Anybody here ever put together a charity CD?
 

I've been thinking about putting together a charity CD for Christmas 2008, trying to get several local artists/bands to contribute to the project. The songs would be submitted on a volunteer basis, be submitted for approval, and of course the artists would retain the full rights to their music.

Where I need advice is I don't have an actual record label or anything like that. I am just a regular guy looking to do something that makes a difference on a local level for something like an animal shelter or Toys For Tots. (Toys for Tots would make sense for a local charity CD fundraiser, but I'd like to also raise money for a local animal shelter as I think they could use the help at Christmas time as well...still undecided...) So I have a TON of questions, such as how do you get the word out and spread the interest among local artists to contribute a song to your project, how do you promote the project (hopefully some local radio stations and TV stations could do a story on it, I don't know), and once you get the CDs made, how do you distribute them? What about the legal mumbo jumbo release forms artists should sign when they submit their music? If I have 1000 CDs made and send some out to the local record stores and sell them at points of interest (such as the animal shelter I would hope to raise money for) do I sell the CDs up front for my asking cost? Do I need to set up a business account at the bank to run checks through? Would I need to apply for a tax ID number for that, or for exempt status since it would be for charity?

I think about too much at once...I think it's a good goal to set for myself, and I don't want this to be too overwhelming where I say screw it, I can't do this. I think I CAN do it, but I don't know how to see it through.

So if anybody here has been involved in such a project, I sure could use some advice. And there are even more questions I have (such as selling it online...exactly how would I go about setting it up so once somebody pays through Pay Pal the download is automatically available for them?) and more I am sure I could think of in the future. People put out charity CDs all the freaking time, it seems, but it doesn't seem like there is a lot of information online how to go about seeing it through.