In Saturday’s (3/12) Detroit News, Michael H. Hodges reports, “Donations to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra have fallen $1.24 million compared to money donated by this time last year. ‘That’s the strike effect,’ said DSO executive vice-president Paul Hogle. He added [that] some traditional unnamed large donors are holding off in the hopes the now 5-month-old strike will end before their pledge is made. According to an internal DSO e-mail leaked to The Detroit News and confirmed by Hogle, the DSO has raised nearly $5 million toward its annual fundraising goal of $11 million. Those monies include $1.1 million raised in the past three weeks. According to a statement from spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt, the DSO raised $115,000 at last weekend’s Classical Roots fundraiser. The report also cited a 90-percent increase in the number of individual, foundation and corporate donors, from 1,629 last year to 3,090. … Hogle calls the increase in donors ‘a reflection of Detroiters’ character and that of most people in southeast Michigan’ irrespective of the ongoing strike. ‘This is not a vote for one side or the other,’ he said. ‘This is a vote for everything the DSO stands for.’ ”
Posted March 15, 2011
