Late last summer, the MSO learned that two of its major sponsors - one of them a local real estate company, which Driscoll declined to name - would not be supporting the orchestra with cash donations this year. Driscoll said both companies cited economic conditions as the reason they would not be sponsoring the orchestra this season.
Although the economic slump has not been as severe in Missoula as other areas of the country (see related story), arts organizations are feeling the pinch.
“Eight-thousand dollars is not small to us,” said John Driscoll, executive director of the orchestra. “We run a lean organization as it is. We always have. ... So rather than dipping into our reserves, we make adjustments.”
The orchestra's fundraising push for its current 2008-09 season isn't finished yet; and Driscoll said he anticipates being able to meet his projected budget by the end of the fiscal year, on June 30, 2009.
“We're continuing to seek out support, and so at the present time I don't anticipate that we are going to have to cut anything or change what we already have planned for this season,” said Driscoll. “But we have some new programs that we would love to put our efforts into, and obviously ... new offerings by this organization are not going to happen for a while.”
Driscoll's sentiment is echoed at other local arts organizations and businesses around the area. Though none says it is panicking, most have begun to see signs of a slowdown in charitable giving. And all are worried that they've only seen the tip of the iceberg.
“Fundraising has been a struggle,” said Tom Bensen, director of the Missoula Cultural Council, which produces the annual First Night Missoula festival on New Year's Eve. First Night Missoula relies on individual and business sponsorships as well as foundation grants to cover 60 percent of the costs of putting on its annual festival.
“There are a lot of longtime funders who are either taking a break this year or are contributing less than in the past, and it's been hard to get new donors,” said Bensen. “If you don't have an established relationship with a potential donor, nobody's in a state of mind to add more donations and advertising to their budget.”
Charlene Campbell, artistic director of the Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre, said she has noticed a slump in individual donations in particular, despite her company's increased regional profile in the wake of a major cultural exchange tour to China last May, which was organized with help from U.S. Sen. Max Baucus.
“All the $5 to $500 (donors) are just gone,” said Campbell, noting that those donations began to slow down around September.
Campbell said she needs to raise approximately $6,000 per month to keep her performance troupe afloat. That money covers the cost of rehearsal space, props and the like; it doesn't begin to cover the expenses of actual performances, which run upward of $25,000 when the group puts on a full concert in Missoula. (Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre is a nonprofit performing entity separate from the for-profit Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre School.)
As Missoula's largest independent arts organization, with an annual operating budget of approximately $5 million, Missoula Children's Theatre might seem primed for struggle when local charitable contributions slow down. In reality, the company - which sends groups of theater professionals to schools and arts centers around the world to offer intensive theater training to young people - earns some 91 percent of its annual budget through payments for the company's services.
That still means the company needs to raise approximately $500,000 every year to stay afloat. So far, the goal doesn't seem out of reach for this fiscal year, said MCT development director Cate Sundeen.
“My guess is that I probably won't know for another six months or so, as the consequences of this economy start to really take hold,” Sundeen said.
But even if MCT's local and regional donors continue to pony up, Sundeen said the company worries about indirect impacts based on economic conditions elsewhere in the country.
When the company travels, it's paid by groups in the locations it visits.
“So if times get tough for those presenters in little towns, we may either have to compensate for that on our own end, or cancel those tours - which would be a shame for the kids,” Sundeen said.
Perhaps no major local arts organization is as susceptible to a downturn in charitable contributions as the Missoula Art Museum. The nonprofit museum does not charge admission, and offers much of its special programming for free as well. Thus money from grants, individual contributions, and business donations make up the majority of the facility's annual operating budget.
“Right now, I'm still cautiously optimistic that we'll reach our fundraising goal” of $125,000, to be raised by June 30, 2009, said Nici Holt, MAM's development director
However, 15 percent of the museum's operating budget comes from an endowment established as part of the MAM's recent expansion, completed in 2006. A handful of other local arts organizations rely on their own endowment proceeds as well, including the Missoula Symphony Orchestra.
But the troubles of U.S. stock markets mean that endowments may not produce the gains necessary to be a reliable source of cash during coming years.
MSO'S Driscoll said that traditionally, endowments provide a cushion if people cut back on giving.
“So when we see that backup shrinking as well, that's a little frightening.”
Ram Murphy, operator of Murphy-Jubb Fine Art, hasn't seen any real signs of a slowdown in sales at his downtown fine art gallery. In fact, he wonders how much the national economic crisis has really hit home in Missoula.
“Right now, we seem to be doing fine,” said Murphy. “Who knows,” he added, “by March we may all be on our knees. But not yet.”
That last note echoes across all of Missoula's arts organizations.
“I suspect we will start to recognize the impact of the climate more in the next year, when people and businesses start to make decisions based on what they see from this year and their perceptions of what's coming in the next year,” said Nici Holt of the Missoula Art Museum.
That prediction is echoed by funders as well.
Susan Coliton runs the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, a Seattle-based foundation that provides grants to support the activities of arts, education, science, and other groups around a five-state region including Montana.
Many local arts organizations have received significant funding from the foundation, including the Missoula Art Museum, which received one of its largest grants ever - $350,000 - from the Allen Foundation in 2005, as part of the museum's renovation and expansion project.
Coliton said that she expects arts organizations will begin to see significant fundraising challenges in the early part of next year.
“I think there's going to be a six- to 12-month delay on feeling impacts in these groups from what's happened in the last two months with the economy and the stock market,” said Coliton. “Most (arts organizations) are hitting their numbers for 2008, but they need to be prepared for what's to come.”
Coliton said that she can't predict whether the Allen Foundation will change the amount it gives out in grants in 2009, but noted that her organization is unlike many in the sense that it is not endowment-based. Each year, billionaire Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, provides the foundation with a sum of money determined largely by the quality of grant applications that are received at the foundation.
“We don't know what's going to happen next year, in terms of our funding,” said Coliton. “If there's a bad downturn, it's bad for everybody. ... We've been talking with other foundations around the area, and we anticipate we'll probably see some overall decreases in grant money, possibly dramatic, in '09 and 2010.”
Reporter Joe Nickell can be reached at 523-5358 or at jnickell@missoulian.com.
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