Star-Ledger features NJSO ‘friend-raisers’
The Star-Ledger’s Peggy McGlone spoke with multiple New Jersey non-profit organizations about intimate events for donors and friends:
Museums, orchestras and theaters are offering their donors — as well as potential donors — opportunities to get close to the artists and to experience the art form in a more personal way. Sometimes fundraisers, sometimes “friend-raisers” — meant to build relationships with potential donors rather than raise cash on the spot — the special parties are critical to finding and sustaining benefactors, arts officials say.
“We use them as a benefit for donors and to cultivate new patrons,” said Renee Pachucki, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s senior director of patron services. “The musicians mix and mingle before and after the performance, they talk about themselves, their lives as musicians. It’s a really close experience with them.”
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The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra hosts several “salon” performances in homes around the state a few times a year. Because the orchestra appears in many venues, the salons allow them to connect with their various audiences, Pachucki said. Each event features a performance by a duo or quartet from the orchestra, while a mix of donors, trustees, subscribers and new audience members are usually invited. No one pays to attend — and, thanks to a supporter standing in as host, the NJSO’s costs are largely limited to paying the musicians — and whole affair is intended to engage audiences more deeply.
Cynthia Aitken opened her Montclair home in May because she wanted to help the organization.
“It was a mix of people we invited and that other people invited. Some we knew and a lot we didn’t,” Aitken said. “What’s really special was they weren’t asking for donations. They weren’t charging. It was just people coming over to meet and listen to music. That was pretty special.”