Jazz Series 2025
“31 Days for #31 Seasons” CoMoGives Campaign

The 2025 “We Always Swing” Jazz Series-CoMoGives Campaign centers on “31.” That’s December’s length — and the length of the campaign. As happenstance would have it, the Jazz Series, in the midst of its 2025/2026 schedule, is halfway through SEASON #31.

The Annual CoMoGives Endeavor — and we have participated every year since the Community Foundation of Central Missouri established it in 2013 — has become, by far, our most important Individual Donor vehicle. You, our most generous supporters have happily made it so.

This campaign arrives with a great deal of significance. As we close the book on our first three decades and move “onward” in the spirit of Horace Greeley’s “Go West Young Man,” we view, after reveling in our 30th anniversary, Season #31 as the next exciting Jazz Series chapter. Loosely interpreted, that translates into we’re still having a lot of fun doing what we do: Delivering a whole lot of jazz performances, jazz education and jazz in the community the size of Columbia and Central Missouri.

We are now more than 400 concerts into Jazz Series history, which has seen close to 1,000 singular jazz musicians — totaling more than 2,000 total musicians — grace Jazz Series stages since Slide Hampton and the Jazz Masters stood on the Jesse Auditorium State on September 24, 1995, presenting “Big Band Bird,” marking what would have been Charlie Parker’s 75th Birthday year.

EACH CAMPAIGN DAY CHRONOLOGICALLY HIGHLIGHTS A SEASON.

A well-deserved shoutout goes to Sterling Sewell. The graduating MU School of Journalism senior spent a good deal of time compiling the makings of a staggering Season-By-Season, Concert-By-Concert, Personnel-Per-Ensemble and Venue-By-Venue performance location compendium. If you go to the following link wealwaysswing.org/31seasons, you can view, in essence, the Jazz Series concert presentation.

With such a list in hand, it only seems appropriate to chronologically highlight and make our way through a season at a time where you our contributors can revel in a comprehensive look at the Jazz Series concert history. If you have a recollection, anecdote or some other epiphany, but all means submit your thoughts — limit to 100 words, please — about a season or a specific concert within a specific season. We’ll include it in one of our daily emails.

We are again pleased to have “DAILY HOSTS” — Individuals, businesses and services — that “keep the Jazz Series-CoMoGives humming right along. Hosts are listed chronologically on wealwaysswing.org. They create daily opportunities, inviting and encouraging everyone to please join them in supporting the Jazz Series. People can donate on any day, but if you know a host, by all means, donate on “their day!”

THE SEASON #31 COMO.COM DAILY GOAL.”

We’re keeping things simple this year. Each Campaign Day, while highlighting one season’s fare for 31 seasons, the goal stands at $3,100, including the generous jump-start assists we receive from our Daily Host. If we can maintain or exceed that number throughout the campaign, you will help us deliver the desired $96,100 overall campaign goal.

WE APPLY YOUR GENEROSITY IN A MEANINGFUL & WORTHWHILE WAYS. THANK YOU!

A successful “31 Days For #31 Seasons” CoMoGives Campaign means you support, and we will be able to continue to do what we love to do: Offer Columbians, Central Missourians and beyond one of the finest independently run all-jazz performance, education and community-wide projects in the land. With your trust, we seek to fill the calendar with concerts featuring the greatest jazz musicians in the world. With your trust, we look to involve Grades K–12 in jazz-related activities as we administer in-school activities, performances and interactions with nationally known musicians. With your support, we are able to produce and offer a multitude of free jazz events to the entire Columbia community AND help create work for Columbia’s talented jazz musician pool.

In advance, but never taken for granted, we want to say to everyone: “Thank You!” for participating in the 2024 Jazz Series 30th Anniversary CoMoGives Campaign Celebration — and trusting us to deliver a top-tier, all-jazz program.

THE GREEN MAPS GO GLOBAL!

Until now, we created two “GREEN MAPS” — one representing every U.S. state, territory and the District of Columbia, the other showcasing Missouri’s 114 counties. We decided it’s time to go global.

With another shoutout — this time to Douglas Miller — we have added a third GREEN MAP. Yes, the Jazz Series-CoMoGives Campaign is now Global, securing our first-ever International Host! [Yes, we’re VERY excited about this development.] The newly created customized “Sphere” will, like its U.S. state and Missouri county comrades will turn a darker shade of green with every donation that arrives from an international locale.

So, as we again look — enthusiastically so — at attracting hundreds of donors from across the United States and throughout Missouri, we now welcome — with open arms — jazz lovers and fans who would like to support our mid-Missouri endeavor from around the world.

DONOR “TICKERS-IN-MOTION”

Our staggered DONOR “TICKERS-IN-MOTION,” operating at different speed, anonymously, and in near-real time, let us know, separately so, when and where gifts arrive on both a state-by-state and Missouri county-by-county basis. And, in consort with the Green Sphere, we are pleased to add a third Ticker-In-Motion that will detail when and from which country donations arrive. Out of respect for all donors, tickers do NOT reveal peoples’ names as they continually update. The tickers moving at staggered speeds allow everyone to follow along and see just how well we’re doing geographically on the state, national and international levels.

CALLING ALL JAZZ DEPUTIES

To date, individual campaign bests stand at our receiving gifts from 33 different states and 15 Missouri counties. During previous CoMoGives Campaigns — and most importantly — we have met or exceeded our pre-set monetary goals. However, YOU, our supporters, offer the best opportunity for the campaign to attract gifts from farther and wider territory. So, we ask — because we need — YOU, our donors, to serve as JAZZ DEPUTIES, to call upon your friends and family as well as jazz fans from around the state, the nation — and now globally — to participate and add their names to our Contributors Roster. With the minimum donation requirement of just $10 still in play, we think there are a great many potential supporters living across Missouri, throughout the country and around the world who would participate in the Jazz Series-CoMoGives “#31” Campaign. Please consider adding your name to the ever-growing Jazz Series Posse.

THANK YOU!

Please join us and pledge YOUR support during the 2025 Jazz Series-CoMoGives “31 Days For #31 Seasons” Campaign. Please encourage friends, family, colleagues and peers — from across the land — to join you during this most important fundraising journey. Please, everyone, accept our heartfelt THANK YOU!