Corporate donors are stepping up to the Boise Philharmonic

Corporate dollars are returning to the Boise Philharmonic Association after a number of fallow years.

The Philharmonic has attracted $80,000 in corporate funding since July 1, with ambitions to reach $125,000 by the time the fiscal year ends June 30, said Amy House, the organization’s director of development and marketing. The Boise Philharmonic season opens Sept. 26.

In the 2013-14 season, corporate sponsorship reached $20,000 or, as Amy House described it, zero dollars.

Corporate dollars are the lifeblood for fine arts organizations nationwide. When corporate dollars dry up, so, too, do some organizations. That happened with Opera Pacific in Orange County, Calif., and nearly occurred this spring with the San Diego Opera.

The Boise Philharmonic slogged through the recession with nary a corporate dollar. It survived through an especially robust commitment of individual dollars from a “very supportive” community, in the words of Executive Director Sandra Culhane.

Like any business – and Culhane is upfront about talking about the Boise Philharmonic as a business – the Philharmonic seeks a diversified income stream. Ticket sales account for only about 40 percent of revenue, which is typical for fine arts organizations across the country. The Philharmonic’s $2 million budget is about 62 percent contributed income.

“We’re trying to develop corporate giving,” Culhane said. “It’s an open slate for us. It’s really not an area we focused our energy on in recent years.”

The corporate campaign started in April as House, after four months of discussion, won a $25,000 gift from Albertsons to help fund the Boise Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Culhane and House then invited two dozen business leaders to breakfast in July to explain the Philharmonic business model and listen to what the corporate world wants from the Boise Philharmonic.

“What we heard is what people don’t know about our orchestra,” Culhane said. “They didn’t know the breadth of our activities. They are excited about that. They were engaged.”

Culhane told business leaders that Philharmonic musicians appear in all 263 second grade classrooms in the Treasure Valley; that the orchestra performs free children’s concerts; that Music Director Robert Franz makes more than 100 school classroom visits per year; and that musicians offer a Musically Speaking lecture series before each concert.

“How are we relevant? We absolutely must be relevant to them,” said Culhane, who joined the Boise Philharmonic in May 2013.

The Boise Philharmonic Board of Directors and Culhane are nearing the end of a strategic planning process. Culhane sees potential uses for increased corporate funding.

“We’d like to cover more of Idaho,” Culhane said. “We want to do a tour of Idaho with larger ensembles. We want to live stream eventually and do Webinars. Amy put together a wonderful menu of opportunities (for potential corporate donors). Strategic planning will chart the course we want to go.”

Saint Alphonsus Health System recently offered $5,000 to sponsor the Philharmonic’s new series for senior citizens. Saint Alphonsus hasn’t sponsored a Boise Philharmonic series in at least 10 years, said Linda Payne Smith, the hospital’s vice president of marketing and community development.

The Micron Foundation gave $10,000 to help fund the Philharmonic’s free Children’s Concerts series in January for third to fifth graders in Boise and Nampa. This is the annual “Musical Tour of the Planets” narrated by former astronaut Barbara Morgan.

“It’s a way to provide students the arts and science at the same time,” said Kami Faylor, the foundation’s community relations manager. ”We like to fund opportunity at schools that support a passion in the next generation for science and engineering.”

Across the country, economic development groups cite the value of the fine arts in recruiting talent to a city. Zions Bank Chief Executive Scott Anderson espoused the value of business investment in the arts in an Idaho Business Review guest column in March.

“The Philharmonic has sent Scott Anderson’s guest opinion to many corporations because the message is excellent for companies to give to the arts,” said Ray Stark, the Boise Phil’s board chair and senior vice president at the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce. “We’re using that letter as a door opener in targeted requests for sponsorship opportunities.”