[ INSIDE HAWAII INC. ]
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Theater fund-raiser
looking for new ‘Stars’
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To start with, I got involved with the theater when they asked me to chair their silent auction for their gala.
In getting involved I saw what a big part of the community it had become. Every nonprofit ... is doing fund-raising and meeting to beat the bushes for volunteers. As I got more and more involved with the theater, we realized that we are sort of re-creating the wheel every time we raise funds.
So President Sarah Richards approached me and asked if I would create a volunteers list and head a volunteer group that we could rely on. So we developed an exhaustive list of people in the community we knew had been involved in other community projects and did what they said they were going to do, and those are the people we invited to kick off our fund-raising.
Now that the capital campaign has been finished, our next upcoming event is Caper at Neiman Marcus. This is the second year we've done that, which is a treasure hunt throughout the store. That's really fun and the goal is to raise $60,0000. The annual big fund-raiser is the gala, done in a partnership with the Kahala Mandarin Oriental hotel. The theater raises close to $300,000.
What was the theater's fund-raising like previously?
Everything was like starting over with a blank sheet of paper, pretty much. What we're hoping to do is say we have a template for most of the programs and projects we do. ... We asked volunteers as part of the member application what is it they like to do, what is it they are good at doing. So we can look up on our database and say "Susie Smith likes to chair events and ask her to organize this."
What are the capital campaigns for?
Those have been ongoing since the theater started up with its new revival and restoration. They did several capital campaigns -- one for the renovation for the interior, and the most recent is for the restoration of the theater's facade. We raised $10.8 million for the exterior renovation.
It is beautiful, and they restored it to its original look of when they had the facade, back, I think, in the 1920s, with the marquee and all of the upcoming programs highlighted in lights. So now the fund-raiser is for operations ... and for some expansion in the back house of the theater.
How do you hit people up for money?
Generally speaking, that kind of goes to the reason we think this is important. The real reason that it is so important, we look at it as part of Hawaii's history. ... But it's also that the facility is really accessible to the entire community. It's not something devoted to a particular art or someone who likes a particular type of music or performing arts. It's a facility available to all kinds of entertainment. We have the Hawaiian music series. There's adult programs. There's children's programs. All kinds of people come through that theater and see how beautiful it is. That's why we think it's so important.
It's not that hard in the community. People do appreciate it, especially if they've been to the theater. It's not a hard sell. It's just that all these companies these days get hit up by nonprofits and have to decide who to give money to.
Has fund-raising gotten any easier with the recent recovery in the state's economy?
No, I don't think it has at all. A lot of the state funding has been cut for the arts. I think it's probably gotten even worse. That's why we have to rely more and more on the private community to come through. Businesses come through, individuals come through and make donations. It has not gotten easier by any sense. When times were rough it was the arts that suffered, because the state didn't want to cut human services. We had to go to the private sector and say, "OK, ... You need to step up to the plate," and people were very very responsive to that.
Last word?
One of the things we've done with the Stars is to identify people who are willing to work. This is not a group with volunteers who don't volunteer. It's not a membership-only type of organization, but we certainly welcome people to join us.
