Fluid Fundraising

It was rigorously orchestrated, at times quite colorful and, in the end, a thing of beauty.

A performance by the world-renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater? Sort of. But it didn’t involve a mastery of modern movement or a cadre of exquisitely muscled artists.

This one took place behind the scenes and, ultimately, rendered a result that deserved a standing O or, at very least, a thunderous round of applause.

We’re talking fundraising, of course — specifically the five-year capital campaign that brought in $72 million to build a new home for what is perhaps the country’s most beloved dance group, complete with a cozy little endowment.

The original goal for the campaign was $66 million to cover the $54 million price tag for the building and a $12 million endowment. Talking with Bennett Rink, who as director of development at the NYC-based Ailey presided over the campaign, you would think the massive effort was, indeed, a complex pas de deux or other similarly magical component of the dance. He explains it all in painstaking detail, each carefully choreographed phase fused seamlessly to the next in logical progression. And it seems, just as one phase started to perhaps lose a little momentum, something “big” occurred — either by design or happenstance — to move the campaign to the next level.

The project started in 1998, when the burgeoning dance group was living out of a two-floor space in a multi-purpose building at 61st Street between 10th and 11th avenues, squeezing rehearsal and performance space, offices and everything else in to 36,000 square feet. A strategic plan determined it needed a little more room — like, oh, twice the space — to give dancers and the organization in general the space to be the best it could be and to grow to expand and refine its mission.

“We wanted the building to not simply serve the needs of the organization but to be for the community as well,” Rink explains, adding that the new building’s 77,000 square feet provides space to rent out studio space at discount rates to community dance groups and support programs for disadvantaged youths, as well as the necessary performance and rehearsal space, offices, physical-therapy facilities and the like.

Between 1998 and 2000, the development team worked with a consultant to put together a case statement, establish a steering committee and begin to identify, with the help of board members, potential major donors. In summer 2000, the actual “quiet” stage of the campaign began, focusing mainly on face-to-face meetings with hand-picked individuals. The goal: seven-figure leadership gifts. Among the earliest gifts was a $15 million donation by board member Joan Weill and her husband, Sandy, who co-chaired the campaign with his wife.

“Definitely, early on, we were trying to sit down with potential donors,” Rink explains. “Usually there would be two or three people from Ailey — a board member typically, someone who was on the steering committee often would go, and either Judith Jamison, our artistic director, or Sharon Luckman, our executive director, would go.

“Certainly, initially, it was people who had a history of supporting us,” he adds, “individuals or corporations or foundations, people who were close to us already. And that’s when the Ford Foundation came in with a million dollar grant. Then we were on our way.”

A site for sore eyes
The campaign got a major boost in 2001, when Ailey finally scouted out and bought the site of its future home at 405 W. 55th St. Now there were architectural models to show. And even a conspicuously quiet and naked plot of ground amid the chaos of the big city is better than just a concept when it comes to making a presentation to potential donors. About this time was when the city kicked in with a $9.5 million appropriation, which grew to $10.3 million in the ensuing years.

At the end of that year, Ailey already had raised $47.5 million, and it had yet to go public with the campaign, mine its general donor files or — gasp! — do much of anything with direct mail.

The public phase of the campaign found the organization still seeking those seven-figure leadership gifts but focusing more heavily on smaller amounts in the $25,000 to $100,000 range and soliciting folks who might not have ever given to Ailey before. Sources for leads included the steering committee and board members, of course, but also some celebrities and other prominent figures, as well as the group’s list of people who had bought tickets to performances. They were courted through cocktail parties and receptions hosted around performances and more one-on-one meetings followed up by personal letters.

It was a new approach for Ailey but would become an important part of its future fundraising efforts.

“As we start to focus on major gifts, now that we’re coming out of the [capital] campaign, I think the lesson we learned is how important it is to try to sit down with the donor and hear from them, first and foremost, what their interests are and then to present them with something that is tailored to what they’re interested in as opposed to just trying to guess at it and sending them a letter,” Rink says.

The next step
The campaign got another huge boost with the groundbreaking ceremony in the fall of 2002. And while there was the requisite mayoral address and “big moment with the shovels,” Rink says, this was no run-of-the-mill groundbreaking. Given the flair and showmanship that defines Alvin Ailey, how could it be? White-clad students and members of the troupe danced through the streets of New York from the old building to the new site, accompanied by music from “Revelations,” Ailey’s signature piece, then gave a performance. It was all covered by the New York Times, which kicked up the excitement level a couple dozen notches and didn’t hurt the fundraising efforts none either.

At this point, the campaign had raised $57 million. The new energy surrounding the project prompted the Weills, who previously had contributed $15 million, to issue a challenge: If Ailey could raise $6 million by the end of September, they would give the remaining $3 million it would take to get the total to the projected $66 million.

