Putting a Face on Theatre
Best,
Kevin
Tags: Grants, financial, non-profit
Replies to This Discussion
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We hired a consultant who promised us several grants, but never delivered. He helped set up a non profit status and set up an artistic board, but all who agreed to be part of it was there for their own personal gains and not the theatre. We are part of a school district, so finding a grant should not have been that hard. Any ideas on places to search for grants would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Bryan
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Gosh, Bryan, sorry you had a bad experience. We're hoping the article is helpful.
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This is perfect timing!! I am looking for funding to help build a school theatre.!!
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I found a place for all of us to start http://www.paservicelearning.org/Resources/Grants/Arts.htm
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Permalink Reply by Troy Heard on -
I've gotten the best results from corporate giving. Target and Publix (Southeastern supermarket chain) have been generous in the past...as well as Wachovia and smaller, local corporations.
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Hi, Troy!
Thanks again for your help ... I looked up the theater company to make sure I had the name right, and it appears that there's still a production planned for May? Or is the theater in fact on hiatus but that happens to be on the web still? Or perhaps it's limping along in some way? Let me know! Thanks.
Best,
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Permalink Reply by Troy Heard on
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Unfortunately it hasn't been updated yet. That was the final stake in the heart, RiverShakes weekend. We've usually relied upon strong local sponsorships for that production, and I held out (for a hero) as long as possible. It is, unfortunately, postponed as well.
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I've had success with medium-sized gifts ($1k-$2k) from corporates like Wal-Mart and Target, but have had trouble finding larger grants for significant projects. They seem pretty hard to find these days. I'm interested to see what everyone has to say!
A recently did some consulting for a college that was able to get a matching-funds-type grant from their local power company to help them upgrade to LED fixtures. That route seems pretty likely to yield results because, even in the hard times, many givers are interested in helping others 'go green.'
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Permalink Reply by Gina Harrison on -
I have been thinking about this & TheatreFace specifically for a couple of weeks. Wouldn't this be a great place to have a section where we could all post grant information? Just having a central location we could check periodically would seem like a big asset.
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Kevin:
Hi. I was artistic director for the Summer Repertory Theatre at Blackburn College for 15 years. I am also the co-founder. We discovered early on that finding grants for seed money was really hard. After we were established we started getting state grants. We involved a lot of youth so and that seemed to help. Then we discovered that the major oil company that one of our board members husband worked for had grants for arts. After that we got a grant from them almost every year.
One other thing we learned about fund raising is the value of a funny fund raising letter. Early on we started using humor in our annual spring fund raising letter and it paid off well. We had a high rate of return and people started to look forward to our spring letter requesting money.
Richard T. Young
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