The website for music study scholarship is actually www.musiclinkfoundation.org
. (I found out about MusicLink about 1 1/2 years ago or so.) Scholarships are the best methods since it's FAIR to BOTH teacher and student. The teacher doesn't get cheated out of money (via discounts) and the student can pursue music study without worrying where the $$$ would come from.
The nice thing about scholarships is that it potentially weeds out those who want CHEAP, bargain-basement lessons from those who TRULY want to study music but have no financial means to do so. The MusicLink Foundation has stringent scholarship standards. The student has to have an excellent attendance record and practice record. Definitely NO room for slacking off here! So from now on I'm just going to let prospective students know about MusicLink. They can't do stupid stuff while on that program. That's for sure.
I've offered similar things to prospective students (and my ex-students). I still do extend that offer, actually. Basically we'd barter services. It was some sort of work-study program. They'd work for me (office work, cleaning, etc.) in exchange for music instruction. It worked out for a while, but they started to flake out and one of them didn't pay the remaining amount of tuition as promised.
Their attendance and practice record worsened, too.
I'm really sick of the discount mentality. People don't realize that what we're service providers, not retailers.
My local branch of MTAC used to offer free lessons for those with financial need, but it discontinued the program as soon as some of the participating teachers found out that some of the so-called "needy" students were driving to lessons in their tricked-out, expensive cars!
And I've heard fellow MTAC teachers recount their horror stories about a mom who was begging to have her child's lessons discounted because the family was having some serious hardship (and she was a really good drama queen at that, too!). So she got their wish...then guess what! This "destitute" mom actually owned a FANCY MERCEDES!
That's why I DON'T do discounts of free stuff. The teacher usually ends up being the stiffed and wronged one. I've had family friends asked me about lessons and they asked for discounts (SUCH NERVE!). They said they "needed" the discount--some money problems. Yeah, right. They have nice cars (yes, the car stuff again!) and they normally buy designer handbags to boot!!!
So anyhow, my MTAC branch then started a scholarship/fundraising program about 2-3 years ago. (We do Practice-A-Thons for various charitable or humanitarian organizations.) This has proven to be MORE effective than the free lesson program. It's a win-win situation for all parties involved.