The storefront at 38 S. Main Street in Marshall, North Carolina, future home of the ReString Hub

Case study · Music nonprofit

How ReString Appalachia, a nonprofit music venue, built a home base for Western North Carolina musicians

After Hurricane Helene, a Marshall, North Carolina nonprofit set out to rebuild the local music economy. We built their membership, programming, volunteer and gig-placement tools with them, one working session at a time.

The short version

ReString Appalachia helps working musicians in Western North Carolina find paid gigs, and the gear and support to play them. They are a venue, a booking agent and a music shop at once, and no tool fit all three. Since July we have met with Executive Director Nicholas Edward Williams and Chief Marketing Officer Justin Forrest five times, and built the Hub around how they actually work: tiered memberships with real discounts at the register, programming nights that never get lost behind ticketed shows, and placements that send musicians to other people's rooms without taking a cent. Their room opens October 31. We will update this story with what they learn.

About ReString

A nonprofit music venue, keeping the music going

After Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024, Appalachian musicians lost more than gear. Instruments are how many of them earn a living, and how they stay tied to a tradition that runs back generations. Tourism dried up, gigs went with it, and more players took to busking than anyone could remember. Many had the talent but not the contacts: booking in the mountains runs on email and relationships, and if you do not know who to call, you do not play.

ReString Appalachia started by putting instruments back in musicians' hands. Their next step is a place to gather: the Marshall Music Exchange, a music shop with a performance room, the ReString Hub, opening October 31, 2026 on Main Street in Marshall. Membership is free. Depending on the tier, it brings 20 to 75% off instruments, strings and repairs, plus an instrument library, photo and video sessions, workshops, and for professional members, a place on the roster ReString uses to recommend musicians to venues across the region.

When a venue asks for, say, an acoustic singer-songwriter on a Friday, Nicholas sends a few names. Nobody pays for that. Not the venue, and not the musician.

A musician receiving a donated guitar from ReString Appalachia — ReString started by replacing instruments lost to the storms. Photos courtesy of ReString Appalachia.

We started after Hurricane Helene, giving instruments back to musicians that lost them. There are so many more ongoing needs that musicians face in a post-disaster zone like Western North Carolina, where it's going to be years until tourism is restored, until musicians are paid a fair wage.

Nicholas Edward Williams

Executive Director, ReString Appalachia

The challenge

Three jobs for one music nonprofit, and no tool built for any of them

A venue, an agent and a shop in one building. ReString runs a room, recommends musicians to other rooms, and runs a membership program that a cash register has to honor. Software exists for each of those jobs. Software for all three, at the scale of a small nonprofit, did not.

Programming nights were invisible. Nicholas first signed up for Roadi as a venue manager, because there was no better fit. A venue account is built around ticketed shows, four to eight a month. ReString plans 10 to 12 programs a month: jams, workshops, gospel singing, open mics and trading post events, and none of them look like a show.

Everything lived in Google. Sign-ups came through JotForm and Google Forms, and matching answers across them was a chore. Nicholas was not comfortable with where that member data lived. Five years of venue contacts sat in a shared document, and some of those rooms had closed since the storm.

Funders need numbers, not anecdotes. ReString's grants depend on showing who they serve: how many musicians, how many nights, how many people came, how many volunteer hours. Pulling that together by hand eats time a small team does not have.

Right now, everything's going to Google, and I don't really feel great about that.

Nicholas Edward Williams

Executive Director, ReString Appalachia

The partnership

Built with them, not just for them

ReString is a design partner. They shaped the product as it was built, and while carpenters framed the walls on Main Street, we built the software that will run the room.

Five working sessions between July 21 and September 29, 2026, with Nicholas, ReString's CMO Justin Forrest, and Roadi's Todd Lee and Ryan Tatum.
Built from their own documents. Justin shared how ReString runs, and their real membership table went in exactly as they wrote it.
A sample workspace to break. An empty account is hard to judge, so we gave them a second workspace full of sample data to test every screen before their own data moves in.
Simple first. Both sides agreed not to build every idea at once: ship the simple version, use it, then improve it.

You didn't just take our requirements and nail them. You got inside our heads and showed us how we should be running the nonprofit.

Justin Forrest

CMO, ReString Appalachia

A sign in the shop window reading Future home of ReString Appalachia — The Hub during its build-out. Photos courtesy of ReString Appalachia.

The long, narrow shop interior during renovation, with ladders and scaffolding — The Hub during its build-out. Photos courtesy of ReString Appalachia.

