This is part of a series on small businesses in San Francisco.
The Golden Gate Park Band, as musical director German Gonzalez puts it, has been in survival mode for as long as he can remember. But it is the kind of ongoing crisis that some nonprofits would envy; every time the organization needs extra help, someone pulls through.
When the organization fell short during its annual fundraising drive last year, an anonymous donor filled the gap. Again.
That donor cut a check for around $10,000. The year before, the band received an unexpected donation of $20,000 to fill a gap in a budget that ranges from $170,000 to $180,000 a year.
Of the city’s more than 400 legacy businesses, only about 50 identify as nonprofits. The Golden Gate Park Band, which performs at the Golden Gate Park’s bandshell, is one. Often, as is the case with the band, their services are offered for free, so many are wholly dependent on donations and grants.
The band’s 2025 revenue included $80,300 from the city-funded Grants for the Arts, and roughly $15,000 from the Recording Industry’s Music Performance Trust Fund.
Instead of relying on a generous donation, Gonzalez would like to see the band get into “thrive” mode. He sees the solution as attracting more audience members.
“For me, just keep doing what I’m doing, and the more people I can turn on about the band, the more people will realize how much of a gem it actually is for the community.”
Upcoming performances arranged by Gonzalez include “Disney Magic” on July 13 and “Ukrainian Culture Celebration” on August 24. The band uses a mix of public domain and for-purchase music, with some of their most popular shows including “name-that-tune medleys” and marches. Amazing Grace and Shenandoah by Frank Ticheli are also hits, Gonzalez said.
Their most popular show is consistently the Independence Day Celebration, which has drawn 500 to 600 audience members in years past, Gonzalez said.
The band employs roughly 30 paid musicians, many of them former school band members. The group meets just once a week, on Sunday morning before the show, to rehearse.
Unconventional donations can also help sustain the band, Gonzalez said. For example, when the band received a donation of thousands of LPs, a board member raised money by selling them online.
In recent meetings, Gonzalez, who has served as music director for the last two years, said the board hopes the band will be included in the wills or trusts of longtime concert-goers.
Mark Nemoyten, president of Golden Gate Park Band and principal trumpet/cornet player, said they are also looking to secure more grants by working with a grant writer.
“The problem is, we’re in this Catch-22 where we don’t have the money to pay the person to raise the money,” he said. “We’re trying to do it in-house with what we have, and we’re learning as we go.”
Still, he hopes the band will be able to double its budget in the coming years to hire an executive director and stage crew, as the musicians are currently responsible for setting up and tearing down the stage each week.
Despite its long history, many locals are unaware of the operation. “You’d be surprised,” Gonzalez says. One idea he’s implemented to spread the word: Personally investing in sandwich boards to put on the nearby street that read, “Concert Today.”
“The band’s been around for all these years, and I still meet people in San Francisco who have never heard of us, and then I’ll run across people, ‘Oh yeah my parents, my grandparents used to take me to the band concert.’ So it’s both those things,” Nemoyten said.