“Heavy Lifting” Helps SF Girls Chorus
Buy New Home
From Bay Area BusinessWoman, August 2005, Vol. 12 No. 11
"Leadership is always the magic ingredient,” observed Marilyn Bancel proudly. A fundraising consultant to the internationally recognized San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC), Bancel reported that the Chorus has raised more than 85 percent of the $8 million needed to buy and adapt the building it now occupies in San Francisco’s Civic Center.
“We consultants provide machinery, charts, maps, reasons why, and pushing,” said Bancel, “but it’s leadership — in this case, our campaign co-chairs Paul Renne, Richard Rubin, and Sheila Schwartz-burg, plus advisory council member mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade — who have done most of the heavy lifting.”
The decision to buy a building was huge. The annual budget of the SFGC is less than $2 million, and the organization had never attempted a project anywhere near this magnitude. However, after a quarter century of moving approximately every three years, the 300-student organization had had enough — and the board of directors was ready to commit. With a challenge gift of $4 million from Maurice Kanbar (“My angels,” he calls the girls), the organization set out to raise another $4 million.
Through a series of personal interviews, Bancel helped the SFGC determine that the goal was achievable. However, many conditions had to be met: locating a suitable, affordable building; ensuring that board, staff, and prospects agreed on the future direction of the chorus; developing a strong post-purchase operating plan; creating a community-wide buzz about a new arts center; and assembling a campaign cabinet that would excite alumnae families and reach out convincingly to new supporters.
Leading the effort, Bancel brought in a consulting team to help: Pam Earing for individual gifts and Kate McNulty for information and communication management.
Bancel and her team from The Oram Group are succeeding. On October 1, 2005, the Kanbar Performing Arts Center will open its doors and the spectacular sound of the what has been called “the nation’s leading girl’s chorus,” will ring clear.
“Projects like this succeed when enough community leaders see other community leaders dedicated to the result,” said Bancel. “Our job as consultants is to help the project’s leaders be effective.”
For more information, please visit http://www.sfgirlschorus.org