They asked, we built

What they neededWhat we built

Member sign-ups that do not live in Google Forms
Forms they design in Roadi and embed on their own website, in their own colors, with every answer kept as ReString's own record
A sign-up spot in the shop that works with nobody at the counter
A kiosk mode for a tablet that clears itself after each person and keeps working when the connection drops
Member discounts of up to 75% that nobody can game
An applications queue where a person decides every tier. Roadi suggests one, but never picks it
Proof that members keep showing up
Check-ins and headcounts on every night, ready for a grant report
Five years of venue contacts in one place
My Network: import a spreadsheet or sync a Google Sheet, without overwriting anything
Pro members who need to be bookable
A free Roadi indie band account for every Pro member, started from their sign-up answers

Why we built it

What we built for ReString is now open to every music nonprofit on Roadi.

We will say it plainly: we love what ReString does. A small team in a mountain town looked at what a hurricane did to its musicians and decided the answer was to keep them playing. Then they went and did it, one instrument and one gig at a time.

Roadi exists to make live music work for the people who make it, starting with the independent musicians who carry it. ReString is that same mission with a storefront on Main Street. When Nicholas first signed up, the closest thing we had was a venue account, and it did not fit. So instead of asking ReString to bend around our software, we built them a nonprofit account shaped around how they actually work.

Everything we built with them is now the foundation of Roadi for music nonprofits. A community music space, an arts council or a musician relief group that signs up today gets everything we built with ReString from day one. ReString made Roadi better for every nonprofit that comes after them.

How it works

The software ReString runs its music nonprofit on

One account for the whole operation: the members, the room, the shop counter, the crew and the musicians they send out into the region.

Membership and applications

Membership tiers, and a person decides every one

Musicians apply through a form on ReString's website or a tablet in the shop. Each application lands in a queue with the person's answers beside it.

Roadi suggests a tier from those answers, but a staff member always makes the call. Both the suggestion and the decision are kept, along with who made it. ReString's 13 member benefits are theirs to edit: add, rename or retire one in Settings and it changes on every tier at once.

The Applications queue: five musicians waiting on a tier decision, each with a suggested tier and a Review button — Shown with sample data

Programming and attendance

Programming and attendance: 10 to 12 programs a month, none lost

Jams, workshops, sessions and rehearsals get their own calendar, separate from ticketed shows and free of deal terms. A weekly series can be changed one night at a time.

Staff type a headcount or check people in by name from a phone, with regulars listed first. Roadi records whether a night was counted at all, so "nobody came" and "nobody counted" never look the same in a report.

Programming: programs running, nights this week, attendance counted, and the nights that still need a headcount — Shown with sample data

At the counter

The discount, as a number

At the register, staff search a member by name and see the discount as a number. If someone has no tier yet, the screen says so plainly: charge full price and let the office know.

Volunteers can use it without being able to browse the member list.

The counter lookup showing a Pro member and each benefit written out, such as 75% off instruments — Shown with sample data

Staffing and volunteers

Volunteer scheduling on one board

Shop coverage, event shifts and appointments live on one board. Volunteers claim open shifts, and Roadi warns about clashes before they happen.

Volunteer hours and paid hours are tracked separately and never added together.

The staffing schedule for a week: store coverage and a Gospel Sing with host and setup shifts covered — Shown with sample data

My Network and placements

Booking local musicians, with no commission

Every venue in ReString's network, with its contacts and its history, in one place. When a room asks for a musician, Matches ranks Pro members who fit, with the reasons and the drive time, and Nicholas decides who to send.

Only verified Pro members can be placed. A shareable roster link shows only musicians who said yes to being listed, with no phone numbers or emails.

Every member can also read Roadi's free guides for working musicians, like how to book shows and going from free shows to paid ones.

Matches for a bar that wants a recommendation, ranking musicians with the reason each one fits — Shown with sample data

Impact reports

Impact reports a funder can trust

Eight reports built for funders: placements, musician pay, roster growth, volunteer hours, geography, barriers, instrument assistance and participants.

Every figure shows what it was counted from, and every export says where the numbers came from.

The impact report: a funnel from roster to paid date, with musicians, work created and reach — Shown with sample data

A trio playing to a seated audience in a small room — Gigs, the instrument library, workshops and luthier services: what membership opens up. Photos courtesy of ReString Appalachia.

Two musicians trying a banjo and an archtop guitar in a music shop — Gigs, the instrument library, workshops and luthier services: what membership opens up. Photos courtesy of ReString Appalachia.

