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Your NAME on Our Wall of FAME
Our Spring Fundraising Campaign was launched in March. We are seeking 2,500 donations of $25 each by June 30, 2009.
While it seems to be acceptable for government agencies to “bail out” businesses who continue to offer big bonuses to executives who have not made the best choices for their shareholders, the arts are still considered “unimportant.” Just 1% of the Stimulus Package will be extended to the arts, even when the studies show that for every $1 invested in the arts, $7 is returned to the local economy through employment of artists, peripheral purchases at restaurants, local merchants and merchandise, sales and payroll taxes, parking fees, etc. And when children are exposed to the arts, their academic achievements in Math, English, and Science improve dramatically.
Where do Beowulf Alley’s dollars go? Not for bonuses, for sure. Most of our productions just break even before our overhead costs. It takes an average of 46 paid tickets per night to cover the cost of producing a play at Beowulf Alley Theatre – before we pay the rent! Now, you might say, “Just raise your prices”. Well, we would…but many people cannot afford to pay $38 or $40 for a theatre ticket and we would not be meeting our mission to offer reasonably priced theatre to our entire community. Volunteers, many of them donors, staff every operation. They spend time in our facility and see the importance of keeping the lights on and computers running. We are careful with our resources. We recycle building materials, use every ounce of paint before we dispose of the can, and reuse the backside of copy paper as scratch pads or draft documents to name just a few ways we keep costs low (and practice environmentality).
That means that we must focus our fundraising and grant writing efforts to help pay our occupancy and administrative costs (rent, utilities, office supplies and one salary). Instead of investing in painting our facility this year, we want to decorate our hallway with existing paints in different colors. For a donation of $25, we will paint your name on our Wall of Fame to show how much we appreciate your support of Beowulf Alley Theatre.
Please click here to make your $25 fully tax-deductible donation now. We will use your gift sensibly toward our general operating costs: rent, utilities, telephone, cleaning or garbage service! It’s not sexy or glitzy but certainly sustains the art form by giving us a place to showcase Tucson’s terrific talent -- in our community, for our community. And you’ve invested in our community in a meaningful way. We’re looking for some talented teens to help us with this task so if you know of some, have them call us.
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