Conscious Alliance

I love concert posters. Half art, half music, and normally cheap enough to shamelessly store away once your next favorite band/artist needs wallspace, the concert poster definitely has earned its spot as the number one choice for temporary decoration. However, who would have guessed that those wall-savers could turn out to be life-savers as well, a feat that the Boulder-founded non-profit Conscious Alliance accomplished with surprising success.

Since their inception in 2002, the Conscious Alliance has been using the power of the poster to help feed hungry people, and now, five years and 500,000 pounds of food later, it’s looking like the non-profit may just be one of the most positive things to have happened in the music industry since N’Sync quit recording. At its most basic, the Conscious Alliance functions as a food drive, with the only kickers being location (drives take place at concerts across the U.S.) and motivational tactic (cans of food=free concert poster). Through collaborations with bands like STS9, Jack Johnson, String Cheese Incident and Dave Matthews, they have collected and distributed over half a million pounds of food to low-income areas that desperately need the help. Because of their strong network of musicians and fans, the non-profit has the ability to quickly respond to national disasters- when Hurricane Katrina blew through New Orleans, they quickly teamed up with DMB and delivered over 30,000 pounds of food and almost $100,000 dollars within days. Currently, members of their team are collecting food (and handing out this poster) at Bonaroo, but if you’re missing out on the festival like me, you’ll find plenty of other ways to help out on the Conscious Alliance website. What you’re doing is amazing, guys, and we’re behind you all the way!