Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts has coasted past the dollar goal in one of the city\u2019s largest-ever fundraising campaigns for a cultural organization.<\/p>\n
Originally aiming to raise $330 million<\/a>, the ambitious drive ended up bringing in $344 million to support operations, build endowment, and fund special artistic initiatives.<\/p>\n The campaign was broad, counting more than 55,000 gifts from 24,000 individual sources and landing one of the most generous gifts ever to an American orchestra \u2014 $55 million from a couple whose identity has not been publicly disclosed.<\/p>\n The money reaped in the past six or seven years \u201cenabled us to get through and really thrive through these years with the merger<\/a> [between the orchestra and Kimmel Center], with refining Yannick\u2019s artistic vision of some very high-level artistic projects,\u201d POEA president and CEO Ryan Fleur<\/a> said, referring to orchestra music and artistic director Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin.<\/p>\n It focused the organization around \u201cmeaningful education and community work,\u201d Fleur said, and allowed for renovation work on the Kimmel Center, though \u201cthere\u2019s [still] a lot to do.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to funding immediate needs, the campaign also leaves the arts conglomerate\u2019s three nest eggs in better shape than before. Since the start of the drive, the combined endowments of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Academy of Music, and Kimmel Center have nearly doubled the $450 million from $230 million through a combination of new gifts and increased market value.<\/p>\n \u201cThat very much helps create a base for stability,\u201d said Fleur of the three funds, which are intended to exist in perpetuity with only a certain percentage (5.5 %) of the investment income being spent each year.<\/p>\n The orchestra\u2019s endowment market value is now among the highest five held by U.S orchestras, Fleur said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re competitive with the largest orchestras, and that\u2019s what this campaign has been able to do, because for many years our endowment was lower.\u201d<\/p>\n The $344 million figure includes not just special gifts, but also $146 million raised through regular annual giving \u2014 money spent on operations. The drive expanded the circle of support, bringing support from 13,000 donors who had never before given to either the orchestra or Kimmel Center.<\/p>\n The campaign counted money raised since Sept. 1, 2020 plus two earlier gifts: the $55 million donation, and another of $3 million, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Donations ranged in size from $1 to the 55 million from the anonymous couple, who were motivated by \u201cthe civilizing influence of art and culture on our society,\u201d in the words of then-orchestra board chairman Richard B. Worley.<\/p>\n Among the projects or initiatives funded through the campaign were opera productions like the much-praised Tristan und Isolde<\/a> in 2025; Pride Concerts<\/a> hosted by a variety of drag queens; renovations to the Miller Theater<\/a> and Academy of Music; and educational activities at the Kimmel Center.<\/p>\n Those theaters have ongoing renovation and maintenance projects lined up or contemplated, and the Kimmel Center, now a quarter-century old, requires substantial work.<\/p>\n As successful as the fund-drive was, it does not mean a pause in prospecting for the next gifts.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it puts us on a firm footing to be able to go out now to the next group of people and say, \u2018Look, we have a track record of success. This is a worthy cause to participate in and to invest in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The orchestra has incentives to offer, if advancing \u201cthe civilizing influence of art and culture on our society\u201d isn\u2019t enough by itself. Among them: after naming 13 musician chairs in the just-ended campaign, the orchestra has 55 more chairs that may be named for donors. <\/p>\n Reaching $344 million may be cause for celebration, but in the arc of cultural fundraising, Fleur calls the moment more of a \u201cspringboard\u201d than a \u201cfinish line.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts has coasted past the dollar goal in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,127107],"class_list":["post-310670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-orchestra-kimmel-center-fundraising-goal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}