For ReString's Pro members

Every Pro member gets a free Roadi indie band account

When ReString approves a musician for its Pro tier, Roadi sets them up with their own indie band account, started from the answers they gave when they joined. They set a password and they are in, with the same booking, advancing and settlement tools independent bands use across Roadi. For ReString, it means every musician they vouch for walks away with real business tools, not just a discount.

We don't want to hand everything on a silver platter. We want them to build up their own sustainable music careers, but we're going to give them a lot of resources to do that.

Nicholas Edward Williams

Executive Director, ReString Appalachia

A press kit at its own link

Bio, photos, tech rider and music on one page they can drop into any email to a venue.

Book their own shows

Every outreach, hold, offer and confirmed date on one calendar, instead of in a notebook and three inboxes.

Advance every show

Contacts, load-in, set times, rider and hospitality, agreed with the venue before the day.

Settle with the same numbers

The venue and the band see the same settlement, with the same math, at the end of the night.

Split the money fairly

What each member earned per show, worked out for them, uneven cuts and expenses included.

Know what they earn

Profit and loss by show, tour and town, so they know which rooms are worth going back to.

Their data, theirs to take

Everything exports. A musician can hand it to an accountant or leave with all of it.

Free, for good

Independent bands never pay for Roadi. No credit card and no trial that runs out.

See everything an independent band gets on Roadi for indie bands.

A Roadi + ReString partnership

Venues in ReString's network get Roadi free for 4 months

If you run a room ReString sends musicians to, a cafe, a brewery, a bar or a listening room in Western North Carolina, your first four months of Roadi are on us. It is the same venue management and booking software independent rooms use across Roadi, and it puts you one message away from the musicians ReString vouches for.

Musicians ReString vouches for

Need someone for a Friday? Ask ReString and they recommend verified Pro members who fit your room, with no booking fee.

Holds and offers on one calendar

Every hold, offer and confirmed night in one place, so nothing is double booked or lost in a text thread.

Settle the night together

Door deals and flat guarantees, box office reconciled, with the band seeing the same numbers you do.

Know what each show made

Profit and loss for every show, so you know which nights to book again.

Run the night from your phone

Day-of-show details on a phone: who is playing, when they load in and what was agreed.

Your whole staff, no extra seats

Unlimited shows and unlimited seats. Bartenders, sound and the booker all work from the same plan.

Choose "Venue" and tell us your room. We confirm you are in ReString's network and set you up. See everything venues get or compare plans.

The offer is for venues on ReString's network list and covers every venue plan. Your four free months begin when Roadi comes out of beta, and after them your plan moves to its regular price automatically. The offer is ongoing, with no end date.

Rules we built in

What the software will not do

A nonprofit's trust is its whole business. These rules are written into Roadi itself, not left to good intentions.

ReString owns its data

Members, attendance, programming and reports belong to ReString, not Roadi. Roadi never sells them, every report exports to a spreadsheet they keep, and their money stays in their own accounts.

No commission, ever

Placements have no field for a cut, a split or a fee. A test fails the build if anyone ever adds one.

People decide, software suggests

Roadi never assigns a membership tier and never decides who is eligible to be sent to a venue.

Consent is asked, never assumed

Being listed publicly, being contacted and sharing data are three separate yeses, and each one starts as no.

Volunteer time is not paid time

Volunteer hours and paid hours are tracked side by side and never added together in any report.

Nothing quietly disappears

A cancelled night stays on the calendar, struck through. An archived member still counts in past reports.

Before and after

Where the work lives now

Task	Before	With Roadi
Member sign-up	JotForm and Google Forms, matched up by hand	One form on their website, a tablet in the shop and a QR code, all landing in one queue
Deciding a member's tier	Case by case, with no record of who decided	An applications queue that keeps the reviewer's name on every decision
Discounts at the register	Memory and a printed list	A counter lookup that shows the discount as a number
Programming nights	Squeezed into a calendar built for ticketed shows	Their own calendar, with attendance on every night
Venue contacts	A shared document five years in the making	My Network, with contacts, history and duplicates merged
Recommending musicians	Search the notes, then write the email	Matches ranks members who fit a room, and Nicholas picks
Grant numbers	Pulled together by hand at report time	Eight reports, with exports that show where every number came from

Member sign-up

Before

JotForm and Google Forms, matched up by hand

With Roadi

One form on their website, a tablet in the shop and a QR code, all landing in one queue

Deciding a member's tier

Before

Case by case, with no record of who decided

With Roadi

An applications queue that keeps the reviewer's name on every decision

Discounts at the register

Before

Memory and a printed list

With Roadi

A counter lookup that shows the discount as a number

Programming nights

Before

Squeezed into a calendar built for ticketed shows

With Roadi

Their own calendar, with attendance on every night

Venue contacts

Before

A shared document five years in the making

With Roadi

My Network, with contacts, history and duplicates merged

Recommending musicians

Before

Search the notes, then write the email

With Roadi

Matches ranks members who fit a room, and Nicholas picks

Grant numbers

Before

Pulled together by hand at report time

With Roadi

Eight reports, with exports that show where every number came from

Run a music nonprofit?

