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Texas Ballet Theater could topple because of serious financial problems
We raise the curtain on five comparable ballet companies across the country. The biggest difference? They all have full-time fundraising staffs.
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On Aug. 13, when the Texas Ballet Theater announced it was canceling a much-anticipated fall tour of China — citing its inability to raise an extra $70,000 — few realized how that decision would reveal a host of grave financial and organizational problems that have hounded the 47-year-old company and that threaten its future.
For example:
TBT has accumulated debts estimated at $850,000, which includes owing about $100,000 to the Fort Worth Symphony and $153,000 to Bass Hall.
According to an internal TBT document, the company has suffered a $700,000 decline in fundraising revenues over the past three years.
Because of the debt burden and fundraising shortfall, the ballet canceled the use of live orchestras for its 2008-09 season. That meant erasing a $350,000 rollover contract with the Fort Worth Symphony.
The ballet canceled five performances in two Dallas venues.
The challenge facing the ballet was to raise $500,000 in cash by its Sept. 12 opening show at Dallas’ Majestic Theater and $2 million in cash and pledges by the end of the calendar year or face the possibility of declaring bankruptcy or closing its doors.
Thus far, mission half-accomplished.
An intensive fundraising drive during the past six weeks — often spearheaded by its corps of 38 dancers and their "Get Behind Your Ballet" campaign — has raised an estimated $230,000 in cash, with the ballet having accumulated almost $1.4 million in cash and pledges.
How did the ballet get into this fix? Robin Arena, its volunteer chairwoman, has said that one of the root causes of the company’s persistent financial woes has been an unwieldy and inadequate management structure. During an August interview with members of the Star-Telegram’s editorial board, Arena not only accepted some responsibility for the ballet’s financial predicament but also ascribed it to a "perfect storm" of circumstances that included a "dysfunctional" management team.
In an internal e-mail obtained by the Star-Telegram in August, ballet officials acknowledge their company’s management shortcomings.
"Although the company’s artistic leadership and product have never been better," the ballet’s document states, "the administrative leadership has not kept pace."
Even more central to the ballet’s money troubles is that the company has gone more than three years without a professional full-time development director, since Victor Mashburn left for Casa Mañana in 2005.
Since his departure, much of the ballet’s fundraising has been orchestrated by Arena, in tandem with other select members of the board. Several years ago, the ballet formally designated two members of the Fort Worth-based Once Upon a Time Foundation — one of the ballet’s biggest financial backers —to assume most of the fundraising.
Arena told the Star-Telegram in August that she "didn’t think it [the two-pronged fundraising arrangement] was working. I made those feelings known," she said. Indeed, within the past year, that two-member fundraising team has relinquished its duties.
According to five ballet executives from various companies across the country, all comparable in size to Texas Ballet Theater, a full-time, in-house development director is crucial to the financial well-being of any ballet company.
"You really can’t consistently raise funds without a dedicated development director along with a staff working alongside him or her," says Jeffrey J. Bentley, executive director of the Kansas City Ballet. "These professional people have to be at the ballet all the time. There is a reason why it’s called 'development’ and not just 'fundraising,’ because you need to spend a lot of time 'developing’ donors, and no one person can do all of that, let alone part time."
47 years
$6.7 million (with no separate operating reserve or endowment)
38
Has not had a full-time on-staff development director since 2005.
With an estimated outstanding debt of $850,000, Texas Ballet Theater has said it needs to raise $2 million in cash and pledges by the end of this year, and $4 million by June — the end of the current fiscal year — to ensure fiscal stability. Through Oct. 7, the company has raised $1.375 million in cash and pledges — including $230,000 in cash raised by the dancers through their own drive.
As of April, an average cost for a mixed repertory program (usually three acts per evening, over four performances) can be $100,000 to $120,000. A larger, story-length ballet such as Sleeping Beauty can cost as much as $328,000, with most of them averaging between $225,000 and $300,000.
19 years
$6.7 million (with no operating reserve or endowment)
28
Six on full development team: a director (responsible for major gifts); a corporate and donor relations manager; an individual giving manager; a director of planned giving; a director of foundation relations; and a database manager.
Over the last two years, Oregon Ballet Theatre, which runs on 60 percent earned (ticket-derived) revenues and 40 percent contributed revenues, reported an increase in its annually contributed (donor-supplied) revenues by more than $1 million, with an expansion in donors by more than 100 percent.
$300,000-$400,000 (full-length story ballet); $200,000-$250,000 (standard repertory show)
39 years
$7.7 million (plus a $10 million endowment; $500,000 in an operating cash reserve)
30
Three primary development staff: one for corporate donors; a second with foundations; a third for individual gifts. They are supplemented by staff handling a database, a tele-fundraising campaign logistically handled by an outside calling center and special events.
Pittsburgh Ballet’s operating budget receives 53 percent of its funding from contributed revenue and 47 percent from ticket and ballet school monies. It recently reported a two-year uptick in overall revenues of 22 percent, with a 32 percent increase in donations.
$428,000-$460,000 (full-length story ballet/Nutcracker run); $175,000 (mixed-repertory evening of three short ballets)
40 years
$8.7 million (plus a $1.2 million endowment)
25
Five full-time staff members, including a development director and a special-events manager, plus several staff members specializing in various fundraising niches.
Contributed revenues account for 55 percent of the ballet’s overall operating budget of $8.7 million, while ticket sales and its school tuition fees account for roughly 45 percent of its operating budget. From 2005 to ’08, the Washington Ballet has gone from $1,890,050 in contributions from individuals, corporations, foundations and government programs to $2,951,800.
$260,000-$350,000 for a repertory program of four pieces in one evening; $400,000-$950,000 for a full run of a story-length ballet such as Peter Pan or The Nutcracker.
48 years
$7.3 million
31
Among its full-time development staff of four are two full-time development directors, handling corporate, foundation and individual gifts, plus a database manager and a staff member specializing in organizing fundraising special events. The company also has a finance director.
The Colorado Ballet relies on ticket sales to fill 49 percent of its operating budget and a bit more than 40 percent from donations (with the remaining 11 percent filled by ballet school tuitions, studio rentals and ballet store sales). Starting in 2005, the Colorado Ballet accumulated $1.85 million in donations and contributions from individuals, corporations, foundations, and government sources. By 2008, that contributed-revenues figure had increased to $2.83 million — or an increase of about 53 percent (with individuals beefing up their giving by the largest amount).
Range from a repertory triple-bill running $443,000 to as much as $1.4 million for a story-length ballet such as Sleeping Beauty.
50 years
$5.5 million ($4.5 million in an endowment; $1.4 million in a cash reserve)
26
Along with a full-time, on-staff development director, Kansas City employs executives focusing on individual, foundation and corporate giving, and a special-events coordinator to recruit new donors.
Kansas City more than quadrupled the amount of funding it normally receives from the Missouri Arts Council — going, over a three-year period, from $21,000 to $90,000. Contributed revenues (from state, individual, corporate and foundation donors), have increased from $1.995 million in 2005-06 to $2.95 million in 2007-08.
Range from $106,000 for a 20-minute ballet choreographed by an in-house artistic director to a repertory evening of three, 25-minute ballets costing $350,000; to $550,000 for a story-length ballet such as Romeo and Juliet.
The Star-Telegram contacted the top executives of five comparable ballet companies to see how these companies are structured and how successful they are.
