MILWAUKEE CHAMBER THEATRE

 

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Raises $1,514,428 In Sustainability Campaign, Will Proceed With 23/24 Season

 

Challenge Match led by Caran and Joel Quadracci through the Windhover Foundation with support from Donna and Donald Baumgartner is Instrumental to Success
 

 

$1,514,428 in new and increased support for this and the next two fiscal years.

 

You all did that.

 

And you all are amazing.

 

754 individual pledges from 726 individual donors. And of that total, nearly $1.2M in total pledges just since February 14th.

 

Amazing.

 

That was a hugely ambitious goal on an impossible timeline and our community—you—responded quickly, affirmatively, and with absolutely incredible generosity. And now we’ve reached the first benchmark goal on our path to sustainability for this and the next two fiscal years.

 

Thank you.

 

Thank you to each and every one of you who pledged—every single dollar and every single pledge mattered to get us to our goal, and every single dollar and every single pledge (along with your comments as you made them), declared the deep and essential value that you feel MCT brings to Milwaukee.

 

You told us how important a company that supports its local professional artists is to you and to our community. You told us how important a company that tells stories from unique voices that you won’t see anywhere else is to you and your community. And you told us how important a company that is doing its level best to reflect its community by walking its talk on representation is to you. And we intend to keep doing all of those things, and then some.

 

And thank you to our challenge match providers—Caran and Joel Quadracci via the Windhover Foundation, with Donald and Donna Baumgartner—because without the incentive and attention that match created, we would be making a very different announcement today.

And thanks also to our fundraising consultants at Amplify Partners, and particularly local lead Rick Meyer, for stepping in at the last minute and helping us get to our goal.

 

So, what’s next?

HOOPS is opening this Saturday. Preview and opening are both sold out and once we start to get some word of mouth spark this one is going to go quickly—so get your tickets now.

We need to plan a 23/24 season—with such an acute focus on financial management and fundraising since about late October we have had no space to focus on that. Our goal is to have that lineup out to you and start renewing subscriptions by the beginning of April, so stay tuned for more there.

 

As we said on February 14th when we made public the full scope of our financial challenges, our goal is $600,000 in sustainable support for this and the next two fiscal years—reaching our $500,000 goal gives us the confidence to proceed with next season but does not get us all the way to where we need to be—so we’ll continue that work throughout the spring.

 

We need to restructure our income generating side, fill a couple of key staff positions that are currently open, and ramp up to next season.

 

And we need to be in touch with each of you who pledged so we can thank you individually and begin receiving the current year portion of payments on those pledges. That will also take some time given the amount of infrastructure we have to build to do it and the fact that right now that’s all moving through one staff member. You don’t need to send us anything right now, we will invoice you, and hopefully you’ll start seeing those in the next ten days.

 

Thank you for getting us to this point. MCT does not still exist at this point without your stepping up. Full stop. And we’re going to do everything we can to make sure we’re never in this situation again. We’re grateful to you for putting us in the position to be able to do that hard work.

 

Thank you again. We appreciate you.

More soon.