See what the Hub could do for yours, with or without a room of your own.

Talk to us

By the numbers

What this nonprofit music venue has in place for opening day

Setup, not results

working sessions, July to September: 5working sessions, July to September
membership tiers, entered as ReString wrote them: 4membership tiers, entered as ReString wrote them
member benefits, each one editable: 13member benefits, each one editable
programs a month the Hub is built to carry: 10-12programs a month the Hub is built to carry
funder-ready impact reports: 8funder-ready impact reports
commission on every placement: 0%commission on every placement

What's next

The road to opening night, and past it

July 21, 2026
First working session
Nicholas walks us through the membership program, the room and the venue network.
August 2026
The nonprofit account takes shape
Membership, programming, consent, check-ins and grant tracking, built around ReString's real tier table.
September 14, 2026
The Hub is handed over
ReString takes ownership of their account, with a sample workspace beside it to test every screen.
October 2026(planned)
Member sign-ups go live
On ReString's website, on a tablet in the shop and from a QR code in the window.
October 31, 2026(planned)
The ReString Hub opens
38 S. Main Street, Marshall, North Carolina.
Spring 2027(planned)
The booking push
Members and venue contacts settle in over the winter, then ReString aims for 50 venue relationships.

Connected to the shop register

ReString's Square register is connected to Roadi, so purchases and member discounts land right beside each member's record.

What they will measure

Members by tier, nights held and the people who came, volunteer hours, musicians placed, and what those musicians were paid.

We will update this story after ReString's first 90 days open, with what worked, what did not, and what we changed.

I really only work with people and organizations that are in direct alignment and resonate with us. And I feel like there are so many people that could benefit from using a platform like this.

Nicholas Edward Williams

Executive Director, ReString Appalachia

A string band performing on an outdoor stage

Questions from music nonprofits

What organizations like ReString ask before they move onto Roadi.

What is a nonprofit music venue?

A nonprofit music venue is a performance space run by a nonprofit organization for its community rather than for profit. Many, like the ReString Hub in Marshall, North Carolina, pair the room with programs: jams, workshops, open mics, member discounts and help finding paid gigs.

Is there software built for music nonprofits?

Yes. Roadi has a nonprofit account built with ReString Appalachia that covers membership tiers and applications, programming nights and attendance, volunteer scheduling, booking musicians into other venues with no commission, and impact reports for funders.

Who owns the data, the nonprofit or Roadi?

The nonprofit does. Under Roadi's terms, an organization owns what it puts in: members, attendance, programming and reports. Roadi never sells it, and every report exports to a spreadsheet the organization keeps.

Do a nonprofit's members get their own Roadi account?

They can. The nonprofit chooses which membership tiers include one, like ReString's Pro tier. When a member is approved for that tier, Roadi sets up a free indie band account from their sign-up answers, with booking, show advancing, settlement and a press kit at its own link.

How does a venue in ReString's network get 4 months free?

Click Claim 4 months free on this page and choose Venue. Venues on ReString's network list get four months of Roadi free on any venue plan, starting when Roadi comes out of beta. The offer is ongoing, and after the four months the plan moves to its regular price automatically.

Does Roadi take a cut when a nonprofit places a musician?

No. Placements carry no commission, split or fee, and the software has no place to record one. What a musician is paid is recorded as theirs, in full.

Can members sign up from our own website?

Yes. You design the form in Roadi and paste an embed code into your site. The same form works on a tablet in your space and from a QR code.

Can volunteers use Roadi without seeing member details?

Yes. Roles are admin, staff and volunteer. A volunteer can look up a discount at the counter without being able to browse the member list.

Does Roadi replace our accounting or donor software?

No. Roadi tracks grants awarded, received and spent, and builds the reports funders ask for. Your books stay in your accounting tool.

Is this only for nonprofits with their own room?

No. Programming, membership and placements work whether you run a room, share one, or book musicians into other people's spaces.

Building something like ReString?

We build Roadi with the people who use it. If you run a music nonprofit, an arts council or a community music space, let's talk about yours.

Talk to us