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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Meg Whalen – (704) 714-5114
megw@charlottesymphony.org
Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Director of Public Relations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  - December 31, 2009

Symphony Meets $1.77 Million “Bridge Fund” Goal for FY 2010 Focus shifts to building annual operating revenue

The Charlotte Symphony (CSO) announced today that it has met the $1.77 million “bridge fund” goal for this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2010.

The “bridge fund” is a special fund created to allow the Symphony to maintain balanced budgets over the next five years as the Symphony continues to increase its annual operating revenue and build a larger endowment fund.

This fiscal year, the Charlotte Symphony reduced its operating expenses by more than a million dollars, down from $8.7 million in FY 2009 to $7.6 million in FY 2010, and established increased revenue goals – both from ticket sales and contributions. Nevertheless, given its small endowment fund, a decrease in funding from the Arts & Science Council for this fiscal year, and effects from the economic downturn, those measures alone would not result in a balanced budget, even if all revenue goals are met. The $1.77 million fund, therefore, will bridge the operating gap for this fiscal year.

As the Charlotte Symphony improves its annual operating revenue and grows its endowment over the next six years, the operating gaps are projected to gradually decrease. At the end of this period the improvements are expected to produce sustainable balanced budgets. The Symphony is raising a total of $5.6 million in special bridge funding to cover the projected operating gaps during that six-year period.

The bridge fund campaign began this summer with audience-contributed donations from the July 3 “Celebrate America” concert in Symphony Park and continued with over $500,000 in additional contributions from Symphony Board members. In August, an anonymous $500,000 challenge gift was issued, and on December 23, the Symphony announced that it had successfully matched this gift, acknowledging Sandra and Leon Levine as the donors of the challenge gift. In September the Symphony announced two separate $1 million pledges, from Hugh and Jane McColl and from the Spangler family, through the C.D. Spangler Foundation. Throughout the summer and fall, hundreds of additional individual donations were made to this special bridge fund from both new and longtime Symphony supporters.

“Support from the community has been extraordinary, and we are profoundly grateful,” said CSO Executive Director Jonathan Martin. “Now that the bridge fund goal has been met for this year, we must turn our focus to meeting our budgeted revenue goals for this fiscal year. Many challenges remain for the Charlotte Symphony, and now our number one job is to continue to make the most compelling case possible for the community to invest in its orchestra through increased annual support.”

The budget for FY 2010 calls for $2.3 million in earned income through ticket sales and $2.8 million in contributed revenue (excluding the $1.77 million bridge funding). As of the end of December, the Symphony is on track to meet both goals, helped significantly by recent gifts to the annual fund of $100,000 by Wells Fargo and an additional $50,000 from Sandra and Leon Levine.

The Symphony’s donor base broadened substantially in 2009, with more than one thousand individual donations since August. As of this month, the total number of first-time donors to the Symphony was five times the number of new donors at the same time last year. Likewise, the number of Classics subscribers has grown for the fourth consecutive year, as has the total subscription revenue.