The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s capital campaign was a well-choreographed project that breathed new life into the organization’s fundraising plan

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

Finally, in the beginning of 2004, Ailey turned to direct mail, going after its ticket buyers and all of its existing donor lists to solicit gifts “all the way down to $100,” Rink says. It did a mass mailing of 46,000 direct-mail pieces that brought in $250,000. Among those 411 gifts, more than 300 were for less than $2,500 and more than half were from first-time donors.