Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Phila. Orchestra to get Penn Foundation gift

Last winter, with the Philadelphia Orchestra facing a bleak economy and a frightening 10 percent downturn in annual giving, its management sat down with officials of the William Penn Foundation to develop a proposal.

Last winter, with the Philadelphia Orchestra facing a bleak economy and a frightening 10 percent downturn in annual giving, its management sat down with officials of the William Penn Foundation to develop a proposal.

Would the foundation be willing to help the orchestra leverage support? The groups agreed that if the orchestra could reenergize giving by raising $500,000 in new money, the foundation would augment the campaign with a $250,000 gift.

The orchestra has not only met the terms of the challenge, it has exceeded them.

During the five months that began March 1, 921 "new" donors contributed nearly $300,000, and 951 existing donors increased their annual gifts by $875,000, for a total of almost $1.2 million. (The definition of a "new" donor in this case was one who had not given to the orchestra in the previous season.)

That $1.2 million will trigger the release of William Penn's $250,000 gift.

The amount raised is not remarkable for the orchestra in ordinary times; the group brought in $8.45 million through its annual fund in 2008. But in an economy as rough as this one, interim orchestra leader Frank P. Slattery Jr. said, the fund-raising result is a significant achievement.

"Remember, those were the days when the world was falling apart; it was really very scary in March," he said. "This tells me that deep down, I think there are many people who have good feelings and goodwill toward the orchestra."

Where does this put the annual fund for the year? Orchestra officials are hesitant to predict a total with two weeks remaining in the fiscal year but hope that it will equal last year's level.

Still, even after the infusion, the orchestra expects to end its fiscal year with a deficit. Figures are still an estimate, but Slattery expects a deficit of between $2.0 million and $2.5 million on an annual $45 million budget.

Depressed ticket sales are in part responsible for the deficit. At the nearly 100 subscription concerts in Verizon Hall last season, capacity averaged 80 percent, lower than any point in at least the last 15 years. The hall was filled to near capacity when it opened in 2001, but the numbers have drifted lower since.

At 80 percent, the orchestra loses out on more than $3.5 million in possible ticket income.

Also weighing on finances is a depressed endowment; with its market value down, the income from it has dropped.

The foundation has a history of supporting the orchestra in this way. In 2006, a similar multiyear challenge program yielded $2 million from the foundation after the orchestra brought in $2 million from other donors to the annual fund.

"I have to say, William Penn came through for us," Slattery said. "No one knew whether the economy was going to drop off the end of the Earth, and they stood up and gave us this opportunity."