In Sunday’s (3/21) St. Petersburg Times (Florida), John Fleming writes, “The Florida Orchestra is showing a new promotional video to audiences before each concert this month. A soft-sell pitch for donations, the video is part of the orchestra’s long-term plan to turn March into a special fundraising month every year, much as public radio and television have annual pledge drives. Michael Pastreich, president of the orchestra, doesn’t expect the video to yield a lot in the way of direct support this year. ‘The concept is that if we do this next year and the year after and the year after that we’ll build awareness and over time should penetrate much more deeply into our audience,’ he said. … The budget was reduced from $11.6 million two years ago to $9.3 million this season. But those cuts may not be enough if the orchestra doesn’t have a wildly successful fundraising effort over the next three months or so. … ‘It amazes me how much stronger we’ve become while the world around us has been in meltdown,’ Pastreich said. ‘We’ve balanced our budget the last two years. We’ve paid off debt. Our cash flow has become stronger. But if we were to have a deficit, a lot of that would be undermined.’ ”
Posted March 24, 2010
