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Winter 2003 Newsletter
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Fund’s Challenge Grant
Encourages Symphony Gifts
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 This
year the Virginia Symphony marketing team has a new tool to
use when seeking donations to its annual campaign — a
$100,000 challenge grant.
The grant is from the North Shore Advised Fund, a donor
advised fund established at The Norfolk Foundation last year.
Through the challenge grant the Foundation will contribute $1
for every $2 of new or increased gifts to the symphony’s
annual campaign, up to $100,000.
With more than $62,000 in new and increased gifts generated
during the first two months of the campaign, “in our view the
match is working,” says John R. Morison, executive director
of the symphony. “The best source of [gifts for] the
challenge fund comes from people who are already giving.”
The challenge grant is part of a $250,000 grant awarded by
The Norfolk Foundation in October to help stabilize the
symphony, which has a core of 53 musicians for its nearly 150
annual performances. With ticket sales covering only 55
percent of the symphony’s expenses “we have been running a
deficit every year and have accumulated a debt of about $2
million,” Morison says.
For Morison, who joined the symphony staff last summer, it is
ironic that debt has mounted at a time when the 83-year-old
symphony has garnered national acclaim for its musical
excellence. In recent years the symphony has performed at the
Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Carnegie Hall in New
York. It has produced a CD and been heard on Performance
Today on National Public Radio. Conductor JoAnn Falletta has
won the Stokowski, Toscanini and Bruno Walter awards for
excellence.
In addition to the challenge grant, The Norfolk Foundation is
providing the symphony an additional $89,200 from the North
Shore Advised Fund to pay for market research and consulting
services. These are focused on strengthening the symphony’s
development efforts as it seeks a permanent director of
development. An additional $60,800 grant from The Norfolk
Foundation's unrestricted Community Fund will allow the
symphony to purchase new computer equipment and the Blackbaud
operating system for its development department.
“We are pleased the Foundation could partner with one of our
donors to find ways to improve the symphony’s long-term
financial stability,” says Leigh Davis, the Foundation’s vice
president of community philanthropy.
With the Virginia Symphony recognized as one of the top 30
orchestras in the country, Morison believes the development
campaign is vital. “I can’t imagine a community this size
without a good orchestra,” he says. “We already have that.
Now we just need to sustain it.
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To learn more about the Virginia Symphony call 466-3060 or
visit
www.virginiasymphony.org.
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