In Friday’s (11/4) Charlotte Observer, Steven Brown reports on the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, which on Thursday announced three new gifts totaling $1.5 million to launch its new capital campaign. “The orchestra, which has seen a series of turnaround plans run afoul of the recession, thinks a bigger financial foundation is the key to ending the money troubles that began in 2003. … The donations announced Thursday are headed by $500,000 each from the Leon Levine Foundation; Duke Energy chief Jim Rogers and his wife, Mary Anne; and an anonymous donor. Ten other donors pledged the remaining $1 million. The orchestra’s first goal is ‘to secure the next five years,’ said former Gov. Jim Martin, the orchestra’s board chair. The orchestra, whose expenses this season will be about $8.6 million, faces a budget shortage of about $2 million a year, its leaders say. They attribute most of that to two factors that arose in 2009: a drop in corporate support because of the recession; and a $1 million cut from the Arts & Science Council.” The first stage of the campaign is to add $2 million each year over five years to the CSO’s current average contributed revenues of $4 million per year.
Posted November 4, 2011