“That was great because then we were able to go back to people who had made gifts at the early part of the campaign and ask them if they would make an additional gift that would be matched,” Rink explained, adding that they offered donors who made three- to five-year pledges the opportunity to add additional years to the pledge at the same rate, so that the new amounts would be matched by the Weills.

The matching-gift challenge also spurred donors who hadn’t committed yet to make their decisions before the challenge period ran out. In the end, Ailey raised more than $6 million in the challenge period, and the Weills matched all the additional gifts, to the tune of $3.4 million, bringing their total contribution to more than $18 million.

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.

Incentives in that phase of the campaign included naming opportunities based on gift amount: $2,500 for a paver at the entrance of the building; $5,000 for a seat in the theater; or $10,000 for a spot on the donor wall in the lobby.

Ailey reached its $66 million goal in the fall of 2003 and, as of last month, was closing in on $72 million and its ultimate goal of $25 million in endowment funds.

Despite anticipation that such a huge and aggressive campaign might detract from gifts to its annual campaign, Ailey found that it saw slightly elevated numbers overall. Rink attributes that to the fact that any small losses that might have resulted from donors simply shifting their support were offset by those who supported both the annual and capital campaigns. The key was to conduct the capital campaign while not backing off of the annual effort.

“That’s how we presented it to donors, to say to them, ‘Your annual support is very important. We really do hope you’ll continue it — and would you also consider a very special, one-time gift, which could be paid over a period of years to our campaign?’” Rink explains. “And that is, in many, many — most — cases how it worked.

“I think what we’re already starting to hear, which is great, is that people who have completed their multi-year pledge are looking at continuing that level of giving to the annual campaign,” he continues. “In the long run, we’re actually going to see a nice boost as we come out of the campaign.”

Looking ahead
As it does wrap up the capital campaign, Ailey is focusing more on renewals, major gifts, planned giving, individual giving … well, just about every other aspect of development. According to Rink, the capital campaign breathed new life into the overall development plan.

“In the past 10 to 12 years, we’ve seen enormous growth in fundraising and in the overall budget of the organization,” he says, “which is why I think we were able to launch the campaign. This building in many ways has really taken Ailey to another level in terms of fundraising, in terms of its stature in the cultural life of this country, in terms of our future.”

Like many arts organizations, Ailey has relied less on individual donors than on foundations, corporations and, to a limited extend, government support. According to Rink, just 6 percent of the organization’s annual contributed income is generated by direct mail (which falls under individual giving). Another 6 percent comes from government support, 10 percent from foundations, 11 percent from major gifts, 32 percent from corporations, and 35 percent from fundraising events.

But, he says, the capital campaign has opened the staff’s eyes to the advantages of expanding its traditionally small base of individual donors, as well as focusing more on securing major and planned gifts.

Unique challenges
Arts organizations face special challenges, Rink explains, because even though they have stunning visuals to utilize in direct mail and other development mediums, they don’t typically have the pull of social-services, humanitarian or medical charities. When times are tough, donors tend to support organizations with more pressing missions.

But when Alvin Ailey founded his dance school in 1969 (the dance group itself began in the ‘50s), he started it under the premise that “dance came from the people and should always be given back to people,” Rink says. To that end, the organization has a strong social and community-education component that includes scholarships for underprivileged aspiring dancers, summer camps for at-risk youths and community outreach programs. While these are all things that Ailey has been doing since its inception, they also help combat any sense that it — and arts organization as a whole — are frivolous or somehow less-deserving causes.

In total, Rink says, about 15 percent of contributed income is earmarked for funding these programs.

Ailey’s work with dancers of all races and backgrounds, as well as its commitment to diversity in hiring, admission, outreach and audience, also is a key factor in development, Rink says, especially when it comes to corporate or foundation support.

“We’re an organization that since its inception has been committed to diversity. And certainly in recent years there’s been a lot of attention given to diversity in the corporate world and in the country,” he explains. “So that is very helpful to us as we seek funds from corporations, that they can say, ‘We’re supporting Ailey, which has had this long-standing history of diversity in their company and in their staff and in the audience that they reach.’

“We go to foundations or to individuals who are really interested in young people,” he adds. “It’s not something that we had to suddenly start doing to raise money; it’s always been a part of what we do. Mr. Ailey started this school in 1969, and it was always dedicated to making sure that all young people who had the urge to dance could do so. It’s incredibly inspirational and an amazing thing to be able talk about to donors.”

The impressive structure that is Ailey’s new home and its equally impressive endowment is going a long way toward building a foundation for donors and potential donors to feel good about and, equally as important, to hold on to.

“Modern dance is such a new art form that I think the challenge can be for people to come to the understanding that this company is going to be here for a long time,” Rink explains. “This building and the fact that we have an endowment has helped greatly to bring people to that understanding.”